Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30™

It's an ancient tactical shooter, possibly one of the first of the genre, with great WWII immersion like they don't do it anymore.
It's a slower paced game, leaning more on controlling your squad and moving using tactics and strategy rather than just individual skill.
Story is simple yet engaging, witha very grounded approach to war that makes you feel connected to your squad in a much less "Hollywood" style as of many modern games.
Still an old game, so the things that were overlooked back in the days feel more frustrating now, like the AI acting up and the mechanics which are slightly outdated...
But all in all, it was great to replay this game again after so many years.

It's a really old tactical fps. The game is slower paced and you cannot take out enemies by yourself. Your gun is not accurate and there is heavy weapon sway. You must utilize your squad effectively. The game can be difficult especially on "authentic" difficulty setting.

Really love how true to life the map layout is. There's a lot of behind the scenes content in the extras section that show real maps and documents from WWII. You can see for yourself how much care Gearbox put into the game with the accurate railways, causeways, hedgerows, buildings, etc. There are so many moments where I'm reminded of "Band of Brothers."

It's old so it looks old and plays old but I think it's still a fun time. Besides Troy Baker as the main character, the voice acting is not very good.

There aren't many good WWII singleplayer shooters out there anymore. And I don't know any other tactical WWII fps games besides Brothers in Arms so I'll take what I can get to sratch my WWII itch.

Amazing at making you afraid of war

A classic that still holds a lot of charm. Great writing and innovative gameplay (for the time) that still hasn't really been replicated. Checkpoints can be a bit frustrating, but overall I think the game holds up pretty well. Recommend playing with upscaled HD textures found on nexusmods or moddb.

A game that stands test of time, even after 20 years it's so much pleasure to play. AI is occasionally clunky and you wanna kill them yourself, but otherwise it's a lot of fun

Kinda outdated, buy plays very well. Worth it who like the theme of WW

First time playing in 2025, game plays well. Dated obviously but 5$ for the bundle and I've definitely got my monies worth.
good graphics, fluid controls once you get used to them. fun shooter with interesting squad mechanic that works well for what it is.

Dated compared to today's games but the story is a masterpiece, especially the sequels. Squad-based mechanics was implemented very well and even better in Hell's Highway. Must play game if you can get past it's age, it is worth it.

One of the best singleplayer world war 2 shooters ever made. It's a shame we only got a few of the Brothers in Arms games.

cool game

it's an extremely mediocre wwii game which with the sheer quantity of wwii games out there that's like saying this is a lacking and mediocre vanilla ice cream, there are so many other vanilla ice creams I can go get why would I get the most mediocre and bland one I could find?

That might sound strange for this game too since the whole concept of the game is that it's going for the story aspect by telling a true story of a platoon and also trying to sell you on it's real time command and strategy as its selling point.

At a baseline it's cool to allow the player to command their squad to take on bigger threats, that's an awesome thing you could put into a shooter if you don't make it clunky, bloated, have too many systems and you don't make it redundant, and while this game does not have it be clunky and it's rather intuitive and simple to use, what makes it a problem is the redundancy.

This game forces your shots to miss if you don't fill a bar for enemy groups which is the "pin down meter" if they're not suppressed with gun fire it will essentially make your shots not register and make shooting, the core of the game, not matter. You can circumvent this by running straight up to these enemies from their flank so you're both close enough and outside of their cover that the game won't register them as being in cover or by meleeing them. This is all done to incentivize using their command mechanics to make your squad fire on a location until they're pinned down and you can pop the enemies after that, but it really just slows everything down and make you wonder why they even bothered making it a shooter in the first place if they're purposefully trying to minimize that aspect of their game.

an alternative would have been to just make shots count and keep it all equally lethal, but make the threats bigger, make them more overwhelming so the only way you can get through is if you're both good at shooting and also are able to recognize which threats you need to hold off with your poor npc squadfire. Cutting off entire core points of how a player would expect a game like this to behave in order to put a spotlight on your experimental feature isn't good game design, you need to make them both work with each other in a mutually beneficial feedback loop for the player to enjoy.

