Amazon.co.uk Review
Medal of Honor returns to its console roots with this first outing on next-gen machines for Lt Jimmy Patterson. This time the setting is June 6, 1944--D Day and beyond--and the game begins with you storming the beachhead at Normandy.
Frontline definitely lives up to its name, and from the outset the action is intense. As you rush up the shingle, comrades falling beside you and artillery ringing in your ears, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were on the set of
Saving Private Ryan. Players of the PC incarnation will recognise this mission from
Allied Assault, but here is where the similarities end;
Frontline is a new game with new objectives and levels designed perfectly for the console.
If you survive D-Day you enter the real meat of the game--Operation Market Garden (Arnhem). From scuttling a U-boat to clearing checkpoints in the town itself, the missions are brilliantly designed. The true playability of the Medal of Honor series is how immersive it is: narrative, graphics and sound all combine to give you one of the most gripping first-person shooters on any format. Backgrounds are beautifully detailed, and the sound really sets the game apart. The control system is also intuitive, with the option to customise your controller or choose one of the two default options: MOH Sharpshooter (two analogue stick-control) or the original controls used in the PSone's Medal of Honor.
There are only two criticisms that can be levelled at the game. Firstly, the artificial intelligence errs on the stupid side, with enemies standing around watching comrades get shot, and although this changes with the difficulty level it never responds in a particularly "human" way. Secondly, you can only save at the end of a mission (always a feature of console conversions), so it's quite frustrating to be unceremoniously dumped right back at the beginning after battling you way through a level--but hey, this is war, after all, and these are small niggles about what is a genuinely phenomenal game. Sign up now: the Allies need you. --Kristen Bowditch--This review refers to the PlayStation 2 edition
Product Description
Medal of Honor: Frontline, the franchise's GameCube debut, features 20 levels of gameplay spread across six major missions, all based on real World War II events and all adding up to one complete and uninterrupted story line.
The game includes detailed German, British and American troops and Dutch civilians, all with full facial expressions and lip synch. More than 20 authentic WWII weapons include the Colt 45, Springfield sniper rifle, Panzerschreck rocket launcher, MG42 mounted machine gun and the Browning automatic rifle. Enemy vehicles include Panzer and Tiger tanks, trucks, motorcycles with sidecars, and armoured railway scout-cars. There are also player-driven motorised railcars, trains and mine carts.
Advanced enemy AI requires you to consistently vary your attack strategy as the situation dictates--go it alone for the utmost stealth or work as part of a highly trained military unit to wreak havoc on the enemy. The game offers intense non-combat scenarios as well, such as a disguised, weapon-less infiltration of an officers' pub brimming with Gestapo to make contact with a Dutch Resistance operative.
