Medal of Honor: Airborne (Xbox 360)

...have never played any other Medal of honour game so for me I can only compare it to the Call of Duty series; I have noticed that there is a big market currently for WW2 games. This one is a bit different being you start off airborne and reading more into the background of the games a lot of research went into creating this part of the game. The makers wanted to make it as realistic as possible even going as far as going up in a restored C47 and using ...
...try and give the player a realistic experience as possible.

They have also tried to give the player more freedom and choice of where they play on the map, rather than the usual follow everyone else and shoot! They have tried to make it so the player decides in which order they complete the objectives. The baddies have become more intelligent and will hide behind objects and this makes them harder to shoot. More choice regarding tactics, ... more

Ok I have now been off my foot for 3 weeks now and I am not saying I am bored because I will be wishing I was back home when I go back to work, but it is getting to the stage that if I see Jeremy Kyle's face again I will put my crutches through the TV! So in a fit of rebellion I decided to have a go of this newly acquired game that my eldest monster saved his pocket money for.

Now you may think its strange that a 36 year old women would even think of playing these sorts of games but I suppose a part of me has never really grown up and I loved all console games when I was younger and have marvelled at the way they have evolved over the years. I finally found my perfect game in Call of Duty 3 and love the xbox live option; I find it very stress reducing to go around shooting people (yes I know I need some kind of help, but hey you don't know my monsters!) So would this game match up to my favourite?

THE IDEA BEHIND THE GAME

I have never played any other Medal of honour game so for me I can only compare it to the Call of Duty series; I have noticed that there is a big market currently for WW2 games. This one is a bit different being you start off airborne and reading more into the background of the games a lot of research went into creating this part of the game. The makers wanted to make it as realistic as possible even going as far as going up in a restored C47 and using the actual sound from the plane on the game, to try and give the player a realistic experience as possible.

They have also tried to give the player more freedom and choice of where they play on the map, rather than the usual follow everyone else and shoot! They have tried to make it so the player decides in which order they complete the objectives. The baddies have become more intelligent and will hide behind objects and this makes them harder to shoot. More choice regarding tactics, angle of approach and style are they are hoping to give the player a more individual experience.

THE STORY

The whole story centres on WW2 Airborne division and Private Travers and Pathfinder Eddie La Pointe. You are in control from the moment they are on the plane, you control where and how they land. There are 5 historic operations to complete in different countries, Italy, Germany, France and Holland to assist the allied war effort. You start as a pathfinder these jump in before the main soldiers to sort out the drop zones, they use more stealth and surprise. After you complete that mission you jump in as Private Travers and his missions are more shooting and blowing up the enemy.

The 5 missions are:
Operation Husky, July 10, 1943, Italy
Operation Avalanche, September 13 1943, Italy
Operation Neptune, June 6 1944, France
Operation Market Garden, September 17, 1944, Holland
Operation Varsity, March 24, 1945, Germany

These are apparently all historic battles, which are brought to life within this game.

GAME PLAY

Before each real mission you get a briefing with the whole team and this will give you your objectives

When I first started playing and saw there were only 5 missions I thought this game really wouldn't take long to complete, you start with the basic training as with all games. This teaches you how to perform the correct landing when you jump from the plane, you can perform a greased landing, flared landing or my personal favourite a botched landing! (Can you guess which I usually get!)? When you go on to actually jump you can see the makers have put a lot into this part of the game, the plane is shaking and you can hear the bombs going off, you can also look around the plane and see the faces of the team you are jumping with. When it comes to actually jumping don't worry if you don't feel ready, they will push you out!!

After the jump you come down with your team and you get the view from above, the graphics and detail are very good and you can see the burnt out buildings and the fighting going on down below. You will also see green smoke dotted around these are the safest places to land but you don't have to land there you can land anywhere, on rooftops in houses or in the middle of the fighting. Dotted about are also places to land where you achieve your silver wings.

Before the start of each mission you also get to choose your weapons, you get the choice of weapons and you can carry 3 into each mission, they are not any different really to the weapons from call of duty and 1 must be a pistol but the best thing about the weapons are you can achieve upgrades. There are 3 upgrades per weapon and you can see how close you are to achieving this by looking at the bottom of the screen, you see a outline of the weapon you are using and every time you kill an enemy it starts turning blue. When the weapon all turns blue the game suddenly goes in very slow motion and you see which upgrade you have achieved, this can be anything from a larger clip, satchel or a scope plus many more. Each weapon has the upgrades so you can keep going over levels and using different weapons to achieve every upgrade even grenades.

