Brothers in Arms D-Day – PSP – Review

Oh, World War
II, how game designers love to make games that take place during your time
period. From the Medal of Honor franchise to the recent Call of Duty
titles, war games set during WWII aren’t anything new to the consoles. Then
again, when Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 came out, it surprisingly
brought some much needed tactical strategies with its intense and bloody
skirmishes. Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood gave us more of the same,
only with a different protagonist. While great on the consoles, it was shocking
news to hear that a game in the series would come out on the PSP. As it turns
out, it wasn’t a bad idea but then again Brothers in Arms: D-Day is
simply rehashing the events we already experienced before with Road to Hill
30 and Earned in Blood … as well as adding a few glaring flaws.

As I mentioned
above, D-Day isn’t a new chapter in the Brothers in Arms series
nor does it pick up after the events seen in Earned in Blood. This game
manages to cram in a little of both games, allowing you a chance to play as
Road to Hill 30 protagonist Sergeant Matt Baker and then as Earned in
Blood’s main character, Corporal Joe Hartsock. The game begins the night
before D-Day as Baker and the 101^st Airborne parachute through heavy
flak and land on German occupied Normandy. After pushing the enemy back in an
attempt to take a position labeled Hill 30, you assume the role of Hartsock who
is promoted and takes a squad of his own to push further into Normandy.

If you’ve played
both games you’ll certainly remember the historical campaign missions from the
console games since it essentially remains the same. You’ll still sneak into
enemy bunkers as Baker or intercept a squad of Germans in a quaint little town
as Hartsock. Of course, there are missions left out for obvious reasons but in
the end this only results in toning down the emotional scenes and making the
character-driven story feel less exciting. Unlike the console version where
you’ll smile whenever you see a familiar face and feel the sting of a friend’s
loss during a bloody encounter, you really don’t get to know many of the main
characters in this portable version.

Ubisoft does a
great job of making due with the PSP’s controls and does an equally surprising
job of bringing all the shooter and tactical elements straight out of the
console versions. You’ll still be able to crouch and fire and you can also
reload or switch weapons on the fly. You can even zoom in for more precise
shooting and lob grenades with an arc indicating where it will land. On the
tactical side, you can direct your squad by using the command ring you can
position and your squad will move there to await your order to provide covering
fire or bum ammo from them whenever you need it.

The game also
brings the Situational Awareness feature from the console games, giving you a
satellite view of the map as well as pointing out where your enemies are
positioned or hiding. This gives you a tactical advantage during particularly
intense skirmishes, as is the enemy suppression indicator. A circle appears over
the heads of your enemies that indicate whether the enemy is suppressed (a gray
circle) or unsuppressed (a red circle). These tools are worth their weight in
gold in the console games but here they’re tools that you can use if you feel
like it since the enemy AI is just plain poor in this portable
version. Secondly, there are some bugs that get in the way of the action. At one
point I had an enemy at point-blank range and fired only to look on with
surprise as the enemy soldier seemed to be unfazed by bullets at all. I even
emptied an entire clip on this one German trooper who I began to think was
bulletproof.

The game is
filled with a few of these flaws but in-between there’s some decent battles and
exciting mission campaigns that made the console game such a joy to play.
There’s even a multiplayer mode called Skirmish, which you can play solo or with
a single friend. The multiplayer mode is broken into Time (timed mini-missions),
Tour of Duty (harder difficulty settings for said mini-missions) and Objective
(there’s a point to each of the six mini-missions). Objective has you choosing
from the American or German side as you complete a list of objectives like Last
Stop (blow up a bridge) or High Ground (take the bunker and destroy a series of
Flak 36 guns).

Graphically
speaking, D-Day looks good in some spots and looks awful in others. When
it comes to the cinematic cutscenes and the Situational Awareness view the
screen turns a bit murky and sometimes the facial features don’t look very
natural. Then again, the environments look pretty good and some characters look
pretty good. The explosions really stand out and the smoke effects really rock.
Still, this game could have looked a lot better.

At least the
amazing score is back and it plays throughout the load screens and during the
cutscenes and this still gives the game it’s wonderfully cinematic touch. The
sound effects are wonderfully detailed, although you won’t really figure out
which direction it’s coming from but it’s still great to hear how amazing the
sound comes through … although they sound less muffled using earphones. That
great voice acting is also back.

Brothers in
Arms: D-Day
for the PSP could have been a truly amazing portable first-person shooter but
thanks to a number of flaws, it ends up being a passable experience. Sadly, this
could have been a great FPS since it has all the elements that made the console
version such a joy to play and there’s even a solid multiplayer mode to boot but
there are just too many things that hold this game back. If you like a
first-person shooter for your PSP there aren’t many alternatives but this one
might just give you a thrill or two if you can put up with the game’s problems.

Gameplay: 7.0
All things
considered, this game doesn’t do so badly in terms of bringing us a decent
first-person shooter on the PSP. Then again, there are some glitches that do get
in the way of what could have been a great shooter. The missions are lengthy and
will seem familiar to those who played both early games.

Graphics: 7.2

Visually,
D-Day falls a tad flat in certain areas and then again, it won’t fail to
amaze in other areas. Still, cutscenes and the Situational Awareness screens
look too murky. At least the characters look decent and explosions look great on
the PSP widescreen.

Sound: 7.5
Occasionally
the dialogue doesn’t come out as clearly through the PSP speakers and sometimes
they do but I highly suggest you play this game with your earphones. The
explosions and gunfire sound great and the score is present and still great.

Difficulty:
Medium
The game feels
less challenging on the PSP and it’s mainly due to poor enemy AI. On the
consoles, the enemy is great at attempting to outflank you or try to match your
tactical decisions but here tactics are more of a suggestion rather than a
requirement.

Concept: 6.5
If you’ve
played Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood to death, this
Brothers in Arms won’t compel you to play it again. This portable version
also lacks the emotional moments of the game and you’ll feel less moved now that
the characters seem like caricatures. At least there’s a good multiplayer mode.

Multiplayer:
7.5
While it would
have been great to have more multiplayer mission campaigns or include online
play through Infrastructure mode, the Ad Hoc multiplayer is actually quite tasty
and a great diversion as a single-player game as well. You can play against a
friend as either the American or German side and the mission objective make for
some good fun.

Overall: 7.0
If you’ve
always wanted a portable version of the past two Brothers in Arms games,
D-Day for the PSP is for you but be warned that the game is far from
perfect. Then again, fans of the first-person shooter genre will be pleased that
this game does a great job of making due with the limitations of the hardware.
It’s a nice try but for my money I would stick with the recent and far more
superior Medal of Honor game for the PSP.