Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Breakthrough Review

These days any self-respecting gamer knows what to think when the title Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is mentioned. As one of the most popular games published under the EA Games brand, MoH: Allied Assault effectively portrayed a genuine WWII ambiance, and became an undeniable champion of first-person shooters. It wasn't long until EA decided to cash in on its highly acclaimed video game franchise by releasing an expansion pack, entitled Medal of Honor: Spearhead. There's absolutely no doubt that Medal of Honor: Allied Assault delivered exceptional straight-out FPS action gaming. But, things weren't so peachy with Spearhead. At the risk of sounding too condemnatory to diehard fans, this expansion pack lacked lengthier missions and several gameplay elements that could've made the whole experience significantly more challenging and enjoyable.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Dammit! Nobody shall destroy trees while I'm around!

This time we played through EA's latest expansion pack, Medal of Honor Allied Assault: Breakthrough, which was created by the development crew at TKO Software. The promised innovations include new weapons, new vehicles, new objectives, and more.

In this WWII journey, players are required to complete three different chapters, which comprise of about eleven new assignments that are essential to the progress of the massive campaign against Germany and Italy. The game starts off with various missions in North Africa, where you'll get to participate in the historical battle at Kasserine Pass (located in the Tunisian Dorsal Mountains). Once you go through that, you'll take a trip to Sicily and Italy - and don't expect a warm welcome. As you march through this significant chapter of history, killing Jerry and fighting to stay alive, you'll also have to complete a number of duties, most of which oblige you to disable various installations and outposts.

So, as you can see, the premise doesn't vary much from any of its predecessors - to put it another way, you still have to eliminate swarms of opponents that keep spawning endlessly. In certain missions this can be quite a challenge, since a great deal of enemy soldiers are well-fortified out of your range. Passing through Jerry-infested towns and hamlets, players are left to survive tense and difficult battle situations, often flanked and outnumbered by enemy grunts and officers. Positioning, accuracy, and quick reflexes are the skills needed to accomplish the missions in Medal of Honor: Breakthrough. Well directed action scenes and the cinematic feel throughout gameplay are the main reasons why hardcore MoH: AA players will, no doubt, want to play this game. Breakthrough takes you through a variety of dynamic sequences (many of which are scripted). This has always been a distinguishing component of every title in the series. To our great disappointment, however, Breakthrough's action-packed gameplay is rather linear and it kind of flies by, so it won't take you long to finish it. On top of that, the missions don't bring anything exceptionally original to the world of FPS gaming. Most of them revolve around sabotaging enemy AA guns and artillery. Additionally, a great portion of the game puts you on the back of an armored vehicle or a jeep, in which case there's nothing to do but mount a machinegun and take out every living enemy in the area (kind of like Operation Wolf). (Operation Wolf is an oldie played on coin-up machines. - 2Lions) In other words, you are likely to become bored soon after the first chapter is over.

Errr... Nice uniform!

Watch the road, ya moron!

One of the most important aspects of any expansion pack is the inclusion of new content. MoH: Breakthrough does present some new weapons and a few new vehicles, but other than that we did not encounter anything that might be worth mentioning. Every weapon in the game is obviously well-optimized and conducts itself realistically during combat. When things start getting a bit "hotter" your character gets an opportunity to control AA guns or heavy cannons, in order to repel strong enemy air and land rushes; these mountable weapons can also serve you well against armored vehicles. Occasionally the game allows you to operate a tank, which can be a good gameplay variation, but unfortunately, thanks to the restricted movement, it doesn't leave much room for any in-game action a la Battlefield 1942.

I'm also sorry to say that playing through the entire game really made me feel like I've nothing left to come back to. There are many sections in the game where players are likely to get jammed. For example, you won't be able to complete a particular section until you've memorized the exact pattern of enemy spawn points. Once you do that, you can easily take them out in order of their appearance. So, it all boils down to finding the right spot for your crosshair and waiting for all those baddies to start popping out. Also, enemy spawn points are rather inadequately placed, often making Italian troops and the Werhmarht appear out of nowhere right behind you. (Hey, it's the old Doom spawn effect. - 2Lions)

Considering the excellent reputation of the series, I expected a hell of a lot more from the AI routine. Indeed it may seem like most of your enemies put up a fair fight, usually resorting to strategies such as regrouping, flanking, or calling for help. Sadly, both German and Italian soldiers sometimes tend to ignore your presence completely, even if you happen to be standing a mere two feet away. What's even worse is that they get stuck when hiding behind walls, crates, trucks, or similar obstacles. Friendly AI can conduct itself well in mid-battle, providing covering fire whenever you may need it. Regrettably, even my teammates exhibited a variety of unexplainable actions; ranging from weird and buggish movement patterns, to utterly silly behavior. Overall, the AI definitely shows a considerable lack of intelligence, which is another reason why you won't feel the need to get back to the game once you've finished it (that is, if you even bother to accomplish all the missions).

When it comes to graphics, Medal of Honor: Breakthrough looks and feels the same as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. (No surprises there, eh? - 2Lions) It's always nice to see excellent features such as volumetric shadows and fog, solid particle effects, cool-looking weather effects (ranging from rain, fog, snow, and even desert storms), superbly animated in-game character models, and so on. But, you should brace yourself for a rather frustrating drawback. Most of the aforementioned effects cannot be seen in their full splendor unless you've pushed the game to its maximum performance. To do this, without worrying about a choppy frame-rate, you may require a powerful rig. Running the game with all the visual parameters set to max, is likely to cause a real slide-show, particularly during complex battle scenes that involve multiple opponents, explosions, and various scripted activities in the background.

The audio is still one of the game's finest touches. Without such a high-quality sound design, the game wouldn't be worth playing. All the voiceovers are brilliant, while the in-game sounds produce an ambiance of a true-to-life war zone. The soundtrack never fails, and will keep you on your toes during the entire game.

Breakthrough also brings nine new maps for your multiplayer enjoyment. Another cool thing is that characters can drive tanks and artillery spotters can summon artillery strikes. Also, you and your mates can try out the all-new Liberation mode. This mode has one interesting catch. All players who get shot will be captured and put in prison; until they are released by their fellow combatants. Similarly to any other team-based mode, cooperation and coordinated attacks are the key to victory. This particular mode can be great fun, but it usually leads to great frustrations, since captured players have nothing better to do except wait for someone to set them free so they can get back in the game.

In the end, I cannot deny that the action scenes were fun to play. Medal of Honor is still the only video game franchise that manages to capture the atmosphere of war movies like Saving Private Ryan. (OK, just you wait till Call of Duty hits the stores. - 2Lions) Another positive aspect is that this expansion pack treats players to a slightly lengthier experience than in Spearhead. The bad thing, however, is that Breakthrough is not as good as the original game, and coupled with AI issues it turned out to be a substandard action game. Plus, the challenges and missions are recurrent and nothing more than fleeting moments of fun. Unfortunately, all this doesn't amount up to an original or a particularly rewarding FPS experience.