A few months ago Rune, who is known among the Inuit as "He Who Brings Linkage" sent unto me a link to a trailer for an upcoming game. In the video, I saw the most realistic video game reenactment of the storming of Omaha beach I've ever seen. The sounds, the explosions, men dying all around you..... The whole thing was just plain sweet, and I couldn't wait to get my paws on this one and give 'er a try. That trailer was for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a much anticipated World War 2 shooter based on the Quake III engine. (Interestingly enough, the second such game to come out in the last few months, the first being of course the excellent and highly entertaining Return to Castle Wolfenstien.) Well MOH:AA is finally out, and the FRAGtopia testing and review imps (FT&RI (tm)) finally have their hot little hands on it. Is it worth it?? You're about to find out one imp's opinion.

Story/Plot

In MOH:AA, you play the part of Mike Powell, a Lieutenant in the US Army. As you complete levels you'll move through though the campaigns and battlefields of World War II, (1942 to 1945) from the beaches of Normandy, to Axis sub bases in Norway, and the heart of the enemy, Berlin itself. At the start of each major stage of the campaign you'll receive a video briefing that lays out your overall goals for the upcoming segment, gives you a little background information and data on the war and how it's going so far. Each mission has it's own short briefing that gives you the background, information and goals for that phase of the operation. In game you can also pull up a quick listing of your goals, including which ones are completed, and what tasks you have yet to accomplish. There's also a nice little arrow on your compass. It points to your next goal, and also gives you an idea of how far away from it you are. It saved my ass quite a few times in some areas, where I was right on the goal (Literally, in the case of the Alter in the French church) and didn't know it. It's a good idea to read the briefing at the start of each mission. Kingpin never does, and he seems to spend time wondering WTF he's supposed to do next. Mission goals range from retrieval of downed pilots and documents to destroying trains, scuttling a U-boat and plain old "kill everything with a swastika on it" assaults.

Gameplay

It's a shooter. Get a gun, kill Nazis. End story.

Graphics/The World

Overall, the graphics in MOH:AA are excellent, as we've come to expect from games using the Quake III engine. The world of war torn Europe is excellently rendered, especially the towns and villages. The only map I've seen that compares to these is Caen from Day of Defeat. Not sure what it is though, but some of the levels just don't seem quite complete. There are some halls in the game that simply go nowhere, and some rooms are just completely empty. A little more detail would have been appreciated. Other areas of the game are detailed as hell, with nice touches such as guard rails, pipes and wiring on the walls. As a complete whole, the levels are pretty well done, and are alot of fun to play through, but there's just a little something missing. The faces on the character models also look a little plasticy. Levels range from the beaches of Normandy and a German sub base in Norway to Berlin itself, and the countryside of France. With such a huge variety of levels, it's unlikely you're going to get bored with the game anytime soon... And there are 30 or so levels making up this game :)

The only real major graphical problem I have with the game is the first person weapon models. While they look excellent in third person, in first they look spindly and short. This is the same thing I bitched about with Delta Force 3. The M1 Garand for instance, looks about 12" long from your perspective. I really don't like crappy gun models, and really feel that they detract from the feel and realism of a game. If only everyone releasing commercial products could do as good a job on them as the guys from the Counter-Strike team did. Oh, and the sky isn't animated. I'm not sure why that bothers me, it just does. On the other hand all the trees and plants in the game sway in the breeze, which looks simply amazing. There's also realistic weather effects such a rain and snow. It's rather amazing to be inside a building and hear a storm... And see the shadows in the room change with the lightening strikes outside.

Sounds/Music

Wow. Sound and music are definitely one of the strong points of this game! Obviously the sound guys spent a fair amount of time getting the audio portion of the game down right! Bullets zip as they impact near you, rockets and artillery roar, dirt and water rain down from nearby strikes. The wind moans, and rifle shots echo realistically. Planes (which you can actually see, very cool.) roar overhead on bombing and strafing runs. Weapons sound excellent, even down to the distinctive "ting!" of a Garand ejecting a spent clip. Your teammates yell warnings and comments back and forth as they fight and die. (Mostly die, as we'll cover in a few minutes.) The music is well done as well, very martial and really gets you into the mood when you're playing.

As an interesting note, the voice acting in the game actually doesn't suck. :)