A Tale of
Brothers
Texas-based Gearbox software and publisher, Ubisoft, promise to
deliver a different World War II experience with their latest, first person tactical
shooter, Brothers in Arms. Three and a half years in the making, Brothers in Arms will
attempt to re-create the tension and drama of some of the most horrific moments of human
history, while focusing on the better human qualities of friendship and
loyalty.
Exactly how Gearbox hopes to achieve these ambitious goals and the
combination of technology and research used, to that end, is the main focus of this preview
of a title, destined to dominate game's charts for the PC and XBox, with a PS2 version also
very likely, in Q4 of 2004.
The Basics
Brothers in Arms tells the story
of a paratrooper who never wanted to be squad leader, but is thrust into a position
leadership during the largest amphibious invasion in the history of the world. His name is
Sgt. Matt Baker and hes leader of 3d Squad, 3d Platoon, Fox Company, 502 Parachute Infantry
Regiment, 101st Airborne.
In BiA you become Baker and you must learn to lead your
men. Baker discovers the meaning of brotherhood between soldiers and he has to deal with
decisions about putting his men in harms way in order to get the job done
Story
Driven
As the genre of real-war based games has evolved, developers have
realised the need to use different aspects of the conflicts in order to better place their
products. The choices have ranged from changing timelines (Iron Storm), to sacrificing
realism for hectic non-stop action (Call of Duty). The most recent, and probably most
interesting and exciting trend, is the combination of action with realism. Games such as
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun may have referenced historical battles (Pearl Harbor) but have
used these events merely to provide a basic background for the game.
The recently
delayed Shellshock Nam '67 however, has introduced a new concept, that of the shift from a
heroic and flawless main character to a more human protagonist, one who is prone to mistakes
and whose priority is to survive the conflict whatever the cost.
Gearbox has, so far,
been known mainly for its uncanny ability to help publishers and developers with ports of
their titles. Half-Life, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, James Bond, Counter-Strike and Halo are
just some of the games they have worked on. It was therefore necessary for the company to
utilize its considerable skills and experience in order to help create a franchise title. In
order to do this in the best possible way, Gearbox has gone to extreme lengths as far as
resources and time, have been concerned.
Extensive Research
Gearbox
co-founder Randy Pitchford provides a short list in order to give a sense of the immensity
of the task and the dedication of the developers to providing an authentic
experience.
Heres a list of things that members of the development team have done
for research. This is a partial list and Im a bit worried about talking about all of it
because a lot of people and organizations have helped us and taught us because they believed
in our sense of obligation to deal with the subject matter as authentically as we can, not
because we did this research for marketability reasons:
-Sorties to Normandy, France
to walk the battlefields, map them out, gather photo source, etc. Of course, our military
advisor had to go during the same time of year as the invasion on and around June 6. He
spent a week there with a gentleman who is regarded by historians as the leading authority
on the 101st Airborne during WW2.
-Lots of time at the National Archives in
Washington DC. Anyone whos done any research there knows the magnitude of this. They have a
surprising number of large metal crates full of photos and maps and reports. On one visit,
Brian located the actual crusty, old After Action Reports type written by S.L.A. Marshall in
1944 that he used to document the paratroopers pivotal role in the D-Day invasion. Weve
digitized the documents and are considering how to get them published (S.L.A. Marshall is a
reference in just about every serious book about the invasion and I highly recommend his
excellent book, Night Drop).
-Examination and cataloguing of thousands of US Army
Signal Corps photos and veterans photos.
-Study of aerial reconnaissance photographs
and military maps the same exact sources the soldiers used to memorize the battlefields
and plan their strategies and tactics for each objective.
-Working with a military
expert, a historian, an airborne ranger and war history author that provided us with months
of masters degree level courses in military tactics and war history.
-A field
training exercise managed by an active duty US Army Colonel that was designed to teach our
development team combat tactics, formations, leadership and combat. We dug foxholes, marched
to cadence, rehearsed battle drills, hand signals and formation calls and engaged in
simulated combat of some of the battles from the game.
-Visits to the following
museums: National D-Day Museum and National WW2 Museum in New Orleans (excellent museum and
is worth a visit for anyone interested in the subject matter); Lots of time at the Ordnance
Museum in Aberdeen with Dr. Atwater as a host Dr. Atwater is amazing and he really cares
about the importance of what hes doing He helped us digitize weapons that civilians
normally would not have access to; Visits to several of the Museums in Normandy, France
The history there is awe inspiring; A visit to the Patton Museum at Ft. Knox, Kentucky.
Definitely worth a visit; Theres a museum at the military base in Ft. Hood, TX where pretty
much every tank Ive ever heard of is parked in the fields we climbed all over these
things taking photographs and examining every square inch; The Smithsonian Institute, of
course. There are great public displays in the Smithsonian American History Museum; A bunch
of other places that Im not able to go into detail on.
