Even amateur history buffs will recoil at the mention of Operation Market Garden.

Set during the final stages of the European World War II theatre, thousands of Allied paratroopers were dropped in Holland with the intention of securing a series of river crossings over the Rhine which would allow Allied forces to lead an attack on the industrial heartland of Germany. Unfortunately, an under-equipped British airborne division was unable to secure a strategic crossing at Arnhem, and despite heroic and often fierce combat, suffered immense losses and failed to liberate Holland before the winter of 1944.

Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway is the third title in the series to be released by Gearbox Software, and follows the post-D-Day experiences of Matt Baker and his squad of men from the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division) as they struggle to capture Eindhoven whilst heavy fighting ensues across a narrow corridor entitled "Hell's Highway".

Previous Brothers in Arms titles have set themselves apart from the Call of Duty-styled focus on individual achievement by encouraging the player to utilise the strength of his team to progress, thus adding a thought-provoking layer of realism to what would otherwise just be another FPS. We're pleased to report that Hell's Highway expands on this theme, and after playing through the initial landing and grouping phase of Operation Market Garden, we had the chance to see some of the enhancements Gearbox has come up with.

Firstly - out with the old and in with the new. The Unreal Engine 3.0 now powers your Brothers in Arms experience, allowing detail and animation on a par with the very top-end titles available today. From the opening scenes, it's clear the developers have emphasised the importance of your squad simply by the amount of time they've spent animating them. Facial expressions are realistic, the dialogue compelling - in many places you could be forgiven for thinking you're watching an episode of Band of Brothers.

You immediately form an affinity with your squad, and therefore when combat arrives you're in the right frame of mind to lead them into battle.

Upon leaving your glider and establishing a secure point, your team splits up and takes on several tasks. You and your squad are responsible for meeting a Dutch Resistance member in a nearby farmhouse who has information on local troop movements, so without delay you set off and attempt to find him.

You need to take careful consideration here as to exactly how your squad will behave in the situation you're faced with. You alone are responsible for their decisions, which ultimately affects your own fate, so to control movement around the battlefield there are several options available to you based on the degree of danger ahead. You can, for example, order your machine gunner to set up at any point around you. This is done by locating suitable terrain (preferably under cover of a low wall or series of sandbags) pointing your cross-hair at the location, and (in the Xbox 360 version we played) holding down the left trigger. Your men then confirm this action and scurry away to set up their weapons whilst you scan the horizon ahead for signs of the enemy.

Once the enemy is located, another swift movement of your cross-hair followed by another trigger squeeze will order your men to open fire - at this point you can join in and fire off a few rounds of your own, as you can't expect your troops to pick off every single German in the area without your assistance.

The enemy isn't simply a kind of shooting gallery for you to hone your skills with however. They have their own quite advanced set of AI skills and are perfectly capable of finding their own cover and utilizing it to a high degree of success. Fortunately you can see when this is happening - once you engage with an enemy, a meter like a pie-chart appears above their head showing their current cover status. Those that are pinned down by your suppressive fire have a completely grey circle and are therefore unwilling or unable to duck out of cover and engage with you. If you fail to keep up the suppressive fire, this circle will gradually diminish until it becomes red, which indicates the enemy is willing and able to directly attack you, usually resulting in your own mad dash for cover.

There are really two sides to this coin - you are not only much more capable of ascertaining your enemies intent, but you can also verify that you've killed him. This is something that you'll either love or hate - personally I quite liked the realism brought by Call of Duty where it wasn't always obvious that you'd picked someone off.

This isn't Call of Duty though, let's be honest. Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway eschews mad solo dashes at the enemy, it's not the type of game you can expect to win simply because you're a crack shot. Sure, you can probably get away with a bit of this early on in the game, but from what we saw, unless you're prepared to master squad tactics you're not going to get very far. Nothing demonstrates this like the strategic overview map, which looks a bit like something a General might use to command armies. You can see members of your squad, their positions, the position of the enemy and whatever obstacles are between you, so there's no need for guesswork followed by slaughter if you're prepared to be patient and launch a controlled offensive.

The quality graphics coupled with realistic duck-and-cover animations (quite similar to Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 in application) and deformable/collapsible terrain makes for a hugely satisfying WWII title. We loved blasting away crates to reveal the enemy, and as a nice touch you can even be rewarded with a slow-motion cinematic scene if you perform a particularly spectacular headshot or grenade strike.

Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway is expected to be released late August for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. We've grabbed the destructible cover trailer too, so you can see how this affects gameplay.

If you're looking for a WWII FPS that requires some cerebral ability then you'll want to follow the progress on this one.