Boom, boom...boom? (Medal Of Honor - Allied Assault (PC))

Member Name: Chris_Moyles

Product:	Medal Of Honor - Allied Assault (PC)
Date:	26/07/02 (254 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Omaha beach level

Disadvantages: Some boring old skool action

Unlike Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal Of Honor sticks firmly to reality which immediately takes it above the former game. Fighting in WW2 with electric guns? Please. The weapons are all what you would find if you were back in 1940 like the BAR or the Thompson. There is an allied set of weapons and Axis equilavents. They all look as good as they can be and sound very convincing as well.

The think that is unforgettable about this game is the Omaha beach level. What we have here is in effect the beginning of Saving Private Ryan though in this game it comes in as the third mission. I wont give much details about this section because as far as I am concerned its one of the great gaming moments and you should experience it completely. It is packed with little details. When I got the game I knew there was this Omaha beach level but I never expected it to be this well pulled off.

The rest of the game is debatable. Some of the missions are tasty, like when you have to guide your squad through a bombed out town swarming with snipers. Other times it sinks into old skool 3D shooting action. In the second mission for instance you are basically on your own blasting away at the Axis soldiers. The fun that I got from that sort of action left me after Half Life, Deus Ex and System Shock 2. Its a pity there wasnt more to do in this game like being able to control your squad in Operation Flashpoint style. When your in a level fighting on your own it loses the atmosphere somewhat.

Graphically MOH is as good as you would expect for a Quake 3 based game. There are a few great looking ruined village maps that have bombed out buildings and floors covered in rubble. However all this means that it can be very demanding on your computer especially on the highest detail settings. Luckily its very customisable and can be turned down really low if so required. The modelling is also very good and well animated with the usual features like lip synching. The death a
nimations are also very good and sometimes if you don?t get a clean kill they may get back onto their feet.

Sound is also very wisely used. In some of the maps you can hear the distant sound of bombing and anti aircraft fire. On the Omaha beach map you get the constant sound of artillery and machine gun fire bouncing off metal. It all adds to the atmosphere and helps to create a truly believable setting

The AI is quite good carrying on from where Half Life left. Everyone runs at the sight of a grenade and tries to get behind cover. Its not ideal when it comes to you being supported by other members of your squad but thats partly because you have no way of controlling them. It would have been great if you could call on them to give you covering fire forcing the Axis soldiers to duck for instance but such concepts are sadly not in this game. One thing I thought particularly annoying was that they didnt pick up health. Sometimes there was a medic or they had their own health pack but a lot of the time they would be hobbling around while three health packs were left untouched.

Online Medal Of Honor is pretty good, certainly more polished and balanced than Counterstrike, though not necessarily as tense, and it has four game types to choose. These are normal deathmatch, team deathmatch, round based deathmatch and the great objectives based. The latter is especially good because as the name suggests, one team has an objective to complete, while the other must stop them. However MOH has not been well supported. There are only a few maps to play and it gets boring quickly as a result. The action level is not particularly high as is typical of these sorts of online games, so I dont play it as often as Team Fortress Classic. Speaking of these sorts of online games, rather like Counterstrike, the attitude of many players is god damn disgusting. If you decide to use the bazooka weapon or even the shotgun prepare for much abuse. When I used it even so
me of own team mates were having a go at me. Some people were saying it was part of the game and everything but this sort of attitude shouldnt even be in the game. I've been kicked from servers simply for being on 56k as well. MOH is quite laggy if you are on anything less than cable or adsl.

The ending of this game is quite poor. In other words there is none apart from game credits. However, from what I understand if you complete a mission with a set criteria you get a medal and if you get all the medal then maybe you get the proper ending.I should hope so because the final level itself is poor.

Overall the game is very good stuff. However the Omaha beach map sets standards the rest of the game doesn?t always reach. Its not as amazing as Half Life was in its day. I can remember the entire experience of Half Life. I only really remember the mentioned bits of MOH.

Summary: