The first-person shooter genre was rocked by Goldeneye in 1997 and then rocked again by Half-Life in 1998. In 1999, it would be time for EA and Dreamworks Interactive to rock the genre once more with Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor is a military shooter set during towards the end of World War II. Players take the role of Jimmy Patterson as he completes 7 missions for the OSS, each being broken up into 3-4 action-packed stages. Alongside this is a multiplayer mode that allows you to have shootouts with your friends. I haven't gotten to play much of the multiplayer, so this review will focus on the single-player aspects of this game.

Firstly, let me say that the presentation is immaculate. When you get past the developer logos and loading screen you're put in the War Room, which is your main menu. You'll be checking different areas of the room to check out things like the options and your stats, and while you do this, you'll hear the ambiance of the office activities while watching people walk between rooms. It's very cozy, and you'll quickly find it to be a comforting space. Hang out in the war room long enough without touching the controller, and you'll be treated to some trailers for the game. This was a treat to discover, and it made me wish more games were proud enough of their advertisements to stick them into the game as a way of preserving them.

Soon, you'll find your way to the first mission. Before each mission, you're briefed on what your objective is for the mission as war footage plays on a projector. You're being briefed vocally by Colonel Stanley Hargrove (voiced by William Morgan Sheppard), who proves to be a friendly yet stern superior. Hearing him speak to you about the missions was relaxing and fun, and I was surprised to hear moments where he felt a personal connection so some of your missions. The vocal performance easily enhanced the feeling of going into battle.

Before going into each stage of a mission, you are handed a note from Manon, a liaison from the French Resistance. She gives you an overview of each stage, letting you know things like what kinds of weapons the enemy are carrying, what your objectives are, and hints about secrets. It was always enjoyable reading her letters, hearing about her experiences as she fed you information about the Nazi's plans.

She's basically the equivalent of a radio buddy in a 7th gen game except her letters only pop up between stages, which is really funny when you do something like sneak onto a U-Boat minutes before it departs. How did she get the letter to you after you got on? How did she even know you successfully made it in the first place, considering how tight the timing was? Is she just anticipating you clearing all the objectives flawlessly and is writing letters in advance? Does Jimmy just receive all her letters in bulk before each mission? These are all questions we may never get answers to. I'll just pretend Manon is some French deity who has the mystical ability to keep Jimmy informed at all times and leave it at that.

With your briefings over, it's finally time to begin the game proper. The first thing you'll notice is how dark the game is, visually speaking. At least for me, I needed to crank my TV's brightness setting up in order to see most things. It's at its worst when you're doing outdoor missions at night.

That aside, you'll begin to move and aim and oh man they did it! They almost nailed what would become the standard control scheme for all future first-person shooters! Okay, let me get more specific. Medal of Honor has a number of control presets for the player to choose from. Of them all, I found that Controller Setting 4 came the closest to what would become standard in late 7th gen. The only thing that really upset me about this setting is how the Square and Triangle buttons go unused while R1 does two separate things! They could've easily put reload on Square and it would've felt fine, but what we have here is truly ahead of its time, so despite the shortcomings of this playstyle, I am impressed.

And so you're on your way through your first mission. Thankfully, if you forgot what your objectives were in your letter from Manon, you can pause the game at any time to check what objectives you have, as well as your kill count for that stage (which is important for something I'll get into later). Unlike in games like Goldeneye, you can't fail objectives, so that's one less thing to worry about as you play. Objectives are all required to complete, as well, as the game will refuse to allow you to leave a stage until you finish that checklist.

Most stages will have you going through guns blazing, shooting Nazis left and right while hunting for objectives. Some other stages take a different approach, having you infiltrate Nazi bases in disguise, blending in to tamper with tech and assassinate key officials. To blend in, you have a set of papers documenting your rank in your disguise. By taking out higher ranking Nazis, you can steal their papers and gain access to more areas, which can be a rewarding process that's quite engaging.

At least, it is when it works and the game doesn't pull pranks. There are some enemies that will approach you asking for your documentation, and in the early stealth stages you'll show them the papers and they'll leave you alone. In the later stealth stages, you'll begin to be faced with less trusting Nazis who will see through your disguise and attack you. Perhaps the weirdest part of this is as you try to show them your papers over and over, they'll repeat lines like "Show me your papers!" and "What is your name?" over and over in different pitches. I'm sure that the different pitches exist to make the Nazis all sound distinct, but hearing them come out of one Nazi was just bizarre.

