Medal of Honor: European Assault
Score: 93% ESRB: Mature Publisher: EA Games Developer: EA Games Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: First Person Shooter/ Action/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Once again, the Medal of Honor series brings us to the forefront of battle in all of its bitter glory. Medal of Honor: European Assault will have you traversing the battle-scarred fields and streets of St. Nazaire, the arid and inhospitable deserts of North Africa, the bone-chilling hills and riverbanks of Russia and lastly, the intense action of the Battle of the Bulge. Each area is beautifully rendered and does a tremendous job in inserting you right into the battle. Crumbling, war-torn villages reflect the action buzzing all around you, and as the war rages on, you'll grow attached to the squad assigned to you. The characters are modeled nicely and look very realistic. As you await being sent out onto the field, you can zoom in on the faces of your team mates and see how much time and effort went into their creation. Deep, cinematic orchestral themes are pervasive throughout the game and give it an epic feel. Weapons fire sounds excellent as pistols pop and bazookas boom. Each weapon has its own distinctive sound and adds an even deeper feeling of authenticity. When a bomb explodes near you, you'll get a sense of being jarred as things get a wee bit blurry and the sound is dampened temporarily. The voice acting is pretty good, overall, however the Russian partisans do sound a bit over the top. I really enjoyed the pep talks before the battles, however. "Vengeance! For the people, for Stalin and for Russia!" It's good, moving stuff (although when you die a few times, the speech gets old, as you can't bypass it. Argh.)
Gameplay: Medal of Honor: European Assault places you in the marching boots of one U.S. Army Lt. William Holt, field agent in the OSS. As Holt, you are sent to various locales to ferret out secret information and eliminate those hording the info, if you have what it takes. As such, you'll be working with the various groups of the Allied forces, so you are never with the same group for two missions in a row - a good thing in case they all manage to die. :) The meat and potatoes of European Assault is the Single Player Campaign mode, which pits you and a team of squad mates against a host of Nazi enemies. At the start of the mission, you'll see a group of eight or so tasks, most of which will be hidden and require unlocking. Your primary objectives will be visible and these are the tasks you must complete to finish the mission. If you like to explore, you can open up additional tasks which reap added benefits at the completion of the mission. These may be as simple as gathering info on a rocket or as crucial as rescuing imprisoned Allied soldiers who will go on to become your squad for that mission. In addition, there are added objectives in the way of bosses - your Nemesis for that area. These guys are tough and can dish out and take a lot of damage. If you kill them, you complete one more additional goal and they always have the secret documents with them, so that's another goal out of the way. Why bother, you might ask? Depending on what you manage to accomplish throughout a level, you will earn either a bronze, silver or gold medal. Each one yields extras such as additional healthpacks and Revives to carry into the next mission, and these really help a lot. The implementation of the Revive is a nice feature. These are basically one ups for your level. If you die and you have a Revive, you just get up from the battlefield and continue fighting, albeit your man sure does take his time in doing it. If you don't, it's game over and you have to begin the mission all the way from the beginning. And these are really long missions. Medal of Honor: European Assault starts you off in an area with a team of three squad-mates (well, it does in most of the missions, anyway) and you can command them using different button presses. Although I recall having a team with me in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, I didn't really care much about them and allowed them to take the heat until they all died, then I'd finish the mission. Cruel, yes, but fairly damned effective for me. With European Assault, however, I found myself caring for these guys. Maybe its because they had names and I got a message flashed across my screen when they'd die. Maybe its because I had the ability to heal them this go round, but I found myself giving up my healthpacks to keep them going. It just added another dimension to the gameplay. Also included is a robust multiplayer mode which allows you to play, split-screen, with up to 4 players on one system, more if you have a System Link. I was surprised to see no support for Xbox Live, but actually enjoyed it more playing with friends in the living room, personally. The typical multiplayer game objectives are there including Death Match, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill and so on. There are 15 maps to play across and although the main draw is the Single Player Campaign, I found the multiplayer game modes to be a nice little diversion.
Difficulty: You may begin Medal of Honor: European Assault on one of four different difficulty levels: Recruit, Normal, Veteran and Hero. The difficulty changes by the number of healthpacks and Revives offered and also the degree of skill found in the enemies. I played on Normal and found the difficulty level to be quite healthy. Combine this with the fact that the levels are really long and you've got yourself a battle ahead. Once you've died over and over on a particular level, you'll find yourself getting back to that point much quicker, sure, but the road to get there can get tiresome. I would have preferred some sort of checkpoint mid-way through the level. Yes, it added to gameplay as far as the number of hours goes, but not to the fun factor.
Game Mechanics: The controls in Medal of Honor: European Assault are quite intuitive and easy to pick up. On the Sharpshooter (default) control scheme, you'll shoot or throw grenades with the Right shoulder button and scope with the Left. Sending your troops out is as easy as a Left analog button click, however I found myself doing this by mistake all the time. A Bad Thing if they are low on health. Recalling them is simply a downward press on the D-pad. You can heal the different members of your squad by walking up to them and pressing the A button, which is also used to reload when you aren't "targeted" on anyone. Your white button is used to take a healthpack and your black button activates your Adrenaline, which makes you invincible and gives you unlimited ammo for a short period of time, while slowing everything around you, Matrix-style. You'll earn Adrenaline for head shots, healing your squad mates, etc. I found it to be more of a hindrance than anything else as it would end quickly and then I'd be left wide open. Also, you lose any built-up Adrenaline when you die. All in all, I found myself wanting to play through to the end of the game, as the storyline is rich and compelling, the gameplay is brutal (but in a good way), and the overall presentation is A+. If you have been a fan of the Medal of Honor series over the years, you probably already own this game. For the rest of you, go check it out. That's an order! (Sorry, but I couldn't resist.)
-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins
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