Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault isn't without demerits, but it's an enjoyable game while it lasts.
User Rating: 8 | Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault PC
The Medal of Honor series has always been such a good WWII shooter, since it boasts fun multi-player, and sometimes an engaging single-player. Allied Assault was a great installment in the series, and it definitely proved to be one of the greatest WWII shooters of all time. Now that Pacific Assault is hot off the floor, is it worth the money to buy and play for a while? This time around, in Pacific Assault, you assume the role of a U.S. marine, named Thomas Conlin. Obviously, you'll be controlling him through the famous battles of WWII, and he's even got a couple of squad members and groups to boot. You start off in a training level, and the game pretty much teaches you the fundamentals of the game...simple fundamentals to be specific. Not only that, the training level is quite long, but that doesn't really pull away the action all that much. After heading through the training level, you'll be put in right in the heat of battle, and be ready to follow the current events that are going around you. This is usually how every Medal of Honor game starts, so it's no surprise to a veteran to notice any of this stuff. Throughout the game, you'll be able to possess a variety of weapons that were used in the battles of WWII, and you got a bunch of weapons from regular pistols to rifles, and sub machine guns. You got nearly the whole arsenal, which puts a bit of strategy into the game, figuring out what weapon to use for each enemy. Pacific Assault allows you to carry 2 weapons, one "one-hander" weapon, and a big gun, which are usually rifles and stuff like that. It gives the game a more realistic feel, instead of being able to carry an infinite amount of guns all at once. Explosives like grenades are also back, but they have a bit of a weird feel to them. They bounce like rubber balls when thrown, and being able to aim at your target takes a bit of skill. They are a necessity though because throughout the game you'll be surrounded by numerous enemies, which will bring the grenade to use, especially in close quarters...as long as you don't injure or kill yourself in the process. New to the Medal of Honor series is what we call a "corpsman". This person is simply a well-equipped medic with many first aid and bandages. If you're injured or severely injured, or just fall during combat, you can call the corpsman to come and heal you up and about. Although once you fall or die, you're vision starts to go out of order, turns black and white, and a bunch of echos will be sounding through your mind. Adds to the realistic feel of the game, but even at that, the corpsman cant always help you. If the corpsman is injured or healing somebody else, you could just be left there, lying and dying from blood loss. Either that, or an enemy can just shoot you right then and there and simply kill you, no sweat. This new system offers a bit of strategic elements, so you can't just call the corpsman every time you suffer even the slightest wounds. It's a nice touch to see something new, and it's quite well done. Pacific Assault is quite a challenging game, but for some, it might be too challenging. Once again strategic elements are definitely going to be needed. Taking cover behind objects and other items is going to be used throughout all the levels in the game, so veterans of the Medal of Honor series, and even from other shooting games will be able to get familiar with this tactic quickly enough. Pacific Assault's multi-player is a good way to get your fun going after finishing up single-player, but there's really not many options or modes for multi-player. There are only available modes in Pacific Assault...the all to familiar Free For All, Team Deathmatch, and an Invasion mode. All the modes are fun to play for the first few hours, but you'll feel like wanting more through the multi-player. There isn't much multi-player has to really offer, except bigger maps, but for people that are familiar with these maps, they can be able to use the exploits in the maps to their advantage. Medal of Honor's multi-player component needs a real upgrade soon. For the graphics, Pacific Assault doesn't necessarily disappoint. You got good looking backgrounds and the weapon and character details look above average. There are quite a few clipping issues, like being able to see people's guns through doors, which might spoil the fun for some people...especially if it's online. You'll also experience a few minor exploits in some levels, but the graphics has it's work cut out. The audio and sound for Pacific Assault is easily the best audio and sound ever heard on almost ANY shooter to date. A resplendent orchestrated soundtrack brings in the experience and detail of Pacific Assault, like all the other MOH games. The voice acting in Pacific Assault is wonderfully done, and it adds more feel to the reality of the game. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is a well-done game that can have alot going for it. What really brings this game down is the fact that multi-player hasn't really changed, as it's still nearly the same. Some exploits, glitches, and clipping issues really downgrade the game, simply because there's nearly alot of them, and they can be used online to give the player the advantage and upper-hand on all the other players. The single-player is challenging, but rather short and sometimes a bit tedious. But really, Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is still a very good game. It's got great graphics, superb sound, and the single-player is rather good itself, except for it's flaws although. If you're looking for some good WWII action to keep you on the edge of your seat, you really can't go wrong with Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. 
