Ubisoft and Gameloft bring World War II to the Nintendo DS in Brothers In Arms DS, the latest in Gearbox's long-running series. While a few glaring issues keep it from reaching glorified victory, gamers will enjoy blasting Nazis on the go.
Although the game doesn't rely on the team-controlling aspect, Brothers In Arms DS has plenty of action. Players work their way through three campaigns in single-player, spreading out from North Africa all the way back through Normandy. They battle alongside computer-controlled soldiers, following them while contributing to the war effort.
The game looks stupendous, thanks to huge draw distances. Players don't get thrown into a pixilated battlefield, but rather a living, breathing world. The animation and camera views can be slightly jerky at times, but never enough to throw off its virtual exquisiteness. The sound seems a bit limited, with random pieces of dialogue from fellow and enemy soldiers and a few pieces of music, but everything still works quite well.
Gameplay feels a little hodge-podge, but can be fine once a player takes time to adjust to it. The soldier moves with the help of the D-pad, while the stylus controls aiming and direction. The left shoulder button fires the selected weapon, while other functions on the touch-screen reload the current weapon, zoom in for a more accurate view or switch to another weapon. Players can also lob (and aim) grenades by touching an icon at the corner of the screen and then drawing it out for throwing distance -- a nice touch, to be sure. Aiming works well, although occasions pop up where the camera view inexplicably moves away from a highlighted target. In addition, vehicular control needed some tweaks. Riding around in a tank works. Driving a Jeep, on the other hand, takes some getting used to.
Brothers In Arms DS' single-player campaigns will take many hours to beat. Past that, it supports multiplayer for up to four players in Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch games. Unfortunately, it lacks single cartridge download play, forcing players to track down friends with copies of the game. No Wi-Fi Connection support further lessens the product's appeal.
Still, Brothers In Arms could have been a hell of a lot worse. The development team could've tried to program a poorly conceived strategy game or, worse yet, gone all out with a botched first-person shooter like Peter Jackson's King Kong. Happily, Gameloft and Ubisoft took the more intelligent path, creating a game with a few flaws and enough potential to overcome them. It'd be great to see a sequel with better multiplayer options and a few more single-player goodies. These war stories deserve a read – and definitely an expansion.
Final Score: 7 (out of 10)
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