Medal of Honor Heroes 2

"I'm amazed we won WW2, with all the respawning enemies and all..."

Woopee, another Medal of Honor game. This one is actually a sequel to a Medal of Honor sequel! Did I just blow your mind!!??

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is the sequel to the PSP-only original. This time around, EA decided to port the game to the Wii as well. This isn't the first MOH game on Wii, as EA graced us with the craptacular MOH:Vanguard just a few months ago. So, is Heroes 2 just as craptacular?

No, but it's still mediocre.

RESPAWNING STORY

You play as an agent for the OSS sent into Germany to stop the German Axis group from unleashing a new, deadly weapon on the worl-

What's that?
……

No this review is for Medal of Honor Heroes 2 not Medal of Honor: European Assault!
…….

Yes, I know the story is exactly like the last 64740 MOH games, but I assure you that this is a new game.
…….

Yes, I agree. As crappy as Vanguard was, it was a nice change of pace to play as just a regular soldier fighting for his country instead of a secret agent man on a top-secret mission.
…….

I know you are, but what am I?

RESPAWNING GAMEPLAY

Heroes 2 does get the job done in one area: controls. Metroid Prime 3 proved that FPS controls can become better using the Wii-mote and the nunchuck, and Heroes 2 further proves that. Just like Prime 3, you'll use the analogue stick on the nunchuck to move forward/backward and to strafe, and point the Wii-mote to aim your weapon and turn. However, players are able to go into the options menu and totally customize all their movement controls. Everything from IR sensitivity, Vertical and Horizontal sensitivity, and the dead zone turning can be tweaked for any player's preference. A word of advice though: if you want a control scheme that rivals Prime 3 in the best FPS controls on the Wii department, make the dead zone as small as you can. Still, everyone has a preference and once they find it, Heroes 2 should control like delicious cake.

Button controls are simple enough. You use the “B” trigger to fire your weapon and the “A” button to aim down the sights. You use the d-pad to cycle your weapons and the “-“ button to interact with objects and kick grenades back to the enemy. Pressing the d-pad down will cycle your stances: standing and crouching. Heroes 2 also borrows a couple of ideas from Prime 3: holding the “c” button on the nunchuck will lock the camera in place and allow you to aim freely around the screen, and holding down the “Z” button on the nunchuck while playing on the easiest difficulty will activate a lock-on to whichever Axis group member you are pointing your weapon at. EA also did a good job for the most part in using the Wii's motion functions. Flicking the Wii-mote up will reload your weapon, and you can throw grenades by aiming the cursor, pressing the “B” trigger, and making a throwing motion with the Wii-mote. There is also the option to manually pump shotguns by flicking the nunchuck forward, if some people want a more realistic shotgun-firing experience. The nunchuck can be used while aiming down sights to lean left and right to take shots at enemies behind cover. You also twist the Wii-mote to find secret messages from the OSS on radios scattered in some levels, and you control mounted machine guns by holding the Wii-mote and nunchuck upright in front of your face and moving them in tandem to move the gun while using “B” to fire. So, those are some of the motion controls that I liked…which means that there where some that rubbed me the wrong way as well. To zoom in/out with sniper rifles, you twist the Wii-mote, but doing this and aiming at the same time can be annoying. Then there are the artillery guns that can be manned in some missions, which require you to turn the nunchuck in a clockwise/counter-clockwise motion to move them. I couldn't count how many times the artillery gun would move in the opposite direction in which I was turning, making me scream in disgust. Then we have the bazooka. Oh, the bazooka. To fire a bazooka, you equip it and then, I **** you not, turn the Wii-mote upside down, place it on your shoulder, use the analogue stick to aim it, then press “B” to fire. A good motion control if you want to look like a flaming jackass in front of your friends and family. I don't even want to think about melee attacks…

I should also point out before I go on that I was able to get my hands on a Wii-Zapper and use it for this game. I must say that it works very well with Heroes 2, and can really help steady your aiming. Aiming down the sites and cycling stances are moves to the “Z” and “C” buttons on the nunchuck, respectively. One of the reasons why I like the Zapper controls is that it disables a lot of the motion controls in the game I hate and moves them to the nunchuck's analogue stick. If you wanted a game to show off your Zapper skills, this one is it. If I had one complaint, it's that cycling weapons is still done with the Wii-mote's d-pad, and its kind of awkward to reach for it while holding the Zapper.

Heroes 2 has three gameplay modes: campaign, arcade, and multiplayer. Campaign is your basic MOH story mode, which is also probably the worst part of Heroes 2. Basically, you guide your soldier through very linear levels shooting Axis group members along the way and completing a variety of tasks including blowing up Axis stuff, stealing Axis stuff, and shooting Axis stuff, with the occasional hidden secondary objectives to accomplish. It would be tolerable to go through the games 8 levels if it wasn't for a MOH staple: terrible AI. Your Axis group enemies are downright stupid, and will walk right past you, shoot at walls, and stand right out in the open while getting shot at. Axis group members also have yet to figure out that rushing a person en masse on a mounted machine gun is always a bad idea. So how does EA balance out all this stupidity? For one, they make all Axis group members expert marksmen at great distances. It's amazing how these guys can totally kill you from half a mile away with their MP40 machine guns. The other way to balance out the stupid: respawning enemies, of course. Seems like one of the OSS agents from a previous MOH game forgot to sabotage the Axis group's greatest weapon: the foot-soldier cloning and teleporting machine. More often than not, I would kill a group of Axis members, walk about ten feet, and realize I'm being shot in the back by the same group of Axis members I just killed that have reappeared out of nowhere! Axis members will also appear out of nowhere while you fumbling with the artillery gun motion controls and kill you with their expert marksmanship. This is really evident in the last level, where you have a time limit to escape an Axis group factory before it explodes by fighting your way down a tunnel. I don't have to explain what happens that will cause you to break your Wii-mote in half. You also get to fight alongside some ally soldiers in some levels, and guess what…they're stupid too!! They also run past enemies, stand out in the open, and are terrible marksmen. Basically, they will help you kill ZERO enemies throughout the entire game, making them completely useless. I would also like to say that if I ever, EVER, have to play a WW2 game that involves terrible mortar firing sequences again, I will KILL the first living thing I come across! Really, the only thing keeping me from total boredom during campaign mode is that fact that shooting Axis group members never gets old and the weapons you use are actually pretty awesome.