The other prank that can get played on you here occurs when silently taking down some enemies. Most Nazis walking around can be easily neutralized with a headshot from your silenced pistol, which will prevent any other Nazis from being alerted to your presence. Nazis that guard doors that require you to have specific papers pose a unique threat. If you try to silently dispatch them, two Nazi soldiers will spawn in (usually behind you) and they will them quickly drain your life bar. Not the greatest feeling when this happens!

While I thought the stealth missions were an interesting idea, I had the most fun going through the regular action stages. Any stage can have you equipped with up to three guns and one throwable explosive. You get weapons like pistols, SMG's, shotguns and, later in the campaign, a bazooka! The weapon variety isn't very large at all, but what is here is serviceable for your adventure. All of the weapons reload very quickly, as well, leaving little to no downtime during heated shootouts.

My one complaint here is that if you want to use a specific weapon, you need to keep hitting the "Switch Weapon" button until you land on it. This also includes items like grenades, which don't have a unique button for them and are treated as another weapon. Because of this, I barely used grenades, which is a shame because watching Nazis interact with them is highly interesting. Some will lie flat on them to guard their friends from an explosion. Some will kick them away or throw them back. Others will just run from them. You'll also face dog enemies that will pick them up in their mouths and charge at you with them, which can be terrifying!

This isn't where the Nazi animations stop, either. There's a surprising number of animations for them in regard to their reactions to your shots. Their helmets can fly off their heads if you aim at their head, protecting them from a headshot. They might bounce around in pain if you shoot their leg. A powerful shot may knock them on their butt, causing them to take a few moments to get themselves together before standing and shooting at you once more. Of course, a well-aimed shotgun blast or an explosion will send them flying, which is endlessly satisfying to watch.

Of course, Nazis tend to shoot back at you as you shoot at them. In the top-left corner of your screen you have a compass that houses your health bar, which can be refilled with medical packs scattered through stages. This compass also houses another feature: it will flash red in the direction of enemy fire that is making contact with you. Getting hit from the front? The top flashes red. The back? The bottom flashes. The left or right? I don't think I need to answer that. It's a very handy feature that seems to be taken straight from Half-Life, showing just how influential that game was after it came out.

As you get deeper into the game Nazis get more and more aggressive, using more powerful weapons to take you down. One weapon they will use is the Panzerschreck, which is an anti-tank rocket launcher. The splash damage on the rockets these things fire can do a good job draining your health, and direct contact with a rocket will kill you instantly. I guess now's as good of a time as any to mention that if you die, you have to re-do the entire stage, which can be pretty annoying if a stage is longer or if you're doing good only to get a back full of rocket that you couldn't see coming. I used save-states to give myself checkpoints throughout stages to mitigate this issue, but real hardware players will face some difficulty here due to this.

When you clear a stage, you'll be taken to a screen showing how you did during a stage, detailing things such as your favorite weapon for the stage as well as your accuracy. Here, you'll also be awarded stars. You'll get one for just beating the stage, two for killing most of the Nazis in a stage, and three for clearing the stage with 75% or more health. That order is strictly implemented, by the way. Beat a stage without killing most of the Nazis but had over 75% health? You're only getting one star. So, what do stars do? Well, by getting all 3 stars on every stage of a mission, you'll not only be awarded a shiny medal, but you will also be given a "secret code". These are basically cheat menu options, doing things like adding power-ups to multiplayer, quadrupling your weapon fire speed, and turning all non-interactable environment textures into wireframes. They're mostly goofy stuff, which is a cute and welcome addition to this game to incentivize high-level play.

Also on this menu they detail which body parts you shot the most, which is an interesting statistic to see. You're also given a "Gunnery Evaluation" based on which parts you hit the most. You'll get called a "Winger" for hitting mostly arms, for example. Two that stood out to me the most were one for getting mostly headshots, which was "Discount Barber", and another for getting mostly groin shots, charmingly called "Homewrecker".

I would also like to bring up the music. The score done for this game is very well-done, making you feel like you're in an intense war movie! The soundtrack was composed by Michael Giacchino, who would go on to compose the score for numerous Disney movies such as Up and The Incredibles. Needless to say, he did an excellent job here, and I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for his name in future works!

Overall, I loved my time with Medal of Honor. The game truly felt ahead of its time in a number of ways and was an absolute joy from beginning to end. I highly recommend any lover of military FPS games to give this game a shot! This is a game that definitely deserves to be as well-remembered as games like Half-Life and Goldeneye!

We REALLY need to let Steven Spielberg make more games he's really good at this.

Estado puro de qualidade para época

Os controles de fato envelheceram mal, mas toda a estética e história por trás desse game, fazem ele merecer essa nota. Um jogo que nasceu de uma ideia de filme e contou com a mente de Steven Spielberg para ser produzido e se tornar o que se tornou... fantástico.

