A
nyone who’s read Stephen
Ambrose’s exquisite history of
the WW2 exploits of the 101st
Airborne’s Easy Company, Band of
Brothers, or seen the HBO miniseries of
the same name, is going to feel right at
home with Brothers in Arms: Earned in
Blood. In EiB, you play a paratrooper in
the 101st Airborne, and you start by para-
chuting into Normandy on June 6, 1944.
Earned in Blood continues the story
started in the first Brothers in Arms game—
The Road to Hill 30—but from the per-
spective of a different soldier. Some of the
battles are similar to those in the first game,
but because your character and objectives
are different, you won’t mistake this for an
expansion pack.
The thing that separates Brothers in
Arms games from your traditional Medal of
Honor-style shoot-‘em-up is the empha-
sis on realism over arcade-style action.
Aiming and firing weapons is more true to
life—you won’t make many headshots at
10 yards with a Luger here, and even hit-
ting targets with a rifle at range requires
crouching and careful aim.
Earned in Blood emphasizes tactics
over pure twitch skill. Finding appropriate
cover, setting up firing positions, and cov-
ering your flanks is crucial. To handle these
tasks, you have two teams—a fire team and
an assault team. A basic engagement goes
like this: Get your fire team in position to
put suppressing fire
on the enemy, then
move your assault
team to a better spot
and have them apply
suppressing fire.
Then, your fire team
leapfrogs the assault
team. Eventually, you
either move one team
into position to flank
the enemy and flush
them from cover or
you have to charge
the fortified Germans.
There are multiple
ways to approach
every engagement,
and some are defi-
nitely better than oth-
ers. The only thing a
solo charge on a forti-
fied German position
will get you in EiB is
a military funeral and
death benefits.
The biggest
complaint about the original BiA was
the slightly sub-par AI—for both squad
mates and enemies. The enemies
would cower behind cover for hours
rather than move to a better position
or try to flank you, and your squad
mates couldn’t figure out where they
should go to get a bead on a target
unless you specifically told them.
Both of these problems have been
fixed in Earned in Blood. In fact, the
enemy AI is among the best we’ve
ever experienced. Enemies not only
flank you, they’ll flee the battlefield,
or even make desperate suicide
charges. Likewise, your squad’s AI
is much improved. Instead of running
across a field of fire to get from point
A to point B, they stay under cover.
They’re even capable of finding a good
spot to take potshots at Gerry without too
much hand-holding.
The placement and variety of cover
objects feels much more natural this time
around. Instead of always cowering behind
stone fences, you’ll find yourself hidingbehind trees, cars, boxes, and even the
occasional burned-out tank. Of course,
you need to constantly keep moving. If you
linger too long in any one spot, nearby mor-
tar teams will zero in on your position and
bring your foot tour of France to a halt.
Multiplayer includes the same objec-
tives-based two-on-two game from The
Road to Hill 30, but there’s also an inter-
esting Skirmish mode, which gives you
a series of single-player or co-op chal-
lenges to complete.
—WILL SMITHDECEMBER 2005 MA XIMUMPC 97
$50, http://www.brothersinarmsgame.com,
ESRB:MBROTHERS IN ARMSFLANKINGBEING FLANKED^9
MA XIMUMPC
KICKASSBasic tactics and realistic
weapons make a unique
WW2 experience.Sometimes frustrating; can
only save at predefined
checkpoints.Occasionally, you’ll pick up help from a tank, which makes
assaulting machine-gun nests a piece of cake.Only by laying down effective cover fire and flanking the
German positions will you succeed in Earned in Blood.Although there is a mission-goals screen, it’s
not necessary if you pay attention to the brief-
ings from your commanding officers.Brothers in Arms:
Earned in Blood
Smarter enemies, better scenarios, unbelievable action