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Killing Nazis.
It’s been a staple of
video gaming since the stick-figure mayhem in the awful Escape
From Castle Wolfenstein series of Commodore 64 fame. Why is
killing Nazis so damned fun? Simple – Nazis deserve to die. You can
feel GOOD about killing them. At the end of the day there is nothing
quite like a cold beer, a good game, and a pile of dead German
socialists.
Last year’s Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
for the PC was a shining example of how a historically grounded
shooter could be fun and historic at the same time. The gameplay
mechanics were in no way original, but so compelling that I gladly
died and re-started at Omaha Beach at least 20 times before I made
it to the seawall. It was for the good of the free world, and I’d do
it again. Plus, I got to kill an assload of Nazis.
Enter Frontline, the third installment
of the MoH series, and now on XBOX. How does MoH:F
stack up against its PC counterpart? Maybe it’s the battle fatigue
talking, but the experiences are really too different to pick a
favorite.
The Sounds of WAR
The very first thing that really blew me away
about this game was the audio. When I watch a war movie, I turn the
sound up until each gunshot rings in my ears and the explosions
confuse and disorient my dog… I also firmly believe that this is how
video games should be played, and I practice this belief whenever
the wife allows it.
At the title screen (twenty seconds after
loading the disc) I knew I was in for an aural feast, as the
distinct chatter of a Browning Automatic Rifle swept across
my living room. The Medal of Honor logo spilled tiny chunks
of debris onto my living room floor, in front and behind my
game-playing chair. When the surround-sound effects are this good on
the title screen, you know damned well from the start that the
developers put some serious effort into this aspect of the game.
The audio during actual gameplay doesn’t
disappoint. Each weapon has a distinct, realistic sound when fired.
A bolt action rifle will give off a loud crack, followed by a
rumbling echo that lessens as you move away from the shooter.
Pistols and submachine guns give off a flat, low pitched crack and
no echo. When being fired upon, the player can often tell where the
shooter is just by listening for his position. Every single bullet
passes from the shooter and across to the rear channels (or the
front if it comes from behind), giving the player a real feeling
that he is right there in the fray – a la Saving Private Ryan.
The voice acting is well done and the NPC
voices in the game are high quality audio. The directional effects
are laid on thick as airplanes scream by, strafing the ground with
heavy caliber fire. Most gamers don’t care about audio as much as I
do (if at all), but if you’ve got a stereo system that can do it
justice, this game will blow you away.
Looks Good, Less Filling
While it looks great for a multi-platform
release, MoH:F is yet another XBOX title that falls short of
the graphical capabilities of the system. It would have been nice to
see this game developed on the XBOX first and improved upon from its
PC brother, but XBOX owners will have to settle for improved
graphics (albeit slightly) over the PS2 version, minimal multiplayer
support and a more solid framerate. With the exception of these
minor improvements, this is the same game as the PS2 version - so
don’t bother picking this one up if you’ve already had your fill of
Frontline on the PS2.
The texture quality is generally low, with the
exception of the other soldiers. Muddy concrete textures abound and
blurry splotches of green and yellow represent grass. Glass a dull
and milky look to it, with little or no hint of any reflection
effects. The ocean at Omaha Beach is covered by a single layer of
animated water texture and does not roll or chop (even as dozens of
boats travel through it) until you get near the shore, where the
tiled flatness is broken up by unimpressive wave effects.
Explosions and particle effects are adequately
done, but nothing that any gamer hasn’t seen in any other FPS in the
last half-decade. Lighting effects are pretty much non-existent and
I failed to notice any real-time shadows.
The exceptions to the graphical mediocrity are
few. The player’s hand and gun models are very detailed and well
animated. The faces of the character models are equally detailed and
well animated, although the soldiers in the game tend to look a lot
like multiple sets of very unattractive brothers. The lip-synching
to the dialogue is believable for the most part, although the head
of the speaker sometimes looks right at you regardless of the
position of the neck and body. The effect gives the creepy
impression that a bobbing, two-dimensional talking head has been
pasted onto the bodies of others soldiers.
For the complete lack of individually polished
visuals, this game does not look bad overall. The visuals tend to
blend well, creating a fairly convincing WWII battlefield. Overall
the graphics lay a serviceable groundwork for a solid shooter, and
that is good enough in this case.
It’s No Wonder They Lost the War
The Germans in this game are possibly the
dumbest opponents I have ever faced. Dead bodies clipping through
walls after falling down doesn’t seem to happen, but this comes at a
cost: enemies will run into a dead comrade and stop cold while still
in the running animation. Similar problems occur when the AI
encounters a corner of a table or box on the ground; they keep on
running without ever actually moving. If a German sees the player
they will instantly give chase and start shooting, if the player
ducks behind cover they will stop and wait. This seems like a good
idea in theory, (as they will not rush into a bottleneck to be
slaughtered) but a grenade tossed around the corner will kill
everyone as they stand around waiting for you.
To sum up the German AI: they will stand around
and do nothing until they see or hear you, at which point they will
individually attack you until they no longer see you. That’s it. No
group tactics, no avoiding grenades, no searching around corners –
nothing.
War is Ugly. Ugly and Linear.
The level design in MoH:F is a mixed
bag. Some levels are large and open; some consist of a narrow
corridor that must be navigated front to back. All of the levels
have a series of goals, which are met by basically making your way
through a level:
Kill this guy – I was gonna kill him anyway.
Find this guy – I’d have to go there anyway.
Find this thing – It was
sitting on a table next to the health and ammo.
The “goals” just end up being things that you
come across, making every level just a Point A to Point B killing
spree.
The upside to this type of linear gameplay is
that it allows for many scripted battles, and MoH:F shines in
this way. Many people will remember the Omaha Beach level of
MOH:AA – The developers seemed to have learned a valuable lesson
from this, as every gun battle will provide cover that can be
strategically used to exploit flaws in the enemy AI. This is
essential in the later levels, as the difficulty is ramped up simply
by giving the player fewer health power-ups. The pacing of these
memorable moments (including a slightly different Omaha Beach level,
the very first level in this game) serve as a promise to the player
that continued play will reward him/her with several such
encounters.
The control system has been redesigned for
Frontline; the result is (in this reviewer’s humble opinion) the
best mouse-keyboard to console-controller conversion so far. The
standard (WASD) left stick and (mouse) right stick, Halo style
control style provides the basic setup, although you get no
crosshair. Pressing the left trigger to aim, the camera will zoom
towards the target (the more accurate the weapon, the farther the
zoom) and a reticle will appear. While aiming, the left stick ceases
to move the player, but instead allows for leaning and peeking
control. The total control package can be utilized to great effect
once mastered.
The combat experience is pleasing overall,
although more extreme tactics soon become impossible, as the
complete lack of an in-game save feature means one mistake will send
you to the beginning of the level. At the very least a checkpoint
system should have been implemented.
Final Digs:
Frontline has slight
edge over its PC counterpart in level design and cinematic style,
though the graphics are not as sharp and the enemy AI is a lot
dumber. The control setup is so different that the core combat
mechanics are drastically changed (for the better, I think). The
stripped-down multiplayer won’t keep you interested for long, but
there is still a good amount of great single player action here.
As much as the technical shortcomings and weak
mission objectives annoyed me, I felt compelled to fire up that
mean, green machine and get one more level in before bedtime – and
that counts for something. This game would make a great rental and a
solid buy for someone looking for a quality run-and-gun FPS.
Comments were removed because I
couldn't deal.
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