Na época esse era um dos melhores jogos de todos. Extremamente realista em todos os sentidos e dou o destaque para a construção de cenários e de áudio desse game que é impecável.

Não é longo e nem curto, possui o tamanho ideal para uma jogatina de um dia que, no final, vai te trazer diversão, imersão e, para alguns, como no meu caso, nostalgia.

Really excellent presentation all-around. Spielberg's goal with this seems to have been to make a (relatively) realistic, serious-minded FPS game with a cinematic flair, and in that it is certainly a success. The story is grounded but entertaining, the cutscenes, briefings, and menus are all top-notch and quite immersive, and the score is excellent.

Unfortunately, the shooting action and level design simply do not live up to GOLDENEYE, this game's direct and explicit inspiration. The levels are short, linear, and simple with mostly unmissable objectives right on your track. Stealth and long-range combat don't work great. Most of the more impressive gameplay ideas are over too soon. You keep wishing there was more to it!

It's a shame. It's fine and fun to play, but if the actual game lived up to the window dressing, I could see this being a true classic.

I would have finished the game if I could. Sadly the game keeps breaking for me as the levels stop loading all of a sudden. There is suddenly a black void where the level should continue. I managed to circumvent this in the first level it happened to me by seemingly reloading the level enough times, but the level after that has the same problem, but much later in the level. As there seems to be no reliable fix, I will sadly abandon the game here. I have played about 60% of the story (says the savegame) and liked the game so far. The orchestral music is great, the hit reaction of the enemies is also great (even though there is no blood at all) and the weapons feel nice. Really sad I could not finish it, if someone happens to know a way to prevent this gamebreaking bug, please let me know.

Easily the best FPS for PS1, if only for its controls. I can't stand using shoulder buttons for strafing or not being able to strafe altogether, but that was the reality for nearly all PS1 shooters at the time. The Dualshock controller definitely improved the situation drastically, but only a few first-person shooters actually utilized it, and even out of those some had horrendous aiming sensitivity (e.g. Delta Force: Urban Warfare). In terms of controls, Medal of Honor is undoubtedly the best of its genre on the platform. That being said, it's still a FPS for PS1. For all the achievements of Medal of Honor, it is still heavily held back by its limitations. In 1999 we had System Shock 2, Unreal Tournament, AvP, Half-Life had come out a year prior and was already receiving expansions.

Medal of Honor has a solid core gameplay. Shooting is fun, but still a little imprecise, since you have to stand still to use the crosshair. It becomes pretty fun when you get an assault rifle. Levels are mostly very linear and tasks usually involve either shooting enemies or interacting with objects. One time I missed one of those and had to backtrack the entire level to its very beginning. That wasn't fun. Though the gameplay is solid, it is very bare-bones and gets repetitive pretty quickly. It's very small scale, so it consists mostly of shootouts with 1-3 enemies. You rarely get to see any spectacle or get involved in some interesting scenarios. But easily the single worst thing about this game is the lack of checkpoints. If you die, you have to replay the entire mission, and they're long af. Sometimes you fail a mission because you didn't quite understand what you were doing (the PS1 graphics don't make it easier), and that leads to a lot of frustration. A single mistake sets you back like 15 minutes or so. But this wouldn't be a huge deal if the game actually offered you anything special, but the truth is there is no reason to play this in 2022. It was surely one of the best games to have for your PS1 in 1999 if you didn't have a PC, but there's really nothing here that haven't been done better in other first-person shooters, even at the time.

Still I can't overlook the stellar presentation: graphics, music, the general vibe of the game. Combined with great controls, this becomes the first (and possibly only) candidate when you're looking to play an FPS on PS1. Though I imagine nobody actually uses the actual hardware anymore. For example, I played this on PS Vita, where I could just download Medal of Honor: Heroes, a much better game.

So I discovered the first Medal of Honor is a PS1-exclusive first person shooter, so I got curious and decided to check it out. And, I think it holds up remarkably well. In my Alien Resurrection review, I made a following statement:

the game was the first, or at least one of the earliest games to utilize dual stick control scheme which has become a standard in modern gaming

I might have exaggerated when I said “the game was the first”. Medal of Honor does feature a preset that allows for one stick to move, and the other to move the camera if you have a Dualshock controller. There are probably earlier examples of these controls that I’m not aware of (also, I’m talking about double analog controls in the context of a first person shooter, I know Ape Escape exists). Anyway, I thought these controls worked pretty well. Of course, just aiming with the camera isn’t precise or advisable, since there’s no reticle. That’s where aiming mode comes in, press and hold the left stick to aim. The game is inspired quite a bit by Rare’s Goldeneye 007, and it shows. I thought standing still and aiming while taking shots would be detrimental, but it worked fine in the end, and you can lean slightly left or right if you tilt the pressed stick, although it’s more for aiming accuracy rather than dodging. There are “stealth” missions where you act as a spy, you’re required to “shoot” your documents to make people let you pass and to avoid suspicion, although some people of higher ranking can bust you. Failing doesn’t result in an instant failure and isn’t severe enough, which I’m thankful for, although it’s still better to be sneaky. I’m also thankful that there are only a three of these levels in the entire game.

