If the devil’s in the details, then Gearbox’s latest installment in its World War II squad shooter series is locked in something of a Faustian struggle, dealing out moments of diabolic slipshoddery and precisely realised minutiae in equal measure. It is, for example, a nice touch that your squad speak in hushed tones when approaching a German position undetected. That they are incapable of counting, on the other hand, is something of a frustration. “Cease fire! Cease fire! They’re dead,” a squadmate will trumpet repeatedly, quite in contradiction of the evidence still issuing loudly from numerous German guns. But if such frequent lapses are usually the hallmark of a game that has only just stumbled, shellshocked out of beta, then Hell’s Highway just about manages to be more than the sum of its dubious trivia; Gearbox has made a game that is stable and complete, if hugely unrefined in places, with an under-exploited but sound core of tactical squad combat.

Like BIA games before it, Hell’s Highway gives the player control of multiple teams of men from a first-person perspective. A single click toggles the selection between teams which can then be directed to move to a particular point, where they take cover automatically, or target particular enemies. However, opponents are reticent to present parts of their bodies to be shot off, and the inaccuracy of your weapons means that Hell’s
Highway demands a more methodical approach than most shooters, forcing you to make use of cover and lay down suppressing fire in order to flank entrenched foes.

When given the opportunity, the necessity to outmanoeuvre enemies facilitates the game’s most thrilling battles, as you race the Germans to take up the most advantageous positions on a battlefield. However, Hell’s Highway doesn’t quite commit itself enough to this mechanic, and all too often the opportunity to exploit the environment tactically is limited, particularly in the squad-less missions, relegating combat to a tiring exchange of long-distance shots. These solo outings are largely ill-advised: having made compromises in gunplay so as to encourage players to use the squad, the game is not really equipped to handle the kind of frenetic action seen in brasher military shooters like Call Of Duty.

Lengthy cutscenes punctuate the action, and while these are often well shot, neither the writing nor the acting is really up to the task of emulating Band Of Brothers, and try as it might, the game never convinces you to care much about Sgt Matt Baker or the men under his command. Perhaps part of the problem is that the dour, reverent tone of the cutscenes is gleefully contradicted elsewhere in the game, particularly in the depiction of German soldiers, with their nasal screeching and tendency to explode in slow motion. Gearbox appears unsure whether war is hell or a hell of a laugh.

Nonetheless, Hell’s Highway manages to produce some tightly orchestrated problems and, occasionally, offers you neat tactical solutions whose predetermination is well disguised. Its limp attempt at run-and-gun diversions, the failure of its stolid narrative and the litany of minor flaws don’t quite manage to bring down its central tactical gameplay, but nor is it ambitious enough to truly redeem the whole venture.

6/10