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GamesRelay Score
Mediocre
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Name: Medal of Honor: Vanguard
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World War II themed games are everywhere, strategy games, first-person shooters, they come in all shapes, sizes and flavours, Medal of Honor: Vanguard follows this tradition by setting you in 1943, the later end of the Second World War. With their being so many WWII games about its becoming increasingly difficult for any game set in this particular era to distance itself from anything which is already out, most has been done before in various re-incarnations, no doubt if we ever have a WWIII it'll spawn a whole new set of games, that's if we all survive it.
In Vanguard, you play the role of a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne division by the name of Private Frank Keegan. Frank introduces each of the missions in a black and white movie cutscene using actual footage of WWII, it sets the tone nicely, and the footage, while most has been shown elsewhere before, hits hard on some of the experiences one would of faced if really there. Vanguard includes four campaigns to play through, each of which are divided between two and four missions, these take you to various places including Italy, France, the Netherlands and finally where the heart of the war is, Germany. The missions take the part of objectives which must be accomplished to progress, these range from blowing up anti-aircraft guns, finding documents to aid in the war effort, finding and rescuing missing comrades, clearing bunkers and destroying tanks, just to name a few. There's certainly no shortage of action here, often coming across tons of Nazis to take down on your way to your objective. Some of the missions start you off by parachuting in, since you are in the Airborne, but it's a simple affair, you don't get much control over where you land it's more a sit back and watch the battle below until you land.
While you take part in some of the wars most well known battles, Operation Husky, Operation Neptune, Operation Market Garden, and later Operation Varsity, the biggest problem the game has is its horrible AI. The soldiers you encounter don't seem to have any advanced tactics apart from waiting to be killed, they do try to protect themselves behind cover, but their isn't any flanking or other tactics one would expect in a warzone which is very disappointing. The same unfortunately can be said about your allies who you take into battle, they act in a similar fashion and what really is astonishing is when a gun fight ensues, both your allies and the enemy can be out of cover shooting each other and no one hits anything, nearly everything is left for you to deal with, they just provide a minor distraction. Herein lies the other issue, the game has horrible hit detection, you'll often come across enemies who refuse to die within a few shots, even a headshot sometimes won't kill an enemy outright, you begin to think that the Nazis really did make superhuman soldiers. Most of the weapons you'll come across have terrible range, while the Bazooka and Panzerschreck are fun when taking out tanks, they are quite useless when used against troops as well. However, some of the weapons can be upgraded such as the M1 Garand and the Thompson, while these upgrades don't improve the hit detection or anything that would actually count towards hitting your enemy, they do provide that extra bit of customization which is a nice addition all things considering. While your weapons have terrible range, the Nazi's seem to be perfect shooters, regardless of the range they are shooting at you from, and even finding cover where you can shoot them through a small opening is still a deadly practice. It makes the game tough, sometimes frustrating, especially when killed and it's blatantly obvious that you should have killed him before he killed you. Vanguard lacks a health bar in favour of a glowing red screen as you take damage, regaining health is as simple as taking cover and waiting it out.
Thankfully, the controls aren't too bad, the analogue sticks aren't as precise as the Wii's controls which are more precise but equally frustrating, however they have added the ability to lean round corners which is a nice touch even though the Nazi's have superhuman aiming capabilities.
Graphically, Medal of Honor: Vanguard represents the gritty drab warzone quite well, providing 480p support on the Wii which makes the game slightly better looking than the PlayStation 2 version, the frame rate however does slow down when things get really hectic on screen, but the majority of it is consistent throughout. You'll head through various buildings such as churches and destroyed villages, there isn't anything really defining about the areas you visit, though you do come across the odd interesting occurrence such as parachuting troops or gun battles as your parachuting down. Sound in Vanguard is thankfully exceptional, the soundtrack is well orchestrated and anyone who has played the previous games will no doubt recognize the theme tune straight off, the sound effects while not all realistic are very good. The voice acting isn't the worst that you'll ever hear, Frank does the narration on the cutscenes marginally well, it might of been better narrated by someone with a more deeper commanding voice but it's nothing that will spoil the experience. Your fellow allies will often also call out various comments to warn you of incoming troops and other such dangers while playing as well, adding some nice touches when you're in the thick of it.
In previous Medal of Honor games on the PlayStation 2, they have had online multiplayer support, unfortunately this is absent in Vanguard, it should come as no surprise with it missing from the Nintendo Wii, but since it's already been done in previous versions of the games on the PS2 why isn't it included in this new version? Their is two to four player split-screen support if you fancy teaming up with a friend, but it doesn't compare to being able to play online.
Medal of Honor: Vanguard puts itself in a difficult market and genre, their is only so much a World War II game can be and in the case of Vanguard, what it does do it doesn't do very well. The campaign will last you around six to eight hours if you don't give up in frustration before hand and with a lack of online multiplayer or any such replayability it's more a pick up and play then keep in the cupboard. For owners of both the PS2 and the Wii, the Wii would probably be the better choice to go for with its slightly upgraded graphics and higher precision controls than the PS2's analogue sticks though both can get frustrating, but with other, older, and better Medal of Honor games on the market, it's not really worth the money on either format.