Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood preview

While Brother’s In Arms squad-based tactical gameplay may have alienated some of the more gung ho Medal of Honor fans out there, it was still the kind of game the genre desperately needed. Until that point the WWII FPS had become stale.

While Brother’s In Arms looked like every WWII FPS, but it didn’t play like them. It was the perfect marriage of Call of Duty meets Full Spectrum Warrior – which, when brought together, created one hell of an original title.

And it certainly proved popular with the masses, too. Because Ubisoft and Gearbox Software are soon set to release the not-quite-a-sequel Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood for the PC, Xbox and PS2.

Find them

The reason we say this is not quite a sequel is simple: it isn’t. Brothers In Arms may have provided jaded shooter fans with a stunning alternative, but the game certainly left itself open for repair come sequel. For starters, it lacked the inclusion of fully functioning physics.

Earned in Blood lacks those too. Brothers in Arms wasn’t as diverse as it could have been either. In fact, sometimes it was rigidly linear and the ordering and flanking of your squad and enemies became a tad repetitive by the end. Earned in Blood looks to be more of the same.

Except in one area - its setting. The first title made full use of the lush green environments of the countryside. You fought on roads, you fought in fields, farms, barns and ditches. There was rarely much time spent in the urban environment save for the final few missions.

Earned in Blood is set almost entirely in urban environments.

Fix them

And while it may not sound like it, swapping the green for grey will make for a whole different experience to that of the previous title. For starters, the urban environments will make Earned in Blood a much tougher title that its predecessor.

This happens for a number of reasons. Sometimes you will be forced into close quarters combat with a small enemy unity. For you and the enemy there won’t be much space to manoeuvre so flanking may not be the best option until you’ve studied the terrain.

Sometimes you’ll find yourself taking your squad through War-torn buildings where the enemy can hide in the most erratic of places. In the first game you pretty much new where you were shooting at all times.

This time the smaller, more cramped buildings give your enemy the much greater advantage.

Flank them

But that doesn’t necessarily extend to you, however. If you chose to send your squad outside as you stalk the open second-level of a building, you may leave yourself open to the enemy below as you make yourself aware.

Also, while flanking is still the top priority in Earned in Blood, you’ll find many of your tactics foiled as a low-wall or cover leads you into a wrong direction or dead end. Not only does this make for a more tactical sense of planning, it forces you to study your terrain while making quick decisions, too.

And that’s one thing this writer condemned the first game for. No matter where the fight was taking place, unless there were tanks swarming around you were pretty much safe behind what cover you found. Earned in Blood is taking away that option in favour of forcing you to think fast.

Finish them

Which is why Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood is not called Brothers in Arms 2. There just aren’t enough new bells and whistles added to the mix to fully justify the numerical. But that doesn’t negate the game in any fashion.

It hasn’t even been a year since Gearbox released the first game, but it’s a developer that has finally shown the world it can handle its own IPs. And Brothers in Arms is a wonderful franchise to own.

It has the Hollywood-like blockbuster locations like the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty titles, but it forces you to think. So do yourself a favour: if you haven’t played Brother’s in Arms, think about doing so. For those who have… well, you’ll be signing up for a seconds without a doubt.