Medal of Honor Frontline

"Is This Game Worthy Of A Purple Heart ?"

After hearing all the hype this game generated throughout the PC gaming world I was happy to hear EA was making
another MOH game but this time its different, and its for the big green box! So after buying the game and playing the First Mission / Intro I had a mixed bag of feelings towards the game in question. So I'll break it down into the respected categories.

Story - 9
The story line(s) in MOH:FL are amazingly accurate. You play as Patterson, a skilled army cadet and you faithfully re-live true war story's, you remember how your Grandpa used to tell you how he took out a compound that were making U-Boats single handed every Christmas? Well you get to do it, and its all strung together with actual World War 2 footage along with some history lessons. A lot of detail and thought has gone into making the story(s) for this game extremely believable and is what kept me coming back for more.

Graphics - 6
From the off I was amazed, the graphics were slick and detailed whilst moving at a constant 60 FPS. I was blown away (literally) but as I got further into the game I started to think they were not really all that. The colors are bland and don't have an awful lot of variety but what do you expect in a WWII game? There is absolutely no bump mapping, if you go up to a wall its flat, drab and dull. Not something you want so see in a 2002/2003 game. The character models are in a world of their own, they stand out to the fullest, awesome detail and semi-realistic looking faces and mouth movements. Defiantly the best looking part of the game. When you play the First Mission you will be astounded at how much is going on, not to spoil much here but you start of re-living D-Day. Your on a boat with about 7 comrades sneezing, coughing and doing other various realistic actions which add a lot of atmosphere to the game, the leader is giving you commands while all around you boats are being blown out of the water, planes flying over head and a beach so full of action you will question how on earth any console on this earth can pull this off at such a smooth frame rate. But after the 1st level, you adjust to the game and each level is just pretty much the same, dull. All in all, you can tell its a PS2 port.

Sound - 10
This is were the game really shines, if you have the right set up that is. Hearing the game through a Dolby Digital 5.1 Hi-Fi just blows your mind, you hear Germans talking behind you, gun shots flying past your head, foot steps that keep you alert. It is a true experience hearing the crystal clear sounds, hats off to EA for creating a sound system that other developers should follow. The music again is awesome, EA took no expense in recreating the whole WWII experience and got a full orchestra and choir to make some of the most faithful sounding pieces to suit the era in which the game was set. Many kudos to EA for this.

Gameplay - 5
First off I just want to say that 2 marks were taken off this factor due to mid level saving. There is nothing worse(especially in the later levels) than getting to the end of a level then dying, you have to go right back to the start. And it can get REALLY tiring. Some levels can seem immensely long. Now that's out of the way why else didn't this game get a perfect score? Well the missions are packed with variety but they failed to pull them all off with succession. Disarm Bombs, Disable Cars, Blow Up Bridge... everything just involves walking up to the main thing which is highlighted with a big red box and pressing 'A', not that difficult or fun huh. Other things that bring down this game is the AI, its lame, there is no sense of stealth incorporated in this game and they have 20/20 vision you could spend 20 minutes searching for the enemy firing away at you to find he is a speck in the distance, AND HE IS SHOOTING YOU WITH A MACHINE GUN? If he had a sniper rifle it would have been ok but come on. This can be very annoying. To be fair there is some good fun to be had. Its your regular FPS shooter, blam blam blam, next room, blam blam blam, activate switch, blam blam blam die.. repeat. Its just missing something that would make it that good bit better, also it was sad to see the lack of help you got in Allied Assault, you rarely have other people helping you out.

Multiplayer - 2
Here we go, the main selling point of this game. Hah, Mr. PS2 didn't have this now did he? Well to be fair, he has the last laugh, this is a feeble attempt at adding something new to the game. There is no System Link which EA have no excuse for not implementing and NO XBOX LIVE.. what were they thinking, so what do we have? Well we have a 4 player slit screen deathmatch. That's it!! The multiplayer options are so restricted and you use the ingame levels that require at least 10 players and you have to fill them with 4!? It all doesn't add up and is certainly no fun. So EA, if your reading this.. Thanks, but no thanks.

Overall - 7
The game is good, but has way to many faults. If your going to buy a MOH game make it be Allied Assault it has so
much more going for it, better graphics (depending on your PC) and downloadable content, online play. But if you don't
have a PC or have a really old hunk a junk, then I would say rent this game before you buy it, as you could end up
coming out feeling a bit sour.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/02, Updated 12/22/02