Medal
of Honor: Rising Sun takes EA's famed war series into the Pacific theater.
The series of eight missions erupts into action with the onset of the Pearl
Harbor attack. You begin the game as Marine Corporal Joseph
Griffin deep in the bowels of a rocking, burning, tortured ship. This
opening scenario serves to illustrate the horror and death that thousands of
US naval men faced when Yamamoto's attack planes swarmed into Pearl Harbor
that Sunday morning. The action intensifies once you reach the gundeck: the
sky is literally filled with planes, flak, and smoke. Your crewmates command
a gunboat and weave through the burning battleships as you try to take down
as many Japanese planes as you can
Each of the following missions is varied
and well-scripted. You will take part in a commando raid on Guadalcanal
(watch out for the 'gators!), blow up a bridge over the Kwai, infiltrate a
high level military meeting, and sabotage an aircraft carrier. The goal is
to gun down all opposing force and progress along a fairly linear track
toward the end objective. You will uncover hidden objectives along the way
and there are bonus objectives that make the game even more interesting.
Some avenues are less obvious than others: tunnels, sewers, and alternate
trails keep the game from getting stale.
Save
points are not very common and quite often hidden. Health and ammo are
stored in crates you must bust open. I would have preferred a simple ammo
locker or a first aid station to crates but at least the power-ups weren't
glowing or spinning in mid-air. Diligent searching will reward the player.
There are a few hidden tools that unlock additional areas of gameplay.
MOH:RS
has several notable strengths. First, the plots are engaging and believable.
An element of danger and suspense is evident throughout the game. Stalking
through the jungle at night, creeping through the decks of a carrier,
storming a Singapore hotel not knowing what lies around the corner--Rising
Sun gets it right. A Hollywood soundtrack and solid voice acting underpins
the action. Informative newsreels are sandwiched between missions so you are
educated and entertained. The music is suspenseful and captivating. It gives
the impression that you’re starring in your own John Wayne movie. Sound
effects are top notch, boosted by LucasFilms THX. Rifle shots, explosions,
and various effects come off very realistically.
As
is often the case in many games, sometimes the AI characters can do some
pretty wonky stuff and break the illusion of reality. Most common of these
is the old "one enemy standing beside another enemy you just shot but fails
to react realistically" bugbear. Maybe their orders are not to leave their
posts.... Thankfully, in most cases the enemy does respond to your presence;
they crouch, take cover, and shift position randomly, making marksmanship a
challenge. Imagine my surprise when I lobbed a grenade at a cluster of
soldiers and one had the nerve to kick it back! You'll find them in the
trees, hidden in huts, and laying in wait in foxholes. The game provides
three levels of difficulty but only the hardest setting supplies a
challenge. The Japanese aren't very good shots but they come in considerable
numbers so you will have to use cover and snipe from a distance to keep your dogtags jingling.
The
graphics are passable. I found the night environment, especially the jungle,
too well-lighted and the foliage looks a little dated. Some elements, like
the fog, subtlety add to the feeling of being there. The settings are
rich with ambiance, you will have no problem suspending disbelief that you
are prowling the streets of Singapore sniping or crawling through the eerie
depths of the jungles of Guadalcanal.
Using
a standard PlayStation 2 controller you must use both of the analog sticks
to move. One makes your character look right or left and the other enables
you to move back or forth. It is rather confusing and difficult at first but
as you get farther along in the game you get more accustomed to the
controls. Taking aim and hitting moving soldiers is much more difficult than
using a mouse and keyboard. You can zoom in by holding the L1 button--this
also slows the motion and aids with getting the enemy in the crosshairs.
Multiplayer options
include two-player co-op mode with a split-screen style and a mode for up to
four players. A large selection of maps and setup styles include free for
all and team deathmatch game types. For players with broadband there are
nine levels for PlayStation 2 online for up to 8 players in deathmatch and
team modes.
Medal
of Honor: Rising Sun pays solemn tribute to the sacrifices and courage
to American soldiers. It also has its lighter moments. Shoot an enemy
soldier in the foot, he hops around angrily for a few moments before he
begins to shoot at you again. Some of your teammates are pretty funny, as
well. One soldier we called "Sarge" was notoriously hyperactive, always
charging into enemy formations and shouting out "Die, you S.O.B.'s!" and
"Don't let them escape!" (which often as not occurred when we were badly
outnumbered).
Medal of Honor:
Rising Sun is less a battlefield action game (Battlefield 1942) but more of
an epic interactive game, cinematic and narrative based. The missions are
formulated to place you in the middle of some of WWII's most dangerous and
interesting battles. It succeeds in holding your interest, it succeeds in
providing several evenings of entertaining, engaging gaming. We count Rising
Sun as another success in the Medal of Honor series. The ending leaves the
way open for a sequel. We look forward to completing the war when it becomes
available.
