Medal of Honor Frontline

"Patterson. Jimmy Patterson."

Medal of Honor: Frontline for Microsoft Xbox

The Review

2002 brought with it one of the most surreal World War II experiences to be found in gaming in the form of Medal of Honor: Frontline. Everything about this title makes you feel like you're actually in theater. Did the brain child of Spielberg pay off for fans again?

The Graphics

The best place to start is in the games amazing environments. Simply put they are dead on to the actual locations the war was fought in. The development team took a trip to Europe for reference shots and it shows. Buildings can be blow apart with pieces flying everywhere and enemies will actually use what's around them for cover. Ambiance is plenty in the levels with things like farm animals or civilians to get in your way during the urban parts. Things like fire, smoke and water are also very realistic which adds even more ambiance to the experience.

Character models while good aren't up to par with the rest of the graphics. The faces are well done but the bodies tend to have a block appearance to them. It's a first person game so it's not that big a problem and fortunately for us the weapon models are every bit as good as the environments. All the weapons are authentic and look like their real world counterparts.

Score:9/10

The Sound

The best part of the game is the sound. It's perfect. The voice acting is great and realistic. You can stalk up to enemies without alerting them and listen in as they converse in German with each other, you attack and the yell warning to each other and even the non-violent NPC's converse with each other in the language used in the level your in; be it Dutch or any other.

Battle sounds are also dead on. The sound is in stereo so you can tell where the shots are coming from and each weapon makes such a distinctive sound you can tell what it is shooting at you so you can make proper plan to retaliate. All the weapons, on both fronts, are recorded from the actual weapons for authenticity. Even the M1-Garands distinctive and dangerous loud clap as the clip is ejected is here. Was it needed? No but it helps add to the realism as it was part of the real weapon and the in game enemy will react to it the same way they did in the war, by knowing your empty and they will attack promptly.

Also featured is rich ambient sound. You can hear planes in the skies, mortars seconds before they arrive, half tracks moving more enemy in or even a tank on the other side of the level. You might actually find yourself ducking as the sound of mortars comes in ear.
All of this is backed up with a soundtrack that rivals even the best of Star Wars games. As you fight you're treated to climatic, daring and heart pounding original music recorded with a live symphony.

Score:10/10

Gameplay

You play as Lt. Jimmy Patterson on special assignment to OSS in over 19 daring missions. You'll take part in the biggest offensives of the war including Market Garden and D-Day. You'll make an appearance at the famous “a bridge to far” and even infiltrate a German party to recover a cache of spy material. You'll drop in behind enemy lines escorting a tank demolishing crew or have to stage a fight with drunk Germans to get information. As you play you'll have the opportunity to meet up with civilians that will help in the war effort or just drive you around.

A.I. in the enemies is sharp and realistic. They take cover, run for back up, have to reload, use team work and even throw themselves on your grenade to save their buddies. With such great A.I. in the enemies it's a shame that the A.I. for your allies is so dumb. Most of the time they run right out in to fire only to get mowed down, you'll even see the pull grenade pins and hold them until it explodes. Not sure what happened here in development but it's really a downer and takes you out of the experience.

Also hear is a multiplayer mode added specifically for the XBOX version. It's not much, featuring only 4 player deathmatches on maps ripped from the games levels but it's better then nothing and is fun in small doses. A co-op mode would have done wonders especially with the dumb ally A.I.

Score:8/10

Controls

Controls are everything in a console shooter and luckily those found here are great. Featuring the now standard duel stick aim/strafe control scheme and re-mappable buttons the game is a breeze to control. Basic layout is copied straight from Halo in fact so they had FPS fans in mind. There is however a big problem with the controls in the melee button, its reaction time seems to be slow making it almost useless. You'll swing your rifle only to have the enemy duck before the animation even begins. You can also turn vibration on or off and there is a handy grenade cook time option. Basically it allows you to pull the pin and hold the grenade to shorten the length of time it takes to explodes. This keeps the Germans on their toes, by the time one runs over to kick it out of the way it blows their legs off. Talk about fun.

Score: 8/10

Overall

Even with the downfall in the area of team A.I. you still won't find a more realistic, deep and ambient World War II experience including subsequent Medal of Honor games. With this games age you can find it for less then ten dollars used. Pick this one up. You won't be disappointed.

Overall Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/05