For three week we’ll be looking at the Medal of Honor series, a set of games set in WWII (one of the three major conflicts that has the fascination of gamemakers). This is the third and final week, featuring Nazi bashing new game on the block European Assault.

Once again we reunite EAGames with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for an all new romp through WWII era Europe! As for the CMOHS? One more time on them.
Started in the aftermath of WWII, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society (CMOHS) was formed to uphold the qualities of the Medal of Honor, and also to provide assistance to indigent recipients.
So whether the Medal of Honor winner became rich, poor, or an insufferable politician that nobody liked, the CMOHS seeks to promote a brotherhood between recipients… no matter how difficult that may sound to you and me. And, yes, if you think Medal of Honor (the game) is closely linked to Medal of Honor (the Society) then you’d be correct. They seem to have played a role in all these games, of which one clear aspect of that involvement is seen in one way that I mentioned last time (the whole friendly fire thing).
If you are interested in checking the site of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for more info on them you can find it at www.cmohs.org.

As for the gameplay? It’s vastly improved as we open up a brand new experience (and a brand spankin’ new can of whup(bleep)) here in so many ways that shows the true potential of the series as European Assault hit’s the markets, and hit’s the mark dead on!
For the first time in Medal of Honor gaming history you now have access to squad combat tactics!
It’s simple, really, you use only a few buttons to set your troops deployment orders, as well as call them back if they get in over their heads… simple, eh? Otherwise they can handle themselves just fiine, and even spread out to engage the enemy quite efficiently without you having to order them to do so (lowers the incidents of characters pointlessly standing in front of you, unless they do that to get at the enemy but that‘s OK because they‘re much better shots now)… which is a most definite improvement over that pesky Tom Clancy squad based combat and it’s difficult squad deployment methods if you ask me!

It’s 1942 and the specter of doom hovers over the UK. Something needs to be done to keep those pesky Nazis from striking and that something is being done right now. Set throughout Europe, North Africa and Russia you are sent as the only American in a unit of British soldiers to first take out a fueling depot for an invincible German warship, then you get bounced to North Africa to neutralize the V2, then it’s over the the cold cold land of Stalin known as Mother Russia to assist in it’s defense as well as learn the secrets of “Virus House”, and finally charge right into the Battle of the Bulge for the game’s finale and your destiny within the place known as “Virus House“!

Yes, you bet your Springfield ‘03 rifle there is lots to be impressed with here, but none greater than the cut scenes which now run less like a documentary and more like an actual movie! With a splendid opening you are drawn into the game and held tight with mission after mission. The game opens with an introduction by what I suspect is the real Holt, the character you play in the game, as he tells you about his role in the events of these missions.

Yes, this time out you are a GI Joe named Holt, only this time you’ll not only have a fictional Holt to go through this game with, you’ll also be spending a little quality time with the REAL “Holt” as well! A first!
Along the way you bounce from the narration of the real Holt to the game’s Holt as you first hit France, then Egypt to fight alongside the Desert Rats, then over to Mother Russia to defend the city of Stalingrad and finally the aforementioned Battle of the Bulge. Each time a new section of the game opens the real Holt intros it, and gives you a human side to the cold events you are witnessing (colder when you hit Russia and it’s winter)! It’s this touch of realism that keeps the Medal of Honor series grounded in history (as opposed to it being a run of the mill generic Nazi or Japanese military shooter which sets it above the generic WWII stuff the competition is rolling out these days), and makes the Medal of Honor series one of (if not the) best there is out there to play.

Despite the fact it came out during the dry Summer of gaming this is one of the bright stars of

the Summer that will bring players back into the game stores to buy, buy, buy! Medal of Honor : European Assault should by all rights sells like X-Play style “smack-cakes” and really really be the must have game of June 2005 (along with the upcoming Arc the Lad : End of Darkness game).
And that, once again, is most certainly a good thing in my opinion.

You know what? So what if it’s a WWII game! That’s not a dirty word and it’s not a terrible thing to avoid either! Yeah, X-Play is tired of WWII games, so what! They’re also tired of human interaction and has shunned humanity 24/7 and what good is that! No good! I like the show a lot, and I normally have no complaints about their ratings of games (they hit it out of the ballpark a lot of time) but sometimes I have to strongly disagree, and this is one of those times. I don’t know about X-Play, but I for one can’t recommend the Medal of Honor series enough, let alone European Assault which is just perfect in many ways.
And, yes, there are other WWII games coming out this Summer (BAM!’s WWII Paratroopers) but how can you stand up against something this profound and beautiful to play? I don’t see how, really.

