First Look Video at 'Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes'
posted December 2nd, 2008 2:11 AM CST by arn in $9.99, Action, Featured, Shooter, iPhone games, iPod touch gamesGameloft released the much anticipated Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes [App Store] and it's an impressive effort.
We've played the game briefly — enough to give you this gameplay video embedded here.
The game is a 3rd person shooter where you control your character across various missions. As a relatively free-walking 3rd person shooter, the game controls had to be flexible enough to allow you to move across the terrain and also view/aim. The default system Gameloft came up with is a virtual directional pad on the bottom left, which controls your walking direction. Meanwhile, your other hand can swipe anywhere on the screen to change your view direction. Together, the controls take some getting used to be seem to be relatively effective but feels somewhat imprecise. (Note, there are alternative controls which we haven't explored yet)
Shooting involves hitting a button on the bottom right, and special weapons (such as grenades) appear on the top right. Gameloft has added a number of additional special modes/features that keep things interesting. Grenade throwing and gun reloading uses the tilt control on the iPhone. Sniping and bazookas can be aimed more precisely with pinch gestures.
We haven't gotten that far in the game, so it's hard to judge value/difficulty. As you can see in the video, the first level seems relatively easy without much risk of getting killed by simple gunfire (though a tank takes me out towards the end). Gameplay is linear with specific checkpoints that must be reached. We'll try to provide a more thorough review in the near future.
App Store Link: Brothers in Arms, $9.99
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 am
looks amazing so far, controls look a little hard tho.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:34 am
i bought the game and it keeps crashing before i can play it. i have asphalt 4 and it constantly crashes as well (both from gameloft). i have an iphone and am not sure if there is a setting somewhere to prevent this. does anyone have any suggestions. i want to play this game i payed 10$ for!!!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:42 am
Graphically it looks amazing, and after the 20-30 minutes it seems it would take to get the controls down it looks like it would be a lot of fun.
I'm just a little amazed at how good the graphics are in this game. I mean, this is looking as good as PSOne graphics and for a platform that also features phone and internet functionality it is just amazing.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
try
1) reboot phone
2) delete and reinstall
3) delete, redownload from app store (they won't charge you twice)
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:48 am
this game looks awesome (for a shooter on the iPhone that is) must… hold…back…from…getting….it…till….more…reviews….come…….OUT!!!
AHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Damn Apple and their App store. It's like crack!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:51 am
that looks absolutley amazing - this looks really much more like a FPS, easier to control then cube!
As I do not doubt that future iphones will get hardware updates, I wonder how far gaming on the iphone will be pushed in the future. Why would I buy a PSP, DS or anything else?
It will only get better!
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 am
Wow. They should totally charge more for that game, if anything just to help "restore the balance" to the broken pricing model.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 am
c-note,
Reboot your iPhone. It often happens after having installed apps, especially big ones.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 am
mine just leaves a blank screen! help me! im on old ipod touch if thats a factor.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:10 am
ahhhhhhh……rebooting your phone. just got it about 2 weeks ago and am still figuring it out. it works perfectly now. thanks guys.
this game really doesn't look like it would be on a "phone". i am still surprised how good these games are.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:12 am
Mine leaves a blank screen too, well, actually it's an empty springboard to be exact, which looks blank for those who haven't jailbroken.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 am
yeah im jailbroken too so does that make it crash?
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:29 am
No, not necessarily, because I've read on another forum of a jailbroken user playing the game just fine.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:30 am
well im rebooting now so ill see if it works
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:31 am
rebooting doesnt work. ill send a complaint to gameloft.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:37 am
Won't work for me either… JB 2.2
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:54 am
Wow
with these graphics
some REALLY REALLY GOOD RPG's can come through for the ipodT's and iphones
c'mon SQUARE-ENIX, when is your turn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:59 am
I'm JB'ed and it works flawlessly.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:00 am
I'm JB'ed and it works flawlessly. (2.2 without baseband update)
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:01 am
baseband update?
