Overview

Medal of Honor: Airborne invites us to embody an American parachute soldier during World War II. On paper, Airborne promised immense freedom of action since you can choose your place of departure on each map. In practice, deception is required since the gaming experience never varies. Only the order of the objectives to be accomplished can change.

Gameplay

For the rest, Airborne uses the traditional tropes of the series, that is to say relatively linear levels, rather stupid enemies, a flagrant lack of realism in terms of weapons (such as the shotgun allowing to kill a soldier at 20 meters) and battles in squads of… 3 men! You will understand, the keyword of this game is - disappointment. Not only are the novelties reduced to their simplest expression, but the title has not changed one iota in terms of gameplay. For little, one would almost have the impression of replaying Medal of Honor: Frontline in a more arcade way. A shame for this game that wants to be realistic!

We will first take a final detour through the particularly catastrophic artificial intelligence of allies and enemies. They turn out to be quite simply incapable of using team tactics. Of course, they call for support, but more generally in vain. Also, they are incapable of reacting to your actions. For example, show up in front of a Nazi soldier and walk around the cash register next to him. The poor fellow will find nothing better to do than wait for you to represent yourself in front of him when you are already busy aiming calmly at the back.

In contrast, when it comes to taking people by surprise, the Nazis are always the first to react. Strangely enough, they are indeed able to predict the path you will take as you progress, which has the effect of giving the impression of being expected at every corner. In the same way that the support of your allies will not be of much use to you since the Nazis will only shoot at you no matter what. An old-fashioned game mechanics which testifies to the lack of ambition of the developers. Finally, concerning your allies, you should know that they are not much more talented than their opposite counterparts. The slightest object in their path will be fatal to their progress. Stopped dead by a crate or sometimes even another soldier, your teammates will often let you down in favor of other more exciting occupations, such as staying stupidly still waiting for a bullet to strike them in the forehead. We will not complain because it will certainly not be a significant loss!

But the biggest flaw of this single-player mode is undoubtedly its lifespan which is limited to four to five hours. Typically the kind of game you ship in one afternoon and sell it the next day at half price. Not only is the adventure short, but besides, the replay value is simply lousy.

Graphics

Medal of Honor Airborne displays pretty graphics in high definition frankly pleasing to the eye. But unfortunately, everything is far from being so positive. The game indeed suffers an awful draw distance. Concretely, you move forward, you see horrible textures, bordering on passable for an older generation console and then textures and details appear and offer a better rendering with several seconds of delay.

Conclusion

Medal of Honor: Airborne is typically the kind of game you finish in an afternoon. Extremely short and having no depth, the Electronic Arts title will only be able to satisfy the less demanding who will be able to overcome the too many flaws of the game. Airborne is not only short but also, it suffers from a catastrophic AI and a glaring lack of realism throughout the adventure. To be quickly forgotten, even if the graphics are rather pretty and if the idea of ​​the parachute jump was promising.