War. Good god, y’all. What is it good for? Review

War. Good god, y’all. What is it good for?

Games and movies, of course. After Saving Private Ryan, it comes as

little surprise that Steven Spielberg’s company, Dreamworks, is now releasing

a WWII game. After all, Dreamworks has its own game developement studio as well

(anyone remember Skullmonkeys?).

In Medal of Honor, Spielberg brings first-person shooting to the Playstation

You

are Lieutenant James Patterson, World War II hero and a recent enlistment to the

OSS — The Office of Strategic Services. As a member of the OSS, you must undergo

secret missions to stop the Nazis and help the Allies win the war.

You do all this all from a first person perspective. However, this game is

far from the frag fest of Castle Wolfenstein 3D, or Doom. It plays

much more like the thoughtful action of Goldeneye

for the Nintendo.

Controls work best with dual analog, letting you use the second analog stick

to look around. For finer aiming, holding down the top right key in the familiar

and welcomed Goldeneye style gives you access to your crosshairs. The default

control of the game lends itself more to quick, precise aiming rather than a strafing

approach.

Missions are given through briefings, explaining each new threat in the ongoing

war. The objectives feel authentic — most of them involve sabotaging weapons

projects. While fanatasy WWII objectives would be an interesting trip (imagine

missions where you go gunning for Adolf and his legions of clones), I’m sure historical

buffs will appreciate this grounded aspect of the game, as well as the war-time

consultant that made sure everything from guns to uniforms were accurate.

But it’s the way that the Nazi’s react that really make the game feel real.

Some missions require you to infiltrate enemy lines under the guise of a Nazi

officer. Lets say you make your way around, when suddenly you come upon a soldier.

In a heavy German accent he asks to see your identification papers. You can:

A. Whip out that ID

B. Screw the papers and blast the guy dead!!!

C. Show him the papers, and then plug him in the head when his back is turned.

Then lets say another soldier sees you take out his good buddy. That guy will

probably run over and sound the alarm. The soldiers in the game react pretty intelligently

— all the more reason for them to meet their end. The bullhorn starts blaring,

and more of his goose-stepping “friends” start running your way. Take them all

out, and then turn off that damn alarm so they won’t keep coming. Nifty!

Having to make choices and seeing the consequences add to the whole realism

of undergoing missions. You can finish the stage whether you went at it in gangbusters

or stealth style. At the end of every stage, you get rated on your performance.

What I don’t understand is that sometimes you’re given better ratings for violent

craziness over stealth, but not always. Better ratings allow you to open up secrets,

as well as adding in some replay.

There’s

also a two-player mode that would’ve been better if two more players were accommodated.

Expect frame rates to drop lower and the distance you can see ahead of you to

become even shorter while squaring off against another.

The environments evoke the many backdrops of war: the battlefield, deserted

towns, warehouses, factories etc. They look just about as good as it can possibly

get on the Playstation, with fluctuating frame-rates. You can only see a short

way ahead of you before things dissolve into a murky black — while that’s okay

for the night time stages, watching a not so distant building appear suddenly

when you take a step forward is a sure sign more graphic power is needed.

Walk into the corner of any object and you’ll see some of that graphic imperfection.

The system tries to make a visual correction resulting in a weird frame flash.

And sometimes in order to snipe a distant enemy, you have to be able to see him

in normal view, thereby defeating the whole point of sniping.

The music, by itself, excellently captures the period feel with a full orchestra

sound, and a variety of genres (classical, swing, and so on). Within the actual

game, I would have liked it if the music were keyed and dependent on the action

— if you run into some soldiers the music would increase in tempo and urgency.

While the music was great, I still sometimes heard that looped quality.

There are also loads of German language voice samplings — listen up and you’ll

hear “Wir brauchen jemand zum Subermachen im Speisesaal!” (We need a clean-up

crew in the dining area!). I had to look that one up, so a subtitle option would’ve

been a nice addition.

Medal of Honor is the closest Playstation will get to Goldeneye,

both in terms of system performance as well as the standard set by Mr. Bond’s

breakthrough gameplay. This game was a complete surprise, a great game released

with little to no hype. Though it doesn’t change any paradigms, it is most importantly

fun. I guess in the end, it’s a case of the right game on what is gradually becoming

the wrong system. As much as I love her, the Playstation is showing her limits.