This article contains spoilers for the entire Brothers in Arms franchise.

I wasn’t sick of World War II shooters when they fell by the wayside and were replaced by the modern military FPS. Whilst interim titles such as Red Orchestra and Sniper Elite have excelled in their niches they didn’t feature the story-led set pieces I loved.

My tastes have changed in the last five years and my cynicism towards the “dudebro” attitude of some modern shooters has extended back to WWII shooters. Even in the classic Call of Duty and Medal of Honor titles there is a dissonance between the realities of war and the tropes of video games. Classical music and historical themes only go so far when the bulk of the gameplay sticks to “kill everyone speaking German”. World War II games never got an ‘anti-shooter’ like Spec Ops: The Line to be contrasted with. There was no game to point to and say “that one is special and different, It’s critical of the genre. Hey, why don’t you try to be special and different too?”

There was, however, a series that lay somewhere between a typical shooter and an ‘anti-shooter’: Brothers in Arms.

A cynical view of Brothers in Arms is that it’s just Band of Brothers: The Game. It followed the same division through the same battles and even used the same actor for one character. This Gearbox Software franchise attempted to add the same level of authenticity to its characters and largely succeeded. Whilst the first two games are both strong shooters it was the third installment , Hell’s Highway, released in 2008, that tried to further develop the series with more complex motifs and stands out from other shooters released at that time.

The core theme of Hell’s Highway is guilt. The protagonist of the series, Matt Baker, feels responsible for the men lost under his command in the previous games and the cracks are starting to show. Three deaths and the lies he told to cover up their causes particularly haunt him.

Whilst on patrol during the Normandy invasions an argument between two characters, Leggett and Allen, catches the attention of a German patrol. A brief and brutal struggle sees Allen and another squadmate, Garnett, both dead whilst Leggett stood frozen in fear throughout. Discovering this situation Baker attempts to conceal the facts and orders Leggett not to mention it to anyone. Unable to live with the knowledge that he just stood there whilst his friends died Leggett later exposes himself to German gunfire screaming “just fucking take me”.

The deaths of these three men and Legget in particular are a constant talking point throughout the story and there are attempts to bring this into the gameplay. Through Baker’s perspective an ever growing imprint of Leggett can be found throughout the game. What begins with a pair of round glasses on a table or floating by in a river escalates into flashbacks and ‘ghosts’ cropping up in a firefight.

The subtlety with which this is carried out varies, some elements are tied into cutscenes whilst others have to be precisely sought out. One particular sighting, a screaming ghost of Legget in a graveyard, only appears in the middle of a raging gunfight and is easily missed and another requires you to peer through a hole in the walls of an abandoned hospital.

As the game progresses Baker starts shooting at German soldiers that aren’t there and in one episode finds himself facing execution at Leggett’s hands. Revealing the truth of the deaths to his men does little to clear his conscience and severely damages his relationship with some of them. Baker’s superiors also seem to take little interest in his mental state and given the precarious situation of Operation Market Garden they order him to continue his command regardless. The execution of this psychological trauma is engaging but the finale is problematic.

The closing moments of Hell’s Highway do nothing to allay concerns for Baker’s metal health, nor is his guilt absolved. His final confrontation with Leggett’s ‘ghost’ sees Baker taunted about his failings and alludes to coming misfortune with the question: “You’ve made it through hell, how do you feel about snow?”

A likely reference to the Battle of the Bulge, an upcoming major campaign of the war that the 101 Airborne participated in, a clear lead in for a sequel but a line that doesn’t fit with the imagery of guilt so far. The Bulge campaign is over two months away, either this hallucination is a something closer to an omniscient spirit tormenting Baker or the developers crudely adapted this plot element to tease the next game. The latter is the simplest answer but Hell’s Highway also features spiritual motifs that lend a tantalizing weight to the idea of supernatural undercurrents in the game.

The only encounter with organized religion in Hell’s Highway is when you demolish a church steeple and shoot through rows of pews to root out Nazis. Mentions of ‘God’ are usually affixed to an expletive and the higher power in world of Baker’s squad is dark and ambiguous one. However, with a title like Hell’s Highway there is is an invitation to play with these themes and the game does so by taking the player into increasingly darker levels. The verdant Dutch countryside gives way to shadowed urban environments and then into dark levels full of burning buildings and vehicles.

The soldiers in Baker’s squad need something to blame for those lost in battle and they pick Baker’s pistol as the target. This innocuous Colt is wielded by Baker throughout the game but in previous entries is handled by six characters, including Leggett, who die holding it or shortly after. Baker eventually throws away this pistol in hopes of putting the rumours to rest. His soldiers buy into this apparent curse to varying extents but all of them talk about it with religious language. It cleverly parallels the “no atheists in foxholes” aphorism, belief in a higher power isn’t just about hope and salvation, it comes hand in hand with belief in curses and damnation too. Baker himself wrestles with faith in his own way. When his close friend Hartsock is near death Baker silently pleads with a higher power that he isn’t sure exists.

“I’ve demanded over and over: ‘take me and not them’, but no one is listening… You can’t have him.”

Whilst I praise Gearbox’s attempts to add this depth to the story of Hell’s Highway much of it is relegated to cutscenes and doesn’t cross over into gameplay and this is where the game falls short of being an ‘anti-shooter’. When Baker makes mistakes like shooting at hallucinated enemies or leading his men blindly into a perfect ambush spot, these are made outside the player’s control and none of the NPCs ever disobey the player despite their vocal lack of trust in Baker. The good guys vs bad guys theme of most WWII entertainment also means that there’s no Spec Ops: The Line twists to be had and no questions asked about the violence. The Germans in Hell’s Highway are typical ‘baddies’ throughout and the only one that surrenders in the entire game is swiftly executed.

At a glance the violence in Hell’s Highway is typical of a modern shooter but after extended play a dissonance emerges. It’s actually a cover-based shooter with a puzzle game wrapped in it. Surviving each fight requires correctly timing suppression and movement orders combined with picking enemies off at a distance. There’s no close up throat-cutting or executions and being near an enemy usually results in a game over as there’s no melee button to mash. This aversion to close combat is a result of the game’s attempt to be authentic and not an aversion to revelling in gore. Hell’s Highway features a default-enabled ‘action cam’ that zooms in on headshots and explosions to show you in slow-motion the shattered skulls and dismembered limbs of German soldiers. This not only shows off the then new Unreal Engine 3 in an exciting way but it acts as a reward for accurate shooting and grenade-throwing. Unfortunately this sits at odds to the tone of the rest of the game and is a killing blow to the idea that Hell’s Highway might actually be an ‘anti-shooter’.

Whilst it’s since been surpassed in acclaim and ability by the likes of Bioshock: Infinite and Spec Ops: The Line subjects like guilt, psychological trauma and religion were not tackled by shooters before Hell’s Highway. The game’s approach to these themes isn’t always subtle and at times borders on cheap jump-scare horror. However, it’s commendable to see these themes developed over three games and to have the “dudebro” camaraderie of other shooters adapted into something more earnest and human. With a sequel planned there’s hope we’ll see further exploration of complex themes within the context of combat.