Medal of Honor: Underground

The Good
You say it has WWII in it, and it's a first-person shooter, and I'm there. I remember years after Wolfenstein 3D how I yearned to see some WWII game as a FPS in hope to experience WWII more closely than I did in zombified Wolfenstein. First in a row that I embraced was Mortyr, though it wasn't WWII based only, and for some reason, it didn't goot me hooked alright.

Years after, I got my first console ever, a PS2, and my first game to work on it was MOHU. Due to games being cheaper for PSX, I got myself this one insted of some which I later added to my collection, and the moment I started it, it got me real-time. Sure, it would be silly to even try and compare it to PC graphic or similar games of a genre, but what it achieved on a simple PSX really amazed me. If for a fact I never thought of that console as being anything advanced at all. To me, it was just another white plastic box soon to be forgotten.

This games leads you through the entire WWII (and some unwanted more) throughout the role of a young rebel female heart, starting on the streets of paris and doing small missions such as trying to escape alive out of the city with just your gun, to later missions that require of you to sabotage V2 rocket compound, destroy weapon factories, shoot some evidence, disguise as a journalist and what all not. There is no driving vehicles from the side of a player, but some surprises on a variation do exist, but that's for you to experience if intrigued enough.

Weapon arsenal doesn't vary to extremely much but to the major need, a pistol, a shotgun, sniper rifle, machine gun, advanced machine gun, bazooka and hand grenades. Most of that is german weapon which you'll take from enemy troops you outsmart or outkill.

This game possesses great music that won't go unnoticed, and the atmosphere will live up to its full bloom due to that background effect. Sounds aren't anything extraordinary, but you'll be able to rely on sounds, like hearing the sound of straying bullets or an incoming german motorized patrol.

One of the nicest things to see in this game goes to an AI of enemy troops. Whereas your allies are made dumb, your enemies gained on being rather smart on occasion. Jumping across the walls, and hiding from your gunfire not always crazily rushing to kill you but waiting for an actual opportunity. If you throw a grenade near them, they will even try to pick it up and throw it back atcha. I mean, how good is that? Person like me sure appreciates being outsmarted by my opponents on such an intriguing non-cheating kinda way. Also nice touches such as when killing the soldier he will start shooting around while falling, managing to do harm to both you and/or his comrades. But so it wouldn't be just soldiers you deal with, there'll be shepherds, tanks, trucks, motorcycles, turrets, and even fighter planes, though some will just be to bomb you without giving you a hope for retaliation.

Game covers a lot of WWII conflicts, from early europian to african and ending war ones. If something you won't ever be, that's being bored of repetition. No siree. This game will give you what you paid for to get.

The Bad
As with all the games that start well (can you say 'Wolfenstein'), this one as well has to add something to ruin the entire setting of a game - knights, zombies and robots. The latter look like they're some sort of troopers that just came out from an early North & South war.

Whereas you can smoothly pass through almost all the stages of the game, with more or less trouble, the last stage is simply too tough. Not impossible, but I don't see the need of making a sole end of the game tough. It may only frustrate player who will then give up on the game. I cannot understand those that like passing hard ending feeling so happy to do so. They can select level of difficulty instead, 'cos why making just the sole ending hard. To hide some super ultimate CG which isn't there? Naah, it's a crap to make such endings, period.

The Bottom Line
I am no fan of Medal of Honor series, and by no means do I play to get Allied Assault, Frontline, or whatever's coming next. However, this one did intrigue me 'cos it showed me something which could be seen only decades ago, and that is achieving something miraculous with limited resources. And I would recommend it to anyone with PSX who likes FPS, no matter there are now better looking sequels for PS2, PC and Xbox. I'm not holding any grudge towards the Medal of Honor series in general, but from what I've tried in Allied Assault, I can frankly say I didn't like it. Sure, it was technically good, perhaps, but something just wasn't right there for me. Maybe it was too perfect in it's edgy graphic it had, or I didn't like the fact you had to fire 5 bazookas before you destroy a tank, I dunno, but it seemed more like gaining profit on created universe by just enhancing graphic, but don't listen to me. You go ahead and buy Allied Assault, everyone I know loved the game, from what I know, it's just me that doesn't. I'll rather play Wolfenstein anytime. However, this all may just be my personal disliking towards whatever came out of the newly merged company EA created after shutting down the Westwood, so please, don't take this review to your heart for any Medal of Honor game but Underground which I find really a worthy experience for a 1st generation console player. Inspite of nowadays' obsoletion, it still has a charm that can make you play it.

The Good
If there was anything likable about this port of the original game, either it doesn't show or I'm impartial to it. I guess the original graphics in the menus and cutscenes are present, downsized yet retain acceptable quality. And you've got the auto aiming feature, without which you wouldn't get very far (if you'd ever want to). And if you want to get this game over and done with, there is a password after every level.

The Bad
The first thing to get in your face is the heavily pixelated and chunky graphics with a flat ceiling for a sky. The constantly jerking rotation and six-frame weapon bobbing combined with the heavily tainted version of Michael Giacchino's composition and stock sound effects are the equivalent of 32 rounds of headaches. With graphics this bad, you're not going to find your objectives and items, let alone enemies in the distance. And it comes as no surprise that the extras and historical relevance are completely absent from the game.

So many mess ups in the gameplay, I'll only highlight the ones you need to know. A lot of space for the HUD is wasted on the bottom row, when both the compass and ammo indicators could fit on the top left and right just like in the original game. Also the compass is hard to read and doesn't clearly show how wounded you are. Weapons you have are a joke. Machine guns fire short bursts instead of a full magazine and explosive projectiles have the worst possible arcs in throwing.

The Bottom Line
There's so much wrong with this game that buying it is a big mistake. What a miserable experience this is going to be. If you want a Medal of Honor title to take with you, avoid this one at all costs and strive to get the "Medal of Honor: Infiltrator" title. It's unbelievable an FPS on the Game Boy Advance could be this bad when Doom and Duke Nukem were tonnes and heaps better as portable ports. This one was a blatant cash-grab which makes the SNES version of Wolfenstein 3D and Super Noah's Ark the better games to play.

The Good
The weapons and the missions. There are 24 missions in the game, and almost all of them are challenging and fun. They are highly diverse, and each develops the theme for that mission. The weapons are good too- from the "big joe" (an awful bow and arrow type contraption) to the Panzerfaust (a tank destroyer) the game is hours of fun.

The Bad
The ending was pathetic. What of the big climax? What of the celebrating in the streets? What of the replays of the best parts? The game itself was rather linear- if I did it and if my friend did it, we would have done the exact same thing. There is not much you can do to customize it. Also, you really don't get to know the characters. All in all though, it was a remarkable game.

The Bottom Line
BUY IT. IT'S THE SECOND BEST GAME I OWN.