Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 - Xbox

June 6th 1944. It’s a date that will be remembered for a long time by Europeans and American Allies alike. D-Day - or Operation Overlord - was that decisive and fiercely committed push that finally brought an end to the conflict that had all but shattered Europe over the previous five years. After delays brought about by bad weather and logistical problems, the morning of June 5th saw the final decision to go made by Allied Commander in Chief, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Within hours, 500 naval vessels, 2,500 other ships and 3,000 landing craft began to pour out of the ports of the English south coast. But these were not the first troops to commence the assault on occupied Normandy. 13,000 aircraft supported the attack, and on the evening of June the 5th, 822 planes, carrying paratroopers or towing gliders, set off across the English Channel. The men that they dropped were paratroops of the British 6th Airborne Division, and of the American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions, and it is these brave men that formed the vanguard of the Allied invasion.

Recent years and advances in technology have seen many attempts to re-enact these scenes, most notably the Steven Spielberg film, Saving Private Ryan, and Electronic Arts’ Medal of Honour: Allied Assault. The latest re-telling now comes to console in the form of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, a tactical first-person shooter. Published by Ubisoft and developed by Gearbox Software LLC (famed for their involvement in the enormously popular Half Life mod CounterStrike: Condition Zero) the game puts you in the waterlogged boots of Sgt. Matt Baker, who commands a small team from the 101st Airborne Battalion. As the adventure unfolds, Sgt. Baker will have to choose between the lives of his brothers-in-arms and the crucial success of this most vital of missions.

As Baker, you must command a team of three AI soldiers. You must use your wits and skill to negotiate the battlefields of Normandy, which have been reproduced more faithfully than ever using the same aerial reconnaissance maps used by the Army Signal Corps. Luckily to help you, you’ll be able to use a squad command system which is simple, intuitive, and pleasing to hardcore and mainstream gamers alike.

As well as featuring 20 colourful characters, the game also showcases all the ordnance you’d expect from a historical shooter, from the M1911 .45 sidearm to the M4A1 Sherman tank. It is also the first FPS in the tactical/squad-based genre to feature multiplayer online play. The many missions in the game will put you in charge of a squad of soldiers, Allied or German, and gives you the responsibility of achieving the mission objectives. A step forward for faithful historical realism and online play in tactical FPS's alike, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 should be applauded by all shooter fans. more