entertainment/games
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
(December 14th, 2003)
So we went up to the cabin this weekend and rented Medal
of Honor: Rising Sun to occupy ourselves. I didn't play it much,
as I was more occupied with movies and my latest PS2 purchase, Sphinx
and The Cursed Mummy, but I absorbed enough of the game by watching
it being played to write this review.
Firstly, let me state that I've never gotten into the World War II
shooter genre, so my review is likely a little biased. If you really
like WWII shooters, then you might like this game a lot more than
I did.
That being said, Medal
of Honor: Rising Sun sucks.
My first impression of the game is that it was actually pretty cool.
The game takes place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, where
you play an American soldier fighting against the Japanese. The first
mission has you defending your base in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In this level, the graphics are stunning. A lot of effort was put
into making the assault look good.
However, the game quickly went downhill after that. By the time you
reach the third level, it becomes apparent that the game designers
lost interest. This level takes place in Guadalcanal, which looks
less like World War II guerrilla warfare and more like Daikatana.
Aside from the first level, the graphics in this game are unimpressive
and the level design uninspired. The AI of your allies and of the
enemies seems very buggy. This might have something to do with the
difficulty selected (easy), but a lot of the time the computer-controlled
characters would mysteriously stop fighting and stand still.
Additionally, the computer-controlled teammates are all scripted into
the game's story, which means that they can't die until it's time
for them to die. So, you can basically let your invincible teammates
kill enemies for you (although that usually doesn't work out well).
The music in this game is typical orchestrated WWII music, which suits
the game well, although it is sometimes overdramatic.
The interface to the game can be quite confusing. My brother, for
instance, couldn't figure out how to properly save/load his games.
A big problem with this game is that the objectives are linear (that
is, you must proceed from one to the next), and there are "bugs" which
sometimes prevent you from moving further. In other words, you might
find yourself in a position where you know you've completed an objective,
but the game won't let you proceed.
To its credit, this game does do some things well. Although I'm no
WWII expert, it seems that certain aspects of WWII warfare were captured
well, such as the Japanese rushing with their bayonettes instead of
shooting. Not a bad touch, especially when they could have gotten
away with using nearly unmodified AI code from previous Medal of Honor
games.
Overall, I suppose the best I can say about Medal
of Honor: Rising Sun is that it's okay. There are far worse games,
but there are so many better ones that this game is scarcely worth
a rental.
Graphics: 6.5/10
Sound: 7/10
Gameplay ("Fun Factor"): 7/10
Replay value: 7/10
Interface: 4/10
Overall: 6.3/10
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