Medal of Honor Heroes 2

Dour, says Stevie

Electronic Arts' long serving Medal of Honor franchise needs little by way of introduction. However, for those not instantly familiar with the Medal of Honor experience, it perfectly encapsulates reliably straightforward FPS run-and-gun action that draws from World War II inspiration and ploughs a largely linear gameplay furrow with the absolute minimum in terms of surprise and invention.

The emergent rinse-and-repeat lack of ambition in EA's formulaic blueprint has perhaps played a significant role in the gradual fading of Medal of Honor's proud label as being gaming's most hard-hitting and authentic World War II series. Moreover, an undoubtedly ailing franchise coupled with the meteoric rise of Activision's award-winning Call of Duty series has left EA in dire need of creating a fresh perspective for Medal of Honor if it ever hopes to wrestle back the lofty regard and reputation it once held in the FPS genre.

Sadly, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 on the Nintendo Wii is not quite that shining beacon of hope. And so, in terms of appraisal, let's trawl through the negatives, which are numerous and not at all surprising given Medal of Honor's gradually eroding position in gaming's most hotly contested and overly saturated genre.

Heroes 2 is a strictly linear experience, its arsenal of available weaponry and mission environments are restricted by the historical timeframe, the level design is somewhat uninspired, the scripted A.I. leaves both allied and axis soldiers prone to bouts of close-quarter battlefield blindness, impact detection is occasionally non-existent, and the whole thing feels distinctly 'last generation.'

Much like EA's recent Medal of Honor: Airborne, Heroes 2 is all-too quick to place the player in dangerous situations where survival is near impossible and countless checkpoint restarts are an annoying prerequisite towards gaining eventual progression. While missions are satisfyingly lengthy and offer plenty of primary and secondary objectives, forging forward is often more a test of patience than of honed reaction and trigger skills, with wave after wave of identically scripted troops eager to send the player back to the last attained checkpoint. This can sometimes result in having to traipse through a good ten minutes of repeat gameplay only to eventually meet the same fate all over again. Not good.

The lack of environmental invention throughout missions is almost par for the course when it comes to Medal of Honor, with Heroes 2 built on the same, disappointingly staid sense of linearity that is crumbling ominously beneath the series. The inclusion of seemingly insurmountable odds and an annoying checkpoint system only seems to accentuate the fact that very little other than bullets, grenades and bazooka rounds can directly injure enemy forces. When it comes to today's leading shooters, massive destruction, degrading cover, volatile environmental items, and the application of genuine A.I. unpredictability is becoming the norm for a more closely defined sense of real-world authenticity. None of these things are evident in Medal of Honor: Heroes 2.

From a game mode standpoint, Heroes 2 offers up a single-player campaign that sees O.S.S. Lieutenant Berg (the player) tasked with taking the battle to the Nazis in a bid to quash Hitler's plans to launch a deadly wave of atomic V2 rockets that will surely turn the tide of war in Germany's favour. The single-player mode, which suffers from all the above detractions, offers around 10 hours of gameplay and a throw-the-controller-through-the-TV finale mission that sees the developers lazily relying on near endless enemy re-spawns to halt the player's progress every ten steps.

Beyond single player, Heroes 2 also offers (regionally restricted!) online multiplayer modes in the form of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Infiltration/Capture the Flag, none of which are likely to inspire much enthusiasm -- not least due to the applied PAL/NTSC region boundaries and that finding willing troops to join the action through the Wii's burgeoning online service isn't exactly like logging on for an action-guaranteed session of Halo 3.

All is not lost though, with one of the game's few saving graces emerging via Arcade mode. While most shooter Arcade modes merely offer the player the chance to fight through any completed single-player mission without ploughing through hours of gameplay beforehand, Heroes 2 differs significantly in that it delivers a complete on-rails Arcade shooter experience (think Time Crisis, House of the Dead, etc.,) which takes the player through each game level where they shoot ammo, weaponry and health pick-ups while spraying hot lead at waves of German soldiers much better suited to arcade action than the real-world experience they fail to convincingly occupy during the standard single-player campaign.

While we're tapping the (somewhat thin) vein of positive comment, it's also worth pointing out that, despite the damage sustained by Heroes 2 in terms of its more conventional gameplay disappointments, its use of the Nintendo Wii's innovative control mechanics do provide a shining ray of light in an otherwise dark and dreary slog.

Of course, using the on-screen aiming reticule in conjunction with the Wii Remote immediately grants the game a more nimble, accurate and attuned 'mouse-controlled' dynamic, which is something already executed to varying effect by the likes of Metroid Prime 3 and Red Steel. However, it's the clever integration of battlefield use that elevates the control components in Heroes 2.

Specifically, the player is able to use the Wii Remote to: set the timer and physically yank out an arming pin on explosive charges; motion an arm movement to throw grenades; probe the ground with a mine sweeper; apply and lock zoom when using sniper rifles, and also carefully tune radio sets to pick up incoming O.S.S. orders. When the Wii Remote is used together with the Nunchuk, the player can man fixed machinegun positions, apply the pump action on a shotgun, and even apply swivel and elevation to field artillery and mortars before unleashing their devastating rounds.

All in all, the motion control elements work well and do help to alleviate some of the game's overall shortfalls - although mortar and artillery control is rather slow and laboured, which is yet another pain when factoring in the associated vulnerability of the player when using them.

Given that Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is appearing on the Nintendo Wii, some might seek to forgive the game's rather lacklustre presentation on the grounds that Nintendo's console is far removed from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 when it comes to processing power. But that excuse for half-baked development and short-changing of the consumer is fast becoming a non-starter when considering the visual and aural beauty of games such as Metroid Prime 3: Corruption which, as an FPS title, belies the supposed limitations of the Wii and strives to deliver aesthetic enhancements on every level.

As things stand, Heroes 2 offers typical WWII presentation wrapped up in dirt, grime and plenty of grit; yet its palette is dour, its battlefields lack ear-shattering oomph, its surface textures are unforgivably flat, and its detailing is far too rigid and square edged to rise above any other Medal of Honor title released for the PlayStation 2 or original Xbox.

Ultimately, with Electronic Arts' CEO John Riccitiello recently voicing his disapproval at falling review averages and looking to improve the critical perception of the company's software releases, EA really must follow Activision's lead with Call of Duty by deconstructing Medal of Honor and completely reinventing it a la the multi award-winning Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The Medal of Honor series is in a rut of worryingly blinkered formulaic reliance, a rut that's gradually deepening with every release and is leaving EA trailing further and further behind other, more ambitious publishers in a genre it used to dominate. If Riccitiello is truly serious about pushing EA as a force for change through the introduction of new properties, then Medal of Honor has to be re-created as such in order to prevent one of gaming's most recognisable franchises from bleeding out helplessly on the genre battlefield.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is not a bad game in the way that Midway's Hour of Victory is a bad game, but it is most definitely bland, dull, uninteresting, and yet further proof (if any was needed) that EA is still reticent to relinquish its grip on the profit-turning safety of established franchise titles in order to expand upon those mainstay releases with a much-needed infusion of invention and ambition.

In 2007, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Halo 3, The Darkness and BioShock all applied that ethos and revealed that the FPS genre is far from dead. EA take note.

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By Stevie Smith