I first seen this game while on the last day of school. We brought it in for some 4-way multi-player and I was blown away. The next day I bought for £37.99 from my local Woolworths.
The single-player experience I took home with me that day was a major disappointment. Now not a lot of people will agree, as it is obvious that this is a major step up from Rising Sun.
First of all, the graphics have received an overhaul. Gone are the standard, muddy levels that filled the MOH games of before, replaced by some fantastic textures and backdrops, with the Bloom effects complimenting the environments the player finds himself in, from sandy North African deserts (note to EA: this is not Europe), to the gritty smoke filled wastelands of Stalingrad. You also have a lot more say in what your character can do in a certain situation. It's obvious that that EA has spent a lot of time in trying to make the player, as US Army captain William Holt hunting down a devious German army colonel developing atomic weapons( SNAP! Oh there's goes the wafer thin plot) feel immersed in your environments, and this it does with a measure of success. The sound also contributes to this immersion, gunshots and explosions rattling everywhere, and there are some decent if not standout vocal performances. In other words production values are up to the usual EA standard, though this was to be expected.
Gameplay is divided up into 11 levels set around the European front of the err... assault, and its here that the game shows up its first flaw. Despite claims that battlefields are much larger than before, the levels are still rather short. Well, maybe not too short, just unsubstantiated. You'll rocket through these levels like no other, and the lack of bonus content makes for a poor £37.99 spent.
Controls also suffer. While they are alright, they feel foreign and it will take a while before you get familiar with them, They can also feel rather sluggish, especially when you want to crouch. The team aspect of the game is completely unnecessary and all you'll ever need them for is to draw away enemy fire, as they lack either the dynamicness of the guys in Brothers in Arms or the simple command system of Freedom Fighters.
Someparts of the game can be downright unfair, with the enemy pouring on a soul destroying amount of fire eating away at your Revive credits(another poorly implemented mechanic).
Add to this some rather jittery AI, which just refuses to stop moving for 2 seconds and makes suicidal runs a lot more common than you may believe possible, lots of invisible barriers interrupting the flow of gameplay, some dull level design and you have a game which does not stand up to Call of Duty: Finest Hour, which though simpler, is far easier to master yet is undeniably more engrossing. Too little, too late is the saying that rings true to almost all of MOH, as Call of Duty sticks to what it does best and does it well, while MOH: EA is a series of concepts tacked together with little care but for profit, and given the overall look of EA sheen which garners them so much money these days.
Looks: 8 Sounds: 7 Plays: 6 Lasts: 5 Overall: 6/10
