They don’t make ’em like they used to!
For those who might have not played these titles I’ll try to sum them up and maybe explain the link.
Brothers In Arms was an FPS, but your primary weapon wasn’t your actual weapon, it was two 4-man fireteams. You played a squad leader in the 502nd Airborne jumping in right before D-Day, who initially of course gets scattered away from his troops, but over the course of the first couple of levels regroups with enough men to form a 9-man unit.
Under your command is a support/suppression fireteam usually armed with with likes of Garands and a BAR, you would typically assign them to suppress any enemies. You also had an assault squad, generally toting the likes of Carbines, M3 Grease and Thompsons.
Because the German troops you encounter are always dug in deep behind hard cover and barely expose themselves they were hard to hit, and the weapon sway when ADS was pretty extreme and exaggerated. Essentially it was impossible to win any fight by fire from a distance, you must find suitable flanking routes and get quite close in order to land any hits.
Theoretically the original Call of Duty game had a slightly similar basis in that it featured AI enemies who would be suppressed by sufficient fires and in some levels the general gameplay loop was that you as a trooper would be the one sent in to finish off the fight. There was a lot more hero Hollywood style action in that title however and you didn’t command anyone else.
Progressing the tactical puzzle game even further, Full Spectrum Warrior was neither a 1st or 3rd person shooter. You controlled 2 x 4 man fireteams in a fictional Middle Eastern urban setting.
You never actually pulled any rifle triggers yourself, you purely directed each fireteam where to direct their arc of fire and where to manoeuvre. There were limited ‘powers’ available in the form of heavy fire from your SAWs and a small number of 40mm M203 rounds which could allow you to eliminate an enemy without fixing and flanking them.
In later levels of both games, you would occasionally gain limited control over heavy firepower in the form of a Sherman or Bradley, negating the basic gameplay loop entirely.
Leave a Reply