As for the writing, maybe it was good at the time, or maybe this is what they were going for but it's not for me, after a "ha I saw a german trying to take a poop when I shot him lol" it's pretty clear what the mindset is for the writing, essentially your squad is just full of people who don't give a shit about anyone around them, the conflict they're in or what they're doing except for when it does the stupid 30 second audio monologues between missions that actually seem like they're pulled from a war documentary. Just a lot of dissonance between trying to show war as horrific only to feed to the player that "actually this is fucking awesome and hilarious dude." Not what I was looking for and not what I came for and with gameplay I'm not a fan of I just don't really recommend this. Since I got the bundle though I'll check out the other 2 and see if I like either of those better before seeing if I'll refund this, maybe that'll make this game a bonus but individually I can't recommend this game.

Gave up on the game around the 80% mark. It all got too tiresome and frustrating.

I really wanted to give this title its due for what it's attempting. I like a variety of shooters and tactical games. But the way it's implemented here is too janky to tolerate after an extended period. I understand that my accuracy isn't 'real' and is entirely dependent on flanking tactics. But there are SO many times when it looks like you should be clearly hitting an enemy at their sides, but the game still considers them 'flanked' - so nothing. Even when you're positioned correctly, it often feels like you still need to go up and hug the enemy before hits register. Other times, you can spray down 3 guys with a mag-dump.

It works... okay enough in levels out in the open. But every once in a while it wants to shove you into a building and the whole experience goes to shit. You enter a warehouse lit up with red dots and your teammates just throw themselves into a meatgrinder. The tactical view is simple but too limiting. It's never really clear what a good strategy for any level is supposed to look like, resulting in a LOT of trial and error. Sometimes you'll have to reload a checkpoint several times because everything is going FUBAR for unknown reasons, and then you'll ace it without a good understanding of what worked. Damage to the player is inconsistent - sometimes I can take a few hits from an MG before reaching cover, and sometimes it takes you out instantly.

This is a game for SOMEBODY, I'm just not sure who. I got the entire trilogy for a few dollars, so I don't feel cheated. I'm also probably going to attempt the sequels in the hopes that improvements were made. I did want to like this title, but eventually had to admit that it was mostly frustrating with me, and dragging on too long. The level towards the end where you have to take out 2 tanks with crappy Panzerfausts, assailed by MGs, with teammates being parked elsewhere (because too far and they won't shoot anything, too close they might as well be committing suicide), followed up by an awful, AWFUL warehouse rush is what ended up breaking me.

This is all on Normal difficulty. I can only imagine what BS this turns into on the two higher ones.

Graphics are good for the time. No complaints.
Story is typical Band of Brothers tropes that were common of the era in that show's wake.
No major technical issues, but the game did randomly freeze at various points for reasons unknown.

I'd say skip unless you have nostalgia for it - or have more patience and brains than I. I appreciate the effort that went into making a WW2 shooter out of the typical fare, but it doesn't gel well and is often opaque. It would have been better off as a straight-up tactics game like Full Spectrum Warrior, which came out that same era.

Good concept but very flawed execution. Out of all its many flaws, the one that stands out most is the AI: Your ability to aim and go "Full Rambo" is limited to encourage the "fire and manoeuvre" aspect of the game, and that means relying on your AI teammates to make sound strategic decisions. Spoilers: they will never. The need to be constantly told what to do and even then their effectiveness is severely limited to providing suppressing fire. Which again they may fail because they "cannot see the enemy".

The level design is almost always a box. And objectives often bug out when the NPC needed to progress the chapter gets stuck in the terrain. Not worth the hassle. Unless you have a healthy dose of Nostalgium to help you through.

its so fun

the masculine urge to do a last stand and shout You want Me! Fkin TAKE ME!

game works fine even with its age, might have to edit the ini file if you want to change fov and what not, haven't had any issues with performance. controls are a bit outdated and have to use steam input to get controller to function properly but other than that this is worth the ten dollars and tends to go on sale pretty often

piece of shit, comparing to CoD 1

I'd love to play this game and the series along with it, but for some reason I can't play audio though my monitor on any of the games. If anyone has a solution please help. I've tried my headphones, I've tried the community suggestions, and nothing works. I believe BIN Earned in Blood the sounds worked through my headphones will I switched to my monitor audio and now neither work...

Yes some mechanics are a bit rickety, and the playthrough speed is either on or off.
But I feel like I'm a kid again and am very happy to play the levels and truly enjoying it.

The best Unisoft gaem!!!!

Such a nostalgia...

What can I say; remember the times when the Ubisoft and Gearbox names actually meant a potentially good game? Even though Gearbox's games were still pretty MID, they were doing new stuff before simply turning into the "Borderlands developers" ? (same thing happened with Bungie and Destiny. It really makes me sad). This trilogy was probably Gearbox's magnum opus before they made a bunch of very bad failures and finally came up with Borderlands.

