When Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was released in 2002, I closed everything at home. Doors, phones, TV, radio; all these were shut or disconnected until I managed to finish the game. Two years later, Call of Duty had the same effect, because it brought a wave of fresh air over the Second World War shooters market. These games wrote history, as the subjects they treated did the same when the actual events really happened, which is probably the reason why WW2 is so fascinating for us, the outsiders of that terrible war. It’s March 2005, and the world has changed yet again for the better, with the release of Ubisoft's latest WW2 shooter, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (BiA). Until now, in games like MOHAA, CoD and RTCW, we had to play the part of a lonely hero destroying the famous Wermacht almost by ourselves. This time around, your comrades are the real heroes of the battles. You are Sergeant Matt Baker of the Fox Company, 502-paratrooper regiment and during the single player campaign you will have to endure eight days of hell. Eight days of terror, suffering and drama that Matt Baker wished he never lived.

     The story begins with Baker’s paradrop in Normandy, during the night before D-Day and from the moment you reach the ground, the fighting starts almost immediately. Aside from fulfilling the objectives of the missions entrusted to him, Baker is also responsible for the lives of his comrades, who are following his orders. To try to finish a mission all by yourself in BiA is suicide, so now you must make the transition from war-hero to a leader who knows exactly when and where to order his soldiers to fire, to flank or to pin down the enemy with suppressing fire. As a result, your orders can make or break a mission, so you’ll have to be very careful when making a decision.
     In Call of Duty, the MG42 machine gun was a deadly weapon in your hands, but in Brothers in Arms, it's more like one used for suppressing fire, while you give orders to your soldiers to flank the enemy. It may seem simple enough, but wrong orders could lead to the death of your soldiers, while you're still surrounded by Germans. All these orders require just a few keyboard shortcuts and mouse moves so it's not a big deal to perform them. By ordering suppressing fire against a group of German soldiers, you will pin them down in one location, without the ability to shoot back, which will give you the possibility of moving from one place to another until you manage to flank them. The beauty of the game resides in the modern maneuvers you must perform, which really manage to test your capabilities as a real time tactician. Situational awareness is a nice tactical gimmick which will give you a bird’s eye view of your surroundings, indicating the location of you and your squad, as well as known enemy positions. While some might think that this makes the game too easy, the truth is situational awareness only helps you maneuver your squad according to the situation on the battlefield, since it shows only the enemy contacts that you’ve already made. You can’t use it to peek behind a wall or building to see what’s waiting for you when you get there.