Brothers in Arms: The Road to Hill 30
by Stephen Harwood Jr.
Brothers in Arms: The Road to Hill 30
Buy online
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 Composed by Stephen Harwood Jr.
Sumthing Else Records (2008)
Rating:
7/10
13
Full Tracks. Used by Permission
“STEPHEN HARWOOD JR.'s
reverential score has helped to set the budding franchise apart and has
helped to ensure there is room and demand for sequels.”
On Harwood's Road
Review by Christopher Coleman
" One day I saw him
online and decided to say, 'hi.' It was one of those things where I
might just as easily have chosen to keep to myself, leaving a full
Buddy List alone to get into whatever else was on my agenda that day.
But boy, am I glad I decided to ask what was up with him! Turns out
that what was up was that he was looking for a composer for BIA:RTH30
and was willing to give me a shot. What a break!!!"
In 2005, the World War II shooter was a somewhat of a crossroads. The
franchise that put this sub-genre on the map, MEDAL OF HONOR, had started
to wane a bit. After four solid efforts along with their associated
expansion packs, the series moved to the Pacific theatre but found
gaming-seas much rougher than the terrains of Western Europe. Gamers had
migrated over to the CALL OF DUTY franchise, which, by 2004, had
established itself as the new king of this brand of first-person-shooter
games. Then, just as CALL OF DUTY was beginning its own momentary
down-turn, along came a upstart franchise from developers, GEARBOX. Their
first entry of the fledgling franchise, BROTHERS IN ARMS: ROAD TO HILL 30,
would bring an even higher reality to the World War II gaming experience.
Squad based tactics and missions with even greater historical accuracy
were the foundations of this new shooter. The BROTHERS IN ARMS series
would make its initial landing on the platform-beaches of the PC,
Playstation 2, and Xbox, going head to head with the two established
powers in the industry and helming the pen and baton for the first wave
was composer STEPHEN HARWOOD, JR.
What made the MEDAL OF HONOR and CALL OF DUTY games so successful, at
least in part, were their engaging storylines, the attention to detail,
and the segments of history that were gleaned while playing through.
BROTHERS IN ARMS: ROAD TO HILL 30 also makes the most of these same
elements but pushes them to a new level; thereby, making room for itself
in a sub-genre of gaming that was well monopolized by the other two
franchises. What also separated the game from its competition was its
intuitive command system. This was no "run and gun" gameplay. Specific
squad based tactics had to be employed to successfully accomplish each
mission - giving the player a much different experience than they may have
been used to. In the first-game of this franchise, gamers get to play
missions of the 502nd Parachute Infantry from the famed 101st Airborne
Division in all of its heroically brutal and unsanitized reality. The feel
of the game is essentially a game-version of the popular mini-series, BAND
OF BROTHERS. Although we follow the victories and defeats of a different
regiment, the emotional experience and gritty reality is similar...even
down to the musical experience.
For BROTHERS IN ARMS: ROAD TO HILL 30, STEPHEN HARWOOD, JR. had a unique
challenge; one more akin to scoring for television or film. It is also
another distinguishing element for the BROTHERS IN ARMS franchise - the
absence of gameplay music. In other words, as you are actually engaged in
fighting, maneuvering your squads etc. there is no music. The only music
found in the game is at the menu, cutscenes and credits. The omission of
music during gameplay was done intentionally to make the experience,
again, truer to the actual experience. It worked well enough for the film,
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and the mini-series, BAND OF BROTHERS, which are both
significant influences on the game. The influence of those two seminal
projects also carries over to STEPHEN HARWOOD JR.'s score.
BROTHERS IN ARMS: ROAD TO HILL 30 is easily divided up into two types of
cues. We have a good number of emotional, melodic cues that keep the tone
of the game in a the reverential vein, but to balance this out, we have
cues representing the action/suspense elements of the game's cutscenes.
While, the overall experience is somewhat abbreviated, the included tracks
in Sumthin' Else Digital's release is satisfying enough.
To start, Harwood delivers a strong title march. With its inspirational
melody played honorably by brass, the undergirding of snare drums, it
could be said that this title theme is a bit formulaic...but then upon
completing the track you are quite satisfied that there is genuine
inspiration here. Track 1 "Brothers in Arms March" builds, layer upon
layer, until it reaches a triumphant conclusion. We get this same
inspirational theme playing over the main menu of the game...placing in a
somewhat more sober mindset than the average gamer might be accustomed to.
While this title theme serves as the backbone of the score, HARWOOD offers
several other hymn-like pieces that could easily stand on their own as
title themes: "Brothers In Arms Theme" (2), "Reunion Theme" (5) and
"Purple Heart Lane" (7) all capture and convey a somewhat nostalgic
feeling honor, patriotism and heroism; sometimes quoting elements of
structure and tone from the title theme and at others employing with
varying degrees of alteration. The overall effect gives Harwood's
score a specific "oneness" without becoming too tiresome.
Of course, following the story of Sergeant Matt Baker and his compatriots
of the 101st Airborne through their campaign in France means there is
plenty of action, suspense and drama. The cutscenes go the extra-mile to
capture such feeling and HARWOOD's score is more than just a small part of
this. STEPHEN HARWOOD JR. relies heavily on runs of brass and strings.
Timpanis roll and snares flare, putting the listener seemingly right in
harms way. In "Night of Nights" (4) we hear an interesting element carried
into most of the other action/suspense pieces - a specific motif knocked
out on glockenspiel or some close cousin. It is a surprisingly bright bit
of instrumentation amidst the pounding and blaring. At the most intense
moments of the score, we hear full symphonic accents that feel like
orchestral mortar blasts. While "Objective XYZ" (6) begins darkly and
brooding it also moves into an action evoking memories of the late-great
Jerry Goldsmith. It is in the climactic action pieces that the ROAD TO
HILL 30 starts to feel like some of its FPS cousins from the MEDAL OF
HONOR series.
BROTHERS IN ARMS: ROAD TO HILL 30 has been able to carve out a place for
itself in gamedom. Fans, critics, and even WWII Veterans have all
expressed their approval. The choice to leave all of the in-game action
unscored did relieve the developers of having to work in a complex
adaptive-music system, but, at the same time, allowed them to focus upon
crafting some very specific music for the cutscenes. STEPHEN HARWOOD JR.'s
reverential score has helped to set the budding franchise apart and has
helped to ensure there is room and demand for sequels.
