"Medal Of Honor: European Assault Gets 3 Out Of 4 Bronze Stars"

At long last the latest chapter in the Medal Of Honor series has come. I was only slightly disappointed with what I thought was going to be a totally awesome game. But hey, anything is an improvement over the hemorrhage they called Rising Sun. European Assault does okay with a few new additions to the Medal Of Honor franchise. Unfortunately, most of these new additions have been done before and are not anything spectacular.

Don't get me wrong here. European Assault is still an entertaining experience. Like I said before, it is definitely a major improvement over E.A. Games expedition into the Pacific theater of World War II. For me the "Rising Sun" set rather quickly. European Assault is so much better then their prior attempt. Needless to say, I was very grateful to see some shred of honor return to Medal Of Honor.

Here is the bad news. European Assault does not stand up to Medal Of Honor: Front Line in three areas despite Front Line being around for the last three years. First of which is the control configuration. Although this is just a minor gripe. I liked being able to shoot with the X button. At least give me the option to configure my controller the way I want it. Second would be the replay value. I still play Front Line like it's going out of style. European Assault just doesn't do it for me. Third is the stat tracking. In Front Line I enjoyed having that screen pop up at the end of each mission to tell me how well I did. In this game it is practically non-existent. There is no shot counter that tells you what percent of your shots landed where.

European Assault has several additions that, while new to the Medal Of Honor series, are features that have already been introduced by other games within the genre. These features include squad commands, the new zoom/aim feature, peeking over and around obstacles, healing yourself as well as your squad, revives and rewards, and the new adrenaline rush. Some of these features are great additions while other have asking why did they even bother.

One of the more puzzling features encountered is the adrenaline rush. When activated your bullets are more accurate, time slows down, and you become invincible until the meter runs down. This is just lame. Seriously folks, It doesn't matter how much your adrenaline is pumping, a bullet to the skull will put anyone down. Time may seem to slow down to some but anyone who has been there can tell you, your accuracy does not improve. In fact it gets worse. A little reality check would have been nice.

Another new detail is squad commands. This has got to be the biggest flaw in the whole game. I guess the folks at E.A. Games never heard the old adage: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". You get all of two commands to give your squad; Attack and Retreat and your squad members don't even listen to you. Not only does your squad refuse to listen, but they also insist on getting right in front of you when you are getting ready to fire. This is a feature not worth having.

Despite the rampant stupidity of the allied A.I. you do have the ability to heal them as well as yourself. Why would you want to heal your squad if they refuse to obey orders and are constantly getting in the way? I'll answer that in the next section. This novelty is an improvement over both Rising Sun and Front Line. I really enjoyed being able to gather up several med packs and use them as needed. In the previous installments you had to back-track in order to find a health pack.

The answer to why would you want to heal your squad is this. You get rewarded if they survive the with additional med packs that you can start out with at the beginning of the next mission. You also get rewarded with revives when you accomplish the secondary and hidden objectives. Revives are basically continues. It sure beats having to start the whole mission over when you die.

Two more welcome additions are the zoom/aim and the peeking features. Neither of these details are anything ground-breaking or innovative. We have seen each in other games like Call Of Duty and Brothers In Arms. They still add a welcome change of pace to the series. I really liked how you cold duck behind cover and just barely pop up to shoot then quickly duck back again.

All in all European Assault is a pretty decent game. It is far from a stellar performance but it does a pretty good job for the genre. I suggest this for anyone looking for a newer, well priced, WWII First Person Shooter. It was a fun and entertaining experience.

My final analysis is as follows:

Graphics: 6.0-- The graphics hardly changed at all. Even a minor improvement would have been enough.

Gameplay: 8.0-- Front Line will always reign supreme in my book as the best Medal Of Honor game. As a result I wasn't too impressed but it wasn't completely awful either.

Depth: 7.5-- Some improvements would have helped. The hidden or locked objectives give you something to look for and make the game a little less linear.

Replay Value: 5.5-- Once completed European Assault was not something I wanted I wanted to pick up again. It didn't blow me away the first time. Why would it the second time?

Story:9.0-- WWII has always been a favorite subject of mine. Being able to play a game set back then will always be fun for me. I don't care what is said about the genre being played out.

Sound: 8.0-- Nothing overwhelming here because nothing was improved. However, bullets whizzing by and the RAT-A-TAT-TAT of heavy machine guns is always entertaining.

Challenge:6.5-- The challenge comes from the hidden objectives which you must seek out to uncover. Another challenge is trying to avoid shooting your squad. Killing the enemy is fairly easy. No more then two shots are needed to finish them off.

Overall:7.2-- A good effort by the war-mongers at E.A. Games. Very much improved over Rising Sun but not quite up to the standard set by Front Line. All things considered European Assault is a pretty cool game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/05