Guest Author - James Shea

Medal of Honor: European Assault (released 2005) is another World War II First Person Shooter in the Medal of Honor series. With only a few extra features, this game does not readily distinguish itself from its predecessors or its descendants.

The player takes the role of William Holt, an American in the Office of Strategic Services (or OSS). Assisting British, Soviet, and American forces, Holt hits various strategic areas across Europe and North Africa to slow down the German war machine. This includes assassination, sabotage, rescue missions, and signaling air strikes. From a gameplay stance, this simply means pressing the x button when you reach an objective; most of the game consists of the series' trademark shooting and dodging. Other than this, the player has a squad of soldiers available (the numbers vary depending on the mission) who can be given only rudimentary orders like "go there" or "come back". The final new gameplay element is the hilariously unrealistic "adrenaline mode", which is activated after killing a certain amount of enemies; for a short time, Holt becomes invulnerable and moves faster. This gung-ho attitude and disregard for actual combat protocol quickly becomes a hallmark of this game.

The graphics are terrible, especially considering that this game is from 2005 and released AFTER such games as Jade Empire and Psychonauts. Every graphics is dark and blocky, and are more on a level with the PS2's release than with 2005. Weapons are shown in the form of giant floating powerups (and tend to be inaccurate to the frame, also; for example, the British use American rifles and submachine guns). The sound is decent, but forgettable.

This game doesn't even seem like it was good for its time, never mind for the present. Mostly, it seems lazy and underdone. I can't find a real reason to like this.

4/10.