  |
Releases: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Review
Posted by happyhip on Monday, January 14 @ 21:05:26 CST
Contributed by CoBoDeRa
|
|
 |
|
|
Game: Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault
Publisher: EA
Medal Of Honor Homepage
Introduction:
 Medal of honor is a first person shooter, set during the Second World War. Powered by the infamous quake 3 engine, the game drops the player into a Pandemonium of Adrenaline-pumping gun battles and heart-pounding combat. Apparently, the Medal of Honor franchise first appeared on the consoles where it made a lot of people take notice. I myself am a strictly PC gamer and the Medal of Honor universe is new to me. I’m just glad to see a Console-to-PC move instead of the other way around (cough* Halo *cough). Medal of honor: Allied Assault (MOHAA) must be the hardest game I ever reviewed. Almost every part of the game is both brilliant and terrible. Impossible? Read on, ye of little faith.
Gameplay:
What 2015 tried to do is make a somewhat realistic shooter that is still fun to play. Very ambitious to say the least. And it doesn’t always pan out very well. At the heart, MOHAA is an action-packed shooter. You play the role of a one-man wrecking machine simply called Powell. Powell takes part in almost every aspect of infantry warfare during the Second World War. From shooting Stuka’s to bits on the tarmac from the back of a jeep to invading Normandy at Omaha beach, Powell gets it done. The game spans 6 missions in total containing 20 levels. Yes, you are thinking: 20? Correct, this game is short! Not just short short, I’m talking really short. Star Trek: Elite Force short (and probably even shorter than that!). The game comes on 2 CD’s and takes up about 1.1 GB of your precious Hard Drive space, yet the game is over before you know it. With this fact, an alarming suspicion of me is confirmed; games are getting shorter and shorter. Where are the games of the length of Deus Ex or No One Lives Forever? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to say the least.
But, you might ask, between the beginning and the end, what is the game like? Absolutely thrilling! This game just oozes action, from start to finish. There are many scripted events to keep you on your toes and there is never a dull moment. This game is just a blast to play, as long as it lasts. To my great delight, the German soldiers actually speak German. None of that half-English, “Vea izz ze tank”, Hollywood-German. I’m not German myself, but I speak the language. Having the enemy actually speak German greatly enhances the “being-there” factor for me.
Level design is absolutely superb. I’m a bit of an amateur level designer myself and I can really appreciate what they have done (let me tell you, I’m nowhere near this good! Ha!). The villages really look like villages. A lot of the action takes place outside, and the borders of the levels have been masked with great attention. You really feel like you are passing through a shelled French village. Snipers popping up from behind the windows, Tanks appearing at the horizon and troops running around like they have a purpose. At times, the game scares you out of your wits, like when you are waiting on the second floor of a house to snipe an unsuspecting sentry, and an enemy soldier comes out of a closet to shoot you in the back. (No, pea-brain. There are no gay Nazi’s in this game! Sjeez.).
One level that deserves to be mentioned is the Omaha Beach level. This is the level that stunned the crowd at E3 2001 where it was demoed for the first time. Let me tell you, that level is going down in history as one of the best and most memorable moments in gaming history! I’m serious, it is that good. Inspiration has clearly been taken from the movie saving private Ryan. The dialogue has almost been copied. From the “I’ll see you at the beach!” to the “Get those bangalors!!”, if you’ve seen the movie, you will find yourself smiling in recognition more than once. Not just in the Omaha Beach level by the way, many levels resemble scenes from the movie. The radar station and the setting from the final battle, all there.
“Pretty good game!” you might say. Well, that statement is somewhat true. Remember when I said the game is both brilliant and terrible? Well, on with the bad stuff. First, the AI (Artificial Intelligence). The enemy soldiers must have been crossbred with cells from both Einstein and Gomer Pyle. The Nazi’s run, dodge, retreat and advance in a very realistic way, while every now and then, they just charge at you like a bull in heat only to be gunned down by the player. Sometimes they only stick their weapons around a corner so they can shoot at you without revealing their bodies. And sometimes you can shoot a Nazi in the head, while his pals standing close to him don’t even flinch. I don’t know what I should say about the AI, At times it’s too smart to say it’s stupid, and most of the time it’s too stupid to say it’s smart. Maybe it’s a bug? I hope so. In that case, a patch could breathe new life into this game like you wouldn’t believe.
Besides the AI there are some other really nasty things. Like the enemy respawning. Respawning isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is a bad thing when it happens in plain view of the player. I have seen Nazi’s appear out of thin air. Those are mistakes that haven’t been made since Doom. And they are unforgivable.
Is that all the bad stuff? Not even close. Next, the storyline! What storyline? Is that sufficient? There are no cutscenes whatsoever. In the briefings, the mission objectives sound exciting to do. During the game however, objectives like: send false communications, Switch train tracks, cut the power, simply boil down to one keystroke or one shot. According to this game, mission relevant objects Flashed bright red during the Second World War. How convenient. And to make matters even worse, the game is highly linear. For instance, after you placed 3 explosives in three key locations (hence: press enter at the red flashy spots), some door always magically opens to allow you to continue. To me, this is incomprehensible. Judging from the level Architecture, they employed a bunch of highly talented level designers. Why then, this obvious linearity? I don’t think that a linear storyline is a bad thing, on the contrary. But don’t make it so damn obvious.
