Medal of Honor Pacific Assault Director’s Edition – PC – Review

Grab your gear and get
ready to ship out to some of the most exciting battles of WWII. MOFPA sends you
to the other side of the globe in the pacific theater for some of the toughest
battles any of our men had to face in WWII. The lush jungles provide so much
cover that allows the enemy so many places to hide, it is near impossible to run
and gun. Fortunately you have a crack squad of friends that you went through
boot camp with to provide plenty of support. As you progress through the game
you will see your squad develop over time. Your medic starts out a little green
but by the time you hit the real serious battles, he is battle hardened and not
so quick to puke at the site of blood or a bad wound.

Starting out you are
thrown into a pacific version of D-Day. Bullets flying, men screaming, bombs
exploding just feet from you…total chaos. Of course at this point you have no
idea what’s going on or how to do anything before you know it you’re dead.
Hearing memories in your head of boot camp. This will then give you a flash back
of boot camp so you can finally start your training. As you go through and
complete your training, you start to get a band of brothers type of feel. You
will be shipped out with your buddies and start your mission. Here is when you
really feel a sense of family and you are careful not to let your buddies get
killed. Fortunately you have a medic with you who tends to the squad wounds and
does have the ability to heal himself.

The type of missions you
face, I believe 5 in all with 31 loaded sequences, will be saving downed pilots,
recon, clearing out enemy fortifications and tunnels, search and destroy,
planting explosives, and the list goes on. You will even take the stick in a
WWII fighter plane and take out an aircraft carrier and fight off a small swarm
of zeros. I would have liked to have seen more drivable vehicles, but flying
planes was a nice touch. There are some 37 weapons to choose from both the axis
and allied sides. Picking up enemy weapons is almost a must when you run out of
ammunition, so it doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with these guns.

Visually the game is
astounding. I highly recommend updating all the latest drivers for more fluid
play. I still crashed to desktop a few times but hopefully a patch will remedy
that soon. Once my drivers were updated this happened much less frequently but
still happened time to time. The musical score is fantastic and sound effects
and voices were some of the best I have heard. Gameplay was only hindered by
excessively long load times between missions and movie footage; this was my
biggest gripe. Just when things are flying and you seem to be in the groove,
another two-three minute load. Aggravating yes, but the game is still great!

After you have
successfully beaten the game even on the hardest levels, there is still plenty
of re-playability with the MP option. You do have to register with EA to play
Internet games, but they are a ton of fun. The games are free for all, team
deathmatch, and the invader mode. Invader is like attack and defend but the
sweet thing is that once an objective has been reached the spawn points change
to bring you closer to the objective. This is very nice, as you are not spending
half the game running around trying to find the action, you are pretty much
right in the middle of it.

History Buffs will be
happy to know that the DVD version of the game is loaded with historical facts
and movies including radio addresses from world leaders. You can even see
animations of the battles and how the attack formations developed. So in short
not only is the game a blast to play, it is also very educational.

This title is a must have
for any fan of the genre, not only are the elements of the game top notch, the
history lessons really immerse you into the game and are very informative. The
$60.00 price tag may chase off a few gamers, but this gamer feels it’s well
worth the dough!

Review Scoring Details for Medal of Honor Pacific Assault Directors Edition DVD

Gameplay: 9
The gameplay is
great! Few controls to memorize and the game flows nicely while you are playing.
The only down side is the load time between sequences and battles. The load
times vary from 1-3 minutes and at times seems like you are loading more than
playing. Once you are actually playing the game, it plays awesome.

Graphics: 9.2
Visually the game
is incredible. You can see so much and the special effects are awesome. From the
environment, to the detail on the weapons and soldiers. You can even see the
heat effects blurring your vision from explosions and muzzle heat. Simply put,
Awesome.

Sound: 9.5
Fantastic sound
effects, wonderful musical score, and great voiceovers.

Difficulty: Medium
Really the game
is quite simple to play. You can toggle the difficulty settings to make the game
more challenging.

Concept: 8
Well here we have
another WWII game only this time it’s in the pacific rather than Europe. The DVD
version of this game is wonderful in the respect to all the different
interactive history lessons. You can see animations from different battles,
listen and view real radio and moving picture broadcast from world leaders, and
get an informative load out on weapons, ships, planes, etc.

Multiplayer: 8.5
MP is great but is a bit frustrating in its infancy. Like most EA new releases
it always seems like the MP aspect of the game is never ready. You have to go
through EA and register your game to play MP unless you are playing via LAN.
This is a bit frustrating to me. I personally do not believe you should have to
register and give out emails and addresses to play online. You already purchased
that privilege. One CD key per person playing is how other gaming sites do it,
with out registering. Anyway I had problems early on and according to the forums
I was not alone. The games are fun and smooth and did not seem to be lagging one
bit when I was playing. MP games include Free for All, Team Deathmatch, and
Invader Mode. Invader mode is an offense/defense objective oriented game. Once
an objective has been met the spawn points move closer to the next objective. I
really enjoyed this feature because I spent less time running around and more
time in the heat of battle.

Overall: 9
Well this is my
first of what I hope to be many of a DVD version of a game and I am very
pleased. The game itself is great but I would highly recommend shelling out the
extra 10 bucks for the DVD version of the game. The extra footage and
interactive history lessons are really informative and do immerse you into the
game. Nice job EA.