This time the game is just perfect, and the shooting is perfect too. With more strategy, more thought having to go into your actions (running in wily nilly this time WILL GET YOU KILLED), and (FINALLY) the ability to carry medical kits AND (a first for both Medal of Honor and any WWII game I’ve seen to date) a Star Wars : Republic Commando style “revive” item (to bring you back from the beyond)? Well I don’t see how you can go wrong with this game!
How do you earn this stuff? Medical kits you can find all over the place if you look hard enough for them, while Revives can only be obtained after you complete each objective of your mission! Everytime you clear an objective (blow something up or kill somebody) you’ll find a Revive icon nearby where you completed said task (it‘ll appear after you do the deed). Simple.

One thing that is also different from previous Medal of Honor games is the fact that each level features it’s own “boss” German. Lots of the levels each has one specific German, complete with his own “life meter” (in the shape of a German cross), that you’ll need to eliminate. That is another improvement over previous games. Also once you get to Russia you’ll be fighting a frantic battle from level to level that won’t ease up one iota until the game ends and the credits roll! Yet another improvement in the action!

Just from what I said so far you can see how solid in all respects this game is. It’s solid in the animation (now much spiffier and nicer looking with even better cut scenes), gameplay and music are just overflowing with beauty (and lots of things to shoot or blow up), and I can’t tear myself away from this game… well, I had to to review some Animes so I did set it aside eventually to work… but you know what I mean!

The explosions are perfect as well! In previous Medal of Honor games an explosion would rock you, but not much else. In this game explosions rock, shake, rattle AND deafen you all at the same time!
The closer the impact the more violent the result, as everything falls silent and you only hear a humming noise as the world shakes and whirls about you until you regain your senses. Something not seen in previous games! Oh, and the graphics of explosions are also impressive. Tank fire is solid, heavy artillery and bomb drops from planes also rattle you hard and overall a lot of this is just so fine. The explosions are pretty.
As for the basics of combat? Combat is downright frantic, and you’ll need all the support you can get!

Another thing you need to do in this game is remove objectives with explosives, and that too is improved.
Previously you’d just escort somebody who would do the explosives laying for you, or just run up then tap a button and lay explosives… boring. This time you need to prime the explosives by holding the X button for a set amount of time until the timer is completely red, wherein the explosives are automatically laid.
Once that is done (or once more than one is set on larger targets) you quickly make haste and run lest you get caught in the explosion!

As in Rising Sun you’ll have wide areas to explore, and sadly once again you could have used a map… but you know what? This time I didn’t mind so much because everything else was perfect eye candy so I didn’t mind wandering about this impressive world, so

a missing map didn’t phase me too much, and it kind of added to the ambience of the game which can only be a good thing. Anyway the radar is improved so now it tracks primary objectives as well as secondary objectives which is a plus so I had just that much more to do, and if you follow the targets on your radar you won’t have any problems with getting lost.

This is the standard for Medal of Honor games so let’s repeat this one more time.
If you’ve played previous Medal of Honor games you should have no problem picking this up, and if you didn’t play Medal of Honor games you’ll also have no problems picking this up since it’s easy to learn.
The controls are once again changed from Rising Sun, but you should be able to pick up the differences with little difficulty and get into the swing right away (of course you could adjust the setting but I found the first “Sharp Shooter” setting works the best.

Friendly Fire rule once again is in place, no killing of your own allies unless you‘re in Multiplayer mode and the Friendly Fire option is activated. HOWEVER there is now a new option, called the “Reflected” option, in which (from what I gauged about this option) friendly fire is reflected back to cause damage upon the offending friendly fire causing person.

As for the Nazis? Yes, while they are not the frantic kamikaze Japanese soldiers who run headlong into you they’ve learned a few new tricks. They try to ambush you more (but not the same way as their Japanese counterparts) and they way more aggressive than their previous Frontline counterparts (in fact they may be even more brutal than the Japanese forces in Rising Sun in some respects). So be mindful to keep your wits about you, and watch your Nazi enemies closely since they’re quite dangerous if you take them too lightly.
Though once again listening for German dialect kinda gives them away at times unless they‘re a long distance away from you.

However the game does suffer some loses from the previous Rising Sun.
Save points (present in Rising Sun) are missing here, as is online play which was only available on the Greatest Hits version of Rising Sun… maybe Frontlines has an Online version on it’s Greatest Hits copy? Guess I need to get that version for myself to see. As for online play for this game? I guess only time, and Medal of Honor : European Assault Greatest Hits edition will bring forth a possible online version of the game. Too bad it wasn’t available now though. Another downer is the lack of levels, again. Rising Sun had about 9 or so levels, and while this has a few more than Rising Sun it’s not much. 11 levels in total, again another low level count and a game that ends a little too quickly for my taste.

And, yes, once again no vehicle riding which seems to be only available in Call of Duty and that’s a shame.
You can blow up a ton of tanks in this game, as well as man lots of machine gun posts, but no vechile driving. And there seems to be even more lacking here than in Rising Sun. No Gallery of cut scenes you’ve earned, no extras (like before) and no unlockable bonuses (like before). Sure, there might be these things in European Assault but if there are these things I haven’t seen any sign of them yet. Maybe if I completed the game these options might become available… but I haven’t done that yet so as of this review I don’t know.
Overall while this game excels in combat it kind of falls short in bells & whistles, but again I‘m OK with that since the overall game is just good (period). Speaking of Ok let’s break this down now shall we? Ok!

