Medal of Honor: Airborne

"GERONIMOOOOOoooooo......."

While playing Medal of Honor: Airborne, something I thought would never happen again…happened again. I found myself…enjoying it! I checked multiple times to make sure I was playing the same game, which I was. I checked many times to see if I was still alive, I was. I pinched myself all over to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and I wasn't. I made sure I didn't take too much E- wait, nevermind about that one. Bottom line: Medal of Honor: Airborne is the best MOH game since Frontline back in 2002!

AIRBORNE STORY

In this edition of MOH, you play as Boyd Travers, Private First Class in America's 82nd Airborne Division. What that means for Private Travers is that he'll be jumping out of planes above some very intense battle zones to take the fight directly to the Germans and stop their war machine. That's basically all there is to the story, but if you read my review for MOH Heroes 2, you've probably figured out that this is a refreshing change of pace that I've been waiting for in an MOH game. No OSS secret agent on a mission to stop Germany from shoving the V-9480309934445 rocket up our asses, you just play as a regular soldier fighting for his country, as it should be. Leave the secret agent crap to James Bond…and me.

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AIRBORNE GAMEPLAY

If you've played any other MOH game (or any FPS game for that matter), then controls in Airborne are pretty much exactly the same. Aim down the sights, sprint, kick grenades back, all this stuff should be familiar to everyone. The only thing that seems to be new here in terms of controls is something called true trigger. Basically, when you aim down the scope of a sniper rifle, you slowly squeeze the fire button to cause a meter to appear on the left side of the screen. You slowly squeeze the fire button to cause two halves of a bulls-eye to meet in the middle of this meter, and when they do Travers will hold his breath and have optimal control over his shot. You then squeeze the fire button all the way and send a bullet into a soldier's head (hopefully). You can also use the SIXAXIS if you wish to lean while in aiming mode and to control Travers's parachute. It's a disappointment that there's no way to customize your controls. You can customize horizontal and vertical sensitivity, but not buttons. I really wish every FPS would have this option.

Airborne give us something that MOH: European Assault only hinted at: completely open-ended levels. Travers starts out in an airplane above the level, where he then jumps out of said plane and opens up his parachute and hopefully glides safely to the battlefield. Where Travers lands in the huge levels is entirely up to the player. When he opens his parachute, you are then able to use the left analogue stick (or the SIXAXIS if you want), to land him pretty much anywhere you want. It's pretty cool that you can choose to either take it easy in the beginning of a level and land in the safe zones marked by green smoke, or give yourself a challenge and land in a place that looks heavily populated by Axis troops. Another cool thing is that, until you complete your first objectives, when you die you'll be back in mid-air again, so you can adjust your strategies and take a different approach to the situation that got you killed. When you land on the ground, a compass in the bottom left of the screen will point you to the various objectives in the level, and you can complete them in any way you wish. The levels themselves are actually designed pretty well. They are all pretty big with plenty of alternate routes, flank points, and cover to use. Many strategies can be used to complete the many objectives that present themselves in each level, and combat on the ground can become quite intense. Completing the initial objectives in a level will unlock one or two additional objectives to complete, and completing those will beat the level. The last level, where you storm a huge German flank tower to take out all the armaments inside, is one of my favorite MOH levels ever. I would also like to say: THANK YOU EA for giving me checkpoints after completing an objective. Why other FPS games don't do this (including your own Heroes 2) is beyond me, because it's freaking frustrating losing 20 minutes of playtime because of stupidly placed checkpoints.

Now, I'm sure you all expect enemy AI to be just like previous MOH games: stupid. Well, I'm happy to say that in Airborne, they are just a little bit smarter. Although they will still just stand out in the open waiting to be killed and run right past you on occasion, enemies will also smartly take cover when they have to and actually hit you when you at point blank range. They will also get increasingly difficult as the game goes on and start wearing armor and use better weapons. Loading screens even show the type of enemies you'll be facing and number them from 1-10 in order of combat effectiveness. Enemies also won't rush mounted machines guns, and (thankfully!) hardly ever respawn. A couple things still irk me though: enemies are still expert marksmen with any weapon at distant ranges, which is very annoying when you try to take pot shots at them. Another is that they seem to really enjoy throwing grenades. Whether you see this as pretty good AI flushing you out of cover or just really, really, really, annoying AI behavior is entirely up to you. Unfortunately, the same improvements in enemy AI do not carry over to your allies. They still enjoy getting in your way while aiming down your sights and they still enjoy running around in the open and getting killed. They have actually killed some enemies, but for some reason they find the best way to do that is to rush them and use melee attacks. If you have a fully loaded Thompson or BAR, why the hell not use it?

