Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

After playing through and finishing the game, it is hard to understand how and why GameSpot rated such a game as mediocre.

Here is my review:

Immediately at the start of the game, the action already starts as you battle your way through enemy lines. You try to master the controls. Then an enemy throws a grenade at you, you clearly recognize a resemblance of its warning and effect in other war games. Later, you learn that this game borrowed so many features from Call of Duty games. You may seem a little disappointed, but as you go through the game, you will be immersed with its nonstop action.

GENERAL:

The Graphics are the best in the Medal of Honor game series, this will be most noticeable in the rural outdoors during daytime where both the colors and resolution have been enhanced.
You will notice blood splatters during headshots and bullet holes in walls.

The draw distance is one important element of FPS games, and Medal of Honor Vanguard shows off its incredibly high draw distance. Enemy soldiers can be killed regardless of distance as long as they are within your sight.

The AI, even at Easy Difficulty (or Recruit), will nevertheless be intelligent and alert at all times. Very rarely in some instances where you can luckily find an enemy idle when he is in your line of sight.

Medical Canteens, Med Kits, and Field Surgeon Packs and all other healing items have been removed. This is replaced with a "self-healing" innate ability; all you have to do is to seek cover and wait for some time to be able to recover.

The weapons are very limited in the game; there is still the reliable M1 Garand, BAR, Bazooka, and Thompson. However, you will find some weapon upgrades in certain stages of the game, such as a sniper scope for the M1 Garand, etc.

Throughout the game, you will have companion soldiers who will act as guides (so you will almost never be lost in pursuing objectives in a mission) and "shields". Although such "shield" function cannot be abused since the enemies will still prioritize in dispatching you. This is the same for enemy tanks.

The environment and atmosphere has even been more engrossing with the addition of revolutionary active various voices of your companion soldiers. They may shout "We got a man down!" when a fellow soldier is killed, or "Keegan, get out of there!" when you are in the open field.

The sound effects and voice acting do not disappoint either, as they sound realistic not only in their quality but also in their tone, way of speaking, and atmospheric effect.

New Features:

Just like Call of Duty games, there will be a grenade warning, there will be a reddish (bloody) broken glass in the screen when you are near death, and there will be a deafening ringing high pitch sound when beside an explosion or exploding grenade. There is also the addition of a useful sprinting ability.

In the start of a new mission, you will always jump from an airplane, from which you will have the ability to maneuver your parachute in order to land at any spot in the field. However, the controls for such feature is hard to master, so you may land at an open field filled with enemy soldiers instead of the preferred ideal landing spot.

A disappointment, however, is the utter lack of extra features after the finishing of a mission or the game itself, unlike in previous MOH games. Medal of Honor Vanguard still presents various medals after a mission, but this does not excuse it from giving extra features such as movies or artworks.

The major flaw in this game is its short campaign. The game has foucsed on the quality of the gameplay than that of the campaign, and this is understandable since the game is for the PS2's DVD, and not the PS3's Blu-Ray Disc.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

The classic style of stealthy and relatively quiet gameplay of MOH games have been replaced by real-time active gameplay. MOH Vanguard may borrow or imitate many features in Call of Duty games but to be objective, the game series has to adapt with the present trend and development of war games. As you go through the game, you will be immersed with its nonstop realistic action, amazing graphics, superb sound effects, and engrossing atmosphere and environment. So why would GameSpot rate Medal of Honor Vanguard as a mediocre game? I don't know; they have their own basis and their own reasons.