Medal of Honor: Airborne (Xbox 360)

The SP story is told from the PoV of Boyd Travers, an Airborne soldier who becomes somewhat of a hero as it unfolds. Virtual actors will always address the camera (that's you) rather than the game showing you in 3rd person and I think this adds to the immersion factor quite well.

You can tackle any objective at any time, but you might want to take note of the XP bar for the current equipped weapon. You'll note as you kill enemies and as it rises you'll get a blue bar slowly fill the weapons silhouette. There are 3 levels for the weapons in the game (US and Axis) and when you fill a level you're rewarded with a real time permanent bonus to it.

This can be anything from increased rate of fire, better scope, more accuracy, extended mags and so on.

These rewards can make or break a scenario, it's wise to spend some time and level up the weapons that you use the most. Having that extra damage can help you deal with the game's later and tougher enemies.

Every time you complete an objective the game creates a checkpoint and that allows you to continue on if you feel like a break. If you die you'll parachute back in over the battlefield and this can allow you to take a different tactic or land somewhere advantageous (a roof over a group of dug in enemies).

Six maps might seem a small amount but when they're as varied and as fun as this, with decent and challenging AI (even though it sometimes seems to be on a tea-break) that will use tactics and cover against you. Six maps is actually quite a lot, since they are as I said before massive.

Graphically the game isn't gorgeous; it's no slouch by any means but suffers from some annoying sudden pop-ups where the scenery appears from a kind of grey space. This only happens once or twice but it can be quite jarring to watch a column or two resolve into view. The effects are nice and the special effects such as smoke, fire and the various flashes from the gunfights are good enough to pass muster. It's a decent looking game. It's well animated and the models are good, the sound is great too with each weapon having a distinct audio cue.

The music is powerful and sweeping, the score is excellent and the voice acting is top notch with decent performances delivered by all the voice actors.

[Img=4]There's online play but it was glitchy at best and EA have made sure there are some patches already. However right out of the box it was a nightmare to play with frequent disconnects and lag issues. It's a novel idea parachuting back into the battle when you're killed but those first few moments can be a killer if you have a small server with few people. It's possible to be sniped as you glide down towards the ground, especially in 1v1 or other matches.

Still a good game when you get a decent enough server.

All in all, MoH: A for all its faults is a good title that gives us a fresh new look at WWII. No co-op play is supported and that's something that could have really been a breath of fresh air for this game.