Baz
1st January 2005, 21:17
I feel the need to voice my opinion of this game, having gone out and spent hard given woolworths vouchers on it.
what the hell happened?
I have fond memories of Medal of honour: allied assualt. It was the first PC FPS i bought myself, storming ohama beach was a heart pounding experiance, the game was fairly balanced, and if played on hard, was fairly challenging. The game was atmospheric, the production values were excellent and although the AI was dodgy in places, it held up well. Although eclipsed now by CoD, MOh:AA is still a perfectly good game.
Which beggers the reason as to just how badly they have messed this new installment up. Firstly the idea of you moving with a consistent squad (allowing for decent character development and concern) is great, but the implementation sucks. I find it hard to care about my comrades when they rarely fire thier weapons, refuse to advance on thier own, only following you, and eventually only act as bullet magnets allowing you the time to get off a shot at the enemy.
The level design also astonished me as to how poor it was. For those who havnt played the game, it goes something like....
Jungle path - village with japs - jungle path - village with japs - fixed emplacement shooting gallery - jungle path.
and that, for the most part is it. rinse wash, repeat.
However, even with all these, it doesnt make the game terrible. What makes this game so mind numbingly, skull crushingly unbearable is the enemy AI. If you stay behind cover, occasioanlly pearing round a corner to place fire on your enemies, you die. Every time. However, rushing forward (while the aformentioned squad of "buddies") hide behind rocks and tell you that your being foolish,) spraying the enemy with any weapon, then fleeing back behind cover works wonders. Swathes of japanese infantry fall at your feet as they panic at the sight of a solitary insane man wielding a pistol whilst his 3 scared friends crap themselves behind nearby rocks. Obviously the japanese were expert marksmen, but crumbled under preasure.
Another gripe - No medi-kits! instead you must wait for your handy medic ("Jimmy") so come to your aid. Except he can only heal you twice every mission. He'll merrily heal your felled squadmates dozens of times, but when you call for aid you get a veritable "sod off." Its a great idea (the medic characters in HL2 showed this) but HORRIBLY executed.
So after a few hours of walking through identical jungles, shooting identical faceless japanese with identical madman rushes, the game now lies uninstalled. I cannot believe that EA has released such a terrible game under such a well respected label as the MoH seris.
But perhaps i'm being hasty, I have been trying to play the game on hard. But whereas CoD and HL2 were challenging, but not impossible on thier harder difficulty levels, this is insane. 3 hits leads to death. 2 medic heals a misson, perhap 40-50 enemies a time, and a useless squad means you get the feeling that your not only taking on the ENTIRE japanese army single handedly, but also that your doing so with a paintbal gun. A rubbish one. And this is on Hard - theres a realistic difficultly level above that.
In short i hate this game. I loathe it. Its a testement to rushing a game out for the festive season and ending up with a total turkey, when it should have been a decent continuation of the brand. If your tempted to spend your crimbo money or vouchers on this - think again.
what the hell happened?
I have fond memories of Medal of honour: allied assualt. It was the first PC FPS i bought myself, storming ohama beach was a heart pounding experiance, the game was fairly balanced, and if played on hard, was fairly challenging. The game was atmospheric, the production values were excellent and although the AI was dodgy in places, it held up well. Although eclipsed now by CoD, MOh:AA is still a perfectly good game.
Which beggers the reason as to just how badly they have messed this new installment up. Firstly the idea of you moving with a consistent squad (allowing for decent character development and concern) is great, but the implementation sucks. I find it hard to care about my comrades when they rarely fire thier weapons, refuse to advance on thier own, only following you, and eventually only act as bullet magnets allowing you the time to get off a shot at the enemy.
The level design also astonished me as to how poor it was. For those who havnt played the game, it goes something like....
Jungle path - village with japs - jungle path - village with japs - fixed emplacement shooting gallery - jungle path.
and that, for the most part is it. rinse wash, repeat.
However, even with all these, it doesnt make the game terrible. What makes this game so mind numbingly, skull crushingly unbearable is the enemy AI. If you stay behind cover, occasioanlly pearing round a corner to place fire on your enemies, you die. Every time. However, rushing forward (while the aformentioned squad of "buddies") hide behind rocks and tell you that your being foolish,) spraying the enemy with any weapon, then fleeing back behind cover works wonders. Swathes of japanese infantry fall at your feet as they panic at the sight of a solitary insane man wielding a pistol whilst his 3 scared friends crap themselves behind nearby rocks. Obviously the japanese were expert marksmen, but crumbled under preasure.
Another gripe - No medi-kits! instead you must wait for your handy medic ("Jimmy") so come to your aid. Except he can only heal you twice every mission. He'll merrily heal your felled squadmates dozens of times, but when you call for aid you get a veritable "sod off." Its a great idea (the medic characters in HL2 showed this) but HORRIBLY executed.
So after a few hours of walking through identical jungles, shooting identical faceless japanese with identical madman rushes, the game now lies uninstalled. I cannot believe that EA has released such a terrible game under such a well respected label as the MoH seris.
But perhaps i'm being hasty, I have been trying to play the game on hard. But whereas CoD and HL2 were challenging, but not impossible on thier harder difficulty levels, this is insane. 3 hits leads to death. 2 medic heals a misson, perhap 40-50 enemies a time, and a useless squad means you get the feeling that your not only taking on the ENTIRE japanese army single handedly, but also that your doing so with a paintbal gun. A rubbish one. And this is on Hard - theres a realistic difficultly level above that.
In short i hate this game. I loathe it. Its a testement to rushing a game out for the festive season and ending up with a total turkey, when it should have been a decent continuation of the brand. If your tempted to spend your crimbo money or vouchers on this - think again.