Marines, the few, the proud, dead on the beach... time and time again.
After the huge success of Medal of Honor Allied Assault, EA brought out many other Medal of Honor titles. Medal of Honor Pacific Assault is the latest release. This time you are Marine Private Tommy Conlin. As usual the game begins with you in boot camp. You’re a marine, so get ready to kick some butt because its 1941 and life is not a joy ride.
You’re off to Hawaii for some much needed rest and relaxation...
Rest & Relaxation Marine Style
Welcome to Hawaii, the land of sun, water, beaches, and babes. That was of course, until the enemy blew your Sunday. As a Marine your mission begins at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. You have to dodge enemy fire and get to a PT boat as fast as possible. Once there your mission is to shoot down planes, it’s not all that hard. Following this gun battle you get dropped off into a ship to try and save people. That is a very nifty feature; you can throw people over your back and take them to the nearest medic. This continues for about 10 minutes. After that it’s back to shooting down planes. This about sums up the Pearl Harbor aspect, but no worries, the games doesn’t stay this easy.
Guadalcanal
"Unsupplied and surrounded, the Marines battled for six months in the most horrific warfare man has ever known - against the unremitting onslaught of the Empire of Japan.The Japanese called it Lunga Point.
The Marines called it Henderson Field.
It was the key to controlling the Pacific."
Guadalcanal was the location of some of the fiercest fighting throughout the pacific. Tommy and his crew are sent there to take, and then protect this airfield. Missions involve sweeping the jungle, clearing villages, destroying artillery, and just trying to survive. On that note, one of the intriguing features of Medal of Honor Pacific Assault is the squad interaction.
"If the Japanese troops get to you first they will execute you."
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You are able to request covering fire when you want to move in on a target and your fellow marines will execute the order. You can also ask them to move forward or retreat (but Marine’s never retreat, so who needs that). Also, on that note, Marine’s are always in a firefight for their life, the doc is your best friend. When you’re getting near death you can actually call him over and he will heal you. This doesn’t mean you can go charging in though because if the Japanese troops get to you first they will execute you. There are also limited healings.
After singlehandely saving the men on Guadalcanal you get to fly off the island for some more R&R.
And so on and so forth
The Marines actually have an air division, and they used this frequently in the pacfic during WWII. In following with historical accurracy these planes are actually used by the Marines. Medal of Honor Pacific Assault allows you to fly airplanes and dogfight Japanese Zeros. After you figure out how to fly properly this gets to be pretty fun but for awhile its kinda of annoying.
The rest of the game consists of the same type of missions as Guadalcanal with increasing numbers of enemies and slightly different objectives. In all honesty, doing the same mission over and over again gets kind of annoying. In the same breath, you will die frequently. You will never forget this because the load times to respawn are rediculously long.
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault requires you to learn from your mistakes because you can only carry two weapons. If you are not properly armed, or run out of ammo and are unable to acquirre a Japanese weapon
"You cannot just storm the base and kill everything that moves"
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you are stuck beating the crap out of people until you find some ammo; you won’t live long. Planning moves in advance is a requirement for this game. Unless you cheat, you cannot just storm the base and kill everything that moves. Of course, if you do you will get to see a pretty spectacular firefight.
Specs
The graphics in Medal of Honor Pacific Assault are quite good. They aren’t quite as good as those in Doom 3 but for the size of the level and amount of action they are quite good. The graphics look realistic enough and the movie cutscenes are also quite impressive. You will need a very powerful computer and a very powerful video card to run this game effeciently and have it look good.
The musical score for this game is one of the best I’ve heard in a long time. The sound effects for each gun are distinct enough that after a few minutes of playing you can tell who is shooting, the Marines of the Japs, just by the sound their gun makes. Also, each character in your squad has a different voice so you know who is saying "Man Down!" or "Covering fire!".
The power behind Medal of Honor is history. On that note, between major campaigns the game includes actual historical footage of events like Guadalcanal, Pearl Harbor, etc. These movies add a lot to the game; they remind you that although you can just turn it off, or restart, that was not how real life went.
The game is not without its bugs. Medal of Honor Pacific Assault has a few annoying ones. The most annoying bug of all is the fact that objects that aren’t in your way
"Constant death and jungle fighting..."
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will still stop your bullets. Perfectly lines up headshots aren’t perfectly lines up unless you’re wide open to make sure that none of the trees and objects that are around won’t get in the way. Also, the AI sometimes will block you in some place; this is bad, especially when you’re running from explosives or the enemy. These are the two biggest and most annoying bugs. Other small ones, such as seeing shadows through objects, exist but don’t do too much to deteriorate from gameplay.
Conclusion
Although Medal of Honor Pacific Assault is a really well done game, it gets a bit old. Constant death and jungle fighting may have been realistic for then but it starts to get mundane. The enemy can only charge so many times before you’re fed up with it. On the other hand, the squad AI and graphics make the game interesting. Also, as time passes and you learn how to use your weapons you learn to snipe, then switch for some close quarters combat. The amount of destruction you can deal is awesome as well.
Overall, Medal of Honor Pacific Assault is a pretty decent game. If you have the money for it and want to buy a FPS with a lot of strategy, Pacific Assault will suit you well. Also, if you’re a history buff and want to live it Medal of Honor Pacific Assault is about as historically accurate as you’re gonna get. The Director’s Edition even includes more bonus videos and historical facts.
