the best one yet, but with a base to improve upon
right from the start you are welcomed by a gorgous main menu to the likes that have never been seen on the PSP, the game gives you a few options to begin with:
skirmish
campaign
multiplayer
as well as the options and stats found in most modern FPS's
so let's get into the action. unfortunately there is no tutorial mode, so newbies have to fend for themself right from the start, it's probably best to begin with a skirmish as this allows you to learn the countrols before going into action. recently EA has gained a the bad reputation of never giving any options to single players on there game, for MOHH they managed to address this issue slightly by giving people a few options like for how long they want to play, how many players they want to play against and on what map they want to play. the player gets to choose their clothing and what weapon they wish to use, this is a rather large step for EA as of late choosing guns on MOH has never really be allowed on single player. though when choosing weapons EA has managed to place baby names on the guns.
let me explain this further: for many people this will not be their first historic FPS (if this is open your eye's and get a real console then get a true FPS) most people have heard of the panzershrek (the german anti-armour weapon), yet for some bizarre reason EA some how felt compeled to call it a bazooka, why?
tip: when choosing oppositon numbers choose 15 rather than 16 if you want big battles, on 16 the game sometimes lag's a little and for some reason difficulty shoots up around 4 times above normal
anyway, the game takes seconds to load which is great compaired to some games, and your thrust straight into the action. as soon as you spawn get ready to shoot. though the maps are massive (i'll talk a little more about this later) their are only 10 spawn points per map so there are likely to be clashes from the off. the first thing you notice is the graphics, though not to bad for the PSP, it somewhat lacks slightly to brother in arms (a PSP game of a similiar nature), the second thing you notice is how the heck to i move, now this isn't to difficult compaired to other games, but it isn't that well explained in the manual. it could take you a few minutes to learn but once you got it, it's set in stone. the gameplay does show hints of autoaim at times, but it rarely works, this won't bother most as it's pretty easy to be considerably accurate with most guns
tip: avoid the german MP as this misses most shots even at close range.
back to the gameplay you will find the maps are massive larger than most FPS maps, this is probably a bad thing as i feel the disk space lost here could be placed elsewhere to make the game better. one thing i have noticed is the texture quality (often the make or break of a game) basically brother in arms does best here. on MOHH the textures do feel slightly shoddy at times with no wood grain or metal brushing on any of the gun. not even a speck of dirt on most weapons make me a little disappointed as better textures wouldn't have been much work for the guys at EA. on the brighter side, the gun fire produce a nice nozzle flash a smoke to boot. grenade have very nice explosions, and RPG explosions are the best i've seen from most FPS's. the building at time seem a bit bare though, often furnished with little more than a few boxes.
there is in my view just one control failure on this game, the sprint feature is a tad hard to use and requires a lot of practice to use efficently.
tanks are immobile in the game (much to my disappointment), but hay you can't have everything.
the AI programing is a little crap (i should know i program AI on computer games for a living), the bots are unpredictable retards, they are rubbish at killing each other in deathmatches, yet when it comes to killing a player, no problem.
one thing i noticed and took in is the awsome audio, it makes a seemingly normal battle, something that little bit better. the guns sound real, explosion feel as if they have rattled your own sphincter. and the background battle sounds are something to remeber this game by.
in campaign mode there a few missions to do 15 in all extended out to 45 using the laws of easy, medium and hard levels. the 15 levels in it's self are quite repetitive. running around a the large maps can be a little tedious at times, especially when you have a bot enemy more intrested in killing you than defending positions and protecting goals.
if you have access to multiplayer mode then use it, this could be the best part of MOHH, once you account is setup get fighting, their are many servers out their, and you can even start your own. their are 6 modes online. the best one being deathmatch, the others are similar to the campain mode where one side attacks an outpost while the other defends.
conclusion: i have to give EA's MOHH a 8.5 out of 10. they have made a Playable FPS for th PSP. sure their is room for improvement, but this isn't a bad start. an improved game will come with time, hopefully EA are reading these review's and taking them seriously, because i would like to see a new FPS from EA for the PSP. but even better than this one. with better graphics and better AI. this should be the platform for all PSP FPS to be built upon, so, giant gaming companies of the world, don't give up on the PSP just yet.
positives: best FPS on PSP currently, good fun to play even on singleplayer, large multiplayer community, more singleplayer options than other games.
Negatives: Maps sometimes to large for own good, babyish weapon names, textures lagging behind similiar titles, dumb AI and no tutorial mode.
My BRAND NEW copy of MOHH cost me just £20 from gamestation so i think i paid fair for a game that i'am play 24/7 with currently.
thanks for reading
Graham Konstandelos