gearbox does world war 2

Whether you think it's a tantalizing advertising campaign or cheap marketing gimmick, Gearbox Software has still managed to turn some heads with their recent "teaser" website for Brothers in Arms. The site first opened a few weeks ago at warstory.net, where they posted a few quotes about the state of war-based FPS, and how they have been lacking the distinct flavours of frontline battlefield combat. Before even the first screens were revealed, you could hear the sounds of gamers lamenting another WWII shooter and decrying how the genre has already been done to death. Unfortunately, my predisposition towards war-related games has firmly planted me in the camp of those who believe that only the execution of these games can be overused; World War II as a subject is absolutely brimming with material to base an action-adventure on.

Gearbox is being intentionally coy about the engine, but it will most definitely be part of publisher UbiSoft's E3 lineup. Some rumours are saying it's a brand new engine, and others hint that its grand scale battlefields put the CryEngine to good use. Looking at some of the screenshots it's hard not to be skeptical; all of them look doctored or modified in some way to give them an all-too-realistic polish. But according to most "previews" (and I use that term loosely; most are nothing more substantial than speculation given after an inital viewing), this soft appearance is all part of the engine. I must admit these initial screens remind me of when I saw Call of Duty for the first time.

BIA plans to take a more strategic approach to battle, depending even more on the actions of squadmates. Wishful comparisons were quickly made to something like Ghost Recon, and although some elements are there, the field command options are much more simplified. Through this new approach, Gearbox promises gamers realistic tactics. It's not enough that your fellow soldiers provide covering fire - you are now able to issue general commands as well, including supressing hostiles and moving into position, instead of letting your AI controlled squadmates follow your lead like in Call of Duty or Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Having a limited number of armaments also restricts your ability to take on the entire Wehrmacht yourself, something MoHAA and even CoD allowed you to do. I'd like to see punishment for trying to go it alone in BIA, as it doesn't make sense that you can abandon your squadmades on a whim to race ahead because they can't bunny hop bullets.

It's also clear that Gearbox is going for realistic environments, as this composite shows. Using historical photos and battlefield accounts of the airborne assault on Normandy to build most of the environments, and the actual story based on the experiences of a platoon seargeant in the 502nd parachute infantry regiment adds a bit of credibility to the game's reason for being. Gearbox also plans on developing the characters of your squadmates, something that Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is also attempting to do. I'd consider this an advancement of sorts, because it's one thing to provide decent AI to fight alongside you, and perhaps add a nametag to them, but when you start getting involved in their backstories, the deaths of these NPCs starts to carry a bit more weight.

I sense that this game is also heavily influenced by Band of Brothers, but where Spearhead has failed, I think Brothers In Arms has the ability to make up for the character development and emotionally charged combat. Both the XBox and PC version will be available sometime in October. It's hard to make a proper judgement call given all this pre-E3 hype, but I'm not afraid to say I'm very, very interested.

miles above the sea