Medal of Honor Frontline

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Genre: Action/Adventure
• ESRB Rating: Teen

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006JC48
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 11, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,387 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

In Medal of Honor: Frontline you go back behind enemy lines as war hero Lt. Jimmy Patterson! Stronger enemy AI makes stealth and speed more important then ever, and makes this a more challenging wargame than before!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 1/2 stars... I'm a little disappointed, January 6, 2003

By 

JRK "jkunz" (N.H.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medal of Honor Frontline (Video Game)

Medal of Honor: Frontline is a decent game for the Xbox. It has both its strong points and its shortcomings.

I played Medal of Honor: Allied Assault on the PC and absolutely loved the game. It was my favorite FPS (first-person shooter) hands-down and probably my favorite computer game of all time. I was thrilled to see that with the exception of the D-Day Normandy level, Frontline was completely different than Allied Assault. I was not thrilled to see that the graphics in Frontline paled in comparison to Allied Assault. Enemies and textures are much more animated, almost cartoonish on the Xbox, and given what I had seen in Splinter Cell and Halo, this was a letdown. I know the Xbox has better graphics capabilities than this. Walk through a bush in Frontline and you get a "pixelized" graphic that looks like it was created in Paint, not by a professional graphics artist.

In Frontline, the only time you can save is before and after each level. There are appropriately placed health packs, but they won't help you if you run in to a tank or enemy with a rocket launcher. I found that many times, you had to run in to an ambush and die to understand strategically how to get past it the next time. This wouldn't be as frustrating if you had even one save per level. Believe me, at least once you'll get 95% through a level only to die and have to restart. And you'll probably take your frustration out on the controller. I just feel that this is a poor way to make the game longer and/or more challenging.

There are faults with the AI that I didn't see in Allied Assault or among the better games on the Xbox. Case in point: open a door and two enemies are waiting, if one sees you, you can cap him and the second one won't even react. Huh?? There was another time when I couldn't shoot a sniper because I was too far away from him. If I can see him in my scope, he should take damage regardless.

Having said the negative points, I'd like to offer some positives. The sound in this game is better than any other Xbox game I've played. The sound effects are excellent, and there is also some movie-quality, heroic music that plays during key points of the game. The levels are very diverse and well thought out. I like how you can scope any weapon to get a slightly better view of your enemy, but if you do so, you can't move. I felt like a true soldier in this sense. The controls are natural and enjoyable. I love the scoping of the sniper rifle.

If you can accept the shortcomings, Frontline can be an okay experience. I think those who haven't played Allied Assault on the PC would enjoy the game more. If you have, just don't expect it to be nearly as mind-blowing as Allied Assault.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Medal of Honor: Frontline (Xbox) Review, June 11, 2003

By 

Alan V. Dunkin (Richardson, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medal of Honor Frontline (Video Game)

Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor series was one of the best first-person shooters ever developed for the Sony Playstation. Two World War II-themed shooters, created in conjunction with director Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks Interactive, made EA take notice of the fact that it had a golden franchise right under its nose. The result was two similar games, one for consoles and one for the PC. The console game, Medal of Honor: Frontline, was originally released on the Playstation2 only, and after many months EA finally released Frontline for the Xbox (and the GameCube).

Set in 1944 and 1945 the player takes on the role of Lieutenant Jimmy Patterson and starts out roughly at Omaha Beach in Normandy. Afterwards Patterson must then work secret missions for the OSS, involving freeing captured agents, infiltrating a u-boat, and eventually stealing the highly experimental Ho-IX jet aircraft. Frontline represents the culmination a new first-person game engine, completely overshadowing the previous engine used in the first two Medal of Honor games.

Frontline offers four different control options for standard Xbox controllers, which lend themselves to a wide variety of player types. The default is a Halo-style layout, where the left thumbpad controls the direction/speed of movement while the right thumbpad determines where the player is currently looking.

Other commands to master include your standard jump, crouch, and action (use or grab something) buttons, as well as weapon cycling and reloading. It only takes a few minutes to get used to, though having to learn all this on the first mission (a hairy landing at Omaha Beach) can be a bit disconcerting.

