Medal of Honor: Rising Sun Review
The bullets fly by your head as you dodge for cover. The smell of spent ammunition and death is abound in the air as your fellow comrades flee for cover amidst chaos and explosions. Run for the surface, find the nearest chain gun, and defend your country in “Day of Infamy”, the first mission in Electronic Arts’ newest FPS Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, available now on all three consoles.
The basic plot of Rising Sun is familiar to those who know America’s involvement in World War II. You start the game during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. From there you’re sent on a variety of missions throughout the Pacific to fight against the Japanese and German Axis powers. You’re given a set of objectives that you must accomplish in order to complete the mission. There’s very little new here that veterans of Medal of Honor: Frontline haven’t seen before.
However, the graphics have taken a major leap over Frontline’s. Environments are portrayed with stunning realism and are very immersive, meaning that you can quickly adapt to an environment and discover its strengths and weaknesses. Soldier animations, while not perfect, are far more believable, and your fellow comrades are more distinguishable than ever. There is also the usual assortment of glitches: favorites include walking through the ground and walking through a wall. In one level I was able to transport from the second floor to the third by walking through a wall! The good news is that they don’t hinder gameplay and are often a source for good laughs.
These updated graphics mean that level design is even better than before. Each of the levels is cunningly designed and sports a great variety of underground passageways that one can use to their advantage. There are plenty of sniper vantage points available as well. This means that the expansive multiplayer levels rarely get boring to play.
Excellent graphics and good level design ultimately means an excellent campaign mode. You can play the campaigns either by yourself or with a friend, the only difference being that when you play with a friend, it is just him and yourself vs. the Japanese. Playing by yourself allows for more computer-aided soldiers on your side. The missions are interesting; you’ll be doing everything from manning a gunboat to driving a tank to shooting it out with the Japanese from the back of a moving truck. There are plenty of bonus objectives available, and most of the time, being creative and adventurous will net you pretty interesting bonuses.
The weapons are interesting with great variety, but lack the firepower present in most shooters these days. This is understandable for the single player game, but during multiplayer it’s great to have a gun that literally blows your friends away and not one that just peppers bullets at them. As mentioned before, the variety is tremendous. The effects of each of the guns are noticeable, and some have considerably more accuracy than others. The guns were created to accurately represent the technology available during World War II, which means that regular FPS hopefuls won’t find their generic UZI’s or AK47’s prowling around here.
Multiplayer has improved this time too. There are now a total of 8 players/bots allowed in multiplayer, and some modes include Free for All or Team Deathmatch. Each bot’s AI level is configurable on a scale from 1 to 5, and the AI level of the bot is very noticeable when playing multiplayer. On a high scale it’s damn near impossible to beat them, while on a low scale it’s basically target shooting. My only complain of enemy AI arises when they will always hang out in one area in some levels.
The sound is your usual assortment of orchestra/overture music similar to what you hear in most war movies. It is neither unpleasant nor greatly annoying to listen to, although I find that listening to it at length tends to be irritating.
The only thing keeping Medal of Honor: Rising Sun from achieving a higher score is in the originality side of things. No matter how many times you slice and dice it, you’re still basically playing an updated version of Frontline. Rising Sun isn’t pushing any new boundaries or breaking new ground, but it remains as a solid and fun title to play. AI is excellent, graphics are great, and you’ll be able to fully defend freedom from the Axis of Evil in your own living room. I would definitely recommend you rent this title, but if you find that you’re renting it often I would seriously consider making a purchase out of it.
Review Score: 8
Games receiving scores between a 8.0 and a 9.5 are regarded as excellent games, remaining solid in every facet. They are games to be remembered, games that you can discuss with your friends and conjure up happy memories long after you’ve played them. The only factors which keep these games from scoring higher are usually limiting elements in the gameplay and low originality; the game hasn’t broken new ground or tried innovative ideas.