Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30

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Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30

Developer(s)	Gearbox Software
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Engine	Unreal Engine 2.0
Release date(s)	March 1, 2005 (Xbox) March 15, 2005 (PC) March 15, 2005 (PS2)
Genre(s)	Tactical shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M)
Platform(s)	PC (Windows), Xbox, PS2
Media	DVD
System requirements	1 GHz CPU, 256 MB of RAM, 32 MB DirectX 9.0 compliant video card

Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 is a first-person shooter video game created by Gearbox Software for the PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It is published by Ubisoft and was released in early 2005. The game takes place during World War II and focuses on team strategy rather than the faster paced run and gun tactics of the Medal of Honor series.

Brothers In Arms was developed specifically to take advantage of Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service.

On Thursday, February 24, 2005, Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 went gold and was shipped the following week. The Xbox version arrived at stores on March 1 and the PS2 and PC versions released later on March 15.

1 Story
2 Graphics
3 Gameplay
4 Weapons
- 4.1 American
- 4.2 German
5 Sequels
6 Trivia
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Story

Brothers In Arms is based on the true story of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the famed 101st Airborne Division who were dropped behind German Lines on D-day. The game is based on Operation Chicago where the player has to complete true to life missions of the 101st. From securing Exit 4 to the capture of St.Come-Du-Mont, Brothers In Arms delivers one of the most authentic WWII experiences to date. The sequel Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood is also based on the last missions of the 101st, such as Link up with 82nd Airborne Division and capture St. Saveur. You play the role of Sergeant Matt Baker, a paratrooper (based on Harrison C. Summers and various other people), and the leader of an airborne squad from Fox Company. The missions range from dropping into France on June 6th to the final defense of Hill 30 eight days later. Baker must lead his men through troubled times and make decisions that may result in the death of a paratrooper, which causes him much heartache.

Baker's squad consists of Corporal Corporal Joe "Red" Hartsock, Corporal Sam Corrion, Private First Class Jack Courtland, Private First Class Stephan "Obi" Obrieski, Private Larry Allen (see: Privates James Allen & Kevin Garnett), Pvt. Johnny Rivas, Pvt. Michael Desola, Pvt. David Muzza, Pfc. Thomas Zanovich, Pvt. Michael Garnett, Pvt. Dale McCreary and Radioman Benjamin Kevin "Legs" Legget. The squad is under a Platoon Sergeant Greg "Mac" Hassay. "Mac" served under Sgt. Baker's father, whom he had much respect for, in the First World War and has promised to himself to make Sgt. Baker into a good soldier. Several of the squad members are killed during the Normandy campaign.

Another character included is Sgt. Baker's best friend, Sgt. George Risner, with whom he spent his childhood. He commands a Light Tank M5. George follows Sgt. Baker into a small French town outside St. Come du-Mont where he was killed by a panzerfaust. Also included are factual personalities General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and Lieutenant Colonel Robert G. Cole, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for leading a charge against a German position.

[edit] Graphics

Brothers In Arms uses the Unreal Engine, albeit with heavy modification. It makes heavy use of pixel shaders. It also uses a form of Soft Lighting bloom effect.

[edit] Gameplay

In most levels of Brothers In Arms, the player is in command of one or two separate 2-3 man teams, with the exception of several sections in which the player is not in command of any unit. There are two types of teams, which are automatically provided before each mission:

Screenshot from Xbox version of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

Fire team: Made up of soldiers with the M1 Garand and the Browning Automatic Rifle and should be used for fixing the enemy with suppressive fire.

Assault team: Made up of soldiers usually with the M1 Carbine and the Thompson submachine gun and is good for flanking the enemy while they are pinned down by your fire team.

Additionally, some levels provide the player with a Tank in lieu of a team, providing players with heavy firepower and mobile cover. The player can also man the pivot-mounted machine gun on the tank for additional suppression.

Brothers in Arms is notable for its intuitive command system. Teams and tanks can be ordered to move, lay suppressive fire, rally, find cover, and charge the enemy. The game stresses at multiple points the effectiveness of fire and maneuver tactics, known as the Four Fs, expressed in the game tutorial as "Find, Fix, Flank, Finish" describing the steps in suppressing and flanking an enemy. It is impossible to run and gun your way through the missions and using the tactics is necessary, which some players found to be repetitive.

The focus on team command is emphasised by providing the player with a highly unstable firing capability. Instead of having perfect accuracy with weapons in games like Call of Duty, Brothers in Arms models weapons with erratic accuracy, and enemy fire can heavily interfere with a player's aim to simulate the effects of suppressive fire. The relative lack of accuracy is designed to simulate the difficulty in hitting targets in a combat situation as well as forcing the player to use team members to engage enemy units and provide better tactical opportunities.

[edit] Weapons

A number of World War Two era weapons feature in the game, these being:

[edit] American

[edit] German

[edit] Sequels

[edit] Earned in Blood

Main article: Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood

A sequel to Brothers In Arms, titled Earned in Blood, was released in October 2005. It is available for all platforms the original game is for.

[edit] Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

Main article: Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

Development of a third game in the Brothers In Arms series was announced in September 2005. A tech demo was first unveiled on September 22, 2005, at Gearbox's "Liberation Party". A playable demo of the game was shown at E3 2006. The game will utilize the Unreal Engine 3 and is expected to appear on next-generation platforms and PC.

In the May 2006 edition of Official Xbox Magazine and other magazines it was announced the title would be Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway.

[edit] Brothers In Arms: D-Day

A PSP title combinding the story or Baker and Hartsock.

[edit] Trivia

Noted in Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 has been used by West Point Military Academy to teach infantry tactics.

Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 was used to re-create scenarios in a 2005 History Channel special

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e Brothers In Arms video games
Road to Hill 30 • Earned in Blood • Hell's Highway

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