Medal of Honor Breakdown 1942-1944
What’s Hot?
This is quite frankly the best Medal of Honor game I’ve played yet. Yes, it does seem to lack in a few areas but when I get right down to it the pros outweigh the cons, and this game holds onto my interest as the best of the series to date. The combat is just so much more beautiful than before, from the cut scenes to the fighting itself in all ways. You can now hold medical gear and new “revives” which means you don’t have to play the game from hand to mouth anymore, and that’s a definite plus!
You can’t go wrong getting this game! It’s one of the few games this summer worth shelling out money for!

What’s Not?
Yes. I wish the game had a few more things.
I wish the game was longer, and offered up more missions. I wish there were extras to earn during the game. I wish there was a map feature to this game, but that isn’t so important

as the other things. And mostly I wish there was a extras place where I can watch the cut scenes whenever I want which is another minus.
But still, despite all that I still think the game rules and don’t see these as a hindrance to you buying this game. Maybe it could have used an online feature, sure, but I guess that can be overcome though you’ll need the multitap and some friends willing to come over to your pad for a little WWII action.

Moments to Remember?
The cutscenes are now more beautiful now that there’s an added bit of history with the real “Holt” narrating from time to time during this game. That is an impressive plus. And while we don’t have Mako making another appearance we do have a more feminine star in this game… as in one Olivia D’abo (you surely remember her creds don’t you?) who I suspect cameos during the -- ? -- most likely she’s in the Battle of the Bulge levels, second female character to the right… in fact she probably the only female character in this level. Or maybe she’s in the Russian levels? Or both… anyway it’s just a cameo, that I’m sure of.
Didn’t Mako (Rising Sun) & Olivia D’abo both work on the same Conan movie together? I think they did.

What to Ignore?
Hmmm… what to ignore here… I can’t think of a thing.
This time there’s no bad stereotyping here, and yes I’m not even going to criticize the Russian characters!

Overall?
If I didn’t like the Medal of Honor series enough before, I most certainly do now!
Yes, once again I haven’t tried the other games yet but I think the Medal of Honor series is the best I’ve played to date (though I‘m willing to be open minded for Call of Duty and Brothers in Arms)!
I’m sure there MIGHT be better WWII games out there, but as far as I’m concerned this series is going to be the one for me and when I hear about the next game coming out I’ll be there to review it ASAP!
Of course that doesn’t mean I am going pass up on reviewing the other WWII games (I will, sooner or later I will), and yes I’ll even own them… after somebody knocks their price down to an affordable $20 like Rising Sun or at least $40 like this game)!
With a summer that is rather slim on the good pickings you can’t go wrong here. Go and try it, I dare you!
Now what do I have to wait for… Medal of Honor : Pacific Assault wasn’t it? Yes, I would like to play that on the PS2… I don’t know when it’ll see release but I’ll be looking forward to it.

Meanwhile…
We’ve come to the close of our WWII era gaming… so now what?
Sad to say there isn’t anything really coming out this summer that looks even the slightest bit titillating (despite the fact this is the perfect time of the year for a little titillation) -- oh-kay, I guess I could have torn myself to play Death By Degrees starring Tekken’s Nina Williams for a little titillation factor… but I’d rather not since it’s not much of a game (go buy the Tekken games instead of playing this!) Or I could have possibly played the possible GTA clone game 25 to Life, where you play as either a cop or a crook… but I wasn’t entranced by that one either. That and my budget needed a little saving so I wanted to buy something nice, playable, and yet oh so cheap so it didn’t cost me much in the wallet for reviews.

So when all else fails I fall back to shooters, and what better shooters to review than the affordably priced shooters by one Mr. Tom Clancy? Tom (he who wishes we’d all forget the existence of the retarded SNES “Hunt for Red October” game) Clancy and three affordably priced games from his gaming series.
The original Ghost Recon “Greatest Hits“ edition (next week), the original Splinter Cell “Greatest Hits“ edition (starring everyone’s favorite voice actor for tough guys, Michael Ironside, in two weeks) & one more game… which will probably be Ghost Recon 2 but don’t hold me to it at this time (because if you know where you‘re looking you can find retailers beginning to knock a $20 spot off the cover price of GR2 bringing it’s price down to a nice affordable $30 a pop which is fine by me). So be sure to stay tuned because next week we’ll begin the relentlessly oppressive reality with a game that also acts as part of my Nostalgia week of reviews -- Ghost Recon, the game that irked the North Koreans as of Ghost Recon 2, which seems to be an odd theme for Tom Clancy games since they’ve also set the newest Splinter Cell-Chaos Theory partially with the North Koreans! Stay tuned!