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:09 am
Those with broken jailbroken iPhone shouldn't send a complaint to Gameloft because in a way they're only meant for non-JB iPhones. It's not their responsibility AT ALL.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:38 am
Well, it does not work on my iPhone 2G (jailbreak). But it does on my iPod Touch 2G. So its probably a memory issue …
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:54 am
Has it the same framerate issues than the DS version or does it run smooth? I mean: "REALLY smooth"
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 am
this is the exact game I played on the DS
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:23 am
Wow it's exactly the same of the ngage version, same levels same position of enemies.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 am
Looks great. Shame it doesn't look like the trailer, though (not that it ever could!)
Albee, do you think that's a good or bad point thing? (Genuine question)
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 am
Attention all Jailbreakers!
The crash on launch (blank screen) can be fixed by removing winterboard!
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:14 am
i found how to fix!!!!!!!@#@#!
try to open the game 5 to 7 time in a row and it will start to work eventually
hahah!!!!!!!!! enjoy
realy work!
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 am
Removing Winterboard?
Naturally. The only reason I jailbreak is now the only reason I can't play the only game I'm interested in playing. Figures.
I wonder if the cracked .ipa would work? I mean, I DO own the game …
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:50 am
Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes not work 2.2 but working for 2.1 !
please, fix now !
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:01 am
@mavis:
LOL, that's ironic.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 am
If it dosent start try synchronising with itunes, sometimes that work, it did for me.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 am
I have a JB ipod too
was really pissed when i found out i had to remove winterboard for the majority of my apps to work. Terrible. Luckily, i've managed to inform HHG, and i'm sure now many people will see what a waste of time JB'ing their ipod is now. Sigh.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:34 am
I have solved the crash problem. Just turn on 'safe mode' from sbsettings and than run the game. No need to remove any program. Enjoy
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 am
fix for 2.1 crashing!!
try to open the game 5 to 7 time in a row and it will start to work eventually
it work!!!
tnx 2 me
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Runs fine on my 2.2 (non-JB
)
I don't think you can fault Gameloft for the game not running on hacked phones
The controls take some getting used to, I still haven't decided what I like best. Only problem with a game like this is that your thumbs end up covering a lot of the screen, but I guess that's inevitable with the iphone.
The graphics are pretty good (i guess there's a limit to how much we can expect from the iPhone) and the production value is excellent - great soundtrack, voice and sound-FX.
The biggest problem is learning to control your character, I hope it get's better with practice
But looking at what similar games cost for other platforms $9.99 is a steal, even though in iPhone-land it "seems" expensive.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 am
One annoyance: it seems to play the intro video everytime you start the game, with no possibility to skip past it
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:18 am
yeah i got it to work by opening it several times. Pretty good game with excellent graphics. Better graphics than the DS version which pushed the limits of the DS. But it's the same game so if you didnt like the DS version missions and gameplay, dont buy.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:18 am
I'm impressed. Looks better than the DS game could. Resolution + smooth textures. Controls look like a reasonable compromise and seem to work well for this type of game. Sure you can't "circle strafe" but that is such an artificial video game thing anyway.
Now, what needs to happen is MAJOR SUCCESS for this game so that high-quality full-featured games are attracted to the platform. It's great to have the value games, but the potential for an wider variety of games is certainly there on this platform. RPGs especially. Square Enix has to impressed by the storage (un)limitations alone, right? ;o)
++ against complaining to a developer that a game doesn't work on a jailbroken iPhone. (or even thinking about it)
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 am
Oh man, I said I would be cutting my ipihone game budgets but my god does this game look fun
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Hi guys,
read something about the 1g IPT being less capable with games than iPhones and the 2g IPT. Anyone with an original IPT having problems with this game, before I buy it?
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
"One annoyance: it seems to play the intro video everytime you start the game, with no possibility to skip past it"
Peter321, most game intro videos (include the one for BIA) behave just like regular iPhone videos, which means you can always tap to access control, then hit "Done" to skip them.
I've played through the first two missions so far, and though the d-pad control is a bit dodgy (which I'm sure could be fixed in an update), I am very, very impressed.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:58 am
The more I play it, the more I like it. Need more strategy and tactical FPS!
Then my life would be complete. Heeeee!
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Wow, that's really fun! I'm impressed, because it looked difficult to control at first, but 5 minutes in the first mission and you're a pro!
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 am
Its awesome, works great on JB Ipod 1G, it havent crashed at all.
