For someone who is tired of WWII games, has never played a Brothers in Arms game before and already has too much to play on the iPad, I sure did scoop up Brothers in Arms 2 really quick when it hit $1. I picked it up because it was a brand name, the screen shots were pretty and it was $1.
I haven’t played too much of it, but so far, it’s made a good impression with me.
Right off the bat, it’s clear to see that the production values are really high for an iPad game. The graphics look great on an iPad; dare I say almost Playstation 2 quality. Like most games in the genre, it’s heavy on scripted events, which seem well done. It animates fairly smoothly and only gets jittery during really crazy moments. The music is well produced orchestral score, which may be kind of cliche at this point. The game also features a plot, cut scenes and voice acting. They’re not necessarily the best well done plot, cut scenes and voice acting, but they’re above average on the platform.
The controls are alright, but there’s room for improvement. The left thumb stick works alright as long as you can hold your thumb in that specific spot. I think this game would have benefited from a ‘floating’ d-pad. There is a lot of aim-assist to compensate for any imprecision, but the buttons for shooting and aiming are also located in a comfortable spot to place my thumb. I’ll get into weird situations where I want to aim, but my thumb will hit the fire button instead. This means you have to move your thumb above all the buttons to aim, then adjust your grip so you can hit the fire button. The biggest offense the game makes is that the game requires you to shake the iPad when a soldier gets too close. For one, the iPad is not an easy or fun device to shake. Two, my iPad has a book style case, and the cover flaps around awkwardly as I shake it.
Any fumbling with the controls hasn’t really hampered my progress through the game so far. I dropped the difficulty down to the easiest setting, which has made the game more of a shooting gallery than a tactical experience. For my purposes of gaming on the go, I’m alright with that.
I can see myself playing this in short spurts when I get the urge to shoot dudes on the go. At the price I got it at a few weeks ago, I think it’s worth it. At regular price though, how much you’ll enjoy this game may depend heavily on how much you like WWII. Unless it goes on sale again, you might want to try the free version and judge for yourself, which you can grab here (iTunes).
In Third Person 