It may be the game that popularised the whole concept of first person shoot `em-ups set during World War II, but as the years have gone by, the Medal of Honor series has found itself besieged by more and more copycats trying to offer ever more realistic simulations of the era. This is the first Medal of Honor game made specifically for the next generation of consoles though and finds you taking the roles of both pathfinder Eddie La Point and Private Boy Travers - paratroopers in the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. As such, you'll end up with a whistle stop tour of enemy hotspots in Sicily, France, Holland and Germany. The game takes its paratrooper motif serious too as the game levels are big enough that you actually have some control over where exactly you land and as a consequence what tactics you choose to employ.
The game also tries to give you as much freedom as possible with the weapons you use, with each being customisable with authentic parts which you can find during missions. Even the missions are as open ended as possible, as you're given up to a dozen objectives, of which only a few have to be tackled in any sort of order. One side benefit this creates is that the developers have been forced to drastically improve the enemy artificial intelligence so that they can react intelligently to your attacks, instead of just relying on the pre-scripted movements of the earlier games. There's also a stronger tactical element than ever before as you monitor the back and forth of battle between all the forces on the map. As over-familiar as WWII shooters have become, there looks to be enough new ideas here to keep even the most jaded virtual soldier happy.
HARRISON DENT
