Medal of Honor: Rising Sun Review

Developer	EA LA
Publisher	EA Games
Genre	Action

If judged on atmosphere alone, the Medal of Honor series would likely be the first-person shooter genre’s defining game franchise. The music, the scenarios, and well-choreographed scripted events are always of top-notch quality. And even if the gameplay isn’t up to the standard of Halo or Timesplitters 2, it’s always solid nonetheless.

With Rising Sun however, the Medal of Honorseries seems to have taken a slight turn for the worse. Though a decent adventure, Rising Sun is nowhere near the compelling experience that Frontline was, and the multiplayer and online modes that accompany Rising Sun’s single-player only marginally make up for the game’s numerous disappointments, and sometimes, even makes the experience worse.

Gameplay - Rising Sun takes place in the Pacific Theater of operations during World War II; a drastic departure for the series, but a welcome change of environmental style from Nazi Germany and it’s surrounding areas that fans are accustomed to. Players take the role of Joe Griffin, whose brother goes missing during a skirmish in the Philippines. But of course, the game must open up with something intense, and it’s likely that the whole idea behind Rising Sun probably evolved around the idea of doing a Pearl Harbor scene, which takes place as the first two missions in the game. What we find peculiar is that the Pearl Harbor scene(s) are underwhelming; we just didn’t find them to spark the same kind of raw emotion that the Normandy Beach invasion from Frontline did. Perhaps it’s because the two Pearl Harbor missions are brief, or because they are so simplistic and revolve around basically rail shooting at planes. No matter the reason, the impact just isn’t as strong as it should be.

The Medal of Honor games always tend to suffer from badly-balanced level quality, and Rising Sun is no exception. Some levels like “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Singapore Sling” offer nice environments and mix up the gameplay a little, but then there are others that are just forgettable, and seem like filler levels until reaching the good stuff.

One improvement we’ve seen from the last outing though is the design of the levels. No longer linear Point A to Point B strides, Rising Sun’s levels are more open to branching off, and more complicated in design, encouraging heavy exploration. In addition, there are items that can be found within the game – like a machete -- that can open up areas in other levels. Once the item is acquired, you are meant to revisit levels to open up new possible paths, though many of these don’t offer much more than healing items, ammo magazines, or the occasional shortcut through a level. Either way, the addition is a welcome one, and makes for much deeper progression through the game. With the levels being bigger in size, the developers offer multiple save points throughout each level, which helps to alleviate the pain of dying and having to start the mission from the beginning over and over. The team also included different bonus objectives into each mission. While entirely optional, completing these secondary goals will give the player a skeleton key, where he can then return to the level and open a specially locked box that will unlock items like multiplayer skins.

Unfortunately, the A.I. is just as dumb as it’s always been, and in Rising Sun, it appears that the enemies are even more stupid than the last game’s batch. We’ve seen opponents act stupid before, but some of the enemies in Rising Sun are complete morons. We’ve seen foes running in place against walls, not reacting when their comrade gets a bullet to the skull just a few feet away, and enemies chasing you so far, and then returning to their post as if nothing happened. Enemy soldiers will man a turret if the emplacement’s gunner goes down, even if the turret is facing the opposite direction from you! It’s seriously laughable, and yet, we almost cried at this felonious attempt at realistic intelligence.

The two-player co-op is very similar to the single-player adventure, only far more compromised in just about every aspect. If you go into this mode expecting to get what you got from playing the co-op mode in Halo, forget it. In fact, we’ll go as far as saying that the two-player co-op is the worst part of the whole game. The level objectives are compromised and more streamlined, and the levels themselves are too. But the absolute worst thing that can happen here is simply the idea of being on a leash; not allowing the player to go where they want. The manual fails to mention this, but stray too far from your co-op buddy, and one of you will be instantly zapped back to the other. Usually, the one to get zapped is the player who is farthest from the current mission objective. This aspect alone absolutely murders the mode, and makes the experience dull and utterly worthless. What’s more, the ludicrous A.I. is even more nonsensical in two-player. Not only are they exceptionally dumb, but the glitches are much more apparent. Enemies will actually disappear right before your eyes, only to reappear when you pass the point they were first standing at. In addition, items can be found floating in mid-air.

