Medal Of Honor Frontline

Okay okay, I know this one is an oldie, but it still has its moments it was one of the first games I owned on a next gen console (my cube) and I loved it...so I decided to hire it out on Xbox to see if I could spark a lil something up.

Everyone knows about World War two right? Big war, where a lot of work went into new technology on both sides. Millions of casualties, Nazi atrocities. You start off at Omaha beach (Normandy) on D'Day... in a small troop carrier heading into the Axis onslaught. Everything is replicated as it was in 1944, from the mass casualties to the towering Widerst and Snester built into the cliff faces to detour your landing, You Commander gives you the lay down, on simply meeting up on the beach after finding cover, and then your tub of a boat gets shelled, after this sequence the game becomes full on, you emerge from the water to find bullets whistling beside you, corpses in left right and centre, things haven’t gone to plan and your first mission is to get out of the line of fire. Once again Jimmy Patterson takes on the whole German Army with as little help as possible.

I found the controls "clunky" on my GameCube, it wasn’t the controller, my guess it that EA had tinkered with the settings sometime while porting the game to cube and Xbox. I didn’t find this problem on my Xbox however, everything seemed to move more smoothly (control wise. gun movement etc) defiantly a good thing for the 4 player split screen I was about to get into.

The enemy AI is supposed to be first rate... here is where I begin to disagree with most other reviews, the Nazi's you take on are either pretty bad shots, even on the hardest mode or not smart cookies, you usually don’t have to learn that when your enemy throws grenades, you should run like a little girl, these guys pick the grenades up blowing themselves up half the time...

Things still play out fairly well... as usual I enjoyed all my favourite levels (Nijmegen Bridge) which are based on actual happenings (the game glorifies a lot of what actually occurred. For instance in the game you are the big one man army who takes Nijmegen Bridge for the allied forces, were as in reality there was a huge battle, where several thousand American troops, and heavy machines crossed the bridge before the Germans had the chance to set up explosives).

Basically the idea, is there’s lots of Nazi's, you have lots of ammo, let the fun begin.

Its been said that I like my share of big guns, and this game has its share there are the gewehr and Springfield Rifles which will take down most Germans in one hit. The various different machine guns you will come across, rocket Launchers, Assault rifles, Grenades the whole shebang.

Apart from that there are also some times when you don’t need to use a big gun (Although lets face it... you want to use the big guns right?) In one instance you’ll find yourself in a bar causing a ruckus, then watching your handy work as two German soldiers beat the snot out of each other. I must admit though soon as I got my hands on a Gewehr I started to really enjoy the game once again.

The graphics aren't bad, but they don’t really contend with most modern FPS either people look semi realistic, and the Germans, well the Germans are looking pretty evil, although like most aspect of the game this isn’t completely true.

Funnily enough though EA claims that the game is hugely popular in Germany (for its unbiased gameplay). there are plenty of different characters, that range from frightened families, to snipers, tank commanders, naval troops, fat officers in their underwear, men in their sleeping clothes who you woke up with your gunfire, it gives the game a more realistic feel to it which does help it along.

The music fits in with the game very well, it even made "Squirly" cry at one point but on a more serious note, the music does fit in, when you see the Germans advancing up ahead and you pass a little old lady who is shaking with fear, and the orchestra starts up with its sad sorrowful music you know that they put a fair bit of work into it.

On the Xbox and GCN versions of the game there is a 4-way death match mode, with a few different gun modes, there’s Rockets, Sniper Rifles, pistols, grenades etc etc. As well as a whole host of different character models, ranging from Jimmy Patterson, to German Snipers, and a civilian on the form of a little old lady. (it looks seriously wrong the little old lady holding a bazooka and running around with the best of them) the multiplayer is a far cry from the greatness of Halo's system linking, but it is still up there with the 007 games and any other split screen multi's.

Okay your opponents aren't very bright, and the few team-mates you'll come across aren't much better, I say what AI??? As they aren't very intelligent...the few things that I found annoying the second time around was my own men running right into.

German Machine gun nests, Soldiers getting stuck in doorways and the good old "hey they’re firing off their mortars lets run towards the explosions" there are a few ones that weren’t stupid (Barnes?) but that was mainly because they were needed for me to pass the level.