Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Battle in over 20 missions as you accomplish yor mission objectives and turn back the Nazi tide
• Over 21 different historically-accurate weapons -- from mounted machine guns to flame-throwers to stick grenades
• Fully interactive environments allow you to use terrain as an advantage and destroy whatever is in your way
• Special disguise mode lets you wear enemy uniforms and sneak around
• Realistic battle action in the days of World War II!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005N7YR
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches ; 14.6 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: January 23, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (437 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,804 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

EA has finally brought its Medal of Honor series (already wildly popular on the PlayStation) to the PC. Set during World War II, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault chronicles the fictional exploits of Lt. Mike Powell as he battles his way from the shores of Africa to the shores of France to the heart of Nazi Germany. On the PSX, the Medal of Honor games were hailed as revolutionary, and though Allied Assault never quite merits that level of praise, it's still a great game.

At first glance, Allied Assault seems to have a lot in common with the World War II-themed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but the similarities are strictly superficial. Allied Assault takes a more realistic approach to the action, both in the enemies that you face (there are no zombies or mutants) and in the mission structure. The game unfolds across six real-life theaters of war, and the 30 playable missions vary a lot in how they play out. Just like a character in a good army movie, you'll be sabotaging tanks, destroying submarines, and sending false communications. Nearly all your missions are very well designed, especially the mission where you land on Omaha Beach.

The D-day mission has received a lot of attention, and for good reason--once the door on your Higgins boat drops, all hell breaks loose. The men in front of you drop in a hail of bullets, a Higgins boat to your left is blown to bits, and machine gun fire rakes the water everywhere. Getting from the boat to the relative safety of the shingles is a truly harrowing experience, although parts of it borrow a little too much from Saving Private Ryan.

Since the game is set during WWII, you'll face a wide range of enemies, including tanks, machine gun nests, and even planes. The enemy AI is better than in Wolfenstein--enemies will duck for cover, lay down suppressing fire, and throw back grenades--but too often it's obvious that enemy actions are scripted. At times you can actually tell when you've triggered the next wave of enemy attacks: stay still and nothing happens; silently creep a foot forward and they all come rushing out. This kind of heavy-handed scripting is a throwback to the days of Doom, and more than a little bit of a disappointment.

Graphically, Allied Assault looks quite sharp. It uses the Quake III graphics engine and the character models, vehicles, and textures are well done, especially if you have a high-end video card. Unfortunately, there are some glitches, such as clipping and collision detection problems. It's not uncommon to see enemies walking halfway through a door or a wall. Also, in a (successful) effort to get a "T" rating, there is absolutely no blood or gore. When you a shoot a Nazi infantryman with your captured MG-42 machine gun, he simply falls down.

The weakest part of Allied Assault is its multiplayer component. There are four game types, all of which are exceptionally average, and none of them is as compelling as Wolfenstein's multiplayer. Still, it is undeniably fun to wage war in bombed-out French villages and other World War II battlefields. Allied Assault offers a fun single-player game and its D-day mission will go down as a classic gaming experience. --William Harms

Pros:

• D-day mission is incredible
• Lots of mission variety
• Nice graphics

Cons:

• There are a few graphical glitches
• Heavily scripted AI
• Multiplayer is very average

