Medal of Honor: European Assault – Review

Life as a progressive gaming franchise isn’t easy. Past quality is often hard to surpass, and the weight of consumer and industry expectation can be telling—no matter the final product. Electronic Arts’ first Medal of Honor console title, Medal of Honor: Frontline, embarked on a largely successful tour of duty across all major platforms; though it didn’t escape without wounds thanks to intermittent bursts of critical flak. By way of contrast, Rising Sun, as both an immediate sequel and EA’s second foray onto the corpse-strewn WWII battlefield, was widely received as a severe gaming disappointment when compared with its predecessor and the host of available alternatives. However, the critical flak aimed at Rising Sun was far from intermittent, and each roaring explosion that rocked its arrival was well aimed, well delivered, and thoroughly well deserved.

However, wars are not won based upon the outcomes of singular conflicts. And though Rising Sun’s poor execution was perhaps the result of ill-advised strategic positioning by the commanding officers at EA, the tide of battle had not yet turned. While Medal of Honor could no longer claim to be the staunch flag bearer for WWII authenticity and immersion, surely any succeeding edition would be the defining moment for the destiny of the series.

Thankfully, EA has distributed its considerable forces with exhaustive strategic planning, and Medal of Honor: European Assault artfully flanks the competition as a welcome return to form for the long-standing FPS franchise. That said, any resultant glory brought before European Assault will need presenting via the field hospital, as—like Frontline before it—there are some light shrapnel wounds to be hauled away from the battle.

Generally, first-person shooters don’t often lend themselves to a free-roaming environment. Indeed, today’s players now find it customary to be moving on gameplay rails while applying the ‘one-man army’ doctrine to incessant waves of death-hungry opponents. Through cramped alleys, tunnels, and factories, or along restrictive jungle paths, and set-piece clearings, the Medal of Honor series suffers the label more than most. European Assault actively addresses this gameplay failing by throwing its central character—OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent, Lt. William Holt—into massively consuming battle arenas that laudably camouflage their underlying linear structures. Moreover, Holt is not expected to obliterate the Axis war machine with nothing more than an expansive arsenal and a generous smattering of health packs. A compact squad of infantry (usually 3) is at his disposal during the game; though, occasionally, mission objectives temporarily separate Holt from his troops. The squad follows without question, supplies valuable covering fire, and also forges forward (a tad blindly) to whichever on-screen locale the player highlights.

In terms of variety and asset, European Assault’s limited squad mechanics are a little disappointing, particularly when placed beside those available in Brothers in Arms or Full Spectrum Warrior. Arbitrarily dispatching the entire squad—singular separation is not possible—from corner to corner provides significant health coverage for Holt (the coward!) but swiftly reduces his faithful squad to mere blood-soaked memories. There’s no direct opportunity to utilize squad members for suppression while stealthily attempting to outflank enemies and, in reality, deploying the troops on victory charges of martyrdom often becomes the player’s only tactical option. That said, the very existence of your squad is not without purpose. Keeping them alive from mission to mission gifts the player with bonus health packs—one for each surviving squad member—though this does feel tacked on to force squad interest rather than inspire a genuine passion for player interaction.

Through 11 expansive missions, based across four separate historic instances within WWII’s European archives, it’s Holt’s mission to track and eliminate high-ranking German officers attempting to execute nefarious plans to swing the pendulum of fate in favor of the Nazis. Though not an obvious deluge of missions, each one plays out upon sprawling and open battlegrounds, which all ably sidestep the dulling sensation of linear progress. Holt is dispatched to each location with central primary objectives relating to the overall narrative, which must be successfully completed in order to continue. And beyond these varying primary requirements are non-specific secondary objectives that are uncovered by accessing certain parts of each mission’s landscape. Though not prerequisite for advancement, completion of the secondary objectives will grant a ‘gold’ assessment on Holt’s service record and directly contribute toward his attaining mission-based medals.

European Assault’s open arenas provide a new dimension of frantically emotional player involvement to the Medal of Honor franchise and, if built upon, could certainly provide an evolving gameplay facet to future iterations. The game’s defined feeling of vulnerability amid death and destruction is perhaps never more apparent than during the final mission where crossing perilously long stretches of no-man’s land is required before storming a heavily guarded bunker. Navigating through barbed wire, trenches, craters, and corpses is made all the more dangerous by the constant attentions of mounted machine-guns, tank emplacements, and unfailingly accurate enemy troops. The infamous opening beach invasion from Frontline has been equaled here—if not bettered—and, more importantly, the emotional tension encapsulated within this final mission is recurrent throughout the entire European Assault experience.

