Review: Medal of Honor Heroes (PSP)

World Wars have been quite a boon in retrospect, aside from the vast amounts of death and carnage. Has anything else provided so much entertainment? Where would we be without them? The British film industry spent at least fifteen years profiting from it with movies constantly appearing right up to the present day. And then of course there is television, from the gritty realism of Band of Brothers to the somewhat less gritty Dad's Army. If anything is keeping the thought of millions dying for our entertainment alive though it has to be videogames.

In fact, GameStyle has spent the last few days unlocking new outfits to wear on multiplayer battlefields for killing hundreds of Germa...Axis troops. From pyjama's to naval outfits, each becomes a wearable piece of fashion once a certain body-count has been reached. And if killing fifty men isn't worth being able to run around a battlefield in your bed clothes, what is?

GameStyle isn't usually one to get on a high-horse about such things as most gamers have enjoyed similar games at one point or another but here things just feel...wrong. It never feels like more than a skin put over the levels, change a few signs, a little bit of architecture and the age of the weapons and it could be passed off as a "simulation" of Iraq, Chechnya or Yugoslavia. There is no thought behind making it a game set in the World War other than the graphics and that ruins the game as much as it’s many other flaws.

In fact, little has been done to make it a game at all really, at least in single player. That's not to say that all the tick boxes the back of any World War shooter haven't been ticked, but little more. Yes, there are a range of weapons. Yes, you fight across a range of countries. No, the missions aren't all identical. And possibly most importantly, it's a PSP exclusive so that will generate some sales.

And yet...none of that matters. That list of features doesn’t improve the game, it’s just a list of stuff every game should have and every game does have. It's how they're put together that matters the most and that is where the game falls down. If this is a good game, a child completing a paint-by-numbers picture is art of the highest quality. Enemies walk towards you, shooting. You shoot back. No thought from the enemy, little required from the player. Missions are as complicated as the multiplayer modes of most games (even this game). Stand next to flags while killing things. Walk (emphasis on walk – don’t think your war heroes have considered running more than a few metres a good idea) to a certain point and back. Even "Kill 30 enemies" at one point, proving how unbelievably uninspired the levels are. Even worse, the game doesn't even try to hide respawn points. Take a left when it wanted you to go right and you'll be killing an infinite army of enemies appearing endlessly from the living room of a small house.

It's so utterly pointless. There is never any involvement in the action, it's simply walk there, do that, done. Technically, you also have a team of soldiers working with you, but they're hardly worthy of comment. Apart from repeatedly shouting "I'm reloading" all they do is fire in the general direction, mostly missing. Sometimes they run off and are never seen again. Oh, and sometimes they'll announce "Man down! Medic!" generating such responses as "Meh" and "Pfft" from the player. It really is hard to convey how basic this game is, it's as if the last 7 years of FPS history haven't happened. It really is only fair to compare this to the PSOne Medal of Honour games and it doesn't even come out that well then.

Outside of the game, is more of a mixed bag. Presentation is excellent, menus are neat, vintage video clips work well but briefings are simply three screens of text read out. The game makes use of previous heroes of the series but does nothing to develop characters, they're entirely faceless. Why they've bothered to re-use characters when it could be anyone is most perplexing.

And yet after all this, it's still going to get a reasonable score. Why? Because the online multiplayer is good fun. It's suffers a bit of lag and deaths are a bit too frequent, especially if you are terrible at it like GameStyle, but with 32 players running around, games that are quick and easy to get into and a (almost impossible to use, but appreciated anyway) chat function for communication and you've got a pretty impressive online package. There are a range of modes, but the choice is slim, straight death-matches as well as variations on assault and domination, but with 32 people who cares? Just kill some folk. It’s hard to get the hang of, but probably worth it.

So, if you want a handheld shooter to play online (an MP-PSP-FPS, if you will) then this is a good choice. PSP controls are never going to be perfect, but they aren’t terrible here. If you want a single player game do not touch this with a barge pole, it's uninspired, boring and unbelievably dated. More dated than the constantly revitalised World War will ever be, at least.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Andrew Revell