Price: £39.99 Players: 1 Widescreen: Yes Dolby Digital 5.1: Yes Xbox Live-enabled: Yes Downloadable content: Yes Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood comes just eight months after Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 30, so if you've played that one then you'll know exactly what to expect. Instead of Sgt. Matt Baker, you now control Sgt. Joe "Red" Hartsock, from D-Day again but you'll meet up with Baker later, as indicated in the opening dialogue between you and Marshall, as Hartsock is inteviewed after the events and tells the story in flashback. Once again, the game begins on D-Day, June 6th, 1944, and plays onwards from there for 15 days. Following the brief tutorial that tells you the basics of moving and flanking, you'll begin the game proper, traversing across historically accurate and detailed battlefields of Normandy, using real US military tactics from World War II and, largely, relatively easy to use controls.

A lot of what was written in the previous game's review still applies here, such as the fantastic graphics, particularly the water and lighting effects, but not so for the lack of sharpness of detail as you get up close to anything that doesn't bear great importance to your mission, such as walls you need to crouch behind. However, I like the way walkthroughable green scenery that sways in the wind is put next to fixed hedges, so that gives you the impression of walking through the undergrowth next to a hedge, rather than some earlier console and PC games that just make all greenery fixed which makes your environment seem limited and unnatural. Similarly, the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound still gives you heart-stopping explosions all around, which make you jump as you head through your mission, although with gunfire that's incredible to witness aurally as you can hear bullets flying past your face. And the gameplay is superb as you're made to feel a real part of the action as you engage the Nazis and fend off their advances, either with careful planning or a fair amount of luck as you chance your arm by thinking 'Fuck it' and race across "No Man's Land"-style territories to secure a spot, despite cries of "No, Red, don't!" from your men. It gives a great feeling to have gone through that and achieved your objective... although if you get shot dead in the process, you do feel a bit of an arse.

Improvements upon ...Hill 30 begin as you're going to collect something from the ground, your compass circumference 'fills up' to indicate you're getting closer. I don't recall that happening in the last game unless I've had a brain seizure since then. It's also harder with better AI from the enemy so they're more clever at catching you out while flanking, but overall the gameplay is still too samey at times. One frustrating problem is that your men aren't always the brightest tools in the box and don't always crouch to avoid enemy fire when they should, even to the point of getting confused when there's a hedge or fence about, thus taking unnecessary punishment when you want them to stay alive and suppress the enemy while you attempt to flank them and sort them out that way - and ensure you've checked out the baddies' position via the Situational Awareness view that returns here. I also wish the gun accuracy was a lot more, well, accurate. I know it's trying to recreate the realistic feel of the gun, but this does get annoying when you aim straight and it moves up and around a bit as you fire several times. However, I do like the way, when you pause the game, it frames the moment you did so with a pseudo-cinemascope look with the options displayed on top - a nice touch. The same effect is given during the flashback scenes.

Overall, this does feel more like an expansion pack than a sequel, but the increased number of missions in this edition (42, compared to 18) do make it worth the asking price for those who enjoyed the previous title. Again, you won't get to recouperate until completing each one, although there are checkpoint stops along the way. Do a number of reloads and it'll state, "War isn't fair, but sometimes video games should be. Would you like to heal your team before reloading?" Hence, you'll get a better chance to redo that section. Completing each stage, once again, provides additional token extras relating to the time and period. For those who want to go further, this game includes a new Skirmish mode, where the missions within allow you to play alone or cooperatively as US or German squad leaders, and you can also go the usual multiplayer route via Xbox Live, controlling your guys for the world to see, as opposed to going it alone like most online multiplayer titles. Both of these modes will give you new weapons and vehicles in which to experience.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2005.