Fans Of The Series Will Know The Drill.
On the off chance that you don't already know, Medal of Honor is the World War II first person shooter developed by EA. In its long running history, this franchise has seen its high points and its low points in its nearly 10 year, 10+ title life-cycle. Medal of Honor: Vanguard continues the well-established framework and plays out much as you would expect it too. Unfortunately, it also shares much in common with its predecessor, European Assault. Though to some this might not be a bad thing, one cannot deny the flaws that seem to be embedded in the tired out gameplay. Through the plethora of available World War II series, one usually finds oneself drawn to one franchise or another. So if you have chosen Medal of Honor as your WWII FPS of choice, then you will get that fix from this installment.
The game puts you in the role of (soon to be) Sergeant Keegan as he propels a team from the 82nd Airborne through countless hostile battlefields desperately trying to turn the tide of war. You will get that same system of broad chapters divided up into various missions that has become the norm for the series. Each chapter is accompanied by a nifty black and white video that one would think is real footage from the war. The first drawback of the game is that it is incredibly and unacceptably too short. You can finish this game in the ballpark of 5 to 10 hours depending on how good you are. Basically you can finish it in one sitting and no game should be that short. It isn't so much that its easy, because you can adjust the difficulty, its just that there are four chapters and between 2 and 3 missions in each. That equals out to a short game indeed. But in that short time, you will find all that makes Medal of Honor, well Medal of Honor.
The gameplay doesn't change much from the other installments. There are slight changes and improvements but nothing of note worth putting down. Basically you must plow your way through hordes of soldiers by using cover and a heck of a good aim. Most of the time you will be assisted by a group of allies, though they really don't do much in the way of assisting. They have a terrible shot so most of the mowing down must come from you. They do shout out enemy positions and give some advice for taking cover, but this isn't all together that useful anyways so if all else fails they make good cover. Along the way you will become intimately acquainted with what MG42s and Tigers are if you don't already know. There is a vary limited number of different weapons available and only one is customized by means of adding a scope to it and that is very late in the game. All the shortcomings aside, Vanguard delivers a shooter experience that you would expect and tells a good tale, even if it is a short one.
The one real shining spot for the game, and this has been the shining spot in the series, is the music. It just simply does an incredible job of making it feel more like a motion picture experience then just a video game. All in all, the sound in general does a good job. Everything from the firing of weapons to the shouts of your comrades sound great and really do well to put you in the scene. Though the sound f x themselves hardly redefine the genre, the music is always an exceptional score and does much to add to your experience.
Though it doesn't do what Frontline did for the series back in the day, it is a Medal of Honor game through and through. You will get what you expect from the game and even though it is short, you will finish the game feeling satisfied. If you are one of the series loyal legionnaires, you will get that one simply exceptional level that always seems to be somewhere in each game. This coupled with the fantastic score makes this yet another iteration in the growing franchise that is Medal of Honor. It proves that this tired out old framework still has some juice left in it. The game receives a 6 out of 10 from my system, which puts it at "Fun." After all, like all good Medal of Honor games, you won't have to wait to long for the price to fall to the very attractive 19.99 point, and what else can you buy that is as satisfying as a WWII shooter for 20 bucks?