The game itself is riddled with bad mechanics and disappointing shooting. The enemies are bullet sponges on normal difficulty and every time I had to unload whole Thompson or Springfield clips into them and while they're still standing there and I take another 5 seconds to reload before finishing them off really killed any kind of immersion they were probably trying to go for here. The team mechanics are functional but painfully slow and sometimes it's such a chore to just order a team to take cover somewhere especially because you can't order you team around from the top down view which would have made a bit more sense.

Visually, it still looks as stunning as the day I played it on the Xbox 360 all those years ago when it was first released. The French countryside is gorgeous and some of the skyboxes look FANTASTIC. Sound design is also pretty good. Voice acting is of course another pivotal part of the game which really propels the whole Saving Private Ryan vibes all throughout the gameplay duration. Music is run of the mill WWII style dramatic horns section kind of music, nothing noteworthy there.

Oh and that weapon recoil every time you shoot is WILD. It's like a 5 year old is holding the guns or maybe the main character has super weak muscles because every time I shoot any kind of gun, the crosshair jumps more than a quarter of a screen upwards, preventing you from doing any particularly accurate shooting and mostly residing to the "spray and pray" method which makes the weapons seem feeble and weak. There are some super tough missions in the game and you'll probably have to reload checkpoints (no manual saves) a whole lot of times as you move further into the experience. The enemies are super accurate with their shot, as if they all got sniper training while your character feels like is moving through oil and can't hold his gun firm enough for it not to jump all over the place. It all just feels so damn painfully sluggish and unresponsive.

All in all, it's not a bad game. Ambitious in some ways but not so much in others. Serviceable would be the better word for it. This spawned 2 more sequels and I'm not personally against that at all I think these kinds of games are fun and they still hold that 2000s spirit in them every time you start playing. There's something really soothing and relaxing about being in these gorgeous environments before the Germans arrive and break all hell loose.

Oh, and there's also multiplayer? But I don't really know if there's any life in it anymore. I may be wrong I have no info on that. LAN option is available.

I'll give it a solid 6.5/10. You'll know if you're interested to play this and I think most people who do will probably enjoy the ride. Just don't expect any COD kind of speed. It's a slow and deliberate game and probably as close as you'll get to a Saving Private Ryan kind of experience this side of the first two COD and MOH games.

good but some bugs

I started play this game for first time in year 2025 and it reminds me this movie: https://youtu.be/79LGxCeTZn4

Different WW2 game, don't expect something like COD or MOH , so you cannot go as a solo hero, you will be killed. At the beggining it feels complicated to get used to the way of playing the game as it is more slow pace game, you need to stop and think best approach to attack.

I played this game first time when I was 15 years old, I played it on Dificult mode and it was a really hard challenged , I did died a lot. Now I have played the game in normal and it was more enyoable.

Sometimes allied IA can be silly as they can be killed really easily and they don't bother taking cover. But most of the time IA is good.

I still recommend everyone to play this game at least one time and feel a different WW2 FPS game, even though it is an old game .

Great game, should give it a try if the game ever goes on sale again

It's is old but if you like WW2 shooters tbh There isn't one like this game and series

Brought back some real good memories from playing this as a kid. Cant recommend purchase though, there's a glitch in the steam version of the game in chapter 6 that keeps you from finishing the mission and moving on. The Platoon Sgt gets stuck in the sidewalk in the same spot every time and there's no way to unstick him. And as he needs to enter the factory so you can speak with him to finish the mission, you cant complete the game.

Good for an old game. If you like WWII games, you are bound to enjoy this.

6.5/10 Soldiers

I beat this game series between PSP, PC (on my first Steam account) and Xbox. Great series, anyone into World War 2 history or first person shooters should get it.

Loved this Game It Still stands up today

Good game with a great tactical more realistic gameplay concept.
It just shows it's age at 20 years old, so can be clunky and is pretty rough around the edges at this point.
Still curious to check out the other games in this series.

