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> Results: Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood
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Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood is the follow-up to Brothers in Arms: The Road to Hill 30. It's also a stand-alone product, so you don't have to own The Road to Hill 30 to play it, though having played the original will help players understand Earned in Blood's story. That's important because this sequel is nearly identical to its predecessor in play, but adds a lot of texture to the story told in the first game. Additional enhancements in the skirmish and multiplayer modes make this sequel a steady installment in what is certain to be a long-lived series.
This series distinguishes itself from other action games by trying to deliver realism in both gameplay and historical content. The games make the player the leader of a squad of American soldiers in World War II. Missions are all based heavily on real-life exploits of the US Army's famous 101st and 82nd Airborne units. You direct soldiers with simple commands, so the feeling of teamwork is much stronger than it is in most shooters. One of my favorite features is the inclusion of historical extras. After playing a mission, you can review slides of the Gearbox team researching and building the game. It's interesting to see how streets you fight in during the game are taken straight from real locations in France. Earned in Blood adds another historical detail in the way its story is told, as a series of flashbacks by one of the characters to real-life Army historian Col. SLA Marshall. The developers tried to address some of the first game's criticisms in this sequel, but they've fallen a bit short. Missions in the first game sometimes felt too much like puzzles, where you had to find the best path through a small maze. Gearbox wanted to make Earned in Blood's levels seem more open and realistic. The levels are bigger and the player does have more freedom in selecting an approach, but there are still enough artificial constraints around the battlefield to make the player feel like a lab rat.  The graphics remain very strong and the artificial intelligence is a little better. Enemies will now try to flank your team. There is one quirk that I found troublesome, though. Commanding a squad was very easy in the first game, but in this one there are times when I wanted a squad to fire on an enemy but instead the command processed as a movement order. Instead of shooting to suppress an enemy, the squad ran headlong into their field of fire. I suspect this has something to do with battlefields featuring more elevation variety and how that might affect the game engine's ability to interpret the player commands. With added caution, I was able to work around it, but it's still frustrating. Otherwise, the game remains excellent overall. Fans of the first will be pleased with this effort and the continued inclusion of the historical extras. The occasional tank battles in the game aren't as realistic as some purists would like but so add variety to the game. The skirmish mode now has several new options and is very challenging, adding life to the game beyond the single-player missions. 
As with the original, Earned in Blood features heavy combat violence. There is also some blood and harsh language. This is a title unashamedly designed for mature audiences. In Gearbox's favor, mature content is delivered in a mature fashion, not gratuitous or juvenile. If anything, the entire game endeavors to show respect for the sacrifice of the US Army veterans. The historical extras are fascinating and for older teens that can handle the violence, this title doubles as a learning experience.
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