Don't want to deal with all that crap? Well, then jump into the Wii exclusive arcade mode, which basically turns the game into an on-rails shooter. All you have to do is point and shoot hundreds of Axis group members per level with your unlimited ammo guns. You can also zoom in on targets with the “A” button and crouch for cover ALA Time Crisis by pressing the d-pad down. But don't get me wrong, this is no Time Crisis. For one, you only get to use one weapon at a time, and the game will have you picking up other weapons to use against your will, which can lead to some frustration. So while you start off a level with the Thompson machine gun, about halfway through the level the game will make you use an M1 Garand “one shot at a time rifle' instead. Why would I want to do that? It just makes no sense. Also, after shooting your hundredth Axis group member in a single level, boredom will probably start to kick in. Still, some people may enjoy this change of pace to the campaign mode. You can even use the Wii-Zapper here, but I wish there was a way to configure it to work more like a light gun and remove the crosshairs on the screen. Alas, you still stuck pointing it at the Wii sensor bar and moving a crosshair on the screen.

Finally, just like it's predecessor, Heroes 2 features a 32-player online mode using Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection. Logging into the EA servers and finding a game to join is very easy, and you have leaderboards and clans and all that good stuff, sans voice chat. The game runs fine, even with the full 32 players, with hardly any lag. However, you only get 3 game modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag, making online pretty shallow. Wii-only owners will probably have a much better time with multiplayer, while people who also own a PS3 or 360 to go with their Wii have much better and deeper online games available such as Resistance, Warhawk, Halo 3, and especially Call Of Duty 4. I see those people maybe checking out Heroes 2's online mode just to see how an online shooter would work on the Wii, and then never go back to it again.

RESPAWNING GRAPHICS

You can tell that this game was ported to Wii from the PSP version, because the graphics definitely don't represent what the Wii is capable of. Level designs, from beaches to bunkers to villages, are OK but are mostly just bland. Character models of Axis group members and allies are cloned and butt-ugly. Models especially take a dive during multiplayer mode, where they almost look like stick figures. The only cut-scenes in the game are at the beginning of some levels and are basically just slideshows of historical footage. The only things that look good in this game are your weapons, which are actually highly detailed. Everything else=bleah! At least it runs a constant 60fps throughout and supports widescreen and 480p.

RESPAWNING SOUND

The one thing every MOH game does get right is it's sound design. Those with surround systems are in for a treat, with bullets, explosions, and the sounds of WW2 all whizzing by your ears. Music in the game is minimal, but it's still pretty good. A lot of sound effects also come out of the Wii-remote's speaker, such as gunshots, reloading sounds, and various other effects. My favorite is when you're on a radio, and all the static and music on it comes out through the speaker. It's pretty cool. The best voice acting in the game comes from your OSS commander in the cut-scenes, other than that you'll hear a lot of repeated dialogue. At least the Axis group members speak in German, but if I hear “It doesn't get much deader than that!” from one of my boneheaded allies one more time, I may throw my speakers out the window.

CAN I RESPAWN IN A DIFFERENT GAME?

So Wii-only owners have a multiplayer mode to keep them busy, so how about single player? Well if you can tolerate all it's crap for another 5-8 hours, campaign mode has three different difficulties to go through with various hidden objectives in each of it's levels that need to be done in order to get a 100% rating on them. There are also various other accolades you can earn for doing certain things in the game. Arcade mode also has three different difficulties as well. So there is definitely replay value here.

But that all depends on how much more Medal of Honor you can take. Besides having good controls and an arcade mode, Heroes 2 is basically offers the same thing the last 2 million MOH game offered: bad AI, a boring story, and…well, just a huge feeling of deja vu. Don't get me wrong, I love shooting Axis group members, but I also love fun games as well. I can really only recommend this one to die hard MOH fans, people who need an online shooter for the Wii, or people who want to play something over a weekend.

KEWL
+Excellent FPS controls
+Makes good use of the Wii-Zapper
+Some motion controls are good and immerse you in the action
+Arcade mode is a nice alternative
+Cool multiplayer mode for Wii-only owners
+Guns are nicely detailed
+Excellent sound
+Shooting Axis group members may never get old
+Replay value

LAME
-Enemy and ally AI is still dumb as bricks
-Cloned story
-Level designs are way too linear
-Respawning enemies!!
-enemies that appear out of thin air!!
-Forced weapon changes in arcade mode
-Graphics are mostly bland and ugly
-People who also own a PS3 or 360 have much better multiplayer games than this
-It's just getting old…

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/07

Game Release: Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (US, 11/13/07)