 | | The latest addition to the Medal of Honor saga takes you sky-diving around the European theatre. Is it any cop though? |
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Coming off the Call of Duty 4
beta does this game no favors. In fact, if you'd have asked me to play Airborne a month or two back, before addiction to the former had had a chance to kick in, I'd no doubt have come away far more impressed. The latest addition to the Medal of Honor series is a reasonably solid first person shooter you see - one with some mildly pleasing additions to the genre - but is ultimately just a victim of the time it's been released more than anything.
Between the exquisite storyline and beautiful atmosphere of Bioshock, the intense, visceral realism of CoD4, and the no doubt world dominating multiplayer craziness of Halo 3...this game just feels depressingly tepid by comparison. There's precious little to set it apart from the crowd.
Poor Airborne...where were you this summer when we needed you?
I Believe I Can Fly
I'm a Medal of Honor nut though, so let's focus on the good. The follow-up to 2004's
Pacific Assault (as let's be honest, the shitty console games don't count), Airborne - as its square-on-the-nose moniker hints at - tells the tale of the paratrooper. World War II games - and indeed the long-running Medal of Honor series itself - have tinkered with this subject matter before, with 2002's Spearhead springing to mind in particular, but this is the first time an entire game has been set around the concept from beginning to end.
Band of Brothers has been an obvious influence, sure, but strictly in terms of action, as thankfully EA have completely opted out of anything even remotely resembling a storyline here. I welcome this though, as the shoe-horned in plots and "character development" of similar WWII games, namely Gearbox' mega-let-down
Brothers in Arms, and the recent Call of Duty 3, just flat-out failed for me. I think it's fair to say I've seen more captivating characters on EastEnders.
 | | On PC the game requires an insane rig, but it's also out on the 360, with a PS3 port due later this year |
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Nope, it's all about the action here, and as far as that goes, Airborne handles itself pretty well for the most part. The way it's setup is thus; every mission begins with you onboard your C-47, prepping for jump. You've seen Band of Brothers I'm sure, so you know the drill; flak-cannons ablaze, noise in every direction, wait for the green light...then off you go. It's a well-worn sight by now, yet Airborne still has the ability to make your jaw drop the first time you dive out that door and witness the enveloping carnage all around you. These insertion sequences are pretty effin' stunning actually, and thankfully only get better as the game progresses (just wait until you see the last one).
What's cool though, is that they remain 100% interactive at all times. On your way down, you can make out pretty much the entire level beneath you, with the idea being, you land wherever you want. Each mission has a wealth of objectives for you to carry out you see - everything from blowing anti-aircraft cannons, to capturing enemy strongholds - but it's up to you how and in what order you tackle 'em. You may for instance, guide your falling paratrooper onto the roof of one such stronghold, then have him assault it from top to bottom. Or you could land on the ground out back and look for a rear entrance to catch 'em unawares. Particularly cool though, is finding the more remote and quiet landing zones, then sneaking towards your objectives under the cover of darkness. Winters style.
It's really up to you how you wanna play, and the ability to think on your feet and tackle these missions as you please is a welcome one. Typically, once all of your objectives are carried out, a "surprise" twist will kick in, giving you one final set-piece to deal with, before the mission is pronounced complete and you move on to the next. This entire level, I should note - from air insertion to "mission complete" - all taking place within one single area. No loading screens, no pauses, nada. Pretty damn cool, no?
Splat!
That's all fine. The problem is...there are only five such missions in the entire game. You heard me right.
Five. While some are harder than others, you'll be knocking the majority out in well under an hour a piece too. If that. I'll leave the math up to you.
 | | MOHA utilizes fab physics, although deaths occasionally fall into ludicrous territory, with comedy skidding Nazis doing the splits |
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I don't necessarily fault the game for being so ludicrously short. Hell, with the endless supply of new titles coming out right now, I welcome one that doesn't outstay its welcome. That doesn't mean such a game should be retailing for the full 30 or 40 quid though, does it? In these days of highly publicized and critically acclaimed budget-ware titles - namely your Warhawks and your
Earth Defence Forces - why is a game even
lower on content still fetching for a premium price? 'Cos with a tenner shaved off the top, I would have no problem recommending Airborne to pretty much anyone. As it is though? Man. Rental time only I'm afraid.
Also, while the scarce few air-drop missions that are there are fine, what I would have loved to have seen is some more traditional, ground-based missions interspersed in-between 'em to add some variety. Let us not forget, the Airborne did a hell of a lot more than just jump in, guns blazing. A large part of their tours involved staying alive behind enemy lines, cut off from resupplies and reinforcements for weeks at a time. That's an interesting and kinda terrifying premise, and it would have been a pretty damn cool area to explore in a WWII game, while simultaneously bulking up that mission tally in the process.
Alas, nope. Airborne is not just worryingly brief, but pretty darn repetitive too. There's no such diversions. No breaking up the chaotic air-drops. Just the same loud, angry, flak-cannon tinged chaos from beginning to end. The odd new gun here, one or two new enemies there, sure, but one mission in, you've kinda seen the entire game.
Broken Legs
 | | Guns upgrade automatically as you play, adding enhanced zooms, reducing recoil, etc. There's a wide selection of weaponry, but next to CoD4? Most of it rings hollow |
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While on the hater tip, allow me to also say...jesus, this game is frustrating. Every time you complete one of your main objectives - of which there are typically 4 or 5 per mission - you'll snag a new checkpoint, but with no quicksave feature to speak of, these can be up to a good 15 minutes apart at times. Dying sends you all the way back up to your C-47, where you'll then have to make the jump in again, and sadly all your hard work since the previous checkpoint will have been undone. Specifically, all enemies will have respawned, forcing you to regularly blast your way through the same sections - and same bad guys - over, and over, and over again. Coupled with the insane loading times each and every one of these deaths ensues, and dying becomes something to be truly feared in MOH Airborne. For all the wrong reasons.
I also find the guns a wee bit lacking. For a series that nailed its combat so spectacularly well in Allied Assault, Airborne's load-out feels suspiciously puny and floaty. The iron-sight view in particular is a bit of a mess, overly responsive and twitchy to the touch.
Thrown in with some dodgy AI on both sides, the scrapping of my fave multiplayer objective mode, and the complete removal of the promised co-op feature (which you may remember, was tipped as a huge selling point back when the game was announced), and Airborne comes off mildly disappointing all in all. It boasts a fab premise that houses some spectacular action at times...but christ, it could have been so much more.
Rent Boy
 | | Half Airborne's missions take place at night, but as Gears proved, darkness is no problem for the Unreal 3 Engine |
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It's not all bad news. Graphically, the game shines, utilising Epic's Unreal 3 Engine to sparkling effect. While not quite
Gears of War caliber, Airborne's ability to render huge wide open areas with tons of action on screen, thrown in with its jaw-dropping use of full-screen motion blur, all create a genuine film-like look and feel that is by far the best the WWII genre has seen yet.
With the action flowing thick, and the familiar Medal of Honor themes blaring outta your speakers, there's many an enjoyable moment to be found in Airborne, despite its flaws. The last level in fact, is so damn epic and spectacular, it's almost worth the (stupidly high) price of admission alone.
Ultimately though, its short running time, lack of variety, and to be frank, insane amount of FPS competition right now, render it little more than a mild diversion. And at that price? One not particularly worth the effort, 'til it's slashed in half.
It's sure no Allied Assault beater with that in mind then, but hey...at least it ain't another Rising Sun.
