Medal of Honor: European Assault

"Not yet perfect, but a lot better then Setting Sun... err... Rising Sun"

The Medal of Honor series used to be a series of high quality. It always managed to create a great atmosphere in a simple First Person Shooter. It almost brought you World War 2 itself. With Medal of Honor Fronltine, EA brought the successful series to PS2. However, with the arrival of Medal of Honor Rising Sun, things went downhill.

European Assault is here to wipe out that horrible nightmare and it brings us back to Europe. With this successful receipt, EA hopes to set the record straight once more.

SOUND: 8/10

The music is great. Just like in the previous games, it's manages to build up tension whenever necessary, just like in the previous games. Another thing in which EA used to be successful was to bring us realistic weapon sounds. This time however, the weapons sound a bit more unrealistic then before. That lovely *ping* when the clip of the M1 Garand jumps out just doesn't give me that warm fussy feeling anymore. But all in all, the weapon sounds suffices.

GRAPHICS 5/10

This is were it all goes wrong. Graphics are average. Or even below average. Compared to Frontline, EA took a step back. And that's a real shame, because it were the graphics from like Frontline line that made the game so attractive in the first place. Just try to look in your oppenents eyes in multiplayer. That is, if you can find the eyes. All you will see is something very, very blurry.

GAMEPLAY 8/10

Ah, sweet old gameplay. Those of you who are familiar with the previous games of the serie will have to adapt big time., for things have changed.

Unlike the previous games, this time you have a squad with you for you to control. This is really simple. There is a button to let them move in, and a button to pull back. The bad thing of this is that they mostly get themselves killed, or they are standing in your way. Your squad is extremely stupid.

The HUD is completely different. The compass has a different lay-out, and there are new thing on the screen. One of these things is a life indicator of your AI comrades.

The levels provide you with more freedom compared to the previous games, but they are still quite linear. You can take different paths instead of just going through a corridor, or you can cross a wide open plain, but every route brings you to the same point eventually. Basically what they did is make the corridors, hallways, roads wider, or replace them with a field, to give you the illusion of freedom. But I must say, the levels are a lot bigger compared to the previous games.

Something EA kept from Rising Sun is the addition of secondary objectives. There are several of these in each level, and completing them all gives you gold for that level.

CONTROLS 7/10

A small disappointment, again. This game offers you only 4 pre-set control lay-outs. There is no option to set thing to your liking. They even left out the standard MOH controls, which was a stupid thing to do. Luckily for us, the controls are fairly easy to get the hang of.

STORY 6/10

You are an OSS agent who has to fulfill missions all over the world. You start of at St. Nazaire in France where you have to seize and demolish a German Harbor. From there, you take of to North Africa where you need to take care of some experimental new rockets and some new tanks. From Africa, you are sent to aid near Stalingrad. After your adventure in Russia, you'll end up in Belgium where you get to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.

MULTIPLAYER 7/10

Multiplayer in this game is superb. Although it's not online, it offers great fun. With a multi tab, you play with 8 in total. There are about 16 different maps, which are all nicely done if I may say so, and there are many gameplay modes.

The reason I give this only a 7 is that there are no bots. That is a sad thing. Bots could have made multiplayer a lot more fun.

REPLAYABILITY 7/10

The game offers you several difficulties which you may find challenging enough to replay the entire game. The multiplayer offers you loads of fun when you are tired of the single player missions. Something that could have boosted the replay ability are bots. But, they aren't in the game.

SCORE 6/10

+ Fun
+ Great music
+ Interesting missions
+ Loads of weapons
+ Great multiplayer levels
+ Loads of multiplayer modes
+ Bigger levels

- Average weapon sounds
- No bots
- Stupid AI
- Average graphics
- Doesn't really feel like a good old MoH game

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/17/05