History VideoGame / BrothersInArms

* ItsRainingMen: Naturally, considering these games focus on the 101st Airborne division, as well as the 82nd Airborne Division in Earned in Blood.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Die enough times at the same checkpoint, and you'll get the option to heal and replenish your ammunition before your next attempt. This is the ''only'' healing available during missions in the first two games.

* ItsRainingMen: Naturally, considering this games focuses on the 101st Airborne division.

* NaziswithGnarlyWeapons: The game's antagonists, though only the Waffen-SS play the Nazi part straight.

* It'sRainingMen: Naturally, considering this games focuses on the 101st Airborne division.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: DwightDEisenhower was supposed to cameo in a cutscene in ''Road to Hill 30''. It appears as an extra, unfortunately much of the dialogue is overlapped by commentary.

A FirstPersonShooter set in UsefulNotes/WorldWar2, developed by Creator/GearboxSoftware, focusing on using squad-tactics and strategy as opposed to more common run-and-gun gameplay style for [[FirstPersonShooter First Person Shooters]]. The main series includes Road to Hill 30, Earned in Blood, and Hell's Highway. It has spinoffs titled D-Day, DS, Art of War, N-Gage, Double Time, Hour of Heroes, and Global Front.

The first title in the series, '''Road to Hill 30''', puts you in control of Sergeant Matt Baker a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne of the US Army during the Normandy invasion. The game depicts the midnight jump before D-Day, the fighting on the way to the French city of Carentan, its capture from the Germans and the subsequent defense from the German counter-attack at Hill 30. Baker can tell his men where to take cover and who to fire at. The game uses a suppression mechanic that requires the player to use Baker's squad to suppress and flank the enemy.

'''Earned In Blood''' puts you in control of "Red" Hartsock, a Corporal in Baker's squad. It shows some of the events in the first game from Red's perspective, leading to his promotion to Sergeant after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bloody_Gulch Battle of Bloody Gulch]]. After Red's promotion, his squad clears out the remnant of the German forces from Carentan and moves towards [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte]] to give the 82nd Airborne some maps of the German defenses surrounding the area and decides to stay and help take the castle.

The third game '''Hell's Highway''' puts the player back in control of Sergeant Matt Baker during Operation Market Garden. The events depicted include the failure of the 101st to take the bridge at Son before the Germans could blow it up, the liberation of Eindhoven, and the evacuation after the failure of the Operation Market Garden. This game is notable in that it's one of the few to depict a soldier with PTSD.

The ending of the third game hinted at a sequel taking place during The Battle of the Bulge. However, poorer than predicted sales and a surprise hit for developer Gearbox with ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' have likely put the title at lower priority for development. Gearbox has announced a sequel/spin-off ''Brothers In Arms: Furious 4''. The game is a radical departure from the realistic and somber tone of the series and could best be described as ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' meets ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''. At [[Webcomic/PennyArcade PAX 2011]] Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox, confirmed that a continuation of Baker's story is in the works. No further details were made available.

* AFatherToHisMen: Sgt Mac Hassay
* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: Used to great effect in Hell's Highway when [[spoiler: Baker tells Red he is paralyzed from the waist down and will never walk again.]]

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:7]] of 13 men in Baker's squad don't survive the first eight days of the Normandy invasion.
* BigDamnHeroes: Baker returning to the squad at the end of Road to Hill 30, having just found a pair of tanks to steamroll the previously overwhelming attackers.
** Also relates to TheCavalry

* ChildSoldiers: Baker's squad suspects that Frankie lied about his age to join the Army.

* ContemplateOurNavels: Baker way too much.
** Baker's tendency to navel gaze is lampshaded by several squad members in Earned in Blood, while under fire. Paraphrased here:
---> "Back in England, we'd be playing baseball or something, not Baker! He'd always be off staring at the sky or some shit!"
* ContinuityLockout and {{Late Arrival Spoiler}}s: So much of the third game references important events like the deaths of certain characters. Without playing the first two you don't know the exact circumstances surrounding those deaths so it gets rather confusing.
* DeadPersonConversation: Baker converses with a hallucination/ghost of [[spoiler: Leggett. It may be a ghost because Leggett hints at the location of the next battle. Something a hallucination couldn't do.]]

* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:Red gets part of a finger blow off in Baupte.]]He keeps fighting anyway.

-->'''Garnett:''' What do you think killed him?
-->'''Allen:''' I don't know but it wasn't old age?

** In Road to Hill 30, Red throws his helmet in the river after [[spoiler: Desola is killed.]] In Earned in Blood, he mentions to Colonel Marshall he swam back into the river and recovered it, because he felt it his responsibility to his wife and young child to try and stay alive.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Sergeant Hassey and Leggett in Road to Hill 30.
** And in Earned in Blood, which is from Red's POV, Baker. Also, Doyle, an 82nd Airborne trooper who Red meets on D-Day, and who keeps running into him. [[spoiler: And is killed in Saint-Sauveur.]] Hell, the entire 82nd Airborne in Earned in Blood.
** Red and his 2nd Squad in Hell's Highway.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Lt Col. Cole in all three games, Lt Col. Cassidy in Earned in Blood and Lt. Col Sink in Hell's Highway. The well-known UsefulNotes/WW2 historian Col. S.L.A Marshall interviews Red about the events in Earned in Blood. UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, UsefulNotes/WW2 hero and future president, appears in a (deleted) cutscene.

** In the Road to Hill 30, the first level starts at the battle at the eponymous Hill 30 and we witness the death of Leggett whom we haven't got to know yet. After the player character is knocked out by a tank, the story flashes back to the jump over Normandy.
** Earned in Blood opens with Red telling his story thus far to an army recorder. As they mention certain conflicts, the camera fades into that situation as the gameplay begins.
** The third game, Hell's Highway, starts at about the midpoint story wise and flashes back to the glider landings at the beginning of Operation Market Garden.

* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler: Doyle is blown up by a Panzer Shell in Earned in Blood, leaving only a shitload of blood and an 82nd Airborne patch.]]
* KilledMidSentence: CurseCutShort "'''[[spoiler:Garnett]]:''' Guys, get the fu-"
* MindScrew: [[spoiler:Baker starts seeing hallucinations in Hell's Highway. They're rare, but just often enough to make the player doubt what they may be seeing in solo sections.]]
* MissionPackSequel: Earned In Blood. Pretty much the same game play as the first game but played from Red's perspective with new levels. Fans of the original enjoyed the difficulty spike however.

** In the first game Leggett, Allen and Garnett are discussing which super hero is cooler Batman or Superman when mortars start going off around you. [[spoiler: They are having a similar conversation at the beginning of TheReveal scene showing how Allen and Garnett died.]]
* NintendoHard: Earned in Blood can be this at points, especially whenever the game pits you against multiple tanks at once with little to no cover.
* NotEnoughToBury: Happens to Hartsock's friend Doyle in Earned in Blood, when he was was shot by a German tank at point blank range. The only remains Hartsock finds of him is his 82nd Airborne patch, which he is [[ContinuityNod seen wearing in Hell's Highway.]]

* RegeneratingHealth: Third game only, accomplished by representing health as luck--if too many shots are fired at you in quick succession, one will eventually hit you for an instant kill.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: A JustifiedTrope in Hell's Highway - you're a paratrooper who's deep in enemy territory. Plus, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder was not understood in modern-contexts until after the Vietnam War. And you're in UsefulNotes/WorldWar2.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Allen and Garnett. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in a Road to Hill 30 cutscene:

** [[spoiler: They even die together.]]

** Also applies on a literal level: content unlocked by winning missions on various difficulties includes the aforementioned photos of the real locations the mission maps are based on, information about the equipment used by soldiers on both sides of the war, and biographical data on the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions.

