Guide - Medal of Honor: Frontline Guide - IGN (2024)

From the distant past, Medal of Honor: Frontline revisits a time when almost every nation was engulfed in a globe spanning war. You are pulled from the bloody beachheads of Normandy to embark on one of the most harrowing and dangerous experiences of the war on the European Continent. As Lieutenant James J. Patterson, you have been selected by the Office of Strategic Service (O.S.S.) for top-secret operations behind enemy lines. The game unfolds in a series of six missions, each with a number of grouped stages, for a total of 19 "in-your-face" levels. The game is played through the eyes of Lieutenant "Jimmy" Patterson, and you will get a very strong impression to what it would be like in combat. Grab your helmet (not the Jerry one, unless you aim to keep it as a souvenir) and get ready to push your face into the dirt -- for this is your finest hour.

So how does Frontline compare to other well known first person shooters? Very well in terms of graphics and sounds, although Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for the PC does have an edge up on its console brother. Although Frontline does not have the innovative weapons and outlandish tactics of Rare's Perfect Dark, it still offers some provocative eye candy and game settings. Beset by the Wermacht's arsenal on the beaches of Normandy, you get the feeling that Electronic Arts held nothing back when they were working on the game. From the dark, realistic uniforms of the Schutzstaffel (S.S.) to the rosy haze of smoking city blocks, Frontline puts you straight into what was termed, "The Last Just War."

You will notice that the game focuses more on steady advance and marksmanship rather than good old fashioned strafe and fire. Fast reflexes are still highly regarded in Frontline (and it will save your butt in many cases), but it will be something of an adjustment for some veterans of first-person-shooters. Unlike Volition's Red Faction where players can basically run up to and blast any baddie to bits and recover all their life with the next health pick-up, in Frontline you will be quick to notice that enemies can rip you up pretty fast whether the game is on easy or hard; the only saving grace is that on easy, the enemies do not have such a fine aim and you are allowed the luxury of being sloppy -- but given enough of an error, and James Patterson will have most of him smeared across a piece of concrete before he can go back home and marry his girl (a Bettie Mae Page, no doubt).

All in all though, Frontline is a top notch single-player game, even with its quirks. The only thing that stops it from being a fantastic game is the lack of any sort of multiplayer competitive or cooperative modes. Without the ability to fork around with the game's weapons except during the campaign game, the game loses a lot of its lustre in terms of replay, and most importantly, with firearms historians such as myself.