Review: Medal Of Honor Airborne (360)

Heroic music? Check. Inspirational quotes? Check. A series of historically accurate battles? Check. Whilst other WWII inspired franchises are starting to abandon mankind’s most devastating conflict as a source of inspiration, the Medal of Honor series remains true to its roots for this, its eleventh instalment.

In an attempt to rejuvenate a tired formula, Airborne tries to employ a non-linear method of undertaking missions by casting the player as a rookie paratrooper, Boyd Travers. This means jumping out of a plane at the start of each mission (and after each subsequent death) and picking a landing spot anywhere in the battle zone. Once on the deck, you can tackle the mission objectives in any order you see fit. It’s a novel idea and melee kicking an enemy to death as you land on his head is always amusing. However, the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Green flares mark safe landing zones and generally landing outside of these zones will see you rewarded with being cut down by a hail of enemy gunfire. Often you’ll find yourself floating towards the landing zone as if you hadn’t a care in the world while enemies shoot at you to their heart’s content. Whilst this is probably historically accurate; we’re sure the Nazis didn’t actually wait for the Allies to land before shooting them; in a video-game, getting shot at without the opportunity to retaliate is irritating to say the least.

The novelty of being able to tackle each mission’s objectives in any order soon wears off. If it actually made any difference to the way the levels played out then maybe Airborne would have a little more to shout about. However, as it stands there’s no reason why you might tackle one objective ahead of another and consequently Gamestyle often found ourselves simply tackling the nearest objective, before hearing on to the next closest. It’s not as if the mission objectives are even that exciting - it’s the same old destroy this munitions dump, knockout that radio equipment, blow-up this AA gun emplacement that we’ve all done ad nauseum. Granted, we weren’t expecting to repel an alien invasion or evade a shark in a WWII FPS, but surely more thought could have gone into mission structure given EA would have us believe this in a new take on the genre. In fact, Airborne takes on a distinctly linear feel as after completing the initial objectives, there are often times when you find yourself shepherded into “go here, do that” objectives one after another, with no option to tackle them in anything but a set order, exactly as you might expect to in every other WWII FPS.

That said, having a free-roaming level isn’t all bad, although it must be said the levels aren’t huge and you are still constrained by invisible walls at times. Searching for hidden weaponry and, more importantly, ways to flank the enemy does introduce a genuinely new twist to this most hackneyed of genres. There’s a basic cover system as well and while it’s not on a par with Rainbow Six Vegas, being able to aim down your gun’s sights and lean out of or over the top of cover is a welcome addition, adding a previously missing element of strategy to fire fights.

Weaponry has also been given an overhaul, with each available weapon having three levels of proficiency to master, by killing lots of people, with each level completed upgrading the weapon in some way. This adds an impetus to master each gun and grenade as a fully upgraded weapon is inevitably superior. Even the standard pistol sidearm is a force to be reckoned with when upgraded. A good thing to, given the game’s ropey collision detection. It’s not uncommon to empty an entire clip at an enemy, only for them to run blithely on as if nothing had happened. Head shots, frequently don’t kill and sometimes don’t even seem to cause damage. When our own poor aim lets us down, that’s one thing. To be left feeling cheated by poor game mechanics is another entirely. Worse still is that these defects don’t appear to affect your enemies, who will happily mow you down with MP40 fire whilst you’re still trying to work out why that inch perfect shot from the Springfield didn’t even slow them down. It’s not only the collision detection that is weak, but the AI is also lacking as well. Both your Airborne comrades and the Nazis run in to and out of cover repeatedly and for no apparent reason other than to make easy targets of themselves and although the Nazis are deadly accurate, the Airborne couldn’t hit the proverbial barn door.

Although Airborne presents itself as being serious and without a hint of irony, the game takes rather a silly turn by the time the last few levels come around, a lot sooner than you might expect them to - Airborne can be completed in around ten hours by even a relative FPS novice. Pansershrek armed soldiers litter the levels for no apparent reason other than to make things difficult. However, they barely compare to the ludicrous “Nazi Storm Elite” who carry handheld MG42s, dress in black, wear gas masks for no apparent reason and are capable of ending your life in mere moments.

It’s not until you get online with Airborne that parachuting into battle makes real sense. Two of the three game modes allow the Allies to parachute into the level, meaning they can essentially spawn anywhere whilst the Germans start on the ground and can try and pick off the Allies on their descent. This adds a welcome new dynamic to even the standard deathmatch and with small, well crafted maps, with plenty of ruined buildings to explore the multiplayer mode is arguably more satisfying than the single player.

Medal of Honor Airborne offers up some genuinely interesting ideas to freshen up the series and the genre as a whole. It’s just a shame that they are let down by the game’s shoddy mechanics. That Call of Duty 2, a two year old PC port offers a better gaming experience speaks volumes.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Andy Lucas