There’s a decent variety of weapons, although your arsenal changes from mission to mission. In one level you get a sniper rifle, in the other, a rocket launcher. There are a few minor things I like about combat. For one, the enemies will actually try to use your grenades against you or just kick them out of the way. It’s satisfying to throw a grenade, then stun them with a regular shot so that the grenade explodes in their hand. Although, the AI isn’t always smart about them, as they can kick a grenade towards a wall, bouncing back at them. Another small touch I like, is that the helmets are actually protective. I thought it was a neat thing in Darkest of Days, but I discovered this game did it MUCH earlier. It’s a mechanic I don’t see very often in First Person Shooters (not that I’ve played that many). The difficulty is mostly smooth, there aren’t any checkpoints, but there are rarely moments of frustration when you lose, actually, some levels are pretty short. That being said, it does get pretty tough towards the end, which automatic rifle men tearing you apart in seconds, and rocket launcher enemies, colliding with a rocket is pretty much an instant death, which does feel a bit much.

The graphics are actually pretty nice, the characters are well animated, and there are plenty for being hit in different areas. The framerate is mostly steady, with rare instances where there are many enemies that slow down the game. The only issue I have with the presentation is the draw distance, it’s not very far. Usually, it’s not actually an issue, but it can be difficult to spot enemies, like in that mine level towards the end where you have an open area and a rocket guy on the bridge, whom you can’t see and pick from the distance. And they can just bamboozle you from bad eyesight. When zooming in using a sniper rifle, you can see the geometry popping in and it still doesn’t give you much of visibility. The music and sound effects are cinematic, which I guess is to be expected from a Steven Spielberg production. And I’m not complaining, it sounds unique.

Overall, I had a surprisingly good and fun time with Medal of Honor for the Playstation. I can call this game a classic, the dual stick controls work well, the presentation is nice, and the gameplay is enjoyable. If you’re a fan of first person shooters, and especially if you’re a fan of retro games, this first entry into popular series may surprise you.

Minha franquia de FPS favorita, é impressionante considerando o fato de que um jogo com mais de 20 anos consegue ser expressivo.
Apesar das limitações, como 90% dos cenários consistirem em corredores e o campo de visão ser extremamente curto, além do jogador frequentemente ficar preso na geometria do nível, ainda assim o jogo compensa com missões criativas que proporcionam a sensação de ser um exército de uma pessoa só. A trilha sonora fantástica adiciona uma atmosfera tensa a cada esquina.
É uma ótima escolha para quem procura um FPS clássico de consoles. No entanto, sugiro que jogue com a mente aberta, pois algumas limitações de hardware e convenções modernas de FPS (como utilizar o analógico direito para mirar) ainda não haviam sido inventadas.

Something I was struck by while playing this was how different the vibe is to later WWII games. There's an almost slight pulp feel to it. It's got that idealised exceptional lone soldier thing going on. Lt. Jimmy Patterson, best in his class, moving through Nazi bases like a fuckin' train.

No subtitles, so in the cool missions where you're undercover and have to secure and show ID to access different areas, all the Nazis are speaking in English with accents straight out of 'Allo 'Allo. Plus by that point you've gained some infamy for your deeds, which results in officers who don't recognise your papers asking a few suspicious questions before shouting "You're Jimmy Patterson!" and setting the alarms off. It's great. So daft.

It suffers a bit with some things due to its age. Enemy AI is pretty decent, but it has that thing where they just know your location, and corners don't really work like actual corners and can be shot through, so you're often hit by rounds from an enemy you simply can't see. The game can be BASTARD hard. No checkpoints, and it sometimes feels like enemies just spawn in behind you. I cannot imagine beating it with the default controls. I spent 20 minutes trying to remap my Vita controls to something resembling modern shooters before realising there's an in-game control scheme option that's extremely close. It just means that firing your guns remains on square. Not ideal, but it got the job done.

