Medal of Honor: Airborne Review - Xbox 360

By now it feels like there are more living veterans of the Civil War than there are people who aren't sick of first person shooters set during World War II. Heck, even Call of Duty is abandoning the setting for fresher battlefields. Though it seems like every battle, skirmish and bar fight that took place between '39 and '45 has been recreated in a video game, Medal of Honor: Airborne, the eleventh entry in the series, still manages to offer something new. The game revolves around  the US 82nd Airborne Division – a team of armed paratroopers who sky dive into war zones and mop up those Axis jerks. And this alone, the ability to free fall into the firefight, makes all the difference.

Stop, Drop and Roll

Most games start the player out at predetermined spawn point. Medal of Honor: Airborne does the same, except that location is in the skies above your drop point. Players find themselves inside an Allied aircraft, prepping to make a jump. This cozy, coach seat doesn't stay occupied long. Soon players are shoved out of the fuselage and left to the whims of gravity. Here's where the fun starts. Players guide the parachute into the war zone, aiming for a safe drop points. While those secured areas are ideal spots to land, there's nothing keeping more daring soldiers from picking other starting points. These areas may be crawling with ticked off Nazis, but they're also home to four hidden drop zones – and extra incentive to search each level our for new point of entry.

Stay Low

On terra firma, the game becomes slightly more conventional. Each area has three or four objectives -- usually stuff that needs to be blown up. With computer-controlled allies as back up, the player must make their way to their target. Combat skews towards the tactical, but doesn't feature the kind of cover system that Gears of War players are familiar with. Still, kneeling behind barricades and carefully leaning out to fire is the only way to survive. The enemy are crack shots and their numbers are many. The run and gun approach may work in certain circumstances, but dependence on Rambo-style combat most always ends in death. This difficulty can be frustrating in more linear parts of the game, where players are forced to pick away the same enemies until they find the next save point.

Choose or Lose

For the most part Medal of Honor: Airborne's levels have an organic feel. They're sprawling, bombed out cities and crumbling Roman ruins that can be tackled from nearly any angle. The ability to drop in from above and start playing from wherever boots meet turf breathes substantial life into the played-out setting. The game doesn't coast on this lone idea. After eleven entries Medal of Honor action feels extremely polished. Other features, like the ability to level up weapons, reward players for mastering weapons and encourage experimenting with new rifles and machine guns that fall from enemy hands. Medal of Honor: Airborne may play it safe when it comes to setting, but the game's creators were still able to innovate withing his painfully familiar scenario. Rumors of the World War II shooter's death were greatly exaggerated.

Review by: Gus Mastrapa
Video Produced by: Eric Acasio