Sick of this game yet? Let’s continue. The enemy snipers in this game must all be cum laude graduates from Satan’s school for snipers. Their sniping skills range from phenomenal to downright demonic. MOHAA snipers can hit you while both you and him are running through dense fog, and at great distances. They will almost always hit their mark. The game has a few sniper levels, which at first sounded exciting to me. I’m a big sniper fan! But these sniper levels are just plain frustrating. Most of the time they will blow your brains out before you even knew where the shots were coming from. This reduces the exciting sniper levels to tedious trial-and-error endeavors. I have a hunch these snipers were created to up the realism. If this is indeed the case then I can only sigh and shake my head in disbelief. How many times does this mistake need to be made before we all get it? You can NOT enhance the realism by simply lifting the difficulty into absurd territories.
That is a lot of bad stuff eh? This game must really suck! Well, not exactly. You see, the rest of the game is so good that is almost fully makes up for the bad stuff. It’s just uncanny to look at. So good and so bad at the same time.
Gameplay Rating: 3/5
Graphics:
As mentioned before, MOHAA is powered by the Quake 3 engine. The eyecandy in this game will spoil you rotten! Textures are very high res and vibrant with color. The explosions are hands-down the best I’ve ever seen in a game. When a shell hits the dirt, you can see dirt and body parts flung into the air. The effect is spectacular, especially at Omaha Beach. The character models are just so real, it’s scary. On occasion, during missions, you are accompanied by fellow allied soldiers. They blink their eyes, they move their mouth and they make gestures as they give you orders. It all looks like a real-time cutscene. The enemy soldiers look just as impressive. And they can die in several different ways. Sometimes, an enemy soldier would seem dead, only to start moving again, slowly trying to crawl back onto his feet. By the time he realizes he isn’t dead yet, you are right on top of him to take away all his ills with a well-aimed shot in the temple, making him drop to the ground for the last time. It looks very realistic.
Talk about realistic, there is no blood in this game whatsoever! It’s one of those monumental MOHAA contradictions. Highly realistic moving characters, yet not a single drop of blood. I can imagine this is probably done to keep the rating from “Mature” so the console kids who are familiar with the Medal of Honor universe can buy it as well. Allowing them to play it on daddy’s PC. But for us hardcore gamers, it just simply sucks!
On with the eyecandy. Foliage and trees are simply stunning in this game. They make for really bad cover but they look amazing. Trees even move in the wind. Anyone who has seen the unbelievable “nature” demo in 3DMark2001 by MadOnion will know how cool moving trees can look. And MOHAA can recreate that feel to some degree, even if you do not have a GeForce 3.
This game is just packed with little details that are just downright impressive. Take an oil drum for instance. If you shoot it halfway, you can see the oil squirting out, draining the drum half way. If you now shoot above your first shot it just leaves a hole, shoot below the first shot and the drum will drain even further. Amazing! But on the other side, there is very little interactivity with your surroundings. Furniture is indestructible, windows hardly break and items like books can’t be used at all. Yes, It’s another MOHAA contradiction!
Graphics Rating: 4/5
Sound:
The sound department is the one aspect of the game that is all good. No bad stuff here. The sound of the weaponry is extremely powerful. And the roar of P51 Mustangs flying overhead can rattle your bones. I have already displayed my content with the German-speaking enemy; let me add that their dialogue is both believable and varied. As is the dialogue of the friendly forces. Explosions all sound amazing as well. Especially during the Omaha Beach level, the sound really enhances the gameplay. From the shells hitting the beach to the bullets whizzing by your head, this game sounds unbelievable!
Sound Rating: 5/5
Overall:
In this review, I really nitpicked on the bad side of the game. Let me explain why. By now, there have been so many shooters that almost every gamer is well aware what a good shooter needs to be like. And like I said, this game is a good shooter. But oddly enough, there are some inexplicable flaws that may or may not ruin your gaming experience. It’s really an issue of personal preference. Can you live with Godlike snipers and a linear storyline? Than you will love this game. If you cannot, it will make this game a drag. Ultimately, the gamer must decide whether or not to spend his hard earned cash; this reviewer is just giving you the facts.
As for my view on this game, I think that, in the end, this game is a lot of fun to play. Remarkable, isn’t it! I do have to say that I was somewhat disappointed. I had expected this game to be better. It goes to show you that you just can’t tell if a game will be a classic by looking at movie clips and screenshots.
Comparing this game to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, it’s obvious competitor, doesn’t give you an obvious winner. RtCW is a more balanced game, no real highs and no real lows. MOHAA on the other hand, well… you know the story by now. My advice to the buying public: evaluate how far the flaws of MOHAA influence your gaming experience. Just remember, at the heart, MOHAA is a great shooter. I guess the best piece of advice I can give you is: download the demo! It’s the best way to make up your mind if the pros outweigh the cons.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
SCREENSHOTS:
|
|
|
|
| "Releases: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Review" | Login/Create an Account | 0 comments |
|
| | The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
| |
|
Printer Friendly
Email to Friend