wlj

I finished BIA(Xbox) this morning. I wanted to share some of my thoughts, in case there is anyone on the fence about whether to get the game or not.

Graphics 8/10 -- The graphics are pretty good...nothing I saw will blow you away by any means. Character models were impressive. Environments were nice to look at...some of the foliage, up close, was kinda ugly.

Sound 9/10 -- Great Sound. Weapons sound authentic(like I would know). For some reasons I really liked the explosion sounds. I thought the musical score sounded similar to some of the music in Saving Private Ryan. The voice-acting is above average....it can go over the top sometimes and you will roll your eyes, but all in all I enjoyed it. There are some funny lines that are said that you will laugh your ass off at.

Control 8/10 -- Same old run of the mill FPS controls...except you use the L, R, and white button to give orders to your squad. Squad orders work pretty decent, but there will be alot of instances where your squad just won't do what you are telling them to do at the right time and they will get killed. It didn't take much away from the fun...it just is aggravating at times. One big change is you will use your gun's actual site to shoot...this adds to the realism quite a bit. So if you have ever shot an actual gun before...you will use the same technique in BIA. This may frustrate some gamers, but I personally enjoyed the change. You can add cross hairs to help you if you need to.

Gameplay 8.5/10 -- Basically the gameplay is a 50/50 mixture of Full Spectrum Warrior and Medal of Honor: Frontline. So if you don't like either of those games...chances are you probably won't care for this one. I liked Full Spectrum Warrior's squad ordering system a little better than BIA. It just seemed I could put my squad exactly like I wanted in FSW...It can be tough in BIA to get your guys in the right position. My guys died off quite a bit while I was trying to position them, and sometimes the AI will just make one guy stand out in the open only to get blown away. Another issue I had was that the stages are actually VERY linear. There are only certain places which you can go which reduces the amount of strategy you can use. You have a jump button...yet your soldier can't seem to jump over anything...which limits your tactics. If the levels were more free and open-ended I would have probably given gameplay a 9.9 or 10.

Fun Factor 9.0/10 -- I had alot of fun with the game, because I finished it in a week. I don't usually go through games that fast unless I am having alot of fun. I finished the game on the NORMAL difficulty setting. It was challenging without being frustrating. You just have to get in a more strategic mind set and you will be more successful. It took me roughly between 12 to 15 hours to finish the game.



Bottom Line 8.5/10

This review is strictly from the single player campaign. I have yet to play any multiplayer. I don't have Xbox live or many "gaming" friends near me to do the offline multiplayer. All in All...I enjoyed Brothers In Arms quite a bit. I kind of wish that I would have rented instead of purchased. I don't really have the desire to go through the game again anytime in the near future. Although I might play through certain missions again that I enjoyed more than others. So if you are a WW2 buff...this is probably the best game out there, and you probably already have it. If I had my time to do it over again...I would have rented it for a week...which is more than enough time to finish it and get what I could get out of it since I don't have LIVE.

anyway that is my 2 cents...hopefully it will help someone get off the fence.



thanks for listening,

wlj

Roan

Thanks for the review. I have this game but I haven't had time to play it yet. Sounds like the first player campaign is pretty good.

DJ_Longfellow

Hmm, I know the game has been getting great reviews....but I thought Full Spectrum Warrior was horrible...maybe this is better since you have MORE control

wlj

Alot of the gameplay is very similar to Full Spectrum Warrior...which is game I like alot...but you can do the shooting instead of the AI. So if you thought FSW was horrible you may want to give this game a rent before you buy -- since the gameplay is similar ---suppress enemy then flank enemy.


wlj

Mopower

I bought it. Might sell it on ebay too. It just seems like a regular old WWII FPS. Which I love but to me the graphics are bland. There are loooooong load times. I can't seem to cancel a command. Like if I tell my stupid team mate to go behind a fence he will run out in the open towards it and get shot at. Is there a way to cancel the command or do I have to use the curser thing to tell him to come next to me?

Another thing is when I tell a guy to put suppression fire on an enemy the guy goes running off. I end up having the take the enemy out myself. When I tell the guy to come back to me I wait and wait and then he comes running out from some place I never told him to go. Plus once I give him a command he quits following me afterward and for the rest of the mission I have to tell him were to go or else he just stands there. I like the way the guns fire though. But that wasn't worth the $50.

Oh and whoever said on www.cheapassgamer.com that this game was going to be $29.96 at Best Buy on sunday March 27 can go to hell. That day is Easter and Best Buy was closed. I drove 80 miles round trip to find that out.

hail2dking

Should have called first Picked mine up on Monday for $25..

Third Baseman

So anyways, I plan to rent this on Thursday.

Mopower

Ya call Best Buy. That's a good one. You'd win Last Comic Standing.


Best Buy - "Hello this the video games dept."
Me - "Yes, is Brothers in Arms for Xbox going to be on sale this week?"
Best Buy - "Uh I'll have to check."
Me - Waits on hold for 10 min.
Best Buy - "Hello? Who are you holding for?"
Me - "Hi, I wanted to check a price of a videogame and..(INTERUPTION)"
Best Buy - "(INTERUPTION) Ok one moment."
Me - waiting......
Best Buy - "What game was that again?"
Me - "Brothers in Arms for Xbox."
Best Buy - "Nope, we don't even have that one." "Oh wait that was for PS2 right?"
Me - "No Xbox."
Best Buy - "Oh ok, ya we have it but I don't see a sale anywhere."
Me - "Click"



Now that is just a demonstration of how that conversation would go based on past conversations with Best Buy. Anyway I know I shouldn't have trusted an internet site with the info but the cheapassgamer thing said sunday only, So I thought of course. Sunday only.

hail2dking

I saw the same thing, fortunately my Best Buy was only 5 minutes out of the way after Church... I did snag their Sunday paper lying outside their front door since there were no signs posted that it would be closed on Easter.

JM

For future reference, you can always just check out the weekly ad on BestBuy.com if you don't have a newspaper handy. New ads come out every Sunday, and it was up (and the site reflected the price) on Sunday early am. I know because I ordered this game for in store pickup then--though I couldn't pick it up until Monday since, as you say, BB was closed Easter Sunday.