GENRE
	First-Person Shooter
	DEVELOPER
	Electronic Arts
	PUBLISHER
	Electronic Arts
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
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Saving Private Ryan, The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape, Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, Strange Brew….err…wait a minute…. Etched in the conscience of millions is the Second World War and so it should be. Millions gave their lives in an effort to prove to the generations to come what the results of hate, segregation--and War itself--brings. If you aren’t wearing a poppy on your jacket in November, shame on you. You owe it to the people who were your age or younger who died to protect your country and freedom. There’s no “maybe” on this issue in my mind. You owe it to them.

EA Games has another way you can honor the memory of those who died in WW2 and that’s their new game for the Nintendo GameCube, Medal of Honor: Frontline. Yes, the infamous beach-storming scene is part and parcel of this game, but there’s a lot more to play through. The Cube version also features something that its PS2 predecessor does not: A multiplayer mode.

visuals

The atmosphere of a war-torn Europe is conveyed via an earthy palette and well-executed animations, player models and environments. Enemies animate realistically (with the exception of some glitches in which they point backwards) and even shoot wildly over boxes to get at you. The fire from explosions is well done, and you can even pinpoint where your enemies are by watching the tracer heat from their bullets! The one gripe I have is that the textures look pretty sloppy as they are ported from the PS2.

Presentation is excellent. The main menu is easy to follow, and there are some cool animations on a desk for your different options.

The highlight of the visuals is definitely the slowed down animations of sniping. In fact, using the Springfield rifle could be a game in itself. The execution of sniping is on par with Goldeneye and is a ton of fun.

audio

Brilliant! Every nuance of the battlefield is portrayed with stunning realism. All of the weapons are incredibly well done, from the thunder of the Springfield to the thud of a silenced Colt .45. All of the guns are brought to life by the audio boom they make.

In fact, the audio carries the graphics and the game play to a new level by immersing you into the Medal of Honor world. You can hear enemy footsteps and thereby track them as they come at you. They scream at you in German and so on. The audio definitely makes this game something better than the average FPS. Couple these brilliant sound effects with a well-crafted soundtrack and you have a very impressive audio soundscape.

gameplay

Is there something more fun than offing Nazis? These guys are the villains of the previous century and EA Games definitely portrays what it was like to fight them with the technology of the day. For instance, you’ll be in a firefight when your enemy has to reload, and that reloading process takes him enough time to allow you to pick him off. While some might say this is cheap, it seems more realistic to me.

There are several missions to play through and the game is linear. You are given objectives and you progress through missions until you reach the end of the game. This linear format helps the story and action progress and unfold. The in-game action basically consists of killing Nazis, sabotaging equipment, and generally foiling Adolph’s crew. Yes, the beach-storming scene is here, but the deeper missions in the game are a lot more fun. I like the assortment of weapons and the variety of environments and missions, but there are some gripes; you can’t snipe moving targets, the AI seems dodgey sometimes, etc. But basically, this game is challenging and fun.

*Very important* I found that the game flowed a hell of a lot better when switched to MOH Classic mode in the controls (rather than the Sharpshooter mode). I found the game was a lot easier to handle and more enjoyable with this control scheme, especially if you’re a seasoned Goldeneye player.

multiplayer

This is a new feature for the Cube version of MOH: Frontline. One thing it certainly does is add a lot of replay value; you can now enjoy blasting friends with classic weapons in tons of environments. Camouflage can either be viewed as a positive or negative in that you can’t seem to make out the opposing players in some of the backgrounds. Also, when things get heated, it seems difficult to get a bead on an opposing player even though they are right in front of you. However, this mode should be viewed as a major plus if for no other reason than that it adds a lot of shelf life to this game.

overall

I really enjoyed this game. I seriously had almost as much fun with it as I did with Goldeneye. I mean it! The most important thing about this game is that it’s realistic, which means that the immersion value is definitely higher than in a fantasy game like TimeSplitters 2. To use an analogy, Bond seemed easier to swallow than Perfect Dark (weapons, in particular), so the game drew you in farther.

I think that any mature GameCube owner would really enjoy going through this challenging and fun title and then whooping arse in the multiplayer battles. I like this one. Now go out there, buy the game and slap some swastika heads with nice large Springfield bullets.

9.1/10