Medal of Honor Frontline

Published by EA Games
Developed by Electronic Arts
Platform: Xbox
Released - Out Now
Price : £44.99

The Medal of Honour series made a name for itself on the PlayStation. My first encounter of it was playing the Medal of Honor Allied Assault demo on the PC and I was very impressed with the World War II themed FPS. Last year the latest instalment of the Medal of Honor series, Medal of Honor Frontline, was released on all three of the major consoles. This review looks at the Xbox version.

The game comes with 6 missions and a total of 19 levels that amongst other things gives you the chance to take part in the Normandy landings and scuttle German U-boats. The first of the missions is perhaps the best in the whole game and sees you arrive on the Normandy beaches amidst a storm of crossfire and explosions. The game has three difficulty settings that should suit all abilities but it should be mentioned that the AI is not particularly sharp on either of these difficulty settings and you'll soon find ways to outwit your enemies.

Medal of Honor Frontline is by all accounts a very satisfying experience for FPS fans. What I would have liked to have see though is more missions where you work together as a team, like the first mission. There are perhaps too many missions where you go it alone and this tends to make the game feel more like an out and out shooter rather than a World War II experience. These 'solo' missions are still enjoyable but the quality of the first mission proves that the developers are capable of so much more than standard FPS stuff.

Graphically it's fair to say that the game doesn't push the Xbox at all. As so often happens with a cross platform game, the game is originally programmed for the PlayStation 2 and the GameCube and Xbox receive slightly tweaked ports. That's not to say that the game looks bad, far from it, but the textures and character models could have looked far better. It's noticeable that there is no blood too, which is unusual for a World War II game. On the bright side though the framerate is absolutely first class and not once does it dip which considering the nature of the first mission, which is a truly cinematic depiction of the D-Day landings, is an incredible achievement. Even the multiplayer split screen mode is wonderfully smooth.

In all fairness the game is not completely accessible to deaf gamers. The introduction, and other film clips are not subtitled. None of the characters' speech is subtitled either. You can enable English subtitles to translate the German-speaking enemies but that's as far as the subtitles go. It's not all bad news though. Tutorial messages will appear onscreen in text. Pressing the back button will give you text hints from HQ and pressing the start button will give you a list of objectives with the completed ones being clearly marked. All briefings for the missions are given in text too.

The first mission can be a little overwhelming for a deaf gamer as you run about covering your men as they can move forward. Once past though the other missions are not that hectic. Keeping a close eye on the objectives screen will keep you informed of objectives that are acquired during the course of a mission, which is essential in the first mission. I was impressed with the quality of the force feedback and it was very satisfying, especially when using the machine gun. If you like to place your feet on a subwoofer whilst playing games then you'll not be disappointed with Medal of Honor Frontline as the bass is thunderous at times, particularly in the first mission (yes I know I keep mentioning it but it really is that good).
Medal of Honor is a very enjoyable game. There are problems for deaf gamers and as always this is reflected in the overall score but if you are into FPS games then this has to be on your wish list. Subtitles would have made the game even more appealing for deaf gamers but even as it stands it is well worth persevering with.

Overall Game Rating: 7.0/10
A very enjoyable World War II based FPS game. It's just a shame that it's not subtitled.

Deaf Gamers comment:
No subtitles but mission objectives, briefings, tutorial messages and HQ hints are given in text.