A Step Backwards
The first Medal of Honor: Heroes wasn't a fantastic FPS. However, it was a great addition for the PSP library because of its ability to adjust to the control limitations of the portable console. Add on a great theme song and Nazi-gunning action, and voila, a product that PSP owners can get behind. With a trial run with MOH 1 over with, you would think that EA would have a better sense of how to craft their sequel, Medal of Honor Heroes 2. Unfortunately, that is not the case, as MOH 2 has made improvements so insignificant that don't warrant a sequel to begin with. To the game's credit, though, it's still a slightly more polished, Nazi-downing, adventure that doesn't do much wrong.
The story covers familiar territory. You play a solider for an Allied secret services whose supposed to do some sabotaging on the German Reich and its installations. Blah blah blah, typical "this will cost unspeakable horrors" and "your work will save us all" banter, so I'm moving on to the control scheme. The set is largely the same as the one from MOH 1, with only a couple of key differences. Firstly, the aiming reticle is much larger, which means that firing the weapon from the hip is inefficient, requiring you to aim down the iron sights more often. Secondly, the health bar of the first game is replaced with regenerating health, with the gradual reddening of the screen indicating how close you are to kingdom come. These changes make you easier to kill and harder for you to shoot down enemies, increasing the overall difficulty of the game from the predecessor. Other difference to note: There will only be a guiding arrow to main objectives. You'll need to find the secondary objectives on your own.
The adventure is still captivating as the increased difficulty level forces you to advance methodically, knowing that it's game over with one bad move. But there are still some issues.The enemy AI from the first game has not improved much. They run around in the open waiting to be targeted, but again they outnumber you 20 to 1 and can really gun you down in a hurry once you reveal yourself. More importantly, however, mission variety has shrunk to the basics of blowing up facility x, grab object y and escaping, a far cry from the options from MOH 1, which included capturing and holding certain areas for a certain period of time (which was one of the more enjoyable missions in the game). Another big problems is that the campaign is really short. I struggled mightily in the last mission and I only just beat it a week ago, but even then I didn't break the 5 hour mark. Exactly why EA can't think up of more missions or make them baffles me.
Once you finish up the 5 hour campaign you can dive into multiplayer where you can have up to 32 players in several different maps. Having this amount of players in an FPS multiplayer, let alone on a PSP, is a recipe for a great session and is a good reason to keep the game (if you can find that many people of course). But other than that the cupboard is bare, even with the option to play the campaign again on a different difficulty setting and beating all the missions and fulfilling all requirements (just like the last game). Why didn't they keep the skirmish option from MOH 1?
The presentation is a step up from MOH 1 but only slightly. The character models and backgrounds have a bit more texture to them and the game plays at a pretty smooth rate despite the chaos going on. The theme song has been replaced, and while it's not as good, it is a bit more ominous, fitting given the horrors of the second world war.
At the end of the day, MOH 2 has done little to justify its existence as a sequel. Its improvements are small and hard to spot, making me wonder why those missions aren't thrown into MOH 1 to bolster that game's depth. But at the same time it's hard to fault the exciting WWII action the game has offer. If you have the option of renting this game, do so, as the product's shelf life is very short and doesn't justify a full purchase
Breakdown:
Gameplay: It's the same game but with some nice but hard to see improvements. But then again, shooting down nazis is a hard-to-turn-away-from proposal. 3/5
Presentation : The graphics are a tiny step up, but still look a bit to unreal. The soundtrack is fittingly ominous.3/5
Bonuses, Alternatives, Replay Value: Good lord, another 5 hour campaign (despite having winnable achievements) without the skirmish option. Mission variety has shrunk. A step back from its prequel. 2/5
Overall: 8/15
It makes some nice steps forward but the subtractions from MOH 1 is much more noticeable than its improvements.
