If you’re a Wii fan looking for a
first-person shooter to play through during this dry spell of “AAA” titles on
the console, you best avoid Brothers in Arms: Double Time. Instead of
providing Wii gamers an unique Brothers in Arms experience of their own (Xbox
360 and PS3 have Brother in Arms: Hells Highway), Ubisoft opted to dig through
their back catalogue and release their two Brothers in Arms titles for
the Xbox and PS2 – Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood – three
years later on the Wii. The results are less than favorable for anyone who
remotely likes first-person shooters.
What do Wii owners get with their
first Brothers in Arms titles? Well first off, they receive updated
ports from the PS2 versions that suffer from terrible enemy AI. Both titles
have dumber-than-a-spoon computer AI on the enemy front and for your allies. Ordering your units (a major attribute of the Brothers in Arms series) is
a pain in the butt and shouldn’t be this big of a hassle. Stripping the fun
right out of game, the enemy AI is easily the worst part of this compilation
set.
The standard attribute with many FPS
titles on the Wii is the use of IR aiming through the Wii’s motion controls. Ubisoft also fails here in addressing the implementation of good motion
controls. The sensitivity is high and it barely recognizes movements of the
controller in the most critical situations. Switching to a different control
scheme isn’t the remedy for this disease since the other options are even
worse. The game flat out isn’t able to keep up with the IR movements of the
player.
The best asset of the Brothers in
Arms series that not too many FPS titles feature is the ability to control
and command your squadrons’ moves – though Double Time takes this asset
and turns it into a setback. As mentioned previously, your teammates wouldn’t
be able to tell the difference between an apple and a watermelon. They’ll often
put themselves in harms way and stubbornly stop halfway through one of your
orders, thus getting shot in the meantime and falling down injured.
Graphically, Double Time is a
mess. The framerate is the biggest issue and it often drops to the point that
it screws up the IR detection. When the game isn’t able to run smooth, players
have to repeat their input to accomplish their tasks – an attribute that doesn’t
need to transpire. Having the game freeze up more often than not, players will
becoming alarmingly frustrated with Double Time and will give up before
they hit the three-hour mark of game time. The other visual aspects
(environments, character models, etc.) haven’t aged that well either.
If you have missed out on these two
titles when they appeared on the Xbox and PS2, then here’s a quick recap of the
storyline: it’s based around a true story from World War II. Yes, as if we
haven’t seen enough WW2 shooters by now, Ubisoft chose to port these two decent
shooters into one horrible compilation for the Wii.
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Review Scoring Details for Brothers In Arms Double Time |
Gameplay: 3.5
In their previous iterations, the titles were superb during their time. Now, three years later, these two Brothers in Arms games are unflattering
on the Wii.
Graphics: 3.8
Unlike wine, Double Time proves that some games don’t pass the test
of time.
Sound: 6.5
Voice-acting is up to par, but the rest of the audio (soundtrack, sound
effects, etc.) doesn’t hold up well.
Difficulty: Hard
Controls and freezing issues makes it hard to complete objectives.
Concept: 5.0
It’s not hard to come up with the idea to port two Xbox/PS2 titles to the
Wii.
Overall: 3.9
It is suggested gamers look elsewhere for their FPS needs; Brothers in
Arms: Double Time offers no reasons for anyone to pick it up for the
Nintendo Wii.
