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"
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"