Land behind enemy lines
The story focus of the Medal of Honor: Airborne follows the US 82nd Airborne Division through five historic missions in World War II, through Italy, France and Holland and ends with Operation Varsity, which sees the game's hero, Boyd Travers, parachuting alongside 30,000 soldiers into Germany in the single largest military airdrop in history. There have been many changes made since Vanguard: gone are the documentary style (history lesson) introductions prior to each mission - instead they've been replaced by short, straight-to-the-point instructions informing you of the area that you'll be parachuting into and what your main goals will be. Gone are the linear map designs restricting you from where you can and can't go; they're now replaced by open levels giving you a welcome degree of freedom. And finally, there's a welcome return of a quality that should be the staple of any World War Shooter - an authentic war-time atmosphere. Excellent! Now, onto the gameplay…
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageAt the start of each mission you jump out of the aircraft, landing behind enemy lines. The freedom in the game means that you can make a number of choices, landing at one of the safe zones, where you can begin your assault with team mates in tow, or perhaps landing on the roof of a church with a prime sniping position over the streets below. You can choose to parachute towards one of your objectives, which are shown by arrows on the map, or simply drop smack bang into enemy territory where you won't receive the friendliest of welcomes.
It's the freedom in MOH: Airborne that is one of game's finest qualities, with expansive, well designed levels which you can explore at your discretion. Each of the five missions consists of a number of objectives where you fight alongside your team, reveling in such tried and tested war scenarios, such as searching for your missing sniper team, destroying enemy communication posts with charges or taking out tanks with your M18 rocket launcher. Inevitably, all scenarios involve reaching a set destination while battling tooth and nail against enemy forces, but an objective can be tackled in any order, in multiple different ways and from different angles of attack. Ultimately, this means that, despite the short length of the campaign, there is a degree of replayability, especially if you’re the type of gamer who enjoys unlocking all of the Xbox achievements and wants to earn those extra commendations.