As for the enemies each time a level loads you have a sort of meter that shows you on a scale from 1-10 (1 being the easiest) how difficult they are to kill. I must admit I was a bit impressed with them, in most of the games I have played the enemy doesn't seem all that bright but I have found these ones to be harder to shoot especially that they seem to hide and shoot a lot more. The makers have added a new thing which means you can sort of hide behind an object and then lean around a corner, this is a very good and works very well but a word of warning the enemy can also do this. Also when you die in a lot of games I have played you can sort of rely on the fact that when you start again you will no where all the baddies are so know where to hide but this again seems a bit different and they are not necessary in the same place.

Dying is something I know a lot about in this game, I usually get caught out with the grenades but if a grenade comes very close to you and if you are quick enough you can kick it back at them. I haven't quite mastered this and usually kick it in the direction of my own guys and blow them up! You do have the usual grenade on screen that tells you how close it is, the redder the closer.

You also have the usual save checkpoints and the game will automatically save at that point and also after completing an objective but you can also request to save at last checkpoint, these can be quite spaced out though and every time you die or restart you have to begin again by jumping out of the plane which can be a bit annoying as you then have to find the place where you need to complete your next objective.

The actual game is harder to complete than I initially thought, hard-core gamers will maybe disagree with me but hey I am a 36-year-old women. The baddies in the last level are bloody hard to kill and can take 3 shots to the head to finish them off and there are quite a few of them but I am a stubborn cow and did finally get there.

XBOX LIVE

My eldest monster plays this a lot and really enjoys it, I have played a bit but feel more comfortable with call of duty 3 still, you have team death match which can have up to about 12 players.

Objective airborne which has 3 flags each team has one flag each and they have to neutralize them and capture them and do this for all 3 flags, (a bit like headquarters in COD)

Team death match airborne I am sorry to say we haven't played so can't comment on this one.

Respawning is much faster than COD and I haven't noticed much lagging or glitching but if there are any network problems the server will disconnect you from the game, which has happened a few times.

The maps are quite good with lots of choice especially for snipers with lots of high points and buildings to hide in, the graphics are in my opinion very good the people look quite lifelike and the sounds are also a good feature. If you are on the allies team you do get to jump from the plane but if you are on the axis's then you just respawn on the ground.

GOOD POINTS

I think the makers have achieved what they set out to do with the plane bit; it does add a new dimension to the game. The graphics and detail are very good especially the sound and this can really draw you in, also the weapon upgrades is another good added feature as it gives you something else to aim for. My eldest monster really does enjoy the Xbox live part of this game and means the game will not be abandoned after he has finished the actual game. Believe it or not the monsters are interested in the actual story and have looked some bits up on the Internet and also questioned my dad if he was at any of these battles (which he loved being that he was only a boy when the war was on!!)

BAD POINTS

The big one for my monsters is it is not co-op so they can't play together, neither the actual game nor the on-line play and I feel this is a big let down. A personal one for me is I am fed up of being an American! All these WW2 games the allied troops are American the younger generation who play these games are going to think that only America fought these wars! (Sorry rant over)

After the initial couple of levels the game actually becomes a bit boring and samey, the airborne bit is good but it becomes a bit annoying when you have to constantly jump out of the plane when you restart or die. The baddies are harder to shoot but this becomes a bit annoying especially when you hit them a few times and they still don't die! Also if you botch your landing and end up in the middle of the fighting by the time you get your chute off you will be nearly dead and have to start over again jumping out the bloody plane!

The on-line play seems a bit similar to Call of duty 2 and I just don't enjoy it that much but again that's a personal thing. The makers do say that it doesn't matter which order you complete the objectives but I have found that I have had to get them in some order and in one case restart a mission because I hadn't completed the objectives the right way round.

All in all this isn't the worst game I have played but I still don't think it's the best, I really do think the market for WW2 games is now full and I will have a look at Call of Duty 4 when that comes out. It did kill a few hours for me and took my mind off my foot for a bit and also earned me some brownie points with my monsters for finishing it! But to be honest I would look out for it when it comes down in price, my monster paid £40 for it but I would look on Ebay, get a pre owned copy or wait for the price to come down.

Well that's it from me apologies to usual readers of my reviews, I will be back to my usual subjects very soon! I am back to being bored and poking people with my crutches and oh yeah-avoiding Jeremy Kyle!!! 

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