Nice games from Gameloft.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Wow, that is really cool! I need a towel just from watching the gameplay footage. What I can't get over is the audio… lots of chatter… gunfire… things blowing up! Nice!!!!
Just need a car chase and some boobies.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I already finished it!!
It runs really smoothly, no noticeable slowdowns or anything.
The automatic checkpoint system is pretty awesome. If I had a call or otherwise had to quit the app during gameplay I could pretty much continue where I left off.
At first the controls were quite hard to handle, but I got use to them pretty quickly. The jeep handling is still hard IMO.
If they added multiplayer with the next update I'd be willing to pay another 8 euros for it! Or more.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
attention all jailbreakers- follow the advice of a few posts above me, enable safe mode from sbsettings!!! it works i literally just fixed my blank screen problem, don't write gameloft
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
@Peter
I don't see 'enable safe mode' anywhere in sbsettings. Could you maybe be more precise?
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Holy crap, this is a cellphone game??? Amazing stuff!!
But yeah, someone please release a good role-playing game! Port KOTOR and FF VII at least!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
@Peter
Ah i found it already :') I'ts under the 'power' button.
It finaly works now!
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
How do you enable safe mode from SBSettings?
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I don't see safe mode anywhere…
It's not under the Power button.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
This is almost identical to the N-gage game that i bought 3 months ago for my old Nokia n95
http://www.ngage.com/ngi/ngage/web/g0/en/showroom/gamedetail.269.GameDetail.html#
Its good but not great and I am a little disappointed as it feels like i bought the same game twice!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
If you can't run the game just keep trying. Press the game icon and when you see the blank spingboard press the "escape" button. Repeat as many times as you have to. I do it three times. It's likely a bug that they'll address in a future update and has nothing to do with JBs or not.
As far as the game is concerned the controls are awful. It's a shame but not really gameloft's fault..
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Argg its ugly and the controls looks terrible!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I also can't see the safe button anywhere in SBsettings, help me find it please
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Itouch if tried 10 times and it didnt work.
iAmSeven: in the bossprefs its not under the power button but if you swipe accros the top bar on your iPhone you get a shortcut menu that slides in from the top. (i think this is standard?) Then you have press the power button and then you get all these options:
cancel
reboot
Power Off
Lock
Safe Mode
press the last one
What also works is setting it in airplane mode!
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:07 pm
M1ch3l apparently it is a memory issue for you, that's why its working in safe mode and airplane mode (obviously you are talking about an iphone). Check your background apps that run in the memory and if you can turn some off. Maybe you have a video wallpaper background or something that animates and uses memory (assuming you are JB), or even a heavy application that you installed recently and runs in the backgroung without showing. The iphone's baseband is memory consuming enough on its own.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
A lot of people here seem to "knock" GAMELOFT - not quite sure why? I have bought their games on my SONY K800 and they have always been pretty good. I have bought a games from them on IPOD TOUCH and they have also been good quality (guitar rock tour, midnight bowling, RF09). I think this new game looks spot on and just need to justify the 5.99 hit to my credit card!
Re - Jailbroken phones/Ipods, if you are going to hack hardware, that is (unfortunately) the price you pay. Should developers take this into account? In my opinion - no.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Gameloft is actually one of the best in mobile platforms. I have played many of their games in many cell phones and their releases are always top notch. I don't think anybody "knocks' them off.
However, like I said the controls in this game suck although it's not really their fault. The touchscreen cannot allow decent controls for games like this.
Jailbroken devices have no problem running apps (including this one) just like un-jailbroken ones do. Something else is always the problem.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
This game rocks!! But um… I'm at a point where it's telling me to throw a smoke grenade and when I do… nothing happens. lol. It's on the Normandy "Cloud Dagger" mission. Anyone else having this problem or have any tips on getting past it?
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Mini-Review:
Graphics: 8/10 pretty detailed best for the Iphone/Touch so far (though it's really the only 3rd person shooter..lol), little slowdown, good clean textures easily something on par with 1st generation PSone. I can't wait to see what developers will have on the Iphone/Touch. (Bring on Hero of Sparta). Though I wish the beggining trailer did not show graphics from the PC and Console versions, makes the actual game look anemic by comparison.
Sound: 8/10 very solid, good sound effects very clear voices, awesome with Headphones).
Control: 7/10 I gave this a 7 as it's not as precise as having an analog stick. But, good enough for now. Love that you can choose multiple control types. The game does have Auto Aim/lock enabled.
Gameplay: 8/10 Very solid, great for a handheld that isn't a PSP or DS.
It is standard 3rd person shooter, but as it's the only one of it's kind so far it definitely raises my expectations.
Replay: 3/10 SHort, but for $10 can't expect too much. Ad-hoc Mulitplayer wouldn've been nice.
Overall: 8/10 It's a great game, for my book definitely worth the $10, though my guess is that it'll drop to 7.99 in a week or so..lol
I say support Gameloft, so they can continue to produce more Iphone/Touch games.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
This game is just a port of a game ported to the ds from mobile. Although it has a graphical upgrade, it's really the same game. Is it really worth praising gameloft for porting a several year old game to a new platform?
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
About the Whining Jailbreakers….
I can't tell you how many People slammed my game, TouchSports Tennis - DAILY - on iTunes!!! They delete and re-post their *One Star * review saying the game is unstable and wont work.
Telling me to fix the problem!!!! UUGGH!!!! More importantly telling potential customers my game is unstable….
This has taken a game that should be at 4.5 stars down to 3. I remember when I used to mod my system and if I configured something wrong… it was MY FAULT.
They expect me to figure out their problem. It's great to hear the smart ones out there saying to Stop Blaming Developers for innovation!
Thx!
HHG
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 pm
HHG, How comes there are TONS of games that bigger than yours work perfectly OK on a JB iPhone? I never put any comment in iTune but just can't resist to respond. Just drop your BS excuse and fix the memory bugs in your game!
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:05 am
@ninjaw
Your remark is only partially valid:
1. In the ideal world, yes, a game should just work on al platforms, as many appear to (complexities of the specific games unspecified),
but
2. If one has a jailbroken phone and the app works on non-jail broken phones/IPT, the app store is NOT the place to lodge the complaint. It should be taken up in a forum/blog, perhaps like this one, where developers and other saavy iphone users can perhaps decipher the problem. Thus, it is the dev's freedom to legitimately express a complaint over this broken app store rating process.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:33 am
@all the whiny developers
im sorry, but its safe to say about 50% of iphone uses have jailbroken their units. Its not good practice to insult half of your potential market for getting the most out of their phone. get your goddamn software working or shut the hell up and take the criticism. thats all there is to it. A smart developer will test it on both factory set, and jailbroken.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 am
@kam
Problem is, on a non-JB phone the developer knows what limits he has to stay withing - that's the beauty of Apples closed 1-app at a time system (whether you like it or not).
On a JB phone, the users can run all sorts of background tasks that can take up both memory and CPU cycles. This will be independent from user to user, so the developer has no chance of testing whether his app will work in this environment or not - it may work for one JB setup, but not for another that has more or larger background tasks running.
Apple has provided a pretty consistent platform for developers (although the Ipod Touch V2 is faster) and I think that is one of the reason we already have 10.000 apps in an app store that is less than 5 months old.
If you JB - you are on your own, you are using an unsupported configuration.
If I chip my car and the engine breaks down because of it, I can't complain to the dealer and demand a replacement
As SalsaMD says, issues with JB phones should be discussed in forums and blogs, not in the iTunes rating system, it is unfair to the developer and will ultimately be bad for the end-user as well (if the game gets an unfair bad rating, sales will sufffer and the developer makes less money to develop new and better games).
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Please consider that if you are going to accept review copies it might be better to have an actual review. Saying a game has good graphics and decent controls isn't a review, that's a casual observation. If developers can only give out 50 copies and then you offer only the most superficial information they'll probably go elsewhere, and the readers will follow (or maybe leave first).
I'm not saying this to be a jerk, it just seems like maybe you don't realize that you have the opportunity of a lead but lack content other than a simple aggregation of games. It won't take long for someone to flesh out a site with better content though.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
so, a JB 2.2 (without basebade updatE) iphone 3g would run this game? only jailbroke it to unlock my phone (my simcard is old, it needs jailbreaking to activate) but not using winterboard or anything (don't even have cydia/installer).