Also new to the Medal of Honor gaming mechanic is the appearance of an Adrenaline meter. Players can now fill a small on-screen meter by successfully delivering head shots, dispatching multiple enemies with well-timed grenades, applying medical treatment to squad members, and even battling opponents in direct melee attacks. When full, a single button press unleashes the stored adrenaline within the meter; temporarily blurring vision and slowing time, granting unlimited ammo and also invincibility as true heroic courage bursts forth. While undeniably entertaining—and useful—for achieving moments of advantage, the Adrenaline meter’s inclusion is both gimmicky and misplaced within a gaming franchise that continually reaches for new levels of historic accuracy.

Graphically speaking, European Assault further reiterates EA’s stance of producing gritty and battle-scarred visuals devoid of unnecessary gloss and polish. From convincingly bombed out towns and nausea-inducing rag-doll physics, to the deeply satisfying explosions, smoke effects, and weapon sounds, every detail is skillfully crafted to be apparent and complementary, yet always cleverly and subtly integrated. Oddly, considering today’s hardware power and the achievements of other genre titles, NPC faces and speech animations are still below par, but not to a degree where they incur anything more than momentary frowns. As is the norm with the Medal of Honor series, all in-game weaponry is lovingly crafted, from detail texturing all the way to muzzle flare; and artillery conveys unmistakable power, especially tanks, which realistically project an ominously lumbering strength through a combination of weight, movement, firepower and accompanying sound.

The game’s musical score moves effortlessly between hauntingly sublime choral pieces during scenes of savage desolation, and pulsating anthems driving your crusade forward in times of absolute tension. The peripheral audio is no less powerful or involving as huge resonating explosions tear through artillery emplacements, the seemingly perpetual crack of mounted machine gun fire tracks your movements, or screams of agony interrupt moments of chilled silence. Each level contains a dialogue preamble from a much older William Holt, spoken across actual pictures and footage from WWII, which then, in turn, blends into the voice of the younger Holt before the opening of the mission. The similarities to both the HBO series Band of Brothers and Ubisoft’s genre title Brothers in Arms (itself an obvious homage to the HBO series) are easily forgiven, especially as the dialogue thoroughly accentuates an already involving premise. The game also offers up subtitle options for all included narrative, be that the aforementioned preamble, or the speech interactions with in-game NPCs.

A.I. keeps you suitably alert during missions, and the enemy’s ability to immediately seek cover while firing at your position also boosts the authenticity of the game. Unfortunately, there are occasional moments of madness from both Axis and Allied troops alike, most notably when kicking live grenades to safety is implemented. Should a pineapple or potato masher land at your feet—or those of your squad—you can swiftly attempt to kick it clear rather than seek cover. It’s certainly a useful battlefield addition, but nonchalantly lobbing a grenade into an occupied German bunker then watching in horror as one of your men rushes in to ‘kick it to safety’ emerges as one of the game’s more unintentionally amusing moments.

As you’d expect with a WWII shooter, there are no female heroics on show. It’s men from start to finish; though during one mission there is an extremely kick-ass French agent that becomes part of your squad. Pity switching between squad members is not an option. Perhaps this is something EA could apply in future? The only real point of criticism worth highlighting in European Assault’s lies in its reduced longevity and the resulting difficulty. 11 missions, regardless of their ample secondary objectives, is too short by today’s standards and it feels as though EA unfairly ramped the difficulty across the final two missions to drag player involvement. Emergent frustration is further compounded by a lack of save points throughout the game. Should you run out of lives before completing a mission, you’ll be stuffed right back at its beginning…and some can take upwards of an hour to complete if primary and secondary missions are your goal. Though not an obvious problem on the game’s lower difficulty settings, broken controllers, cracked screens, and blue air may well prevail once you chose a more testing skill level.

However, Medal of Honor: European Assault is still a fine example of FPS action. EA’s decision to distance the franchise from the stilting influence of closely confined conflict through the application of expansive battling proves its worth in a game of tension and prolonged immersion. The very success of Frontline spawned the resulting failure of Rising Sun; we can only hope that the solid gameplay evident through European Assault becomes a laurel for inspiration rather than reliance.

Review by Stevie