![]() ![]() We also hear Baker trying to rationalise the things that happen to these characters during their first operation, and how his mental state unravels when feeling out of control. We learn about incidental interactions with his men, like the peculiar way Kevin Leggett eats his eggs or how Joe ‘Red’ Hartsock proudly tells anyone who’ll listen about the pre-war bar fight that left his face scarred. We learn about the things that helped shape him as a leader though anecdotes of fatherly advice and other childhood memories. In Road to Hill 30, you play as Sergeant Matt Baker (voiced by pre-fame namesake, Troy) who, as the intro explains, has leadership thrust upon him shortly after landing in Normandy.ĭuring the inner monologues that head each mission, you hear from Baker how uncomfortable it makes him, how he laments having the lives of thirteen men and their families hanging on his every decision. Road to Hill 30 took WWII shooters in a different direction. This meant that while genre-mates flew you around the world during their campaigns, Road to Hill 30 took place only in Normandy as part of ‘Operation Chicago’, and its green fields, country roads and rural towns gave the plot some intimacy. Its ‘Brothers in Arms’ moniker was a reflection of a story that closely followed a small group of soldiers immediately before and after D-Day. Put simply: they were era-standard shooters in WW2 skins and why, even now, I only vividly remember those beach landings and barely anything else.īrothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 - inspired by Band of Brothers in particular - seemed to hint at something more and, when it was released in March 2005, I was not disappointed. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and its console counterpart, Frontlines, had both replicated Saving Private Ryan’s shocking opening in enjoyably chaotic ways, but neither had any of its wider themes, happy to settle into standard FPS tropes. I don’t think I was alone but they kickstarted my desire to learn more about WW2 and that, such is the obsessive way I’m wired, fed into my gaming time.īut, try as they might, video games could only capture the surface-level brutality of war but said nothing about it. Though one was a fictional story and the other a dramatisation of the real 101st Airborne that dropped into Nazi-occupied France before D-Day, both were incredible looks at WW2 and the people that served in it. Firstly, in 2004, video games were in full swing of aping Spielberg’s 1998 WW2 classic Saving Private Ryan and the terrific 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers. Using Antal’s military background, Gearbox put a lot of stock into historical, geographical and tactical accuracy. The video featured Pitchford and Gearbox’s then-military advisor, Colonel John Antal, showing off what made their World War II shooter series so different. Then the game switches the player to command the entire 2nd Squad after the Battle of Bloody Gulch (Hill 30).Indeed, it was Pitchford’s passion that drew my attention to the Brothers in Arms series in 2004, when I stumbled on pre-release footage of the series’ first game, Road to Hill 30, while looking for info about Ghost Recon 2 on Ubisoft’s website. The player commands Desola, Allen, and Garnett from 3rd Squad, and some soldiers from 2nd Squad at first. Although the first part takes place under Baker's command, every mission is one not included in Road to Hill 30. The final part will take place in and around Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte. The second part picks up when he takes command of 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon during the liberation and defense of Carentan, and the eventual link up between 82nd and 101st Airborne Division at the town of Baupte. The first part of the game is recollection of Hartsock's time in Sergeant Matt Baker's squad during the initial D-Day invasion. Marshall is interviewing paratroopers 15+ days after D-Day. The story is essentially told as a "reflection" on the events that took place earlier, as Army historian Colonel S.L.A. The AI of enemies has also been improved considerably in this game, while level designs are more open-ended than the original. Earned in Blood includes several new multiplayer missions, weapons and vehicles, plus a new co-op skirmish mode. It was ported to the Wii in 2008 as a part of the Brothers in Arms: Double Time compilation.Įarned in Blood continues the Brothers In Arms saga as newly promoted Sergeant Joe "Red" Hartsock (Hartsock was the Corporal of Baker's Fire Team), who was part of the historic Normandy invasion in the previous game. The mobile phone version was developed and published by Gameloft and released in October 2005 along with the console versions. Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood is a first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox and PlayStation 2.
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