History Main / BrothersInArms

* [[Music/BrothersInArms A 1985 album by Dire Straits]]

* A novel in the Literature/{{Dragonlance}} series
* [[Fanfic/BrothersInArms A Fanfic]]

* A 1985 album by Music/DireStraits

[[redirect:VideoGame/BrothersInArms]]

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.

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 ''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.

!!!This series provides examples of:
* 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.]]
* 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.
* 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
* BreakMeter: Shoot at or near an enemy repeatedly, and they'll be PinnedDown and won't be able to attack as effectively.
* ChildSoldiers: Baker's squad suspects that Frankie lied about his age to join the Army.
* ConceptArtGallery: ''The Road to Hill 30'' has a rather thick one, which also includes reproductions of historical documents related to war.
* 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.]]
* FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism: This series falls toward the realism end of the scale with authentic weaponry and squad tactics. Levels are based off of actual locations in Normandy and Holland and after action reports from battles.
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:Red gets part of a finger blow off in Baupte.]]He keeps fighting anyway.
** '''Red:''' [[spoiler:The only married man in the entire squad get´s his ringfinger blown off.]]
* GallowsHumor:
-->'''Garnett:''' What do you think killed him?
-->'''Allen:''' I don't know but it wasn't old age?
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Dawson doesn't wear a helmet since it interferes with his aim, apparently. Averted by everybody else, given the setting, unless they get shot off in combat without somehow also killing them.
** 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.
** In the third game at least, Baker starts most missions with his helmet on. It CAN be shot off, the remainder of the mission is then fought without the helmet.
* HeroicBSOD: Private First Class Kevin Leggett. [[spoiler: Having gotten two of the most popular squad members killed earlier in the game, he becomes notably traumatized. At the end, frustratedly getting no response on the radio for support in an overwhelming situation, he pulls out a pistol, jumps on top of their cover, and shoots at the enemy tanks screaming for them to shoot him.]]
* 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.
* HowWeGotHere:
** 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.
* 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.
* MoodWhiplash: Surprisingly common.
--> '''Friar:''' Paddock, you are not shooting the jeep!
--> '''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.]]
** 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.]]
* 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]].
* 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 WorldWar2.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Turns out that the reason why Baker has been hallucinating/haunted by Legget is because he ordered Leggett to tell no one how Allen and Garnett died, and the stress of keeping the secret, coupled with a critical injury on the battlefield, led Leggett to effectively [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] by shooting at an enemy tank with a pistol.]]
** [[spoiler: It is revealed in the same scene that Leggett was partly responsible for Allen's and Garnett's deaths, because he started a fight with Allen that attracted a German patrol, which is why Baker wanted Leggett to keep the circumstances of the death's a secret in the first place, for fear that the rest of the squad would kill Leggett.]]
* ThoseTwoGuys: Allen and Garnett. [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] in a Road to Hill 30 cutscene:
--> '''Baker:''' Eventually we started saying Allen'n'Garnett like it was one name.
** [[spoiler: They even die together.]]
* ShownTheirWork: Gearbox hired a US Army LT. Col. and military historian to teach them real world tactics and to help write the story with authenticity. They also fired every weapon that is in the game to accurately model them. Gearbox also took a massive road trip to France to photograph the locations of battles. Using these photos as well as old maps and photos from the war they designed the levels.
** 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.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: Averted, thanks to the aforementioned BreakMeter.
* SnipingMission: Several games in the series.
* StoryToGameplayRatio: Closer to the story end on the scale than most other WWII shooters.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Allen and Garnett from Road to Hill 30. They're always seen together, but bicker with each other quite a bit.
* WarIsHell: One of the few war games to actually depict PTSD, and in a distressing way.
* 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.
* YouAllLookFamiliar: Let's face it, it's not exactly easy to tell a lot of these characters apart at a glance, due to the identical uniforms. Their faces aren't identical, but first-timers may still be grasping to try to remember who's who.

A FirstPersonShooter set in WorldWar2, 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.

* NightmareFuel: Baker's hallucinations will not hesitate to drift into this category, especially when the mission takes place in a burning city at night, or an abandoned hospital on the outskirts of town.

** 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.]]

* TheReveal: [spoiler: Turns out that the reason why Baker has been hallucinating/haunted by Legget is because he ordered Leggett to tell no one how Allen and Garnett died, and the stress of keeping the secret, coupled with a critical injury on the battlefield, led Leggett to effectively [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] by shooting at an enemy tank with a pistol.]
** [spoiler: It is revealed in the same scene that Leggett was partly responsible for Allen's and Garnett's deaths, because he started a fight with Allen that attracted a German patrol, which is why Baker wanted Leggett to keep the circumstances of the death's a secret in the first place, for fear that the rest of the squad would kill Leggett.]

--> '''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.]]
** 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.

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

** --> '''Jasper:''' Looks like Dawson had to piss...on a...British guy?

** '''Jasper:'' Looks like Dawson had to piss...on a...British guy?

* YouAllLookFamiliar: Let's face it, it's not exactly easy to tell a lot of these characters apart at a glance, due to the identical uniforms. Their faces aren't identical, but first-timers may still be grasping to try to remember who's who.
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The story starts out with your run-of-the mill seriousness, and even a few lighthearted moments. But let's face it. As Baker's guilt and PTSD starts to get to him, he starts seeing some pretty scary stuff.[[spoiler: Like when the face of a child Baker rescued only to die in the next mission flashes on your screen, or when the battle field literally starts turning red and looking like the pits of Hell as you fight off incoming tanks.]]