This is good. You hear that, EA? Go back to the good old days of Medal of Honor.
The story is really nonexistant. Just following the adventures of one Lt. Jimmy Patterson, as always, but many of the levels are based on actual events (with some extra action thrown in) so I suppose it was great at the time.
The gameplay is fun. The usual FPS fare... find a gun, shoot the Germans. Something I always liked about Frontline and Allied Assault is how they have an action-movie feel to them. Sure you can clear out a bunker in Call of Duty, but you won't hear Mr. Giacchino's great Nazi theme when you unload your MP40. It's also the usual MoH gameplay, in that you have to blow this up and infiltrate that base and etc. Great fun, I think.
The graphics are the stuff you'd find around 2003 (I believe) and are not bad. The character models look pretty good, especially because there are a variety of different enemy skins, all which look detailed enough. From the lowly grunt in the bunkers of D-Day or sailor from the U-Boats, to the officers and SS elites. Something I really miss from this game is the death and scripted idle animations of the Germans.
When you sneak up on two grunts sharing a cigarette in the muddy confines of the bunker like best buds. Or a shot in the head, the soldier feels his "wound" and then falls out of the sniper's perch. Yeah, it's really over the top and almost comedic, but I thought it gives the enemies personality. When I think of Medal of Honor, for some reason, I think of Giacchino's score with a marching enemy soldier.
Call of Duty 2/3 are great, really. But when enemies are killed, they just fall over like nothing. It's probably more realistic, I realise, but it just feels like mowing down lines of code and nothing more.
This brings us to sound. Frontline is also strong in this respect as well, especially in its original score. I really think this is Giacchino's best work. It retains the feel of the previous scores (Indiana Jones-like action movie, complete with goose-stepping goons), but also introduces a more tragic-beauty feel to a few tracks (notably the main Frontline theme "Market Garden" and the well-known "Arnhem" level). It contains excitement with extremely frantic and dramatic sections (taking down Herr Sturmgeist?) and then goes into sophisticated music which almost spells out the tragedy of war. Really, Frontline's OST is still better than Airborne's OST.
Giacchino's style has changed some, after working on titles such as Mission Impossible 3 or Ratatouille (whose score is perfectly acceptable), and Airborne doesn't feel like Medal of Honor. The pieces aren't as exciting, and he's cut out the choral, which really adds to music (in my opinion. Looking at Halo, for instance.) in many ways. People might consider the Airborne score much more mature (and it definitely shows), but in terms of enjoyment, there's not a track I would skip from Frontline's score (yes, including the Songless Nightingale sung with all the voices AND the slightly drunk German pub songs) whereas I really only enjoy a few pieces from the other.
Multiplayer is a joke and not in the PS2 version, so I won't talk about it. I pretend they didn't include it in the Xbox/Gamecube versions.
Now, as my parting thoughts, Frontline is everything Medal of Honor you could ask for. I only hope EA will bring back Jimmy Patterson of the OSS and make the gameplay fun some way. Have an actual storyline (it's been done... I've read a story or two involving OSS operatives and while they're not the most sophisticated pieces of work, they're damn entertaining) and throw in Manon as a main character (co-op, anyone?).
Because right now, Medal of Honor isn't looking like a WW2 franchise. It's looking like one that's trying to catch up to everyone else. Until then, we have Frontline to remind EA what they're fighting for.