The Medal of Honor series has been with us since the humble days of the PSone, and as with any long serving franchise, there will be good and bad versions, so how does the newest release Medal of Honor Airborne (MOHA) hold up to the rest of them.
MOHA sees you in control of Boyd Travers, part of the “All American” 82nd Airborne Division, a band of crazy guys that like to throw themselves out of airplanes and land behind enemy lines. You will guide your character through 6 huge areas, carrying out numerous tasks like destroying AA guns to taking out German Officers.
Just before each mission you are taken through a briefing, this will show mission objectives and safe areas to land. Once you have chosen your weapons, you are ready for battle. Each level starts you in the air with a small cut scene, once you have jumped out of the plane, you are able to control your descent with the control sticks and flare for landing and slowing down with the A button.
The main selling point of this title is that you are able to land anywhere, the easier areas are highlighted in green smoke, and there are also 5 secret drop points on each level to find. If you decide to land away from safety, expect hard opposition, many a time you with be shot or beaten to death as soon as you land. The landing is just as important as the location, flare too late and you can botch your landing, taking longer for you to recover, achieve a greased landing and you are running into battle, gun drawn.
Each of the 6 levels are huge and take you from Italy to Germany, each mission objective can be completed in any order, once the initial set has been completed, another final mission will appear, this last mission will test all of you weapon and cover skills.
The weapons are your normal fare of handguns, shotguns and rifles. You can only choose 3 for each level, but as you play through a level you are able to swap for other weapons dropped by downed enemies. As you progress through the game, your weapon stats will improve and finally, with a cool slow down effect, your weapon will upgrade, this can be better sights, less recoil or a rather vicious grenade launcher attachment.
Controlling Boyd is very easy, right trigger shoots, right button changes to grenades and the face buttons deal with jump, duck, reload and change weapon. The Left trigger bring up the Iron Sights, this is where the weapon is brought to eye level and allows for a better aim or those satisfying headshots. Whilst in Iron Sights you are able to use the left stick to duck and move your player in a stationary position, allowing you to use walls and houses as cover.
The graphics are great and what you expect or the Xbox 360, tracer fire and shrapnel fly around your head, explosions are very realistic, with enemies being thrown about by the force of a grenade.
Though 6 levels do not sound much, this game is no walkover. The first few levels just warm you up, once you start fighting against the German Elite, you will be dying quite a bit, even on easy.
