In a market flooded with FPS, MOH Airborne has a unique gameplay element that contributes to a satisfying experience.
As soon you as you insert the game in your system, you'll hear the familiar music from past Medal of Honor games. Compared to its predecessors, it's little faster and more orchestral. The music within the game has the same quality and it follows the action extremely well. The sound effects are pretty standard fare…nothing we haven't heard before but good enough not to hinder the overall experience.
The single player campaign is spread across six fast paced and varied environments. Overall, the production values are of very good quality. The levels are pretty detailed but don't expect to be blown away by the graphics. Do they have a next generation look? Absolutely!. Are the visuals groundbreaking? Not really, as there is definitely a difference in quality if you compare it to titles like Call of Duty 4 or Bioshock…. I was pleased overall with certain aspects like the animations and particularly how the soldiers react to bullets and explosions. More importantly to consider when discussing visuals, is the fact that the level is completely open. As your solider jumps out of the plane, you can choose to land anywhere…no real restrictions. This is a flexibility unseen in any other first person shooter.
The control will feel very familiar at the start and it's very easy to pick up and play. One of the control tweaks that I appreciated is the fact that you can hold the grenade button and delay your throw in order for the grenade to detonate in the air or on impact…depending on your timing. My only gripe about the control is the fact that the developers chose the "push-down" on the left analog stick to run. It's not so bad if you need to run short distances however, I find this to be a little annoying in multiplayer deathmatches or team objective when you need to run often.
The Xbox live multiplayer aspect of MOH Airborne is pretty enjoyable although, the offering is the most basic I've seen for a FPS in quite a long time. If you like deathmatch, team deatchmatch and capture the flag, you'll be in good shape because these are the only modes. The multiplayer matches support 12 players at the same time which is not that many however, the maps aren't really that large enough to support more. One of the issues you will encounter in deathmatches is bad and predictable respawning areas which could leave you in a predicament to your opponents. It doesn't happen too often but it can be extremely annoying.
In the team deathmatch or objective "airborne" modes, if you find yourself on the Allied Troops team, your soldier is parachuting down on your enemies. This is the very cool aspect of Airborne. They can try to shoot you in mid-air but better yet, you can kick them as you land on the ground. On the flip side, when you're playing Axis and you are grounded, your opponents are parachuting down and you constantly need to look up to see where they are coming from and to make sure you're not caught off guard. One of the achievements is to try to kill an opponent with a grenade while he's parachuting down. Good luck with that one.
There are definitely more complete and original First Person Shooter experiences out there but, overall I really enjoyed Medal of Honor: Airborne. The production values are very acceptable and the parachuting gameplay feature is more than just a gimmick as it adds to the single player and multiplayer experiences. I found myself playing through the single player campaign four times, which is a sign of a good title. Quite frankly, I'm hoping that my review can encourage more people to give it a try.