I hardly get time for games these days - sad but true. While I'd like to put a moment aside for a good gaming session, the truth is that any spare time I may accrue goes on wining and dining the fairer sex that isn't all fair. I cannot hold any grudges against Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, even though it did almost cost me a relationship. "What, you'd rather play games than see me?" It was on this day that I learnt that ears were there only to be bent and tongues were bestowed to man for one reason and one reason only - to grovel. I mean, cut me some slack; anybody would think the way she was acting that I was cheating on her. Nope. On the contrary, the only thing I cheated on was Call of Duty 4...

You see, like many of thousands of people out there, the CoD4 bug struck me with its bayonet and combat knife; I've been hooked ever since I touched it last year. While Brothers in Arms isn't a direct competitor because of its strategic elements, it's a next-gen shooter with online capabilities so it's bound to get compared. Welcome to Hell's Highway.

The first thing that struck me about Brothers in Arms is that it actually has quite a gripping storyline, and while the dialogue isn't always Shakespearean, you can get a good feel for the bags of emotion that have been emptied into the plot. Like most war games these days, the protagonist has friends and there are poignant deaths, along with all the other cliché World War story elements that make these kind of games heavy on the heart - but then with Brothers in Arms there's a little bit more and it's quite hard to describe. It's the garnish that makes your favourite food even more satisfying, with your favourite drink and dessert to follow - the characters are more believable and realistic, while the back stories have a haunting degree of fluency to them; you really feel like you can relate to what is happening, even if you didn't have a grandparent who was in the war. The beautiful transition between the cut scenes and gameplay is nicely done and adds even more to the whole atmosphere - but what is the actual game like? I have avoided that question so far for a reason.

There are a lot of things that Brothers in Arms does right. For one, commanding a squad is easy as it has been in other Ubisoft titles like Rainbow Six: Vegas. Point and shout, then the AI does a reasonable job of moving your men into position and sometimes blown to pieces - but most of the time they're fine and the actual commanding is a doddle with the controller. You don't have a health bar, which makes the game feel a bit more realistic; the screen goes red when you take fire and if you don't get to cover then you'll be mown down in a spray of bullets. If you've played Brothers in Arms before then you'll know that it's largely about surpassing the enemy - and Hell's Highway is no different. Enemies have little pie charts above their head and by firing at them, getting closer to them, and shooting at their cover, their allies, and just about anything else, you'll put the fear of god into them and they'll be surpassed. Fill the pie and you can practically walk up to them without them firing back - then it's up to you whether or not you put them out of their misery. My advice is to do so.

Ducking for cover also plays a large part in Brothers in Arms; you'll do your fair share of sheltering behind all sorts of objects, but in Hells Highway a lot of the cover is destructible, so it's your own silly fault if the wooden crates or sandbags that you foolishly chose to dodge bullets behind breaks down, leaving you exposed to enemy fire. However, when the boot is on the other foot and your enemy chooses some bad cover, say hello to cover-penetrating pain!

Somewhere in the midst of describing the high points of Hell's Highway, I forgot to mention that the above is the gameplay. If you wash cars for a living then you'll have a set pattern on how you go about doing it. Maybe you'll start with the windscreen and then do the doors. Similarly, there comes a point in Hell's Highway where it all gets a little predictable and dull, and after the tutorial comes to an end you're really not left with much variety. Cover, suppress, command, cover, suppress and command some more - there really aren't many ways you can eat a three course meal. With predictability comes stability; you come to expect the inevitable and then you start to get bored. I hope my relationship doesn't suffer from the same fate, because when you get bored you find faults, and when you find faults you become irritated, and when you become irritated, you break up - with the game, that is.

The massively destructible environments advertised on the reverse side of the box aren't really all that destructible. Sure, most of the cover you take shelter behind can be blown apart but the buildings remain intact other than their glass windows, useless semi-destroyed vehicles can't be destroyed any further and, if you become bored like I did, you'll find dozens of things that can't be destroyed, as opposed to those things that can. However, like my parents always say, "Dexter, you have to remain positive" and at risk of getting told off I'm going to say a couple more positive things. The soundtrack is well done, running through the heart wrenching cut scenes and into the actual gameplay, creating more emotion cleverly with sound effects, voice acting and everything else that falls into the audio department. Further enhancing the whole emotional aspect, graphically some of the effects are amazing; slow motion deaths combined with some of the aforementioned really do make you feel quite powerless in the grand scheme of things and I think that's the angle that Gearbox were going for. However, it's like Grandma Partypooper always says: "You can't have shepherd's pie without enduring some gristly meat" - and she's right. Some graphics aren't up to par with last year's CoD 4, such as the smoke from guns, which is quite cartoony and really doesn't work - and the way that your men move is a bit too robotic and far from fluid. Gristle? Pass the tissue.

I've deliberately left the multiplayer until last - and not because it's the best feature. Unfortunately, if there's one area where Hell's Highway will be compared to CoD4 then this is it - and there's simply no comparison to be made. Basic multiplayer with only a few maps that are worth playing on and only a couple basic modes - with simple host options. Up to twenty players can brawl online but the servers don't seem up to much and the lag is too much to take at times. CoD 4 is what shooters hope to be online and Hell's Highway isn't a successful candidate in that goliath's shadow.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway takes a good shot at the next-gen FPS with its squad commanding elements and its unique surpassing system - but like any relationship after the honeymoon period is over you start to spot faults. The tedium of what makes this game good in the first place makes it somewhat of a charlatan, but so long as routine and predictability is the in-thing, you'll be okay. It's a good game to keep you occupied until something better comes along; perhaps Hell's Highway is the passage, the tunnel, Hades' route to our the next FPS saviour, Call of Duty: World at War...

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).