The TPS Report - Games, Beats 'n' Blogs

The Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Demo is Out
Posted by Diggler - 8/9/2004 23:11

Bonzai charges add more of a viciousness to combat in Pacific Assault

With Pacific Assault slated for arrival in a few months, Medal of Honor's first genuine sequel on the PC, I must admit I find myself approaching genuine moistness. With the demo recently hitting the online waves at last, I'm here with some first impressions and brief thoughts on the franchise.

Man I loved Allied Assault. The first PC Medal of Honor game pretty much changed my online life, in that as well as being a wonderful, near perfect gaming experience, it was responsible for introducing me to an endless stream of wonderful people via its online scene, many of whom I went on to become good mates with for years to come. Best of all, I had some of the most incredible clan matches within this fabricated recreation of war torn Europe, each and every one worthy of a Hollywood movie.

Controversially maybe, I never dug Call of Duty as much. The current king of World War II shooters just leaves me slightly colder. If ever there was a game I should have loved, that was it. And believe me I gave it a chance. It was never as much all out fun as Medal of Honor though.

Tonight however, I am of the opinion that this crown is about to be stolen anyway...as playing through Pacific Assault's all too short single player demo, I can quite firmly claim this to be everything I'd wanted Call of Duty to be and then some. It's not perfect yet, but it's coming along splendidly.

First off it just feels so solid. There's that unmistakeable sensation of weight and realism to the character and weapons that was so well executed in the first game. The other big thing that hits you is just how damn pretty it all looks too. Not only does it relegate its WW2 peers to cartoon status in comparison, but it even gives Far Cry a serious run for its money.

The recent Doom III may be technically more advanced than what's on offer here, but really Doom had it easy when you think about it; cramped corridors bathed mostly in darkness? Come on, that halfway builds itself. Pacific Assault can't rely on such luxuries however. No sir, under the harsh day light of the pacific sunshine, everything is bright, open and expansive. For rendering these massive environments with such huge amounts of foliage, characters and mind blowing special effects, I would rate it pretty much evenly next to Doom III for its technical achievements.

The addition of a complex physics system also adds a huge amount to the game. Taking cover behind a barrel for the first time, I started to brick myself when the enemy's bullets started physically knocking the barrel back by sheer force. Then there's the fabulous death animations, the first I've seen to perfectly blend pre-built animation with live physics. The result is a world of difference to the technically impressive but laughably lifeless ragdoll deaths of similar games.

I could play a whole game of just doing this

Best of all though, this demo highlights a feature that I always loved about the original game; its ability to use the environment within the context of the levels so well. As with the original, you can man machine guns, jump in vehicles, and shoot down planes as the plot calls for it, and thankfully we get a small taste of that in this demo.

Pacific Assault's defence of the Henderson Hanger is just about one of the most hair raising, mind blowing, cock hardening sequences of any first person shooter of recent years. I literally jumped off my seat as an allied fighter jet got tagged and came crashing down mere meters from where I was standing.

On the down side, this is an enormous system hog of a game, so don't even think about running it on high settings unless your computer has the processing power of the fucking Matrix. Surprisingly though, it really doesn't look hugely different on lower settings.

I also thought that while the AI was at times, purely brilliant, at other times it left much to be desired. I noticed Jap troops trying to out flank me both in groups and on their own, but then there were also ridiculous bonzai charges coming out of nowhere that felt unintentionally funny, plus numerous instances of troops just standing around in the open without taking cover. With many months left on its development schedule, lets hope some attention gets paid to both these issues.

Still, playing this demo gives me the same goosebumps I got playing Allied Assault for the first time. I may not be in true love yet, but I'm certainly giddy on infatuation. If Pacific Assault can just deliver on its multiplayer as well as it appears to be doing on its single player, I'll even have a new clan game at my disposal.

Of course, Pacific Assault may be set to slay Call of Duty in my eyes, but it still has to face off against the upcoming Brothers in Arms by Gearbox Software, seemingly a much more worthy opponent in the WW2 shoot 'em up arena.

Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault Demo

(Pictures courtesy of EA Games)