Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway

Our verdict on Gearbox Software's anticipated FPS.

	Version 360, PS3, PC	Developer Gearbox Software	Publisher Ubisoft	Genre FPS

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While going postal is a recipe for impromptu cranial surgery, Hell's Highway dials things up a tad for the trigger-happy by pinching a couple of ideas from Gears of War. Health is now of the forgiving, recharging variety, with the likelihood of death indicated by a deepening blood-red screen filter. Then there's that new cover mechanic: tap left bumper in the vicinity of something bullet-retardant and Baker will lock to it while the camera slips into third person. You can then slide along to a corner, lean out and zoom in for a shot, or hit A to vault low cover.

Gearbox ain't got nuffink on Epic Games in this regard, it's true, but the system stands up well under fire, giving you enough breathing room in the fray to plot your next move. There are nicks here and there - disengaging from a wall feels a little awkward, as the camera clicks back into first person, and you can't roll (or "SWAT-turn" if you want to be anachronistic) between cover points - but nothing to send the game home in a stretcher. Some cover spots are destructible, and calculating just how long they'll soak up the lead becomes crucial later on.

Sadly, the new cover mechanic does make it rather too easy to hide, peek and slot your way through engagements, particularly given the limitations of the command system. The cursor is tied rather inflexibly to your line of sight, which can be a pain in the arse when you're negotiating an untidy battlefield: it's often impossible to get a squad to take up position on the other side of a wall, for instance, as you can only move the cursor where you can see it. Gearbox has tried to redress things by pulling the view back and up a little when you hold left trigger, but this is an incomplete solution at best. The cursor also struggles with depth recognition: while you can exercise a fair degree of precision within your immediate surroundings, setting a waypoint in the middle distance is a fiddly business, especially if you're moving the cursor over higher elevations.

The upshot of all this is that you'll do most of the hands-on work yourself, picking off the Jerries while your boys absorb the flak. The enemy AI lends itself well to this approach, being human enough to cower under heavy fire and smart enough to relocate when flanked, but depressingly apt to leave limbs or scalps exposed. It's good training at least for the sole, 14-20 player online mode, which strips out the command structure altogether and with it any point of differentiation from the vastly superior Gears of War. There's the customary slew of multiplayer toggles - friendly fire, round duration, voice support and so forth.

As a technical entity, the game impresses at first with an opulent corridor crawl through a ruined hospital, moonlight spilling onto crumbling plaster, but just as you're letting your jaw drop it snatches you away to banal two-tone countryside. Gearbox's engine is not at its best rendering wide open spaces - the background blurs conspicuously at times to save on texture detail - and we noticed a fair few pathfinding problems among enemy and friendly troops alike. While some authentically leathery design work has been lavished on the character models, Hell's Highway doesn't hold a candle to the likes of Resistance 2.

To rehearse, then, this game's greatest enemy is context. There have been too many advances in the field of tactical action for Gearbox's antiquated follow-up to earn more than passing recognition. What about voice commands, a la the upcoming Tom Clancy's EndWar? What about the option to store or queue orders, set up windows of fire, or toggle soldier behaviours, as in the criminally overlooked SOCOM US Navy Seals: Tactical Strike? Couple this shortfall of ambition with some niggling mechanical hiccups and you're looking at a game which will owe its inevitable top-ten retail showing to timely marketing rather than genuine worth.

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