Medal of Honor: European Assault stands out as a game that is nothing short of non-stop action and a muddled story.
In this installment in the long-running Medal of Honor series, you play as a man named William Holt - a lieutenant in the OSS - or the Office of Strategic Services, The OSS was pretty much the "granddaddy" of the CIA. Since you play as an OSS officer, things are different this time around. There are your standard primary objectives, but then there's your secondary objectives. These smaller objectives are harder to find, but reward you with a better ranking at the end of the mission. They are scattered around the environment and thus the game encourages you to explore the vast levels in this game. This gives the game a little breathing room - the earlier games were so linear and straightforward, but European Assault is unique in its own right with providing the player the ability to explore the level and probably find a few secrets or two such as extra ammunition or medical kits.
There has been notable changes, gameplay-wise, to European Assault. It's sort of less about the espionage and the infiltration that Jimmy Patterson did in Medal of Honor: Frontline, and more about the shooting. The HUD has been altered so it's not just a useless compass anymore, but a radar that shows you your primary and secondary objectives, along with the positions of your team mates. This time, you're with company - and let me say this - they're very helpful. The ability to manage a squad of your own makes you really feel like you're one of the superiors, and issuing commands in European Assault is fast and easy. You can order them to clear out a building for you should you have dangerously low health, or you can have them scout ahead if you're feeling a little queasy about the dark and snowy roads ahead. European Assault is quite a different Medal of Honor title. It has iron sights now and the guns feel tough and gritty. The game even has a sort of arcade-like presentation to it. This game implements a life-system - and should you die, a Revive can be used to bring you back to life and finish the fight. Or continue it, if need be. These Revives can be found by completing primary and secondary objectives, and you are given a small amount at the beginning of the mission.
Following this arcade-like feel are the icons that are displayed whenever you achieve a kill-streak or score a headshot. Also, whenever you score a headshot, a red meter fills up. This is the Adrenaline Meter. The meter was inspired by the game's military advisor, Captain Dale Dye, who was also the advisor for earlier Medal of Honor titles. He explained how he once was caught in gunfire during the Vietnam War, and how the ran as fast as he could to get out of there - with the bullets flying past him. He felt like he was invincible, and that he was receiving such an adrenaline rush that it was this that pretty much saved his life. Now, with the Adrenaline Meter, you can relive his experience. The meter can be filled up by performing heroic deeds, such as completing mission objectives, scoring headshots and kill-streaks, and even using one of your own Medical Kits to heal your friends. When this meter is filled up, you can commence use of the Adrenaline Mode with the tap of a button, and you are invincible to damage and have unlimited ammunition for a short period of time. The screen dons a red filter and the noises of gunfire and bullets whizzing past you are slowed-down and amplified. The first time I used this was an exhilarating experience. I had extremely low health and I had to sprint across a graveyard to get to a church, and all of my comrades were dead. I just used up the rest of my ammunition to build up the meter, and then I used it to just run past all of the enemies just to get the heck out of the red zone. Every time I used the Adrenaline Mode, it made me feel breathless. Like Dale Dye himself during the Vietnam War.
The game's objectives, other than your standard "take out the flak gun" or "destroy the tanks blocking the allies' progress" are varied. There's even a Nemesis - or to put it a different way - a boss. These bosses are higher-ranked Nazi officers and so they have top-secret documents. Fighting these nemeses are optional, but if you want to receive a better rank on a mission so you can have more Medical Kits at the start of the next one, then these are pretty much mandatory. These are pumped-up, intense battles between you and the Nemesis. These encounters are short but epic, and when they do show up - it's killing time. And someone's got to die - and it sure as hell better not be you. Nemesis are in pretty much every mission - and these missions can vary from four campaigns - with each having only a handful of missions.
From a visual standpoint, European Assault is pretty darn good. The lighting is exceptionally well-done, and character models - while decent, have a poor array of textures. Faces are blurry and their equipment looks even blurrier. However, these can be dealt with because there can be so many people on the battlefield at a time, and the action is always fluid and jaw-dropping. It's a shame though that the same can't be said for the Nazis. The models look like clay and the animations for them aren't all that great. They don't move with fluid animations and so they sort of animate like zombies. But at least the sound and music department are awesome. The music isn't composed by Michael Giacchino this time around, but by Christopher Lennertz. It's interesting, because Lennertz has his own unique style that has a more of a war-like feel than Giacchino's scores, which dabbed on the Nazi war anthems and cleverly slipped-in motifs. The sounds are great, because they're backed-up by THX. The guns sound like guns and not toys, and the explosions are fierce and the bullets ricocheting off of the walls sounds great. Too bad the same can't be said for the voice acting, because it isn't that great. Holt sounds very bored and uninspiring, and the allies' lines are almost cringe-worthy, but if you can get past this issue, then it should sound fine to you. The only voices that are worth hearing are the cries of Nazis when they are issuing orders. They're not over-used and not annoying, which is definitely a plus in my book.
The difficulty can range from relatively easy to punishingly difficult. The earlier missions are manageable, but when you get to the Russian campaign, it all starts to get more intense. In European Assault, Nazis can now run while shooting, and so it's extremely important that you rely on your friends during firefights - because heading out alone can cause you to get shredded apart and cost you a revive. And then your Adrenaline Meter will drain and you'll have to start building it up all over again. The later levels are hopelessly frustrating and will probably make you want to punch a hole in the wall, but if you feel like you're seasoned enough you might stand a chance - especially on that last mission.
There's not much to do other than the campaign mode, and there are no unlockables at all. This leaves a severe dent in the replay value, because if you don't have someone else to play with in the multiplayer mode it gets boring real fast. There's no real incentive to replay the past missions that you've been through other than to get more Medical Kits or revives, and complete the objectives. However, the multiplayer mode supports up to four players and it's fast and fun. There are tons of modes to choose from, such as Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Blitzkrieg, Nemesis, and others. There are tons of maps and in general there's a lot of variety and fun to be had in the multiplayer mode that can provide hours and hours of fast-paced action.
While Medal of Honor: European Assault doesn't really strike a chord in my first-person shooter self, it tries to set the bar for the genre and it has sort of made a mark on it too. It has a great, fluid team-based system but the story and overall presentation hampers the otherwise solid game. The story isn't too much to care about and the game is unreasonably short. There's little replay value save the multiplayer mode, and after the credits roll there really isn't anything you're missing out on in the game. But the music and sound are great, and the campaign is fun while it lasts. Medal of Honor: European Assault stands out as a game that is nothing short of non-stop action and a muddled story. It shows too - but it can't really hold a balance between gameplay and story, and so the ending doesn't seem to hold up well with the earlier phases of the game.
There's other first-person shooters out there, but considering how this was very well the last nail in the coffin for the Medal of Honor franchise before it started to hit the fan, it's definitely a solid FPS that's worth checking out.