One wonders, if you could go back in time and tell Hitler that by invading the various nations of Europe, he’d doom his army to being one of the most common gaming enemies of all time, if he’d still go through with things or just pack it up and keep hanging wallaper?
Similar to the simultaneously released Wii version, minus the arcade mode and two missions, the latest Medal of Honor outing places you once again in the capable boots of an OSS agent who’s been tasked with stopping whatever grand plan Hitler has cooked up. This time Germany has a newer, bigger and decidedly more atomic bomb and is looking to use it to thwack the rest of Europe into submission. Not being one to take a nuclear thwacking lying down, it’s up to you to stop the Germans at all costs.
The missions and plot aren’t anything you haven’t played before, in any of the half dozen WWII franchises currently milling about. You’ll make your way through a bombed out city, see the sights of a lovely U-Boat port, and ultimately sneak into the secret German base that’s so secret you have absolutely no problem whatsoever finding it and strolling in. At this point, it’s hard to imagine an even remotely original WW2 scenario that still exists within the realm of plausibility, so it’s hard to fault EA for unoriginality, but at the same time, if you’re a military shooter enthusiast, you’ll feel like you’ve played this game before.
What will seem new is the graphical prowess on display on the PSP and the short loading times. Lightning fast level access has never been a hallmark of Sony’s diminutive system, however the game has some of the shortest loading times seen on the platform and are on par with the loading times on the Wii. You won’t be traversing any huge, open areas, however there’s still plenty to look at and lots to shoot. Enemies have convincing death animations, before their corpse magically fades from view. You’ll even be able to make out when you shoot a German’s helmet off, right before you deliver an inter-cranial lead injection. The environments have the usual browns and olive tones of a military shooter, however everything is nicely lit and the frame rate is steady.
Unfortunately, the enemies in this game are all beauty and no brains. Sure, they’ll hide behind cover and occasionally throw a grenade to flush you out, but they never attempt to flank you and the odd time when they do rush you, it’s more out of a desire to occupy the cover you’re using, rather than an attempt to harm your person. They also have a tendency to stay stuck in cover and not notice that you’ve just crept up next to them and are introducing them to Uncle Boomstick. Thankfully the game is still challenging as there are a lot of enemies to contend with, and despite being rock stupid, they’re pretty good shots.
Controlling your OSS agent allows for multiple options, however all of them require using face buttons at some point, either for aiming or for movement. At times, the controls seem cumbersome, especially when attempting to look down your gunsight and lean left or right, however after spending enough time with the controls, eventually you get used to them. Unfortunately the game uses a checkpoint saving system, with the checkpoints being farther apart than what you’d expect from a portable title, so between this and the time needed to get used to the controls, newcomers should expect to be completing some of the early objectives multiple times. Even with these early stumbling blocks, the campaign can be finished in six or seven hours, however with three difficulty levels and multiple secondary objectives to complete, the campaign mode can be extended.
Once you’ve mastered the controls in the campaign mode, the game offers 32 person online combat. Maps are taken from the game, which is somewhat of a letdown and game modes are limited to deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag, however lag is not an issue, and it’s tons of fun to be sitting at the local coffee shop engaging in a huge CTF match while surrounded by folks on their laptops pretending to write the Great American Novel. Connecting requires nothing more than an EA multiplayer account and a Wi-Fi connection and once you’re connected there are usually at least two or three dozen matches to choose from.
