Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
World War II defined my middle school experience in a way that I'm not entirely comfortable admitting. Sure, 70 million people died in a half decade, but there were so many pieces of media that made that period in history seem cool. I could recite every line in Band of Brothers, The History Channel might as well have been called The Hitler Channel, and Saving Private Ryan… well actually, that one gave me nightmares. Most notably, I played all of the original Call of Duty games religiously, but somehow I completely missed the Medal of Honor series. Had I known Steven Spielberg was behind the game, I doubt I would have let it slip through. This is the secret third part in the Spielberg WWII trilogy.
AMERICA WINS! Oh no… I guess I just spoiled the story for this one. Don't be too mad at me. It's not the most complex narrative man has seen. Ostensibly, the game has only three characters. There's the general guy, the French Resistance lady and something Patterson, the player character. The reason I'm not telling you much about the character or what they do is that none of it matters (also, I can't remember much else). Basically, the Nazi's are up to a bunch of shenanigans and it's your job to go around, messing with their best laid plans.
When you think of a World War II movie, you probably think of a stereotypical squad that has one smart ass, one stoic sergeant and a bunch of colorful if stock characters between them. It's interesting to me that Medal of Honor has none of that. If I had to guess, I would say this has something to do the processing power of the PSOne. There are no friendly characters at any point in this game, probably because the sturdy old Playstation would struggle if it had to calculate and render more than the half dozen Germans that appear on screen at any time. The story is shaped, at least in part, around that restraint. If you go back and look at older shooters, you'll see that this is a trend. Games like Doom, Goldeneye and even the original Halo stressed an individual player character instead of being part of a larger squad. It's a classic example of design by limitation.
Graphically, this game is exactly what you would expect. You'll see the same classic WWII imagery that you've seen before and since with the caveat that everyone moves like a zombie and the draw distance is akin to driving in a blizzard. The real highlight of the show is the orchestral score. You'll not be surprised to know that the game's composer, Michael Giacchino, went on to win multiple film industry awards for music including an Emmy, three Grammies, a Golden Globe award, and an Academy Award for Best Original Score for Up. This game is about to graduate from high school, which makes it all the more impressive when I tell you that you shouldn't play it without headphones.
Before I dive into what it's like to actually play this game, I should note that I never touched the game's multiplayer. If you're going to play Medal of Honor at this point, the multiplayer probably doesn't interest you and If I had to be honest, I would admit to having no friends to play it with. :'(
In a weird way, this game is adorable and quaint. Remember what I told you about the six on screen enemies and design by limitation? That becomes even more relevant when you sit down and play the game. What limitations did the PSOne present? I'm a robot and I do love listing things piece by piece to illustrate a point, so let me pull up some quick bullets on cause and effect.
The Playstation Controller
This game literally controls like a tank. The default control scheme assumes players had no analogue sticks which, older gamers can attest, came late in the PSOne's life cycle. Thus, the d-pad allowed players to looked right and left and move forward and back. Strafing, which is now universally tackled by a controller's left stick, was tied to the shoulder buttons. Needless to say, making a twitch shooter was not an option. You might notice that almost every German you come across takes a moment to lie down before taking aim and firing at you. No animator had it in there minds that these goofy movements would impress anyone. It was a practical gameplay necessity. Without it, gamers wouldn't have any time to aim. Anyone who denies the fast pace of modern Call of Duty should play Medal of Honor and you will finally understand.
Number of Enemies
As I mentioned before, there's never more than five or six Nazi's presented for your shooting pleasure. Those massive, cinematic set-pieces that you see in today's shooters weren't going to happen. So the designer made each enemy harder to kill. They took more hits and did more damage back we when veterans liberated France in 99. You kids don't know how good you have it. We also had health bars back then. Ask your father what those were. The tension then became less immediate. You weren't firing willy-nilly into a crowd, with the knowledge that your wounds would heal after three seconds of taking cover. The game became a strategy of anticipating whether or not you had enough health to make it through the whole level. You felt less like Master Chief and more like Simon Belmont wandering through Dracula's Castle, hoping to find that next wall chicken.
Bite Sized Levels
Remember when game levels were smaller than the house you lived in? You and I both know that levels haven't grown bigger because we've developed greater attention spans. There was only so much memory on the original compact disk. If you do decide to give this a playthrough, try running back through a level after you've cleared it of enemies. I promise you it wouldn't take a tenth of the time it took you before. All of those things I mentioned earlier about the game being purposefully slowed down had a lot to do with this as well.
Inability to Animate Complex Cutscenes
Again, there is only so much memory on a PSOne disk and only so high a budget for a late nineties developer, but games still need a context. Enter the news reel footage. This has much to do with why I loved playing WWII shooters back in the day. I'd get treated to a History Channel short every time I finished another level, and I lived for that stuff. These pre-mission news reels changed into flashy pre-mission briefings when Call of Duty 4 came out, only now no one can attest to being made smarter after watching them. Some games used to teach history instead of providing pure, unadulterated entertainment. I miss that.
In summary, Medal of Honor is a bare bones and methodical experience that controls like shit and will depress you by reminding you that one in every twenty five people on earth were killed during the early forties. But, give it a chance. You'll learn about gaming history and just a little bit about human history. As long as you explore the control options, I guarantee you'll come away from it feeling like you haven't wasted your time.
