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Gearbox develops a sequel in less than a year’s time. Brothers in Arms: Earned In Blood is the sequel to the dubiously titled Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 that was released earlier the year. The sequel features some new multiplayer options, a new single player campaign and improved AI. The fundamental gameplay hasn’t been changed though.
In Earned in Blood, you play as Joe "Red" Hartsock who was a US troop who fought in Normandy in World War II. The game is based on the real life stories of Hartsock, often in a flashback sequence that works very well in making the story emotional. Hartsock may be familiar to players of the first Brothers in Arms since he was a character in that game. Earned in Blood overlaps with the first game, but tells the story of a different character. The story is told by Hartsock who very effectively creates an emotional mood.
The game’s single player is told through 10 chapters, each making up one mission. The different levels are pretty large and will take you to many different areas in France from cities of farms and towns to forests. The game is still pretty linear with a clear best way to get something done though the game will sometimes (but not always) allow you to use some creativity to get the goals done. Each level features a number of checkpoints. If you restart too many times at one checkpoint, the game will ask you if you want to replenish the health of yourself and your squad.
The actual gameplay hasn’t changed much from Road to Hill 30. The game is still a first person shooter where you’re looking for enemies to kill in order to move on. The game allows you have two different squads or one squad and a tank. You can give basic commands to these teams like attacking enemies on sight, attacking them on command, following you or moving to an area. They’re generally intelligent, taking cover when cover is available and not simply throwing themselves at the enemy. This is good since the enemies also travel around in squads which are smarter than they were in the previous game. You’ll notice that they take cover, retreat when overwhelmed, and are much quicker and accurate shooters than before.
Brothers in Arms: Earned In Blood features a number of new multiplayer modes. The game includes a skirmish mode that is essentially a cooperative mode for the single player game. You can play this offline via splitscreen or online via Xbox Live. Other multiplayer modes include time assault (where you’re tasked with killing all of the enemies in a certain amount of time), tour-of-duty (where you need to complete five missions in one life with a single squad), and defense (where you need to defend against waves of enemies for as long as you can). The game also includes the objective-based multiplayer of the previous games that can take place on 20 maps.
The game’s visuals are straight. The different character models are excellent, with plenty of detail. They also animate very well individually, and when in a group, the group moves with incredible realism. The different vehicles in the game share the same level of detail and move around in a very authentic manner. The different areas you’ll visit are all pretty good looking, and as I mentioned above, all are pretty varied. The lighting and particle effects are once again top-notch. The frame-rate drops a bit here and there but rarely serves as a distraction.
The audio performs just as well. The soundtrack isn’t quite epic but fits the game very well. The sound effects very successfully recreate the sounds of war. The different weapons are especially good since they are all pretty distinct. The voice acting in the game is extensive and all of it sounds very well. The narration by Hartsock is especially good.
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood is once again a compelling game, especially for those players who enjoyed the first game. Though it doesn’t deviate at all from the formula established by the first game, the smarter AI and new multiplayer modes just add to an already excellent shooter. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Oct 23, 2005
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