"What is it that makes a great soldier? His brain or his heart?" -- Sergeant Matt Baker

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway finds Sergeant Baker and his howling commandos paratrooping into the Netherlands just in time for Operation Market Garden. One of the bloodiest and most sustained offensives in World War II has been painstakingly recreated with Unreal Engine 3, showcasing what happened when then-modern destructive technology met quaint Old World architecture. The result of that destruction is cover -- precious, precious cover -- and the excellent cover system is what gives the game its "brain."

A typical Brothers in Arms dysfunctional therapy session

Meanwhile, Hell's Highway wears its "heart" on its sleeve (or more accurately, it's painted on the sides of helmets) with its ambitious and increasingly melodramatic cut scenes. The game tries to cram the human drama of several fine WWII movies and the HBO series "Band of Brothers" into cinematics that are too short and poorly written and voiced to be impactful, while still feeling interminably long and eye-rollingly maudlin. It's frustrating to see the ambition in the plot while also being painfully aware of how far short it falls. Aside from a few obvious clich?s (all I need say is "small boy" and "young, pretty woman," and most of you will know exactly how those stories unfold), the story is unrelentingly depressing. These men have to go from horrific battle to horrific battle, and in between they suffer endless psychological and emotional torments torn from the most lurid pages of "True Stories of WWII" and the most schlocky films ever made. This is remarkable because the fast-paced excitement of the missions feels totally at odds with the laconic, molasses-thick pace of the main plotline.

Thankfully, aside from a few "Why am I alone with only a pistol?"-style missions, the story doesn't have much to do with the missions. Characters never refer to the previous mission; instead, the game offers written documentation about the battle and each mission map has two areas that can be reconned for more info. That's where you get your sense of place and purpose -- the cut scenes can thus be skipped and your head can concentrate on jumping from cover to cover, and on cramming the business end of an M1 Garand down Hitler's throat.

Silly Germans, hiding behind a wooden fence!

Part 3-D first-person shooter, part tactical game, Hell's Highway is like a less stealthy and more chaotic Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. The missions are puzzle-like and usually have you rooting out entrenched German positions or defending. Sergeant Baker carries three guns (usually a machine gun, pistol and M1 rifle, but he can pick up heavy weapons like bazookas and any German weapon he finds) and can command up to three units: a Base-of-Fire team, an Assault team and a Bazooka team.

Shhh! No shooting in the library.

The main purpose of ordering troops around is to suppress the enemy. They're under cover too, and while you're trying to pick them off, they're picking you off. So you need to order your men to fire at enemy positions until the red circle around them turns grey, signaling that enemy fire has been suppressed. Then you use cover -- ranging from flimsy wooden crates and fences to metal tank barriers, ruined cars, sandbags and embankments -- to get into a flanking position to blow them away. You drop into cover with L1 and order your troops around with L2. This can be awkward, as it's very easy to order troops to the wrong side of cover or even straight down the enemy's throat by accident.

Another flaw with the game is that the red circle accompanies enemy troops. This means you're never ambushed. Conversely, the artificial intelligence seems to become aware of you the second you aim your sights at an enemy. So even if you flank them and are hidden while they're totally exposed, they will turn and shoot before you can mow them down.

Can't get the guys behind the cover? Get rid of the cover!

While the AI is good at reacting and finding new cover when flanked, it can get confused if you get too far behind it. I've seen German soldiers running in place or staying crouched as if invisible as I walked right up to them. There also seems to be a lack of AI for tanks, which will just wait for you to run up and place a sticky bomb on them (probably why tanks don't feature much in the game). On the other hand, you get to drive a tank in two missions, and blowing down churches and cover is a lot of fun.

World War II movies use slow motion to convey the horror of war; Hell's Highway uses it to celebrate a gruesome kill. If you get a perfect headshot, the action slows down and you can see the soldier's helmet go flying as his skull ruptures. Grenades are even more fun, as you might see several German soldiers flying through the air, their heads separating from their bodies, torsos blown in half and limbs laying several feet away. You can also shoot through wooden cover and sandbags, and some towers and walls can come crumbling down.

Getting blown away in slow motion

Up to 20 brothers and sisters can join in simple multiplayer, with two teams vying to raise or lower flags. I can see the game being fun and rewarding with squads of friends working together, though lack of coordination is a problem. And at the time of this writing, online performance is unstable, with games crashing and freezing up on occasion.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is an ambitious title that corrects too few of the flaws in the earlier games in the series (the aforementioned squad control problems remain, as do graphical flaws such as clipping issues). The developers should also realize the limitations of telling this story in a game: Losing a comrade, failing a mission, and fighting in a war do evoke a psychological cost, but slow-motion dismemberment and consistently thrilling combat undermine the seriousness of the main character's painful descent into posttraumatic stress disorder. That's a lot to ask of a videogame -- and of a gamer, too.

What is it that makes a great game? Brain -- that's my answer. Let the movies and miniseries handle the heart.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game purchased by the reviewer.