The feel of the controls in relation to the game is good generally. You can peek/shoot around corners pretty well, though being able to aim accurately while staying still will make you get hit more often than not, and usually it takes more than one bullet to fell an enemy soldier. A health meter (along with a direction compass and hit direction indicator) is on the lower left. Canteens and medical kits, able to restore health points, are strewn throughout levels.

Frontline offers a nice variety of weapon types, from the trusty Colt .45 to the M1 Garand, from a standard shotgun to the assault-rifle precursor StG 44, as well as bazookas and man-able weapons (like machineguns).

Traipsing around Frontline is mostly fun. The game includes six overall missions, and each mission has a set number of levels (at least two). Each level has a number of objectives to complete, and typically the game won't let you move on to the next objective until the previous one is done (if they need to be done sequentially), so there's some freedom of movement, but not a whole lot. Some of the sneaky levels you can shoot your way through, though it can be a bit more difficult.

Frontline is not a tough game to beat, though a couple of areas can be difficult (especially with a lot of enemies - some have tricks that make it easier). This can be expounded by the fact that saving is only allowed between mission levels, so a player can get all the way to the end of a level, die, and have to restart all over again.

Enemy artificial intelligence (AI) is decent; in areas that provide cover they will hide behind objects and walls, though they sometimes they have a tendency to stand out in open too much and look in the opposite direction.

Three difficultly levels are available, each increases the ability of the enemy to hit you, decreases the ability to hit the enemy at range, and decreases the ability to heal between levels. Even at Normal enemy soldiers are pretty accurate.

Frontline also offers multiplayer gameplay in the form of deathmatch or team-deathmatch battles of up to four players in split-screen mode. Each player can assign their own controller option, and there are eight maps to play on. Restricted weapon types allow for some variety -- for instance, one game can consist of rifles or maybe bazookas only, or a variety of rifle/submachinegun types, and so forth. Unfortunately, Frontline gives you a radar view of where the other players are located based on team color, which takes three-quarters of the fun out of the multiplayer game. There is no Xbox Live support.

The 3d engine that accompanies Frontline is quite good, and of course is light-years ahead of the first two Medal of Honor games in the series. Closed-in environments have a high amount of detail, while some of the more open areas give the illusion of being quite expansive. All of the humans are high polygonal objects featuring a nice variety of animations and even speaking parts when necessary.

Frontline has some of the best and realistic sound effects ever to be featured in a console shooter. The sounds of a Springfield magazine ejecting, the rumble of a tank, the explosions, and the impressive deep thunder of an offshore bombardment from inside of a bunker complex are just simply amazing and very, very immersive. The weapons each have distinctive sounds, and there is an audible thunk when a bullet strikes home. On top of that, there is another great orchestral score from composer Michael Giacchino and the Northwest Sinfonia (which clocks in at over 70 minutes in length).

EA once again succeeds in creating a great game with Medal of Honor: Frontline, a game series first envisioned honoring war veterans and medal winners by director Steven Spielberg after the mass appeal of the movie Saving Private Ryan was obvious. Frontline continues the tradition, providing great gameplay, superb graphics, superior sound and music, and a wonderful all-around game.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Halo, Max Payne, & Now Medal Of Honor, November 15, 2002

By 

Charles E. Kirk (Hugo, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medal of Honor Frontline (Video Game)

As an xbox owner, I've been upset with the lack of good games, especially within the Halo genre. However, if you like first person shooter games, Medal Of Honor has a lot to offer.

Although I don't like the fact that you can't save during inter-missions, the game has some wonderful missions that I think are some of the best I've ever played (and I've play a lot).

At first I was disappointed with the opening first 3 missions or so, so if you rent this game, you'll probably quit on it before the good stuff happens. A very good buy and one that I highly recommend. If you liked Halo and Max Payne, you're going to love Medal of Honor. The sound, playing, and overall feel of the game is simply excellent.