Review: Medal of Honor: Airborne Assault

Hey all, Force back once again! Only a few more reviews to go and I have officially cleared out my backlog. Today I am bringing you a review for Electronic Art’s latest WWII opus Medal of Honor Airborne. There has been a lot of talking coming out of EA about how this was their big comeback for the MOH franchise, promising us the latest in hi-def graphics with a new level of freedom never seen before in the WWII genre. Read on and find out if EA’s latest lives up to those lofty goals.

Seeing as how this has been hyped as EA’s great comeback for the franchise on the new next-gen systems, I have to say the graphics left me a bit underwhelmed. Early on in this game’s lifecycle the graphics engine was actually up and running on the new Renderware engine. Unfortunately, after seeing how much ass the new Unreal Engine was kicking, EA suddenly decided to switch development over to the new Unreal Engine, and you can tell. The game looks good, but it doesn’t look anywhere as near as good as some of the new games we have seen like COD4, Bioshock and Gears of War. The graphics in the game get the job done, but they really don’t make you say, “Holy shit, this is how a next-gen shooter should look.” Also, as much as they hyped jumping out of the plane, all it really lets you do is see just how small the stages really are.

The sound in the game is very hard to get excited about also. This is a Medal of Honor game and I feel like I have been hearing the same sounds for the last 10 games this franchise has spewed out. You will hear the same German phrases repeated ad nauseum, just like always. You will hear the same gun shots over and over, the same death cries, and even the orchestral music feels like it has been done before. Again, like the graphics, sound gets the job done it is just nothing to write home about.

Gameplay is where I feel this series really sold itself short on. They put so much hype into having the ability to jump from airplanes, it’s really a shame they didn’t do more with it. There is a parachute jump at the beginning of each stage, but after you touch down you realize this is the same MOH you have been playing for years. To top it all off, the parachute jump at the beginning doesn’t even offer the freedom they promised. You will notice in certain stages (including the demo on XBL if you want to test it yourself) there is an invisible wall surrounding the stage forcing you to land in the area they want. You might be able to see the next goal further down the stage, but the invisible wall keeps you from floating to it and instead brings you down to the ground.

Another problem with the gameplay is that I don’t think there was one new goal to accomplish in the entire game. It was the same missions we have played over and over. You will have to find yourself planting bombs on the same AA guns you have been doing for years. As a matter of fact, almost every mission has you planting a bomb on something. Yeah, they give you the freedom to decide what enemy emplacement you want to bomb first, but they all feel the exact same.

Repeating the same things you have been doing for years really hurts the fun factor in this game. This game looks next-gen, but the graphics are the only thing about the game that is next-gen. The game still has those same irritating spawns where men keep spawning over and over. You never feel like your accomplishing anything because as soon as you die the entire battle field respawns. This might make sense if they were making you start the stage over, but the goals you have accomplished stay beat, so somehow all the enemies have magically respawned, but all their guns are still destroyed. This really hurts the realism factor that is so important in a game like this. I also can’t stand the fact that whenever you are looking down the sights of your gun you can’t run. Sure that might make it more realistic, but when every other game out there let’s you move while looking down the sights, it really hurts the enjoyment found in shooting. And why bother putting this realism into the aiming aspect when I am leveling up my guns the more I use them? Yes, you did read that right. The more enemies you kill with certain weapons, the more levels they achieve. As a gun levels up, it increases the amount of ammo it can hold, adds a scope, etc. To top it all off, everytime you level up a weapon it kicks in to this lame-ass slow motion. Those special abilities are fine in other games, but please keep them out of my WWII shooters.

At the end of the day I found myself just mildly enjoying this game. It is a shame because this game really had potential. The multiplayer seemed like it would be a blast, but it felt just as generic as ever. On the plus side when you play as an American you get to parachute into the stage, but on the negative playing on the German side sucked. The single player game was also extremely short. I think there was around 7-8 stages total. I was able to beat the entire game in two sittings and that seems way too short when compared to how epic the first few Medal of Honor titles were. Next time I hope they spend as much time revamping gameplay as they tried to do with graphics. Hope all our loyal viewers love the 7’s of mediocrity I am giving this game, because never has a title deserved them more.

Overall:
Graphics: 8
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 7
Funfactor: 7
Overall: 70%