Medal Of Honor is one of the games you love or hate. It might be too slow and stealthy for the Quake people, and not strategic enough for those Final Fantasy fans. Yet it combines an atmosphere and pace unrivaled by other video games. The early PSX MoH games were excellent, and although let down by the hardware the depth of play, size of levels and detail in the graphics made them worth a second play every time. When MoH:Allied Assault appeared as the first PC game, I went out and bought a fast video card and dived in. Weeks later I finished, and by a coincidence Spearhead was released the following day! In for a penny indeed.
For those who haven't played the Medal Of Honor games, they are based around a single soldier's efforts to win WWII for the Allies. Of course, you play this soldier, and the fate of the war depends on you. At all times you have a feeling of weight on your shoulders as you endeavour to defeat the Axis attempts to win. The action is from the first person viewpoint. Each mission has its own weapons, and its own objectives. From killing enemies with a sniper rifle to blowing up bridges, infiltrating camps with forged papers to running into a minefield with your machine gun blazing, this is the gutsiest, most playable game of its type.
I won't go into Allied Assault too much, but the essense is "can a single soldier make a difference to a war?" In Spearhead the premise is more realistic. Teamwork is the key, and fighting in a group of skilled warriors makes the game more about covering and being covered, keeping up when you have to, and defending your Captain when failure means death to your group. The weapons are more detailed, and cover a broader spectrum of WWII hardware. There is also a much greater range of ground-mounted and mobile weaponry to jump onto and into and to blow up. Artillery, tanks and cameos from motorbikes, supply trucks and a variety of others. The atmosphere is awesome. Foggy and dark at the beginning, with the sparks of the enemies guns the only indication of where to shoot. Windmills loom out of the fog in front of you. That feeling of a bullet with your name on it being about to leave a gun nearby has you ducking behind every bit of cover, and jumping out of your seat when you hear the shot. Remember that Stephen Spielberg and Dreamworks had a lot to do with these games.
I haven't tried the multiplayer games yet, but I expect them to rival Allied Assault, where a sniper rifle from the highest room, or a grenade chucked from a ruined building were enough to have me cackling with glee at some poor enemies death.
Excellent games. If Quake is too fast, and you don't want to read a manual for a day before hitting the fire button, you'll love MoH. Buy Allied Assault, and progress to Spearhead once you've conquered Fort Schmerzen and the Axis troops.
More details
Addictiveness
Very hard to stop playing
Originality
Good
Value for money
Good value
Longevity/Expected Longevity
2 weeks
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