I've been told that Medal of Honor is quite a successful series of games; I have personally never played any of the others because they all fell under the banner of squad-based strategy, something I'm not a big fan of. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (MOHAA) has departed from this and taken the transition to first person shooter, with great results.

Having played through and quite enjoyed Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RTCW), I was excited at the idea of another World War II FPS that would do away with the silly zombie/supernatural aspects of RTCW and give us pure, realistic, objective-based combat. MOHAA certainly accomplishes this, but there are some things that RTCW does better.

Graphically MOHAA is quite attractive, based on the Quake 3 engine. In the name of realism, everything from weapons to tanks to army uniforms was crafted to be historically accurate. Framerate seems to be slightly worse than RTCW; on my Thunderbird 800/512 SDRAM/Geforce DDR/XP, there were some periods of slowdown. This can be a little frustrating because it tends to occur in the middle of combat when you need the smoothness to aim accurately. A portion of the game takes place in outdoor settings; something the Quake3 engine wasn't designed to be used for. They did an adequate job of balancing frame rate with graphic niceties in these areas; one example of this is the sprite-based bushes.

The level design is well done; buildings are realistically layed-out and the overall feel is one of war. Everything is dark and dirty, various walls are crumbled and windows are smashed. There are many levels with enemy snipers that are VERY hard to see; this lends to a certain amount of frustration that I'll talk about later. The missions are rather linear in that there is usually only one way to accomplish the mission. I wish designers would take a page out of Deus Ex's book and allow a variety of approaches to every goal. This would be difficult to accomplish with the sheer amount of scripted events that occur in this game, so it's forgivable.

One area where MOHAA really shines is audio. The designers of this game did an excellent job of providing sounds that enhance the game experience. Germans actually speak german, gunfire is very loud and distracting, and riccochet sounds let you know just how close you are from being hit constantly. There are many small details like making your footsteps loud enough that you often think you hear something and stop to make it out - and find out it was nothing… just your footsteps. Things like this show the designers were committed to making a war game that tries to put you into a soldier mind-frame; nervous, jumpy, focused. It's a different style and level of immersion than RTCW. EA always seems to provide excellent voice acting and MOHAA is no different. Music is minimal but effective. When you're moving through a town occupied by enemy snipers, it's much more stressful to hear nothing but your footsteps.

The gameplay in MOHAA is really excellent at times but exceptionally frustrating at others. The level variety is tremendous; the goals are varied and certain levels call for stealth, others for speed, others for mass destruction. Primarily this game is done through solo missions but there are a handful of missions where you are a part of a team. I usually prefer solo missions because in most games team-mates are more of a hindrance than helpful - they get in your way, they shoot you in the back, they run out in the open and get shot in no time at all. MOHAA is a wonderful exception. You are not the one to give orders - you receive orders such as securing buildings etc. For the most part the team AI is excellent. Soldiers cover each other, take cover, retreat when injured, and generally work efficiently. I was most impressed.

MOHAA also takes in-game scripting to a new level; providing more sequences than Half-Life who, in my opinion, was the reigning champion of scripted events. Normally I find scripted events can feel very fake and are used to mask poor gameplay but MOHAA uses them in excellent ways to increase the immersion of the gameplay. One of the best examples is the beach assault level, when you are forced to run across a minefield guarded by German machine guns. The scripted sequence involves a commander making (realistic) hand signals to show 2 German machine gunners and explaining what to do. It's very tense and adds a lot to the gameplay.

Combat mechanics are excellent as well. Movement is a little slow, which can be frustrating until you get used to it. Similarly jumping is frustrating, your view bounces a lot when jumping and the height is minimal. This takes some getting used to after RTCW, where movement was a lot more fluid and quick but does not really detract from gameplay. One combat mechanic that I haven't seen before, but is really great, is when you get shot your view and aim go way off - you're effectively useless. This is realistic and prevents people from just running in and shooting without any consequences from being shot. The method of play is very slow advances with emphasis on cover and retreating if getting shot at. It can be frustrating at times - sometimes you are basically pinned in place while being shot - but overall it's effective. When you throw a grenade into a packed room you will sometimes see a German throw himself on the grenade to save his comrades. It's very cool.

That brings me to another point - this game is not gory. In order to get a more sellable Teen rating, the designers elected to not have blood & gore in this game. Sometimes I miss seeing a little blood splatter after I shoot somebody who is against a wall, and especially in the situation I described above, I would expect the German covering the grenade to be blown to smithereens with blood and guts everywhere. This is not the case and to be honest, I don't really miss it. The death animations are more than adequate to get the point across that they're most certainly dead; indeed they're quite gruesome and realistic.

Overall I prefer the gameplay of MOHAA to RTCW. The level of realism is much higher and the missions just play out in a more immersive way. The control of RTCW somehow feels a little tighter than MOHAA but it's mostly just the reduction in speed and jumping ability, and you get used to it. The weapons are all realistic and useful. Aiming is a little more difficult than in RTCW, you have to expect to use a few more bullets for each soldier in this game. Sniping is excellent, the limit of 5 bullets and slow reloading time often lead to very nerve-racking situations.

On the other hand, MOHAA can be very frustrating in certain levels. Two in particular that will have you quick-loading exceptionally often are the beach-assault and the village full of German snipers. You WILL be frustrated in both, but let me assure you that this game is worth not giving up at either of these levels.

If you like RTCW, you will most likely enjoy this game. If you don't like RTCW, you might still like this game - it provides a much more realistic experience and has very varied mission scenarios and objectives. It runs a little slower than RTCW (both in framerate and movement) and players who enjoy running full-tilt into combat will find their style of play is not accommodated well in this game. Bottom line, pick this one up.

Oh yea - the ending is terrible. Don't let that stop you from completing the game though, the fun is the journey not the destination.

Ratings:
(45/50) Gameplay
(08/10) Graphics
(10/10) Sounds
(09/10) Plotline
(07/10) Controls
(09/10) Bugs