BiA: Hell's Highway is a beautiful shooter. The green pastures, detailed settings and characters are a joy to play with. Firefights never looked so beautiful as it does here. And it's great how hiding behind cover can give you the opportunity to take a moment and bask in the cinematic epic-ness. Gearbox also has heavy emphasis on gore, to the extent that at random points in the game, upon a kill, the camera will zoom in on the unlucky Nazi and you can see the blood spray or bits of body fly in slow motion.
A highly awesome Unreal 3 engine is the culprit for such visual candy, but mark my words, a good system is required to run such a beastly game. Moving on, how's the gameplay?
For those who want a quick action fix look to Call of Duty because BiA has differentiated itself by placing heavy reliance on tactical combat. Throughout most of the levels, you'll have two squads to work with, one to suppress the enemy whilst the other flanks. Trying to take out the bad guys behind cover yourself will make you fail very fast - despite the very controlled aiming, I still miss the heads of enemies, almost as if Gearbox wants you to know that you're a crap shot and you'll need your squads to take them out.
At times, management of all these people can get stressful, especially in tight situations such as Flak88 canons pounding on your position, destroying all the cover in sight, and having to keep ordering your men to get behind more and more cover. And at the final levels, you'll have three squads to keep an eye on.
The A.I. is pretty good in most cases, your men will do their best to stay alive and the enemy is a bitch by staying under cover a lot of the time. Though, I was disappointed when I realized after awhile that it was hardly dynamic in that enemies didn't do much beyond being sitting ducks and very good shots. They never moved unless the cover was destroyed or their position was certainly compromised, and they never seemed to flank or throw grenades, to my ironic fortune.
In a way, it wasn't such a big of a deal when the difficulty was already pretty challenging. Early on, I was enjoying the whole squad-work thing and when you successfully execute tactics in a firefight, there is a great satisfaction in your awesomeness. But nearer towards the end of the game, I began to grow tired and just wanted it to be over and done with.
Why? Because the game is hellishly repetitious. Despite the varied and interesting set designs, the levels were artificial and ultra-linear in that there were pretty much only two paths to go forward, one is straight, whilst the other is for flanking, and that's pretty much the entire game - moving from cover to cover. Granted, the cover system works well, and it feels exciting to really actually fight from behind cover as opposed to artifically crouching behind an obstacle to prevent bullets from reaching you. After awhile though, it was tiresome. It was just shooting from cover to cover throughout. It's a shame because it somewhat destroyed the immersive quality that the visual elements had built up.
On top of which, the game at higher difficulties, such as the medium I played on was actually punishing. Saves are dealt through checkpoints, and some checkpoints can be spread far and wide in between objectives. It doesn't help if you die near the end of a long path to an objective, you're going to have to start all over again. You have to get it right in one entire shot. I can see more casual players turning off from the game due to its hardcore punishment. Definetly not for the impatient gamer. This was another reason why I felt like I just wanted to be done with the game, and frustrated-quit on several occasions. Thankfully, I gritted my teeth and made it through, and actually, when you do beat the tougher levels, you feel great about it. A pat on the back for tactical brilliance on your part.
Gearbox had the right idea though of mixing it up with a few solo missions. There are also tank driving bits but as I always believe, implemented vehicular combat should be fully fresh and realistic or it ends up being a retarded waste of digital space.
How? It's just like driving a car with a big cannon up top. Driving tanks shouldn't be so simple, and shooting people with it shouldn't be so simple. It's almost as if Gearbox used those as fillers and detracts from the ground-level of intensity of squad warfare.
As I mentioned as the start, the story is very Hollywood-esque. In between levels, there are cutscenes that show the soldiers at ease, talking and bantering as buddies do, and being all macho brothers. It's like Band of Brothers or Generation Kill on TV, except in a game.
But at times, I felt it was too cheesely dramatized, the main character that you play Matt Baker is always shown in a state of depression; the reluctant squad-leader with a heavy burden of the lives of his men in his hands. By showing the entire ensemble and their lives outside shooting, it is supposed to instill a sense of empathy for all the characters that you will eventually take into battle, so that you take their survival as seriously as you take your own.
As it is a direct sequel, players would benefit from playing the first game and knowing the characters or what has happened before. The "Previously on BiA" cutscene wasn't good enough at explaining things, and I felt uncomfortably confused at what was going on, even when I had played the first game. It all thankfully starts to make sense after awhile, but there still isn't an "Ah" revelation.
Overall though, the story doesn't do anything interesting and isn't necessary except to add atmosphere and emotion to yet another mindless war game. Thankfully, war doesn't seem as glorified as in Call of Duty. Gearbox doesn't shy away from showing the blunders of these flawed men who are trying to do their best to fight, and innocent people die cold-bloodedly at the hands of the German.
It ends on an unsatisfying note, even with its highly emotional plot twist, and there's a blatant "to be continued" promise from Gearbox to come back and make a sequel. And boy, the final level is disappointingly unclimatic. It ends with a tank battle that is easier than the other ones, breeze through, shoot a few tanks, and ... oh wait, the game's finished? It should've ended with a massive, exciting showdown with the squads just as it did in BiA: Road to Hill 30. With rocket launchers.
Sound is great. It is interesting, all the bullets that whine as they whiz by your ears, or the constant battle chatter from your men, "Baker get behind cover!", "Baker, are you out of your mind?", "I'm out, cover me while I reload.", "Come on you Germans, give up already, you know you're beat!" - are just some of the colorful lines that the soldiers shout out in the heat of battle. Young men, all pumped to get some krauts.
So all in all, a great game visually and aurally, but is disappointingly short in the substance department. The first game was fresh for its tactical ideas, this third game does more of the same with a well-animated and fun to watch, but so-so story cutscenes. In fact, as the game went on, I felt I was just playing to see what happened next to Bravo Company. The true historical part of this game is the story of Operation Market Garden and how it was a wasted failure for the Allies, despite all their efforts to push forth.
I recommend this game if you want a challenge, or a change from the truly mindless shooter that is Call of Duty and the likes. If you like realism and punishment like me because war is not all fun and games, then give this game a go. Just don't expect a mind-blowing experience. And casual gamers, look elsewhere.
EDIT: There is also multiplayer although I won't be giving that a go.
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