EA Medal of Honor: Airborne review

This first-person shooter isn't the most reverential approach to World War II, but it works.

Historical accuracy dwindles in the face of a new-found freedom in the new Medal of Honor game. Rather than trudging from A to B and shooting every Nazi en route, here you parachute into a level and land at a point of your choice. There are set objectives to deal with, but they can be tackled in any order you prefer, or stumble into, and can be approached via whichever route you think best.

There's no walking through long, narrow corridors here. You might leap across rooftops, use ruined buildings for cover, or just sprint through the open to reach your target. Dropping directly into a nest of Germans and somehow surviving is hardly a realistic way to fight a war, but it does add a much-needed fresh edge to a genre that's been milked dry.

Weapons are liberated, too. If you're most comfortable with sniper rifles or shotguns you're allowed to stick to them, rather than being forced to use something else because it's the only ammo around. Pushing suspension of disbelief perhaps a little too far are the upgrades. Use the same gun for long enough, and you'll earn extra parts, improving its accuracy or clip size, or adding a secondary ability such as a grenade launcher. Getting every upgrade can quickly become an obsession, adding a slightly silly collecting element to the game.

That's the nature of Airborne, though. By the time the Nazi super-soldiers turn up, somehow able to survive four grenades to the face, it's quite clear the game has given up pretending it has anything remotely serious to say about World War II. It's a bold move, but after a patchy few years of repetition and tedium this game has successfully revived a distinctly tired-looking franchise.

Author: Alec Meer