Medal of Honor's finest hour

I remember back in 2002 when I lived in some small apartment sharing a bedroom with my entire family, one night that my stepdad was playing this game while we were suppose to be asleep. He was playing the Arnhem Knights level and the music sort of entranced me to the point that I had this game in the back of my mind until now. Medal of Honor used to be a big name in World World II first-person shooters back in the 5th and 6th generation of consoles with the initial idea coming from Steven Spielberg wanting to create a World War II game that could be shed some information about the war along with being an entertaining experience like Saving Private Ryan was at the time. Medal of Honor: Frontline was the first game without his involvement but I feel like it's the game that encapsulates the whole series the best for me.

Within 5 seconds of starting a new game, you're thrown into a boat on the way to Normandy with no intro or cutscene other than the poor souls on the boat with you. No orchestral movie score for this mission, the gunfire and death is enough noise for this short segment. You see a dude doing the holy spirit a few seconds before his eventual death. At the time, this entire segment was unheard of and it looked so real and seeing it almost 20 years later and it still holds up although I'm sure there are other forms of media that portrays this event well. There isn't much of a story here: you play as a OSS agent from the first game in the series as he goes around the European Front while the final half is focused on one singular important mission. Other than this replay being a nostalgic trip, there is something I came to fully appreciate now that I've learned a lot growing up which is the amazing score by Michael Giacchino. It gives the game a whole other emotional and production value in a sense that it feels like I'm playing a really good World War II movie. You get some angelic choirs in the main menu that feels like a victory theme, some songs that actually sound like something from Star Wars and then you get some slow and solemn songs like Arnhem that drench you in the reality of the situation you're in. You're gonna be mostly alone throughout your adventure doing the impossible but that's how it was during these PS2/Xbox/Gamecube World War II shooters. The gameplay is serviceable to some extent, I didn't have much problems getting used to the controls and they're fully customizable but with that said I still think you should get used to standing still while aiming for better precision because there is no way to change the analog stick's sensitivity. The sound design is something also not to be understated as well shooting guns sound really nice and hitting enemies feels and sounds satisfying during an era where there wasn't any hit markers. A nice touch is the ability to turn off the already minimal HUD that only shows your health and ammo count and have them on when something changes. All of these bring together the movie quality World War II shooter experience that I felt it was during my 8 hours of playtime throughout the campaign.

The only thing I can really say is a bit annoying about these games is the level design and enemy placement. Levels and missions felt like they progressively got harder which I did not mind but you will mostly get sniped from weird spots and it can be hard to get your bearing at times. It also feels sometimes that enemies just become gods at shooting you at Normal difficulty but it never felt too outrageous. You also have to keep in mind this was during a time where an abundance of checkpoints so you had to restart the whole level if you died and these missions can take up to 15-20 minutes if you're careful. It's all mostly some old first person shooter design here that you can eventually overcome but I figured I'd put this here in case someone expected something else.

I love first person shooters but I sorta felt disillusioned with them in recent years, you rarely get any unique experiences anymore and most of them are just multiplayer driven to the bone. It's a shame what happened with the Medal of Honor series throughout the decades but maybe it'll come back someday. With that said, Frontline was a fun excursion back to my childhood with how well made this game is. The gameplay is decent, the music score is amazing, a lot of details in the levels and enemies and a production value that almost feels unheard of at its time is something I have learned to appreciate.

Victory! "Let's bring 'em home"

This game conveys the graveness of its setting better than most WWII games.

From the main menu theme (which is one of the most gorgeous horn pieces ever composed) to the opening cutscene, from the poem at the beginning of the game to the spliced in war-time black and white footage, you can tell this was made by a different EA. A big-budget EA that still had a soul.

Medal of Honor: Frontline starts you off storming the beaches of Normandy. Rather than the exhilarating rush you get from most shooters, this is panicked and urgent. Even if you're not fully aware of the significance of that event, the game makes it clear that this is serious. Shortly afterwards, you are recruited for some "behind enemy lines" work, which will leave you more isolated for the remainder of the game. This is a sensible change of pace for a few reasons.

The game has the sincerity to portray WWII somberly, but it also knows that no one wants to be miserable for a whole campaign, so it takes you away from the deaths of allied soldiers and allows you to simply fight Nazis on their turf for the remainder of the game.

The multiplayer is practically an afterthought, so I wouldn't waste your time with it, but the campaign is really impressive. Again, I can't emphasize enough how beautiful the music is.

It's really weird to look at EA games from the early 2000s. The games were frequently earnest and connected with a lot of people. I hope that someday (maybe in response to Jedi: Fallen Order's success) they'll begin to bring that focus back to their single player titles.

I had to leave a review because I am heading into the console scene of the franchise to finish it off, and I played this one nearly a year ago.

Frontline was the first PS2 Medal of Honor game that came out the same year as Allied Assault, which was PC only. Frontline wasn't as remembered however as that game, and I can see why.

