The PlayStation Portable is home to many great games in a wide variety of genres; however, none of these great games are first-person shooters. The system's lack of a second analog stick and developers' inability to find a manageable control scheme have seemingly left the PSP as a machine destined to never have a great first-person shooter. If Medal of Honor Heroes is any indication, all hope is not yet lost. In Heroes, EA Canada has crafted a fine portable version of the Medal of Honor series. While far from perfect, it's the most enjoyable FPS to grace the PSP to date.

Most of the fighting takes place outdoors, but many secondary objectives are hidden indoors.

Medal of Honor follows the stories of three soldiers, all of whom have appeared in previous Medal of Honor games. The story unfolds in short, narrated black-and-white movie clips of WWII, and orders are doled out via typewritten memos. Each soldier has their own campaign that is divided into five separate missions, for a grand total of 15 in the game. Sergeant John Baker's (Medal of Honor Allied Assault) campaign takes place in Italy, where you must capture an Enigma machine, blow up a lighthouse, liberate a small town, and more. Lieutenant Jimmy Patterson (Medal of Honor and MOH Frontline) is stationed in the Netherlands, where you'll steal important papers and retake a number of areas from the Germans. The last five missions of the game follow the exploits of Lieutenant William Holt (MOH European Assault) in Belgium. Here you'll be entrusted to capture and hold a river base, recover lost documents, kill lots of soldiers, and finally, destroy a German command center. You never actually interact with anyone, and the results of a successful mission are intangible, explained to you only in memos, so you never get the sense that you're anything other than a faceless grunt whose job is little more than to shoot everything in sight.

It takes a little while to become accustomed to the default control scheme, and it does have a few shortcomings, but overall it works quite nicely. You'll move with the analog stick and aim/look around with the face buttons. If you need to turn around quickly, double-tapping square or circle will speed up the process, though it's still not quite fast enough for you to not lose a lot of health when attacked from behind. The right shoulder button fires your gun, and should you feel the need to pummel your target, a quick tap of the left shoulder button performs a melee attack, while holding it down brings up your weapons' sights. The D pad performs a wide variety of functions, such as reloading, switching weapons, crouching, and using health packs. You can even sprint for short distances by double-tapping the right analog stick up, but you're limited to running in short bursts. You'll never have to do it even once, but should you want to hop around, you can jump by pressing the select button. A few of the moves, such as switching weapons and sprinting are difficult to pull off quickly, but they're the exception, rather than the rule. Three alternative controls schemes are available, one of which relegates movement to the face buttons and lets you look around with the analog stick.

For better or worse, Heroes' missions are less complex than what is typical of the series on consoles. Each mission consists of a main objective(s) as well as numerous secondary objectives, which almost always require you to find some sort of document. Only the primary objectives must be carried out to complete a level, even on the hardest difficulty. Completing the additional tasks will net you a higher medal upon completion of the level, and these in turn unlock characters for use in multiplayer. There's not a whole lot of variety to the main objectives. Sometimes you'll need to take control of an area by standing near a flag for a certain amount of time, and you'll need to do this in a couple of different areas of the level. The game starts to get repetitive when you're forced to capture each area twice because the CPU will recapture areas. Other times you'll simply need to kill everyone in an area or get to a point marked on the radar and press up on the D pad to arm a bomb. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all there is to it. A little more variety to the mission objectives would have been appreciated.

It's not always sunny, and sometimes it snows, but it's always a good day to kill in the name of freedom.

Even though the game is artificially lengthened with repetitive objectives, Heroes is not a very long game. Most levels can be beaten in 15 to 20 minutes, and that includes completing all of the secondary objectives. These short levels are great if you're on the go; however, there are only 15 of them, so if you have any experience with first-person shooters, the whole single-player mode can easily be beaten in less than four hours. If you choose to skip the secondary goals, it's possible to beat the game in less than three hours.

It might be short, and it might be repetitive, but Heroes still manages to be quite a bit of fun. Because there are lots of different underground paths, alleyways, and shortcuts through houses, there are many different ways to tackle each level. The game generally lets you play at a pace you're comfortable with. There are enough health packs laying about that you're able to play aggressively. Should you prefer to approach the missions a bit more carefully, most levels don't have a time limit, and when there is one it's generous, so you're free to take your time. There are lots of different guns scattered amongst the levels, so no matter what kind of player you are, there's a gun out there to suit your needs. If you like to run and gun, the Thompson or shotgun will suit your needs. If you're a little more cautious, the M1 Garand is effective from long range and can hold its own should you stumble into a firefight. And if you're the type that likes to hunker down and pick off the enemy from a distance, there are plenty of sniper rifles to pick up (though sniping is one of the control's weak points and is rather difficult).