They Would Sacrifice Everything... Except Each Other

Story 9

Inspired by the true story of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the renowned 101st Airborne Division, which fought behind German lines on D-Day, we play Sergeant Matthew Baker, a paratrooper commanding the 3rd Squad of the 3rd Platoon in Fox Company. Alongside his squad, Baker undertook numerous dangerous missions over eight days, including sabotaging German anti-aircraft guns and supply lines, escorting Army tanks, clearing roads, and capturing territory from Sainte-Mère-Église to Hill 30 in Normandy. Unlike other WW2 FPS games of the era, such as Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, which focus on fast-paced action and formulaic, iconic battles, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 offers a more personal and intimate narrative experience. The game places emphasis on squad dynamics and thoroughly develops each character with their own unique backstory and personality. This approach makes the story compelling to follow. Additionally, personal favorites like Baker's internal conflicts and responsibility to his squad, Leggett's attitude that all hard work must have a happy ending which is reversed after witnessing war's cruelty, and the duo of Allan and Garnett with their chemistry and antics add emotional depth to the game. Each character brings a unique layer of emotion to Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, making them memorable and central to the game's story.

Gameplay 8

The distinction between Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 and other WW2 FPS games of its era lies in both narrative and gameplay mechanics. The weapon system is less forgiving and less accurate, illustrating the fragility of body protection for troops and high stress levels affecting accuracy. The military term "Four F's", Find, Fix, Flank, and Finish is integral to this game's core mechanics, incorporating situation awareness system, suppression and flanking tactics to reduce enemy mobility and accuracy. Additionaly, the game features two functional teams, the fire team, equipped with the M1 Garand and M1918A2 BAR, providing overwhelming suppresive fire and the assault team, armed with the M1A1 Carbine and M1A1 Thompson, ideal for flanking after suppression. An optional tank team can replace one of the existing teams, effective at finishing off infantry or destroying enemy tanks. Multiplayer was available but discontinued by Ubisoft around 2014, however, a community still plays using the LAN feature. Although the gameplay is notable for its slower, more methodical pace and squad-based tactics with a realistic depiction of WW2 combat, there are some flaws, including extreme limitations on grenade usage, ineffectiveness of assault teams in certain situations, exaggerated bullet drop of sniper rifles, bulletproof machine gunners unless flanked and authentic mode's over-reliance on luck.

Graphics 8.5

With the help of historian Colonel John F. Antal, US Army Retired, Gearbox Software went above and beyond to enhance the game's graphics using Unreal Engine 2. They created detailed facial expressions, realistic motion capture animations and brutal gore effects. In addition, they meticulously focused on every detail and authenticity in the level design, locations, weapons, vehicles and iconic moments in the 101st Airborne Division's combat journey, such as Dead Man's Corner and Saint-Côme-du-Mont manors. This attention to detail was achieved through several visits to France and extensive research in WW2 history museums around the world. In terms of user interface, unlike most squad-based games of its era with complex and information-heavy interfaces, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 simplifies it to maintain immersion in a typical WW2 combat experience. The interface focuses more on the environment and squad-based tactics, using simple colour theory such as green for good health or allies and red for danger, suppressable targets and enemies. Sadly, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30's optimisations are outdated and even slightly worse than those of the Eurojank game Hitman: Codename 47. This is evidenced by visual glitches in the main menu where objects and textures fail to load, Baker's face clipping to the ground, characters T-posing when transitioning between cutscenes, and awkward pathfinding AI stuck on minor elevations, particularly in the Push into Carentan chapter.

Sounds 8.5

The soundtrack for Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, composed by Stephen Harwood Jr., masterfully captures the game's grounded tone and atmosphere of dread. It includes moments of reflection and sorrow, perfectly conveying the inexperienced nature of the paratroopers as they approach the battlefield. My favorite pieces include "Brothers in Arms March," "Brothers in Arms Theme," "Reunion Theme," "Night of Nights," and "End Credits." The dialogue script is commendable, but it is further enhanced by the performances of several voice actors. Troy Baker, known for his roles in The Last of Us and Batman Arkham series, brings Matthew Baker to life with exceptional emotional depth. Despite being in his first voice acting job, he conveys Matthew's emotions remarkably well. David McGarry's portrayal of Joe "Red" Hartsock is notable for his straight-to-the-point yet flexible take on humor and seriousness. Jeff Kribs's performance as Greg "Mac" Hassay is commendable, bringing a level-headed leader to life with a knack for making difficult tasks sound easy. The game's sound mixing is appreciated, despite not being as polished as modern games. The stereo setup carefully adjusts the audio based on the player's position, allowing directional cues to be heard differently depending on whether the sound is coming from the front, side, or back. This dynamic approach to sound design gives the game's audio an immersive feel.