The game is a tad bit clunky, and the shooting feels a bit floaty. Soldiers still react to shots based on where you hit them, they have different ranks and uniforms, you get the idea.

What makes Frontline very lackluster compared to Allied Assault is what I already mentioned: The action does not pack a punch, it can be really dull and while the whole game has it's intense moments, the overall gameplay can be boring.

In 2003, only one year after, the sequel, Rising Sun came out...

Sips Monster

Ahh, they just don't make 'em like this anymore

One of my favorite shooters of all time and an incredibly influential and iconic game. That D-Day mission speaks for itself. Played it a lot with my dad as a kid, was a great bonding experience.

This was one of the first games that blew me away when I was a kid and made me proud to own a PS2. The opening D-Day scene took my breath away, all the explosions, the scripted scenes, the death animations, the sound, it was all here and the production values were through the roof. Looking back at it 11 years later makes throwing an egg on the floor is more excited than watching this game. While I can’t compare it to games that came after it, even back then there were issues with the game, and they just really stick out now.

Frontline’s realism dropped off after the opening level. After D-Day, you get recruited to do special missions across Europe and are a one-man-army. It’s very unrealistic when you’re running around by yourself killing squads that an entire army takes to take down. You’re blowing up fuel depots, sabotaging equipment, assassinating important Nazi figureheads and various other things. The game is solid, the scripting is still nice today, but the shooting mechanics and controls suck. There’s no aiming down the sights, instead, you just zoom in. Shooting from the hip has no reticle so this is useless. My biggest issue with the game, and even back then, was that it is insanely difficult and there are no checkpoints. If you die you restart the entire level which can be infuriating.

You have to be careful and run around finding health packs and ammo. You can pick up enemies weapons and instead are stuck with what you are given at the start unless you find a placed weapon. I did like the variety of enemies such as fat chef’s throwing knives at you, engineers, cooks, butlers, and even enemies in robes. The death animations are still nice, but where’s the damn blood?! The game almost comes off as campy because it is so far from capturing the tragedy of WWII. Even back in the day, I felt this way. The pacing of the levels is also off because some levels will be really long and tough while others are super short.

I did find that the game had some fun cheat codes, but there’s no replay value. Multiplayer wasn’t put into the PS2 version, and even the graphics are lacking. There’s a lot of aliasing and the framerate drops tremendously during explosions. Everything does look clean and you can tell a lot of time and care was put into the game. I just can’t get over how bad the aiming is, it’s so squirrely and hard to get a bead on enemies. The game has a pretty decent length campaign and is worth the cheap price if you never played this game. Frontline was one of the best WWII games for a reason because it was one of the first to really have high production values.

In the end, Frontline feels very dated, but you can see why the game was praised so much back in the day. The production values still show, but the PS2 can’t keep up with the action. The aiming is terrible and controls are all wrong, but what can you expect from an 11-year-old game?

First game I ever played.
Recently, I remember when I played Call of Duty WWII, the D-Day mission, the atmosphere was so lacking, the explosions and the bullets had no impact on you whatsoever.
And the only thing I could think of was, ''Im pretty sure MOH Frontline was way more immersive than this'' so I went on youtube and checked it out, and I was actually surprised to see that the atmosphere of this game was superior in every aspect. A game released in 2002 managed to have a better atmosphere than a 2017 game, which in games like these, is one of the most important features.

Aside from a gameboy I had as a kid, this was the first GameCube game I ever played. The night was got the system, my dad rented this game from Blockbuster. I snuck upstairs in the early morning to play it before he woke up. The D Day level struck me and felt so real at the time.
One funny memory I have with this is our lack of knowing we needed a memory card for the GameCube. Every time I played this game I had to start from the very beginning. Each time I would see how many levels I could progress.

I revisited this as I remember it being one of the first games I played frequently, although I was so young I couldn’t get past the first couple of levels, it didn’t stop me from replaying them constantly (sorry mum and dad).

I expected to play the first few levels until the nostalgia wore off and I got bored, instead I played though the whole game. The gunplay holds up pretty well, despite some annoyances (weapons can be comically inaccurate, some enemy death animations can take so long that it’s difficult to tell if they’re even dead, and the aim jolting whenever you’re hit is frustrating, especially against manned turrets and aiming with a joystick).

The presentation and level variation really carries this game, from one of the more memorable D-Day recreations, fighting across an armoured train, to an undercover mission in a large Holland manor, with libraries, clock rooms, and kitchens filled with knife throwing caterers. It does a good job of making places feel real and lived in, even though it’s still funnelling you through a linear path of nazi blasting.

Call of Duty definitely blows this game out of the water when it comes to set pieces, large explosive battles, and responsive gunplay, but this game still offers a lot of charm with it’s levels that feel like they were made with a great deal of care. Plus it’s just good wholesome fun shooting hundreds of nazis.