Because weapons are more awesome to use here then in any MOH game. Travers can carry two primary weapons, three types of grenades, and a sidearm that happens to have infinite ammo (but it's still very weak and tough to aim). Before each level, you are able to choose whichever weapons you want to start off with. Wanna snipe fools? Take a Springfield with you. Wanna rush them instead? Then the shotgun is for you. A very nice addition to MOH, indeed. Weapons are also very fun to use thanks to the all-new upgrade system. The system works by simply using weapons (just like Ratchet and Clank) and killing more and more soldiers with them. Each weapon has three levels of upgrade and each level gives it a cosmetic and performance upgrade. For example, a Thompson machine gun at the beginning of the game holds only 20 shots, is hard to aim, and has a lot of recoil. But continued use of the gun will result in upgrading it and adding on a pistol grip, a barrel stabilizer, and a 50 round magazine. Upgrading all the weapons in the game and giving them new abilities is a whole lot of fun. If I had one complaint, it's that the weapons are pretty much MOH standard, with no new additions. Towards the end of the game, you'll face off against gas mask wearing soldiers who sport some big chain guns. It would have been so cool to be able to use these chain guns against their owners, but alas you cannot. Also, after playing COD4, I would appreciate it if my bullets are ABLE to punch through flimsy wooden crates and fences in the future. Seems kind of silly when .50 caliber mounted machine gun fire can't do that.

Airborne also come packed in with an online multiplayer mode. However, I was unable to actually try it out because of lack of players. Still, it seems like I'm not missing much, with an 8-player limit and only three team-deathmatch type modes. Although team deathmatch airborne, where the players playing as allies always start off parachuting out of the airplane above the level, does sound pretty cool. Still, it can't even compare to other PS3 game like Resistance, Warhawk, and COD4.

AIRBORNE GRAPHICS

Airborne overall is a pretty nice looking game. The six huge levels in the game that include bombed out cities, countrysides, and villages have OK draw distances and some nice details to them. Enemies and ally character models look pretty good up close. Your guns are also highly detailed. Some nice lighting effects are sprinkled in as well. As always, gunshots and explosions look pretty good. Some people may either love or hate the blur effect that happens when you turn Travers around. Cut-scenes are done with the in-game engine, and include mission briefings before a level, nicely animated ones that occur in the plane before you drop out of it, and one at the end of the level. There are others sprinkled in during the missions as well. The cut-scenes in the planes can be pretty exciting, as they usually always end with the inside of the plane being riddled with bullets and someone dying (the last level's plane cut-scene though…WOW).

There are some blemishes: I ran into a glitch where my guns wouldn't create a muzzle-flash when fired, but it corrected itself after a couple of minutes. There is also some noticeable texture pop in, most of the time on your weapons when you choose them. I also noticed some screen tearing, but it really doesn't bother you in first-person shooters like it does in third-person games. There are also some minor framerate drops, but they shouldn't hinder gameplay at all. The worst ones came while jumping out of the plane and when the “objective complete” message shows up, so nothing too serious. Also, enemies have rag-doll physics when they die, and sometimes it can lead to some hilarious results. It will always make your day when you snipe a soldier in the head and then watch his body bounce around walls like a pinball. Whether it's a glitch or intentional is up too you, but we can all agree that its really funny.

AIRBORNE SOUND

ALL MOH's, mediocre or not, have always featured excellent sound. Gunfire, explosions, enemy and ally dialogue, and all that other WW2 stuff still sounds great. Music is as epic as ever, even though a lot of it sounds the same from previous games. Airborne, like most EA PS3 games, supports DTS sound, which just makes it even better. Great all around.

I DON'T PLAY, I VOLUNTEER!

If you can get into it, the multiplayer will offer some replayability. As for single player, it will last about 5-8 hours, but you've got 3 different difficulties, all the weapons to upgrade, and 5 parachute skill drops to find in each level (basically, very specific places that you can land). Doing very well in a level and doing skill drops can give you a better ranking in each level (done with a 5-star rating system) which in turn unlocks different special medals, which in turn unlocks various “making of” videos in the main menu. So definitely stuff to keep playing the game for.

I urge anyone who may be sick of MOH games (or of WW2 games in general) to give Medal of Honor: Airborne a try. Some series trademarks (in a bad way) and some graphics issues still remain, but with open-ended levels, a cool weapon upgrade system, and slightly smarter and tougher enemies, you may also have to make sure your not taking too much E (don't lie, you all do it)!!

KEWL
+Story that is a refreshing change of pace!
+Open-ended and nicely designed levels allow you to complete them anyway you want
+Parachuting and landing into levels is a neat idea
+Checkpoints after every objective! Huzzah!
+Weapons and the weapon upgrade system is awesome
+Enemy AI is actually a little better!
+Pretty nice graphics
+Excellent sound
+Replay value for unlockable junkies

LAME
-Even though it's a change of pace, the story is still bare bones.
-Some aspects of enemy AI is still stupid
-ALL aspects of ally AI is still stupid
-Not a whole lot of interactivity in the levels
-Weapons are still the same MOH weapons you've been using for years
-Various graphical annoyances
-Some slight framerate drops
-Pretty useless multiplayer
-I bet you anything the next MOH game goes back to being crap.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/07

Game Release: Medal of Honor: Airborne (US, 11/19/07)