Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway — Squad-Based WWII Action on Windows

Squad-Based WWII Action Arrives on Windows

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway™ is a squad-based WWII shooter developed by Gearbox Software and published by Ubisoft, released for Windows in 2008. The official store description states that it brings the critically acclaimed squad-based WWII shooter into the next generation of gaming with amazing graphics and sound, new cutting-edge gameplay features and a totally redesigned online component. As an Action genre title, it places you in command of a squad during World War II, though the specific controls for issuing orders are not detailed in the available description.

The squad-based mechanics are central to the gameplay, with the description highlighting the next generation of gaming through amazing graphics and sound, new cutting-edge gameplay features, and a totally redesigned online component. These elements suggest that squad command and online play are integral, but the exact actions—such as how to issue orders, manage ammunition, or use cover—are not specified in the official store description. The game is available on Windows, and its developer and publisher are Gearbox Software and Ubisoft, respectively.

Orders from HQ: Patrol, Spot, Ambush

In Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, the campaign casts you as an enlisted man inside the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden, and that framing shapes the moment-to-moment loop. You get orders from HQ, go on patrol, spot the enemy and set up a devastating ambush. The game states that, for the first time, finding the enemy before they find you is part of the challenge. So the sequence is not simply advance and shoot; it is receive the order, move out on patrol, locate hostile positions before they locate you, then convert that information into an ambush.

Once contact is yours to dictate, Hell's Highway hands you combined arms teams, and the profile states players can use or command machine gun crews, bazooka crews, and mortar crews. Machine gun crews create intense fire; bazooka crews destroy buildings and tanks; mortar crews pound the enemy from a distance. The game also says players can choose to use their squad for a tactically elegant flanking maneuver or charge in with guns blazing, so the HQ-to-patrol-to-spot-to-ambush chain feeds directly into selecting which attached unit and which approach you commit to the fight.

Commanding Combined Arms Teams

As squad leader, you can use or command combined arms teams: machine gun crews create intense fire, bazooka crews destroy buildings and tanks, and mortar crews pound the enemy from a distance. Characters also interact with each other like true brothers in arms, trading ammunition, helping wounded allies and civilians, and working together to man team-operated weapons. These options give you a choice: use your squad to execute a tactically elegant flanking maneuver or charge in with guns blazing.

Because destructible cover is modeled using real physical properties and behaviors, weapons will damage, dent, scorch and destroy it. To manage that, keep your men moving and choose your cover wisely while your machine gun, bazooka, and mortar crews apply their fire. Finding the enemy before they find you is part of the challenge, so combining the teams’ strengths with careful movement helps you survive the fight.

Cover That Dents, Scorches and Breaks

Cover in Hell's Highway is modeled using real physical properties and behaviors, so it will damage, dent, scorch and break under fire. The same rules apply to the environment: bazooka crews destroy buildings and tanks, while mortar crews pound the enemy from a distance. Because machine gun crews create intense fire and weapons interact with modeled materials, a position that holds early can be chewed apart later. The practical response is to keep your men moving and choose cover wisely rather than treating any single wall or wreck as permanent shelter.

Combined arms teams give you ways to apply that damage deliberately: machine gun crews create intense fire, bazooka crews destroy buildings and tanks, and mortar crews pound the enemy from a distance. You can use or command these teams, then choose to use your squad to execute a tactically elegant flanking maneuver or charge in with guns blazing. The interaction is direct: bazookas and mortars can remove the cover and structures that protect defenders, while machine gun fire pins them, so movement and cover selection are continuous decisions rather than one-time setup.

Brothers Who Trade Ammo and Help the Wounded

In Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, your squadmates are not silent extras. The game's characters "interact with the player and each other like true brothers in arms, trading ammunition, helping wounded allies and civilians, working together to man team-operated weapons, and more." That means a rifleman low on rounds can receive a resupply from a comrade, and a fallen soldier can be dragged to safety by a nearby ally. Team-operated weapons require more than one man to function, so you and your brothers must coordinate to bring those guns into the fight. These actions happen during play, not in cutscenes, tying directly to finding the enemy before they find you.

The men around you are built to look, talk, move, and think with incredible realism. As squad leader, you interact with and get to know your brothers; each has his own distinct personality, unique story and background, and grows throughout the game. That growth is framed as a rich cinematic experience, so the same soldier who trades ammo with you later reveals more of his personal history. The challenge of finding the enemy before they find you runs alongside these relationships, because the characters who help wounded allies and civilians are the same ones you rely on to spot threats and keep the squad alive.

Multiplayer: Dozens Per Side with Squad Play

The official store description confirms that Hell's Highway was built with a totally redesigned online component, and that the game supports multiplayer battles. In place of a small skirmish format, the promotional text describes fighting major multiplayer battles with dozens of players on each side. The same multiplayer experience is said to combine all the intensity and accessibility of Deathmatch with the squad-based gameplay that helped make Brothers In Arms famous, so the online mode layers squads on top of a free-for-all style base rather than replacing it with something else.

Squad-based play is the element the description says carried over from the single-player Brothers In Arms design into the online component. The documented rule is straightforward: Deathmatch supplies the intensity and accessibility, while the squad system gives each side structure during large battles. With dozens of players on each side, those squads operate inside a fight far larger than the intimate fireteams of the campaign, yet the store text frames this as a deliberate combination rather than a separate mode. Beyond this description, the sources list gameplay controls, combat, progression and movement as unknowns, so the exact orders and actions available online are not documented here.

First published Oct 16, 2026.