Replayability 8

In terms of replayability, Gearbox Software has included a wealth of extras content in Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, such as behind-the-scenes developer footage, authentic documents, and war photos that enhance the game's level design and missions, the soundtrack features orchestral scores, and players can unlock cheats by completing missions on various difficulty levels. If, like me, you find the authentic mode too “broken”, you can use the profile "BAKERSDOZEN" to unlock all extras, including the deleted scene from "Nine Days Earlier," although I wish that scene hadn't been overshadowed by dialogue.While the community surrounding this game isn't as large as those for others I've reviewed, it has still produced some notable mods on ModDB. Two examples are Rendroc's WarZone, which offers a variety of mutators (gameplay modifications) to enhance realism in single-player or revive multiplayer with bots, and the Axis Player Mod, a single-player mod featuring an alternate storyline where players take on the role of a Fallschirmjäger soldier.

Overall 8.4

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 offers a compelling and intimate narrative inspired by true events, focusing on Sergeant Matthew Baker and his squad during the D-Day operations. The gameplay emphasizes realistic squad-based tactics and a slower pace, distinguishing it from other WWII shooters, although it suffers from some mechanical flaws and outdated graphics. The attention to detail in the graphics, sound design, and voice acting enhances the immersive experience, with a soundtrack that captures the game's somber tone. Overall, the game boasts solid replayability through additional content and community mods, making it a memorable entry in the WWII genre despite its imperfections.

Yes

Great story and gameplay

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 – A Childhood Experience Worth Remembering

I first played Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 in my childhood, and it left a lasting impression. Although the graphics may feel outdated today, it was completely fine back then, considering the time of its release. My first impression was that the game wasn’t too modern, but that’s part of its charm and doesn’t take away from the experience.

The game is tough, which I really enjoyed, even though the last mission took me over two hours – I was mentally and physically exhausted. And I still can’t believe I managed to pull through in my childhood, it was insanely challenging, haha! But that’s exactly what I love about the game – the challenge that forces you to focus and think tactically, which is something I truly appreciate as a fan of military strategy and realistic shooters.

Even though it’s an older title, I still enjoy how the game focuses on realistic depictions of combat and teamwork. The story and atmosphere completely sucked me in, and even though it was tough, I never turned away from the challenge it presented.

If you're a fan of military strategy and realistic shooters, you'll definitely enjoy this classic, even though it may seem a bit outdated today.

Best game of my childhood

Great game the story feels like something Speilburg would write. Gameplay is simple but fun Ive never found myself bored playing this game.

authentic world war 2 fps

Wildly inaccurate guns means the gameplay is actually quite difficult when fighting cover-to-cover. You can succeed only by finding the pre-designed flanking route and killing them which feels just scripted, rather than utilising squad actual tactics. The successor game is a lot better in this regard.
Uninstalling at the 4 hour mark half way through the story.

Masterclass. best
ww2 single player oat

Amazing mix of strategy and FPS! Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 delivers intense WWII action with a focus on teamwork and tactics. The story hits hard, and the gameplay is solid. The graphics show their age, but the experience is timeless. Highly recommended!

fun game

I remember how I used to play this game on psp long ago, good times

what the fuck grenades are butt

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played on the og xbox when i was like 5 years old. some of the animation doesnt hold up to todays standards but its still pretty fun and challenging at some points i got lots of nostalgia for this game

Rating

6/10

Intro

It's not as good as Republic Commando, but there's still enjoyment to be had in leading a squad. That's if you can withstand the imperfect shooting mechanics.

Positives

+ Good squad control.
+ Good weapon variety.
+ Overhead View mode really helps with situational awareness.

Negatives

- Iron sights block a third of your screen.
- Environments are repeated throughout the game.
- Most weapons sounds weak. With the exception of the MP40 and STG44.
- Weapon ballistics leave a lot to be desired. There's a lot of weapon sway and bullet don't always go where you're aiming.
- Sometimes teammates don't do what you think they're going to do. I've seen them run out in the open, even though I told them to take cover.
- There are no health packs or medics. The only consolation is that if you die too many times on the same checkpoint, you'll get an optional prompt that can heal you and respawn your teammates.

Things To Note

> No Ubisoft Connect DRM required.

FOV Fix: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Brothers_in_Arms:_Road_to_Hill_30#Field_of_view_.28FOV.29

A relic of a much better time.

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