We were just about to leave the show floor at E3 2008 for a private appointment, but saw something beautiful out of the corner of our eye. Rain, thick and as realistic as we’d ever seen, was completely drenching a gritty, war-torn world just the other side of a large LCD screen. We had to have a closer look — and minutes later, when Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway producer Stephen Palmer saw us agape and offered a quick tour, we were powerless to refuse.
Palmer’s demonstration centered around a fortified wooden gazebo in the middle of Veghel, a Dutch town occupied during the war; and showed off one of the game’s most significant additions to the Brothers in Arms forumla — explosives. While the original gave you two squads a la Full Spectrum Warrior — one designed to surpress enemy forces with prolonged bursts of fire, the other to flank and mop up — Hell’s Highway adds a new team, equipped with Thompson submachine guns, M1 carbine rifles, and… a bazooka named Stella.
Pinned down by a German squad entrenched in the gazebo, our fire team didn’t dare move out of cover for fear of being shot, but Palmer showed us how to turn that fear back on our foes. Over the heads of each enemy soldier was a red gauge, indicating their readiness to lay down a hail of bullets on any of our men stupid enough to stray from cover; but by having our fire team actively suppress the group by firing shots in their general direction, the gauges turned grey — and it was the German’s turn to keep their heads down. Firing a couple of rounds from his Garand into the roof of the gazebo, Palmer demonstrated that the player can create the same targeted effect himself; with each shot, the gauge moved visibly towards the grey.
Normally this would be the point at which we’d send our assault team around back to flank the Jerries and catch them in a deadly pincer attack, but Palmer noted that the gazebo was barracaded with mere sandbags… and so Stella and I became fast friends. While the resulting explosion (captured in slow-mo by what Palmer called the “action camera”) didn’t level the structure, it worked wonders against the men inside, who were either killed outright or — their cover literally blown — made short work of by our waiting fire team.
In order to completely secure the town plaza and finish our first objective, we would have to deal with two last troops in the southeast corner of the square, taking shelter behind heavy concrete barricades. Crossing through the open square would just be asking for trouble, and the bazooka wouldn’t be effective this time — it only works on destructible cover. (When pressed for a list of objects that could be destroyed, Palmer only specifically mentioned sandbags and wood before stating “You’ll learn as you play the game what things are destructible and what things aren’t.”)
However, against only two soldiers, a flanking maneuver proved more than effective thanks to improved AI. Palmer had explained earlier that enemy forces were not stationary; they would be inspired to find new cover if they found themselves being outmaneuvered. Here, we put this to the test. Consulting the map above, we left our two fire teams in place (one next to the recon point on the left hand side) before proceeding, all alone, to flank the southmost Jerry. When he saw us coming up behind him, he immediately reacted, drawing a bead on our position even as he beat a hasty retreat — but forgot his cover. Blindsided, his exposed head became the messy recipient of a bullet from our fire team. He never knew what hit him…
But perhaps more importantly (aside from the aformentioned gazebo suppression) we never fired a shot.
Though Palmer revealed that the game boasts some sequences where the protagonist is separated from his squad, or controlling a tank and thereby responsible for dealing out death on an individual basis, the simple squad mechanics and advanced AI really do add up to a engaging miniature real-time strategy experience where your individual prowess with an SMG isn’t as important as using your brain.
It’s an experience we’ll look forward to engrossing ourselves in come August 26th, when Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is slated for release.
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