Review by: Jeff McAllister

World War II has become passé in the world of video game shooters. After a saturation of titles set in the not-so good old days, the focus of military FPS games has shifted from the cold, rubble filled streets of France and Germany to the harsh, hot deserts of the Middle East and the activities of the modern “real” world. It’s no secret that after the Call of Duty series made the switch from past to present and became a mega sensation, The Medal of Honor series was going to have to do the same to remain relevant. As one of the last WWII first-person titles to make its way to the present day, EA needed to reboot the franchise and revitalize the series in an effort to keep up with Mr. Jones.

This version of Medal of Honor follows a group of soldiers known as Tier 1 operatives who are embedded in present day Afghanistan, taking on the world’s current (and very real) bogeymen, the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Throughout the singleplayer campaign, players will take the role of three different characters to give different vantages of the game. The story tends to jump around throughout the first half of the game as you swap roles from the characters of Rabbit, Deuce, and Dante, the last being an Army Ranger in contrast to the other two Special Ops, although there really is no difference in how the game is played with any of them.

The three scenarios do eventually intertwine which makes the disjointed story come together just as it reaches its sudden and abrupt climax. The game does start strong with a tense scene right out of the gate but then tends to get somewhat convoluted as things proceed. Once the game reaches its end, it’s as if the writers weren’t sure how to end it and just picked a point and let the credits roll.

During the campaign, which takes place over the course of two days, you get to view the battlefield from both on foot hiking through the Afghan terrain with your squad mates, and on board ATVs and in a helicopter or two to help spruce up the action. Your squad mates will constantly talk to you, telling you what to do, where to go and at anytime, assuming you need it, you can go up to a teammate and request ammo. There are plenty of scripted sequences found in the game which aren’t always necessary and are supposed to build up the action, but the constant spawning of enemies until a point is passed or an event that doesn’t activate until all enemies in an area are dead becomes predictable and in some spots a nuisance when the game doesn’t progress because there is an enemy crouched behind a box that doesn’t want to come out to die.

One last note about the campaign: for an added challenge it can be played through the Tier One mode which gives players a time limit and one try to complete each level. It's admittedly a tense way to play.