-Amongst us, weve read more
than 500 books on the subject of paratroopers, D-Day, US Army infantry tactics, weapons,
uniforms and vehicles, the German forces, their tactics and equipment and many other
subjects related to war. Ive personally read at least 100 books on the subject over the
last three years and am now starting to feel a real command over the information and the
subject matter. I bet I could teach a masters degree on the subject Short list of
recommended reading: "Currahee!" by Donald Burgett, "Citizen Soldier" and "Band of Brothers"
by Stephen Ambrose, "Voice of D-Day" by Gerald Astor and "The Longest Day" by Cornelius
Ryan.
-Extensive use of eyewitness accounts, personal and transcript interviews with
veterans (even my Grandfather, Wid Fansler, a WW2 veteran who served in the US Army Signal
Corps. Hes interesting because he signed up in 1939 - most signed up or were recruited
after Pearl Harbor. He retired with a rank of Lt. Col.)
-A bunch of us went to a
CALFEX (Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise) and witnessed and recorded what the spectacles of
warfare look and sound like. I was in NY in 1986 during the 4th of July celebration of the
centennial of the Statue of Liberty (probably the most intense fireworks display of all time
including the recent millennium craziness) that was NOTHING compared to what its like
to watch a tank blow up another tank.
Weve gone out to the gun ranges a bunch of
times to fire the weapons and Foley the sounds. Anyone whos ever fired an M1 Garand (or any
sighted rifle for that matter) knows why the blurry iron sights up close feels correct and
why the sounds in Brothers in Arms feel so natural. Also, anyone whos fired an M1 Garand
and a German K-98 back to back knows the advantages the standard US rifle team had over the
standard German rifle team. Of course, then we have to think about the German MG-42 the
German infantry squad tactics were centered around the machine gun
Are you still
reading this list? Think about this if youve read this far Each item on this list
represents 100s of man-hours of effort towards the authenticity of Brothers in Arms The
crazy thing is that I can say with sincerity that game or no game, the experience Ive had
with this material was very much worth my time and is worth the study by anyone who chooses
to dive into the material.
GamePlay
Authenticity, an immersive
atmosphere, extensive research and a great storyline are definitely important aspects of a
game but without the appropriate gameplay you might as well write a book. Thankfully,
Gearbox knows all about combining a variety of elements in order to produce an immersive
game, rather than just a big budget title.
The company describes the game as providing
fresh tactical team based game-play and something different than what gamers have
experienced before.
Consistent with its title, BiA will ask gamers to go beyond the
limits of an FPS title and to consider tactics as well. Part of the theme of the game is
that it's about Baker and his squad. You're a reluctant squad leader, based on a real guy
called Harrison Summers. He was a member of what's called the 30 A Day Club, which means he
got over 30 kills each day in action.
This guy is a Sergeant, he's got a squad
underneath him, so the game is to not only to lead these men but to gather them. When the
paratroopers dropped into Normandy all over the place a lot of them found themselves alone
and they had to regroup and accomplish whatever objectives they could.
So this means
two things for the game - it's fun to build up the squad over time but it also allows
players to ramp the skills of learning how to command a squad, which is a little bit
different from tactical games in the past which expect you to know everything right from the
first mission.
Squad based combat in Brothers in Arms is amazingly easy to command,
but very robust. At the point in the game where youve finally gathered your scattered
squad, youll be equipped with two teams. One team is an assault team and is designed for
closing-in on and killing the enemy. The other team is a fire team and is trained to
suppress and pin the enemy so that the assault team can do its work. These two teams are
dependant upon each other and their power is under your control.
Controlling them is
simple. One button toggles between the teams. This is a lot like switching weapons, but
youre switching teams. Another button issues a command. Its just one button to issue a
command. You look at something and you press the command button and its all taken care of
with the context sensitive system. If youre looking at the ground, the command is, Move to
that position! If youre looking at an enemy, the command is Attack! You can hold the button
down to see a little indicator that tells you exactly where youll be issuing your
command.
Squad combat should be about the idea of how you want to approach the combat
problem. Not about how youre going to fight through the interface to find the right
command.
The game will also give players an extra advantage by offering the
Situational Awareness View. This option will give the player inside knowledge of the area
the soldiers already knew. During WW II soldiers studied aerial recon photos, had sand
tables of the battlefield and therefore knew the terrain. As the player you don't, so the
Situational Awareness View will offer a 3D view of the terrain with your units and sighted
enemies clearly marked, useful for tactical decision making.
