Still an intense, well made WWII shooter, though plagued by a forced trial & error gameplay
User Rating: 7.6 | Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault PC
Pacific Assault is an overall very good WWII experience, specifically located in the Pacific jungles which is a theme underused next to Europe. It compares advantageously to most Vietnam shooters for that matter. The developers have succeeded in order to create well crafted environments through a linear layout, maybe too linear in the jungles. Most importantly, they've kept a part ( not all ) of the original Medal of Honor feeling of rude authenticity through intense battles, music, and cinematic sequences maintaining the whole.....worthy of the franchise. However, like all Pacific-Vietnam shooters, the game just doesn't match the best titles setted in Europe ( original MoH, Call of Duty ). The other part of the game not reminiscent of the original, is more related to the flow of the gameplay which is heavily influenced by the obligatory Call of Duty/Battlefield mechanics: not a bad thing at all, the game is indeed an amalgam of many successful WWII titles of the recent years. It just needed more polish. The gameplay is sometimes crippled by some clipping issues, either when stucked through various obstacles and your comrades. Your mates can be more of a nuisance when you seem to be permanently stucked into one of them just in front of the Japs charging you. Of course this is related to the graphical engine, we can see occasional permutations too and some glitches like that at close range; yet the rest of the engine, namely texturing and background effects are really great, professionally done. The skybox is a beauty. Jungle coloring is tamed, almost realistic and the opponents are hard to see at long range distance ( even medium range ). You see them clearly only when you're near, and though this adds a realistic feeling to the jungle combat, as a video game Pacific Assault is....not a FUN game to play at heart: It is more frustrating for the casual gamer. Until the player has to know exactly how to clean nested enemies/machine guns in a specific area, it can be a frustrating experience to save & reload countless times. And yes, the loading times are maybe a bit too long but not that much ( let's being honest and objective, they aren't any longer than Half-Life 2's ). Interestingly, the audio of the game is a true testimony to the overall franchise and very impressive, the various weapons sounds as well as the musical score. While some level transitions can be questionable ( like finishing Guadalcanal and going into the air missions ), the music and background drama seem to always save the day. Now we still witness - and hear! - one of the most recognizable features of the MoH franchise having so much influence to the drama experience a good Medal of Honor title should offer, and Pacific Assault continues the tradition. However, some stuttering can be experienced namely during those dreaded loading times ( again, don't worry, it can be irritating but no more, it's fairly minor ). Although many seem to consider the single player campaign a tad short, the 12 hours or so it took me the first time is the same amount of content than most of the competitors. The jungle scenery seems even too long compared to the real dramatic sequences, but that's mainly due to the fairly conventional design. The action is always present, and despite some stuttering here and there, the atmospheric drama of the franchise is preserved. Pacific Assault has interesting MP maps too; sadly they needed some extra time of polish perhaps. Lags are common depending on which servers you try, and the game can be compared to Spearhead/Breakthrough for that matter, i.e. a great try yet never reaching the same level of quality found in the original Allied Assault, or Call of Duty.
