Brothers in Arms DS review
After that seemed to be forever, Brothers in Arms DS finally assaulted our retail shelves. To date, this game is the only World War II-themed shooter in the Nintendo handheld. Unlike the harsh realities of war shown to us by history in films and textbooks, Brothers in Arms DS is something that you’ll strive to forget.
Yes, this version of the WWII shooter is a technical feat. The visuals are particularly impressive: the levels are sizeable for a handheld game, the animation of characters is well done, the details are pretty good, and the explosions look spectacular. The sound is awesome too—satisfying gunshots, explosions, and instructions from your comrades.
Things start to get ugly when you begin playing.
The controls, for one, are gnarly. Moving around is quite familiar if you’ve played Metroid Prime Hunters (also for the DS). You move by pressing the directional pad and look around by dragging the stylus around the touch screen. Shooting is done by pressing the L button. The reticule turns red when aimed at an enemy, so all you have to do is shoot at anything that moves. Unfortunately, the aiming can be an exercise in frustration because stylus controls aren’t very responsive.
On paper, many of the touch screen controls are easy. To change weapons, click on the equipped rifle and a drop-down list shows the other hardware that you’re carrying. What makes matters complicated is when bullets are flying from all directions and the simplest of tasks become a chore because of a split-second delay in your commands.
Unlike the console versions of Brothers in Arms, this one lacks the strategic elements that made the franchise popular. The missions themselves are linear because of the level design and scripted events, but can be derailed at times because of vague in-game cues that are displayed only through small text on the upper screen. You can miss these cues easily. If you deviate from the linear sequence of events, you suffer an unnecessary death.
The campaigns are quite short. Sure, you’ll unlock higher difficulties as you progress, but who would want to plow through a linear mission again, especially when finishing one at the default difficulty is already a pain thanks to the clunky controls?
As you may have noticed in multiplayer games in general, it’s no fun if there are only two of you, and three isn’t really fair. That means it takes at least four to set up a remotely-entertaining multiplayer session. Multiplayer may add some replay value to Brothers in Arms DS, but the price is just too high: each of the four needs their own copy of the game.
Playing Brothers in Arms DS is like eating spaghetti with a spoon. You know that there’s some good stuff in there, but you just can’t get to it. In the end, you’ll grow tired of trying because there’s not a lot of merit to it anyway, so it’s better that you don’t take a crack at in the first place.
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