Product Description

Based on historical military campaigns of World War IIProduct InformationAs Lt. Mike Powell member of the famed 1st Ranger Battalion you'll battlethrough over 20 levels based on historical military campaigns of World War II.Fire period weapons and command authentic war vehicles as you silence the gunbatteries at Port Arzew survive the Omaha Beach landing and more.Set during the most trying years of the war from 1942 to 1945 Medal of Honor:Allied Assault gives you a sense of the courage it took to survive the landingsat Normandy the assault at Arzew a rendezvous with the French Resistanceoutside the village of St. Lo and the push through the heavily defended borderof Germany itself to take the bridge at Remagen. You assume the role of Lt. MikePowell member of the famed 1st Ranger Battalion who gets recruited by the OSSand battles through over 20 levels based on historical military campaigns ofWorld War II.Product Features Over 20 levels that the player must accomplish specific objectives and goals in order to succeed and advance. Fully realized 3-D worlds utilizing the powerful Quake® III engine. Over 1000 unique character animations for unsurpassed level of realism. Multiple online options including team combat and traditional last man standing modes. Encounters with 22 different enemies including Wehrmacht Snipers Kradsch?tzen Motorcycle Troops and Gestapo Officers. Access to over 21 historically accurate World War II era weapons including Thompson submachine guns Mark II Frag Grenades .50 al mounted machine guns flame-throwers and "sticky bombs". Four different stationary weapons that the player can use against the enemy. All new interactive vehicles including the M4 Sherman tank and the M3 Half Track. More than 18 enemy vehicles including the Tiger Mark I Heavy Tank Stuka Dive Bombers and V2 Rockets. Weather and time-of-day effects. Assault enemy units alone and as p

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Starts Off With a Bang! . . . and Ends With a ???, February 28, 2002

By 

Eric Preston (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (CD-ROM)

Being a 1st person shooter, WWII history and Saving Private Ryan fan I was looking forward to this game for a while. It starts off with one of the best opening levels I've ever played (and that's saying allot). The heavy scripting is so well done it completely immerses you into the world of a WWII soldier. Trying to keep this short so I'll hit on the major points;

GRAPHICS
Very good. Nice explosions and character modeling. Lacked some of the punch of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but will not disappoint you.

GAMEPLAY
Fantastic. There are different types of levels from running around like in most FPS, to being the gunner on the back of a jeep, it's all fun.

SOUND
Great. From the 'clink' of your rifle's clip running out, to the enemy soldiers yelling out 'Actung!'. Music is always appropriate and adds to the overall effect.

LEVEL DESIGN
Amazing. This is where it really shines. I have never been going through a level and caught myself thinking, 'This is a great game.' while playing until now. The opening level draws you right into the action. The Omaha Beach Landing mission, yes it is straight out of Saving Private Ryan which I think is a great thing, absolutely amazed me. I had been reading about it for months before release and building it up in my mind the whole time. It did not disappoint. Having said that, the last couple missions were not that good (kinda boring actually), but the first 3/4 of the game are well worth the cost. The last level gives you no warning that this is the end which did upset me a bit.

CONS
The ending [wasen't so good] and came on too quick. You will need a good system to enjoy it...

Buy it and enjoy . . .

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Pure fun in a WWII atmosphere..., April 15, 2002

By 

Jack (PC Gaming Limbo) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (CD-ROM)

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (MOH) is without a doubt one of the most entertaining first-person shooter games I've played in quite some time. The game begins a U.S. Army Ranger on a secret mission in Algiers and continues with a journey through the history of the western European campaign in WWII. In MOH, you find yourself riding Tiger tanks, sniping Nazis in the rubble of bombed-out European villages, sabotaging U-Boats, assaulting Nazi camps in a torrid blizzard and even storming the Beaches of Omaha.

Usually, when I replay missions in first-person shooters (FPS), it is because I am bored with the game and looking for anything that will allow me to enjoy it again. While playing MOH, I found myself purposefully restarting missions because I enjoyed them so much. The mission that allows your soldier to storm the Beaches of Omaha is straight out of the opening scene in the film "Saving Private Ryan." If you are a fan of FPS games that use snipers in single-player missions, you will get a kick out of MOH as it has some of the best sniper missions I've ever played in an FPS. Each mission in MOH is a change from the previous one. I've rarely seen so much variety in single-player missions in an FPS.

The graphics for MOH are impressive but you'll need an expensive video card to see the full effort artists put into this game. It's rare but I don't have many negative things to say about MOH. Grenades are a large part of any FPS based on WWII and I feel the mechanics for grenade throwing in MOH could be better. MOH needs more objective style maps for multi-player but the MOD community is working on it at a frantic pace and supposedly the developers will be releasing more maps in the future as well as an expansion pack.

