Time to kill some Nazis.

For much of its first year of existence, the GameCube was sorely lacking in the FPS category. However, in the fall of '02, decent shooters finally began to make an appearance. Medal of Honor: Frontline is one of these. This is the latest title in EA's stalwart MoH series that is based on the events of World War II, and it has been released across all 3 major consoles. While this series originated on the PSX, the first game I played was 2001's excellent PC version, MoH: Allied Assault. I played the living dickens out of that game, and I must say that Frontline compares rather favorably with it. This game puts you in the shoes of an American special operative named Lt. Patterson. Patterson is a lean, mean, killing machine capable of taking down dozens of Nazi scumbags with nothing but his trusty Thompson (Well, to be sure, there are other weapons too, such as a shotgun, the M-1 Garand, and a sniper rifle, but if you have a Thompson, what else do you really need? Oh, I guess the Bazooka comes in handy when you have to take out that occasional pesky Panzer, but other than that...Anyway, I digress. On with the review!). And that is exactly what you, the player,  get to do in levels based on locations across Europe.

Graphically, this game is decent. The single player mission has a respectable draw distance and the game plays smoothly in most levels. The character designs are not as detailed as I would like, but they aren't terrible either. Textures are at a moderate resolution, so they don't look too pretty when you get up close and personal with them (not in the way that you are thinking, you pervert). The weapons are all fairly accurately detailed and are for the most part authentic. The reloading animations are a nice touch that I always took for granted, but really miss when I play a game that doesn't have them. However, as a package, the graphics of this game are about average.

The sound of this game is very nice. The music, especially, sounds as if it were ripped straight from Saving Private Ryan or an episode of Band of Brothers. It can be very haunting at times, especially during night missions. The sound effects are all top-notch as well, especially the weapons fire and the voice work done in actual German. Aurally, the quality of the soundtrack and all the effects go along way towards actually putting the player in the shoes of Lt. Patterson.

Control is quite customizable, although I found myself sticking to the default dual-analog default set up. Using the c-stick to look around and strafe takes some getting used to, although this configuration should be familiar to those who have played Halo for any amount of time. The jump and crouch buttons are well mapped to the x and y face buttons, and the d-pad can be used to select different weapons. The l-trigger brings up the targeting mode, which can be zoomed in and out when you are using the sniper rifle. The r-trigger is used as the firing trigger, which actually feels pretty natural since I am a right-handed shooter. The a-button is the context-sensitive action button, used for everything from opening doors to setting explosives. The most inconvenient aspect of the default controller set-up is the mapping of the manual re-load key to the z-trigger. That takes some adjustment.

The gameplay of Frontline is remarkably similar to that of Allied Assault. Despite the realistic approach to the characters, weapons, and environments, there are some strangely unrealistic aspects to this game. For one, there is no blood. Period. The last console shooter I played that was this sanitary was Goldeneye. Also, Lt. Patterson is one buff dude. Not only can he carry a half dozen separate weapons, he can also carry about 50 lbs of ammunition each. He is a veritable walking arsenal! Also, you can absorb a great deal of damage and then magically heal yourself instantly by finding "medical canteens" (if that isn't a sly reference to the use of alcohol, I don't know what is! And this game still got a "Teen" rating!). Of course, these have been conventions of FPS games since the days of Wolfenstein and Doom, but they are strangely out of place with the otherwise realistic environment of the game.

The missions of Frontline are varied, but they tend to mirror a few of the missions in Allied Assault. For example, there is a D-day mission, a U-boat infiltration mission, and a mission where you assault a secret weapons factory. Personally, I would have preferred that there be more variety in the kinds of missions between the two games, but I suppose that there is only so many stories that can be told about the European theater. The objectives in each mission are varied, but they all boil down to hitting the a-button at the appropriate moment. Cleary, the emphasis is on blowing away Nazi after Nazi. Weapons include the Thompson sub-machine gun, the Browning Automatic Rifle, the M-1 Garand, M-1911 Colt pistol, Bazooka, shot gun, and the sniper rifle. There are also German equivalents of each weapon, such as the Stg 44 and the MP-40. They have slightly different characteristics, but they operate in a very similar manner.

Frontline's multiplayer has a fair amount of options available and is quite fun to play. The multiplayer modes are limited to death match and team death match; there is no co-operative play, nor are there any capture the flag modes. Each player can customize his control settings, and choose a favorite player model from a respectably wide ranged selection via an easy to navigate interface. Weapons are divided into 9 or 10 pre-determined sets, and every player starts out with every weapon in that set. Maps have health and ammo scattered about, but a player can't pick up any additional weapons. Regrettably, there is no option to construct a custom weapons set, although the offered sets cover the range of possibilities pretty well.  Also, the multiplayer maps are quite detailed, and in some cases are downsized versions of single-player mission maps. However, this leads to slow down when 3-4 people are playing and can also make the game quite hard to see. This problem can be reduced by using a larger television and a higher brightness setting, though. And while there is some slowdown, it is not so severe as to make the game unplayable. Overall, the multi-player mode of Frontline is a lot of fun to play as long as there are 3-4 players. While the lack of options and limited weapons sets can be severely limiting, it also makes for a very accessible and un-intimidating experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed Medal of Honor: Frontline. The single-player missions are fun and often feature neat objectives (who wouldn't want to sabotage a U-boat?).  Also, the multiplayer, while somewhat limited, is a blast to play with a group of friends and is uncomplicated enough to be accessible to casual players. If you are a big WW II or are a FPS nut, than this is a no-brainer purchase. Others might want to rent this game first to see if they find it engrossing enough to warrant buying it.

By Andy Rucker