Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood™

But got it again for GOG! Excellent and very realistic tactical 1st person wargame that actually attempts to recreate the viciousness and quick thought under pressure that was required by US soldiers taking on smart Germans in WW2. You have a bunch of guys of varying roles which you need to place in good positions when attacking or defending, often while under heavy fire. If you ever watched band of Brothers and wanted a small idea of what it must be like under that, get this game. Few other 1st person war games have matched it and the AI is very good as well. "PLACE YOUR FIRE OVER THERE!"

Earned in Blood continues the story of HH and retells some of the events from the character of Red. EiB is basically the 1.5 of the series; more weapons, better AI, better balance but similar maps, locations and mechanics. If you enjoy the original, EiB is a fine title, otherwise, play the first game!

EiB is far from perfect. But the intensity of the close combat fights has rarely been done like this. The weapons are a bit too inaccurate, although it was supposed to simulate how the soldiers were tired in the horrible conditions they were living ; this can be frustrating at times because you have to be close to the enemy to be effective. And, as stated by others, your friendly camarades are sometimes too dumb to use effective tactics and flank the enemy (which is the core tactic of the game). I've completed this game years ago (as the previous one, which was really good too), and I agree, the game was quiet frustrating at times and, as a leader of the squad, I had to protect them more than using them, and that was frustrating, going as a lone wolf. But do not let that detracts you from all the good this game brings on the table. I just got it on gog to play with the WarZone mod, which makes the game much more intense (more enemies and allies, and more accurate weapons), and to play with a friend in coop. I've played a few minutes in the first mission, this is the same intensity again. I've recently tried Post Scriptum, it's impressive, but it can't match the intensity, in close combat situation, of Brothers in Arms EiB. Red Orchestra is another option. When it came out, the game was another tactical shooter with friendly AI, among some great ones (SWAT 4, Rainbow Six Ravenshield, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Codemasters OFP...) . Nowadays, there aren't many options (Arma3 and...?). So if you want the full close combat experience in WW2 context, with a tactical aspect by leading a team, Brothers in Arms and Eearned in Blood are the way to go (don't know about 3rd one, it seems quiet a disappointment, reading the reviews). Red orchestra is another option, but in in different way (bigger maps, no story). And EiB has the coop feature. Servers are down but, as it uses LAN, you can get it work, to play with a friend, with something like Hamachi.

Played this game on normal difficulty until mission 5 with a lot of rage attacks. In the first awful tank mission I gave up and started again on easy difficulty with fewer rage attacks. The tank mission remains awful, too. The atmosphere of the game is awesome. Graphics and sound system are very nice. The game has cool weather effects like rain, well done vegetation or ruined cities environment. It really feels like fighting in a war as an infanteryman. I know, it is hard to survive, but what the hell is the target group of this difficulty level? People who only play one game in life? The problem is the bad ai of friendly soldiers in the game, which is dull. On the one hand side you have to babysit them each meter and on the other hand side you have to overrun hundreds of german forces. Often they ignore orders and run directly into enemy fire and then the whole mission success is gone and you have to repeat the same mission. You can't save when you want and the savepoints are very seldom and set unfair. At last the game was hard on easy, but I couldn't stop playing to the end titles. I wouldn't try it on harder difficulty. I found the battle overview map horrible without being able to have an overview. Excellent game with an amazing atmosphere, dull a.i., gore difficulty and bad savepoints.