ACTION FANS - 5 STARS - If you prefer an FPS with quick and easy movement/mechanics, you might not enjoy MOH as much as other FPS games. In other words, MOH is based more in realism than non-stop action. Your character moves slower, the weapons have kick back, you can't jump like an NBA basketball player, etc. This bothers some people who prefer a FPS with more of an arcade style. When I started playing MOH, I had just finished the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein which played like the aforementioned arcade tempo. It took some getting use to but once I had the hang of it I enjoyed MOH more than most FPS games I've played. I found the mechanics of the game to be a nice compromise, not as rigid as a game like Rainbow Six, but not as unrealistic or too easy like Unreal Tournament. It's easy to play but difficult to master and the style of play in MOH keeps one person from dominating every online game.

STRATEGY FANS - 2 STARS - MOH is another shoot `em up that probably won't appeal to gamers that like to stick with strategy games. If you haven't played an FPS and are willing to give them a chance, I would recommend MOH as an introduction to the genre.

ADVENTURE/RPG FANS - 3 STARS - Just as I suggested MOH as an introduction to the FPS genre for strategy game fans, I believe MOH would be a fun experience for fans of RPG games. If you enjoy watching WWII movies, you will probably get a kick out of MOH. It's better than most action games but only you know how much tolerance you have for these types of games.

X FACTOR - BATTLE OF THE WWII SHOOTERS - 5 STARS - Recently, the PC gaming community has seen a rush on FPS games with a WWII theme. Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the Day of Defeat mod for Half-Life are only a few. After playing all of them, I have to say MOH was the best WWII experience. It would be fair to say that some of the other WWII FPS multi-player modes are slightly more entertaining but taking everything into account, MOH is the superior product.

BUGS - 4 STARS - I didn't encounter a single crash with the single-player mode in MOH but the multiplayer format crashed a few times. Not a major problem and it will probably decrease as more patches are released. There is a glitch in one of the multiplayer maps that allows anyone who wishes to cheat to move underneath the map thus hiding them from view and allowing them to clean house on the enemy but few know how to do it and it will probably be fixed in a future patch.

REPLAY VALUE - 5 STARS - MOH uses the same Quake engine that several first-person shooters employ. As I write this review, an official editor has been released and it is basically a modified version of the Quake mapping tools. Luckily, many gamers already know how to modify games that use this popular engine so a full-scale MOD community is already in place with not only multi-player maps in progress but many single-player scenarios being worked on. MOH's single-player missions have plenty of replay value as I even played some missions more than twice. One negative aspect of the multi-player mode is that the most exciting maps are objective maps (require your team to complete goals to win the game) and unfortunately there are only four objective maps included in the game. Deathmatch maps in MOH are your typical deathmatch maps, fun every once in awhile but not entertaining enough to keep your attention for long. A great version of deathmatch maps in MOH is the round-based mode which allows only life per player and is fun to watch as your team either wipes out the enemy or is mercilessly crushed. MOH has a very dedicated online community and looks to have a boatload of MODs, maps, skins and other great additions for a long time.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly how I imagine WWII!, January 11, 2002

By 

Christopher B. Valenti (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (CD-ROM)

I'm a WWII buff, and spend most of my waking time emmersed in a in a WWII era daydream world. For me, WWII is the center of the universe. I am also an avid gamer and usually like the Rainbow 6 series for its immersive quality. I've just played the demo, and it has taken parts of that WWII fantasy world (American perspective after D-day) and made it as real as possible. Outstanding! Playing it is like living inside a Stephen Ambrose book. MOHAA has just totally blown any of the R6 games out of the running for the most immersive game. The only complaint I would have is the lack of control that the player has over their squad. I'd like to be able to tell them to get back or to get down while I snipe an enemy for example, instead they end up getting killed. At the same time, one develops a sense of responsiblity for their men. You really don't want them to die. Unlike R6 where one could care less. This is all in all the best game I've ever played in my life. Avid gamers may disagree, but WWII buffs shouldn't miss it!