* UrbanWarfare: Constantly. Road to Hill 30 has a few "smaller" villages, and Carentan. The latter is ridiculously hard because of the tight-corners, tanks and the assault-rifle carrying Germans.
** Saint-Sauveur in Earned in Blood takes this UpToEleven. Apart from narrow corridors, machine gun nests, assault-rifle armed stormtroopers and a ridiculous amount of tanks, what could make it harder? Why, 88's of course.
** Hell's Highway has damn near every level urban warfare centered.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Allen and Garnett from Road to Hill 30. They're always seen together, but bicker with each other quite a bit.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: DwightDEisenhower was supposed to cameo in a cutscene in Road to Hill 30. It appears as an extra, unfortunately much of the dialogue is overlapped by commentary.

** '''Red:''' [[spoiler:The only married man in the entire squad get´s his ringfinger blown off.]]

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Lt Col. Cole in all three games, Lt Col. Cassidy in Earned in Blood and Lt. Col Sink in Hell's Highway. The well-known WW2 historian Col. S.L.A Marshall interviews Red about the events in Earned in Blood. DwightDEisenhower, WW2 hero and future president, appears in a (deleted) cutscene.

A FirstPersonShooter set in WorldWar2, developed by Creator/GearboxSoftware, focusing on using squad-tactics and strategy as opposed to more common run-and-gun gameplay style for [[FirstPersonShooter First Person Shooters]]. The main series includes Road to Hill 30, Earned in Blood, and Hell's Highway. It has spinoffs titled D-Day, DS, Art of War, N-Gage, Double Time, Hour of Heroes, and Global Front.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: A JustifiedTrope in Hell's Highway - you're a paratrooper who's deep in enemy territory. Plus, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder was not understood in modern-contexts until after the Vietnam War. And you're in WorldWar2.

--> '''Jasper:''' Looks like Dawson had to piss...on a...British guy? [[hottip:*: Turns out the British guy was wearing the jacket of one of their dead squadmates, and Dawson was actually going to confront the man.]]

The ending of the third game hinted at a sequel taking place during The Battle of the Bulge. However, poorer than predicted sales and a surprise hit for developer Gearbox with ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' have likely put the title at lower priority for development. Gearbox has announced a sequel/spin-off ''Brothers In Arms: Furious 4''. The game is a radical departure from the realistic and somber tone of the series and could best be described as ''InglouriousBasterds'' meets ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''. At [[Webcomic/PennyArcade PAX 2011]] Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox, confirmed that a continuation of Baker's story is in the works. No further details were made available.

A FirstPersonShooter set in WorldWar2, developed by Creator/GearboxSoftware, focusing on using squad-tactics and strategy as opposed to more common run-and-gun gameplay style for [[FirstPersonShooter First Person Shooters]]. The main series includes Road to Hill 30, Earned in Blood, and Hell's Highway. It has spinoffs titled D-Day, DS, Art of War, N-Gage, Double Time and Hour of Heroes.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Allen and Garnett. [[LampshadedHanging Lampshaded]] in a Road to Hill 30 cutscene:

!!!This series provides examples of:

RealityIsUnrealistic: In the level Objective XYZ, you're tasked with clearing a small french village of German troops with one soldier as back up. This based off an actual [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_C._Summers event]].

* ThoseTwoGuys: Allen and Garnett. [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] in a Road to Hill 30 cutscene:

* RealityIsUnrealistic: In the level Objective XYZ, you're tasked with clearing a small french village of German troops with one soldier as back up. This based off an actual [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_C._Summers event]].

A FirstPersonShooter set in WorldWar2, developed by GearboxSoftware, focusing on using squad-tactics and strategy as opposed to more common run-and-gun gameplay style for [[FirstPersonShooter First Person Shooters]]. The main series includes Road to Hill 30, Earned in Blood, and Hell's Highway. It has spinoffs titled D-Day, DS, Art of War, N-Gage, Double Time and Hour of Heroes.