Despite some valiant holding out against enemy forces, defeats along the line meant relief for the furthest-flung troops never came and many lives were lost. It’s into this maelstrom that returning hero Matt Baker (you) is flung at the start of the game, and as the head of a reconnaissance team you’ll get to see a number of this event’s hotspots.
Let’s get this over with: right at the start of our time with the game it became blindingly clear that this is not a re-invention of the wheel - it’s another Brothers in Arms game. Yes, it’s easier to shoot the Hun. Yes, cover is now destructible. Yes, garden furniture can now be vaulted with finesse. But if you weren’t convinced on the last two tours of duty then the third iteration will find it hard to snap you to attention. This is fine for us though, as we see the franchise as much a high-risk puzzle game as a balls-out shooter and enjoy the games more than our peers.
As usual, the tale is told with a stab at panache, opening in a burning hospital in the fire-bombed city of Eindhoven with events that take place two-thirds of the way into the game proper. Something dreadful has happened, one of your blokes has been shot up, and as you progress through the building (alongside handy tutorial reminders of how to shoot people) it becomes more and more evident that Baker is a little unhinged by affairs, and is imagining stuff. Just when you’re noticing how lovely the wafts of smoke emanating from your gun and the tinkling of bullet casings is though, you’re thrown back in time and to a British airstrip before all the incursion began.
Again, this is a BIA game so it looks like some of the rather more cloying dialogue and slightly top-heavy matey rambunctiousness is returning. Indeed, it now includes a young soldier who’s too young to be there but has been included at Baker’s request (who might as well have a sign next to him reading ‘Shoot me!’) and an English bloke who has lines like “You don’t know bollocks!”. It’s a Louisiana Action Man tea party and every stereotype seems to have been invited.
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