Medal of Honor: Airborne (PS3)

A decent sequel in the popular military shooter franchise.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 2

Be forewarned that landing outside of the green area means you might get smoked by axis troops within a matter of seconds, so be sure to find hiding spots and use stealth when working towards completing your objectives. If you've finished the single-player story, though, and want to give it another spin, attempting to land outside of safe zones will certainly add a challenge for seasoned gamers.

When it comes to customization options, players can choose the weapon load-out to suit their objectives (or personal preferences), and even unlock weapon upgrades over time by performing impressive moves like taking down four or five enemies at a time, executing a skilled headshot from afar, and so on. This adds an interesting role-playing game element to the action. Upgrades include an unlockable alternate fire, faster reloads and bigger clips. You can only carry two weapons at the same time in this game, in addition to your pistol, which isn't that effective in a shoot-out but doesn't require reloading.

Keep in mind, however, that some weapons have some serious recoil, so after a shot or two from, say, your machine-gun, the weapon will tilt upwards, thus making it harder to aim until you readjust. Sure, this might be realistic, but it takes away from the fun factor, and seems to be worse than in past Medal of Honor games and other WWII shooters, including the Call of Duty franchise.

Along with the eight- to 10-hour single-player campaign, Medal of Honor: Airborne offers a handful of multiplayer modes for up to 12 players over the Internet, such as Team Deathmatch (choose Axis or Allied team; the team with the highest score at the end of the time limit, wins) and Objective Airborne (choose your team, then fight the enemy to capture and hold three flags on the map). Surprisingly, given how popular the Medal of Honor franchise is, it was difficult to find Airborne players willing to join a team game over the PlayStation 3's online network.

Many gamers have complained about Airborne's serious recoil -- which might be accurate -- but adds frustration when your weapon is facing the sky after a couple of hits. This problem exists on all three versions of the game: Xbox 360, PC and PS3.

But the PS3 has another issue not found on the other platforms: frequently horrible frame rates that can drag the action to a standstill when there's a lot happening on the screen at once -- and in this game, that's often. The poor frame rate can be detected minutes into the first mission, when you approach three or more enemies on city streets.

If you can get past these shortcomings, Medal of Honor: Airborne is an engrossing military action experience -- especially in the second half of the story and online modes. Sure, the WWII action genre is oversaturated, in part because EA continues to crank out a few of these shooters a year, but this proves to be one of the more interesting and non-linear versions in recent memory. Fans of the series shouldn't hesitate to buy this for their collection, while those unsure if it's for them should at least rent it for the weekend and 'jump' in.

This review was based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.