If you want multiplayer, Rising Sun does offer online play for up to eight players, and believe it or not, the games – simplistic as they are – are quite entertaining. There is only the option to play Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch, but the play fast-paced for those looking for a fix. Furthermore, the multiplayer maps are finely tuned for deathmatching, and add just a touch of excitement to what would normally be considered forgettable. EA has included a Friends list and voice chat, and you can also use your EA account on all EA online games. The lone flaw in the service is that, if you’re playing behind a firewall, you had better be prepared to open up some ports, because otherwise, players can’t join any games you host. In fact, EA actually suggests in the manual that you don’t even play behind a firewall at all.

Graphics – First inspection of Rising Sun won’t impress in very many ways, as the game looks much like Frontline. By now, we’ve come to expect more, and though you will notice some minor improvements, it’s not by much at all. Scarce vegetation attempts to hide the angular walls when you’re supposed to be in a forest, and though we realize that outdoor environments are harder to execute than indoor ones that just need to basically create flat walls, we could at least use a bit more effort in disguising the less detailed areas. In many ways, Frontline actually beats this, simply because that game’s problem areas are far less noticeable in comparison. We had mentioned the levels themselves are bigger and more complex, and there are no mid-level loads; a nice touch considering that each mission can take up to an hour to complete.

The character models look okay, but aren’t spectacular, and environmental textures are as smeary as they were in Frontline. What’s more, when playing through the single-player campaign in co-op, we noticed that the player characters had the most retarded walk we’ve ever seen, even in the cutscenes, which by the way, are very poorly done. The screen quality is grainy, and the models have a campy, goofy look to them.

The framerate is about as steady as it was in Frontline, which for those who don’t know, means that for the most part, the game runs fairly smoothly, but also has some sections where it gets severely choppy. In Frontline, whenever there is a lot of smoke on screen, the framerate takes a huge hit (just try sniping when you zoom in on a smoky area; we dare you). The animation and movement rate are even worse when playing in co-op, where the slowdown is worse, and even the best conditions result in at least a slight drop. Multiplayer games are equally choppy.

Not surprisingly, Rising Sun actually operates the best when online. The graphics are sharper, and the overall look is crisp. The framerate is also the smoothest when online.

Sound - Medal of Honor has always been home to high quality audio, and though the soundtrack isn’t as instantly memorable as Frontline’s was, the musical score is still superlative. The sound effects are equally well done, though some of the voice work could use some fine-tuning. While none of the voices are particularly bad, they weren’t that good either, and often made us feel that the character was trying a little too hard. And as a note, we aren’t as fond of this game’s narrator either.

Overall Value - This iteration of Medal of Honor just isn’t as good as past efforts were. The single-player campaign is only eight missions long, and over before you know it. While the multiplayer online games are fun, they are too simplistic to last as long as other games tailored for online like SOCOM 2 or Rainbow Six 3. The splitscreen is a tacked-on, choppy affair, and the two-player co-op is a complete joke. If this is how Medal of Honor’s multiplayer is going to be, we’d prefer if the developers were to just leave it out altogether, and spend that time polishing the single-player campaign.

It’s as if EA LA tried too hard to offer a good bit of replay value, but never got around to polishing any of it. At times, Rising Sun shows a touch of brilliance, offering some fun missions and a variety of level designs that encourage exploration, stealth, and lots of firefights. But despite some really epic moments, the story just doesn’t have the same impact that Frontline did, and the game’s most memorable events are fairly low-key.

Rising Sun comes recommended only for those war buffs and fans of the series who are willing to overlook the game’s various shortcomings for the sake of the aesthetics of the World War II atmosphere, most especially because the series attacks a different element of World War II. For everyone else though, Rising Sun is good, but most certainly not great.

Review by Brendon Hivner