The dual nature of the
gameplay will allow players to resolve encounters without firing a single shot or to jump in
and take out the Germans themselves. So the game can be played as a traditional first-person
shooter or become a really tactical experience. Having good tactical awareness skills will
be important since there are some tough missions. As the game progresses you will have to
deal with increasingly more difficult and more powerful enemies.
While playing you will
always have to be aware of how your team is doing and of your casualties. Although trying to
protect your team, you are bound to experience heavy losses. Gearbox has mechanisms in place
so that mistakes made early-on will not cost you in later missions.
Technology
Gearbox has definitely gone out of its way to stress
the levels of realism and authenticity involved in the game. According to the company this
did not mean that it had to sacrifice technology but rather that exciting new features are
used as an enhancement to the realism. One such example is the use of
physics.
Physics
Achieving a realistic battlefield cannot be done if
the effects of the weapons of war are not correctly depicted. Gearbox has hinted that a
third-party physics engine will be used in order to re-create the effects of the devastating
weapons used in WW II.
The developers also claim that their version of the physics engine
will be one of the first to include animals as well as humans and objects. So expect a
variety of farm animal parts flying about you as you fight the
Germans.
AI
Gearbox has written an entirely new AI system which they
have called Situational AI. It allows designers to give the Germans commands in the same way
players give the Allied troops under their control commands. So what the designers can do is
understand what the player is doing and give the Germans the appropriate commands to
reposition themselves.
The soldiers behave like trained soldiers. They have standard
operating procedures and battle drills that are designed to help soldiers respond to any
situation. This is all engineered into the characters. As their commander, the player will
not need to tell them exactly what to do, where to look and what they should do when someone
starts shooting at them. They will know what to do. Players, as their leader will have to
use the squad to fire and move-in on the enemy. Your team will know how to climb over walls
and fire over obstacles, they know how to use the terrain for combat
advantage.
Multiplayer
The Xbox and PC versions of Brothers in Arms
will feature multiplayer action. Plans call for each online player being in command of a
squad. So the player will be asked to use his fire team to out-manoeuvre the enemy online
like in single-player missions.
There will be 12 multiplayer missions, each mission being
similar to a single-player mission in the sense that each side will have an objective to
accomplish. Each of these 12 missions will almost be a different game mode because of the
unique objectives in the missions.
In one example of a MP mission, the Allies will
have to take out an AA gun and the German team will be trying to shoot down bombers,
therefore using the AA gun. Each side has competing objectives that cross over. According to
Randy Pitchford, The other thing about multiplayer is it turns over very quickly, kind of
like Counter-Strike.
It's especially important that this is a tactical game. I'll make
decisions about tactical manoeuvres at the beginning that'll affect how well I do. It's a
bit like in RTS games where you make decisions about your build order and it screws you an
hour later if you've made bad decisions. But we didn't want that to screw you an hour
later so we've made multiplayer rounds really fast - no round is longer than 10
minutes.
Multiplayer on Xbox Live will support 16 characters, a combination of AI and
human characters. Randy Pitchford again, We have a lot of options for setting multiplayer
games up, like I can play me versus you and we could be on Live or we could be on LAN or we
could be playing on split-screen and I could have me and you versus other people... You can
set it up however you want to, any combination of split-screen and LAN together. Maximum
number of players on split-screen is four.
On PC we haven't yet done our bandwidth test
but we're thinking we're going to be able to support a lot more players.
Gearbox
also promise a variety of extra content, including three new single-player missions, which
for the XBox, will be made available through XBox Live, while for the PC will become
available as free downloads.
Final Thought
Brothers in Arms seems
to have a lot going for it. An experienced developer, unlimited resources and a true passion
from the creators to offer something new in the genre. There are however, some points which
Gearbox will have to concentrate on in order to avoid disappointment.
The most
important one is that the recent onslaught of WW II titles, leaves the company with the task
of convincing gamers that this is something different. Many gaming enthusiasts may,
justifiably, believe that they have seen all there is to see in WW II games and Gearbox will
have to produce a title that truly escapes from those we have already seen tackling that
conflict.
Another point the developers should watch out for, is getting the
combination of the elements of gameplay right. Many games have tried to combine two gameplay
styles and most have fallen victim to the gaming equivalent of no-mans-land. If the
chemistry of the gameplay elements is not exactly right, players could find themselves
struggling with a title that is neither an FPS nor a tactical shooter.
The visual
aspects of the game are a part where the Gearbox experience has shone through and BiA looks
stunning. Combined with the knowledge that the countryside you are seeing is identical to
real-world locations, an exciting, immersive effect is created.
The sounds, weapons and
every other aspect of the game, are authentic and that is bound to create a large
following.
October 2004, is not that far away and time will soon tell how Brothers in
Arms will fair in the increasingly competitive games market. Whatever its future however, it
is a title we will be eagerly awaiting to try
out.