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:09 am
@Jon - fwiw, we didn't accept a review copy. and we didn't call this a review.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 am
@ Ahiru Normally, yes it will.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
@ Kam
I'm sorry, but it is safe to say that you are an utter arse if you think 50% of people have Jail broken their phones. It is far more likely to be 0.05% than it is 50%.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
if you have a jailbroken iPhone and stuff does not work don't complain to the developers, complain to the person who made the hacked firmware. It's their fault!
It's like buying a Mac and putting Windows on it. Then getting mad at Apple when the system crashes and gets viruses.
I could not wait any more for a review and I downloaded the game. Can't wait to try it out. i'll post my review in a bit.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Are they playing that game using the iphone's regular speakers, or is it connected to an external speaker system? It sounds too loud on video to be from the iphone alone.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:06 am
First Impressions,
Buy this game!
1) How is this game running on my phone?
2)The controls are hard, try each schemes and see what one you like the best. I have tried the first two and like the first one better. I am currently trying number 3. I like it too.
3)i grabbed a rocket launcher, shot a sniper then a tank. I did this on my iPhone.
4)Graphics are not bad for a phone, i did not buy my iPhone for amazing game graphics so i don't really care. You can see they at least tried with them.
5)overall if you like shooter games just get it, don't wait any more. It's a shooter on the iPhone. think about it!
i'll post a full review after i play it some more.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:06 am
no problems with crashing yet.
after i installed the app and restarted my phone it has run fine
December 4th, 2008 at 1:08 am
someone was saying that they keep crashing..is this after the brother of arms logo comes up, and a black screen pops up? well to adress this problem i open the game up multiple times until a white gameloft screen comes up assuring me its about to play properly.
love it.
This game so far has astounded me, im amazed that the iphone can play such briliant games. Id be willing to pay a heap for this game im loving it.!!!
you wont regret this game. even the quotes are good.
December 4th, 2008 at 3:22 am
i got my response from gameloft and they said that it is a problem that they are aware of and will fix in the next update out next week. So its not just JB'd iphones that have the problems. Doesnt matter tho cuz i got it fixed already.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I've having the same grenade problem to Clark M, on both Cloud Dagger of the Nomandy campaign and the Tutorial missions. The problem appears to be that I can't work out how to throw the thing further than a few feet in front of me. Am I being completely stupid?
December 4th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Jailbroken 2.2 iPhone 2G
As said before by somebody else, if you try several times to get the game to start it will eventually work.
Nice game for a phone.
December 4th, 2008 at 11:35 am
In answer to my own question, yes, I am being stupid. Just discovered that tipping the phone forward enables you to aim the grenade further forward.
December 5th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Can this game be played on any other platforms other than Apple? like Blackberry?
December 5th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Fix for Brothers In Arms (Jailbroken iPhone 3G) read the article, http://tr.im/1xen
December 26th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I have contemplated this game since it was released, read a thousand articles and posts, and bought probably 50 other games while trying to decide if I wanted to drop a whopping $10 bucks for it.
Man this is a killer game!
My comparison is probably poor, but I'll put it out there anyway. Before I sold my PSP, I bought Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six:Las Vegas. In my humble opinion BIA kicks the crap out of that game! They are fairly similar, but the graphics on Rainbow seemed choppy comp. to BIA. Character models in BIA look convincingly like Nazi military and the scenery and backdrops feel right. In that Clancy game, movements, actions and surroundings just felt so.. Confined, or blocky not sure the actual word to describe it. I played that Clancy game for maybe a total of 3 hours (I didn't beat it, too blasé). I payed $39.99 for that piece of elephant dung!!
I am happy paying the $10 for BIA, and I can already tell I'll beat the ham and replay it, and get more than 3hrs of enjoyment from it. Not to say I enjoyed the Vegas game, those 3 hrs were spent getting frustrated, not what a game should be like.
Thanks Gameloft, next time you guys release a game that interests me I will not be so apprehensive to push that "buy now" button.
December 26th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Man that "beat the ham" comment came off weird didn't it? Apple; quit toying with my words while I type on my phone!!!!!!
Corrected word is game. Lol
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I just bought it, can't wait to go home, lie on my bed, and play this bad boy!