With time, veteran franchises like “Call of Duty” series have even tried to deviate from “Killing Germans”. So how does “Hell’s Highway” manage to impress the gamers worldwide with the old school plot? Thanks to the superb game play and striking cinematic features, this one is surely for the Oscars.
Plot
The game revolves around Sergeant Baker (your character) and his squad members who all are nuanced, sympathetic characters, though the story doesn't quite live up to the promise of its protagonists.
This go-around finds Sergeant Matt Baker and his crew carrying the memories of their fallen brothers and welcoming replacements into the fold. As they get set to drop into Holland as a
part of the ambitious but doomed Operation Market – Garden, you meet the men for whose lives you will be responsible for. The story isn't much a narrative as it is an exploration of the relationships between soldiers; but it's a mature look at the way bonds can be forged and broken in the emotional furnace of war.
Playability
The core game play will be familiar to those who've played “Brothers in Arms” in the past, but if you're more used to the ways of “Call of Duty” or “Medal of Honor” then you may be in for a shock. Hell's Highway actually plays more like a Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter in that your main role is not so much that of the soldier as the commanding officer. At most points in the game, you'll find yourself leading one or two units of men, either assault troops or specialist teams armed with a bazooka or machine gun.
All throughout the game, cut scenes will be a major part of the mission. In fact, to an extent that you may feel you are engrossed in a movie much more than actually playing the game. Emotions make up for a major chunk of the game play as well.
The focus on the supporting cast also means that when you lose someone in the squad through stupidity or carelessness, it means more than just another dead grunt. It's noticeable that that game is at its weakest when Baker abandons his squad and goes solo. In fact, the modelling of the weapons, which are hideously inaccurate unless aimed using the zoomed – in Iron Sights view, makes this sort of a conventional run and gun game play almost impossible.
Performance
The game makes use of Unreal III Engine, which makes it one of the high graphic intensive games around. Though unlike Unreal games, this time engine has been used to render life and nature in full bloom. Graphics are much more enhanced but lags quite a bit when it comes to facial expressions during actual game play; some characters look dull. Nature’s bounty has been well rendered with the right HDR effects at the right points.The game runs delightfully even on medium level rig. My system which comprises of an ATI HD 3850 fetched me impressive frame rates even with all the settings set to their highest positions.
Criticism
Though the background score and sounds are as authentic as they can, dialogues seems to repetitive which somehow manages to irritate sometimes. Ditto for the missions; it sometimes feels too monotonous.
Meanwhile, there are times when the game's idea of realism either doesn't quite add up, or doesn't add up to much fun. Why is it that you can be incredibly accurate when shooting through the iron sights at long distance, yet your chance of shooting Jerry from point – blank
range with a machine gun is virtually nil? Why are your men so useless at notching up the kills themselves unless you get them really, really close and force their targets to leave cover? Why do your chaps sometimes ignore the obvious, safe, sideways route from position to position in favour of a heroic charge over several intervening walls in the face of oncoming machine gun fire?
Conclusion
The game may have numerous shortcomings, but nevertheless, Ubisoft has managed to bring an action packed WWII game which thankfully is also interesting to look at if nothing else.
Verdict
A must have for all the WWII game lovers and FPS fans alike, if not for the game then may be just for the gorgeous cinematic! For this one, I would rate 7.5 on 10.
Rahul Devnath
BA (Journalism, Psychology &
English)
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