Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood Demo Released

***** MINI REVIEW *****

For the record, this is a direct sequal to BiA, so it's Brothers in Arms 2.

GAMEPLAY
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Prepare for more of the same, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you enjoyed the original. In fact, it's EXACTLY the same. Same gameplay mechanics, same controls, same everything. I noticed that the situational awareness mode is actually way more useful in this game, but it may be because of the layout of this demo level. The level features some intense urban combat, with squads of enemies positioned on rooftops, behind rubble...all over the place. I won't say any more to avoid spoilers.

GRAPHICS
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Same. The textures are a little more sharp and varied, and with AF turned to 8x or 16x, they look pretty great (but they still are plagued by the console port-ish texture resolution, even if they are higher-res for PC). The bloom lighting in this game is more underwhelming than the bloom in the original for some reason, although it is made a bit more prominent since there is much, much more architecture on screen. Character faces are higher-poly, but not by much. It makes for better emotion.

SOUND
******
Also exactly the same, but the gun sounds are a bit more "boomy" and intimidatiing. Same bad voice acting.

AI
***
Wow, they really improved here. These are some smart motherfuckers. My two squads were completely outnumbered from all directions, but they were doing their best at suppressing. I tried to make my way around to flank a group of suppressed bad guys very slowly, and I saw them poke out their heads to look at me. Once they were good and suppressed, I got up to charge them, and ONE OF THEM stood up and took me out, even though they were under HEAVY fire. I didn't know it was possible for computer characters to have balls, but this guy had some big ones. The AI in general is vastly improved, and I can;t wait to see some of the awesome firefights that'll be in the main game.

PRESENTATION
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Same great presentation as the first, even the demo has a really good intro that alludes to the plane intro in the first BiA...I found this very cool and it made me happy. Also, you can choose to play either Single Player or "Skirmish" mode, which is a co-op mode for either LAN or online...also cool.

CONCLUSION
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Judging from the demo, this seems like more of a glorified expansion than a full-blown sequel. I enjoyed the demo, it was VERY difficult (which I like), but I'm still not sure if I'll buy it. I wish you could rent PC games :(

8/10