I wish WWII shooters would go back to this kinda style. There's a movie-like quality to it that's hard for an idiot like me to put into words. Not a war epic, but a wee adventure. Less "dude with hyper-real guts hanging out crying for his mum" and more "Eat lead, Fritz!".

https://twitter.com/NightmareModeGo/status/1525832960733233152

Honestly, pretty cool!

Didn't expect a PS1 first-person shooter from 1999 to hold up as well as it did. Controls are obviously outdated but beyond that, it's palatable to modern tastes. Genuinely fun level design and impressive audio/music. I love that enemies roll around on the floor and will try to throw your grenades back at you, although it kinda makes them unusable. Also gotta love William Sheppard's narration, adds a lot to the game!

What I don't love is some of the game's more outdated elements. Low render distance, super inaccurate hitboxes, and buggy AI. But honestly all that is part of the charm; not only is this a history game but it's of historical significance for the medium. Pretty neat to see one of the foundations for the modern military shooter.

Could certainly see myself bumping this up to a 7 after some more reflection!

I started playing this game with an open mind - as one should when playing a game that's almost as old as I am on the ps1, a console not exactly known for its smooth controls. It's a delicate balance between reviewing a game keeping the time it came out in mind, and understanding that we have different standards in the current year and discussing the game in that light. I came out of this game pleasantly surprised. It still holds up really well for a game made two and a half decades ago, on a very old console.
Controls: Before you start playing this game, you'll want to change the control scheme to the more modern one on offer. It's pretty much the same as more modern FPS control schemes, but with a few catches: you have to stand still to aim, and aiming does not aim down the sights. It shows a crosshair that moves across the screen, temporarily changing your game into an arcade style shooter. The aiming is more or less smooth, and the aim assist is somewhat decent, which allows you to face the gauntlet that you'll be up against in the later parts of the game. The weapon swap is also very much a product of its time. You have to swap through a roster of four or five weapons that you're given to get a single weapon that you want. This includes grenades, which don't have a dedicated button. This isn't too bad, unless you're out of ammo and the next weapon you have is a bazooka, and you instinctively fire it and blow yourself up in the process. This predates something like the GTA weapon wheel.
Enemy design: There are multiple enemy types on tap here: riflemen, who have helmets that allow them to survive most headshots once before the helmet falls off and requires you to kill them with a second headshot. Submachine gunners, which can be absolutely ridiculous when paired with the level design. They can melt your health bar very quickly because they have a tendency to bum rush you and corner camp behind doors, so you can lose your entire health bar in a second after walking through the door. Finally, we have the panzerschrek users. These guys completely ruin some of the later levels, because they hide in dark corridors. The last thing you'll see is a rocket propelling towards you, and all of your progress through the mission is obliterated. I absolutely despise these enemies, and the game would be better if they were nerfed or taken out altogether. Luckily, half the time they fire their weapons, they end up killing themselves by accident. The enemy AI is intelligent to an extent, they can take cover, dive down, roll around, and zoom up to you like a Fortnite zoomer with ADHD. They can also throw grenades, but, like the panzerschrek users, they mostly just end up throwing grenades and running into them. The death animations are pretty cool too, though they can be distracting in crucial points of the game.
Graphics: They look good for a ps1 game. The animations do too. The lighting, however, is absolutely abysmal. You can't modify the brightness in the game itself, so you'll have to change the brightness on your TV because some of these levels can be pitch black since they're set at night. The draw distance is not helped by this either.
Difficulty: The difficulty curve on this game looks like a heartbeat monitor belonging to a meth head with cardiac arrhythmia. One mission can be disgustingly brutal, and the next could be an absolute breeze. The final two missions are a hilarious example of this. The second to last mission is one of the hardest in the game, with panzerschrek users and submachine gunners hiding behind every corner, requiring a ton of trial and error. The problem is, you'd think the final mission would be one last challenge to send off the experience. It's not. If you tried to properly play the mission by using the turret in the beginning and killing all the enemies, you'll get absolutely destroyed. In this regard, it's the hardest level in the game. However, this is completely optional. It's the easiest level in the game when you just saunter past the gauntlet of enemies, kill a few scientists, and then launch the rocket. I was baffled at how easy it was to skirt the "final boss", but I'm not complaining because that last gauntlet would've been ridiculously hard to beat.
Level Design: You have to do objectives to get past the levels. If you don't, and try to leave the level before finishing the objectives, you'll have to restart the entire thing. Why they didn't just prevent you from walking through is beyond me. The objectives usually just involve blowing something up, picking up some papers, or killing a certain type of enemy. It's like Goldeneye but slightly dumbed down. I think it adds a good amount of depth to the game, because you keep your eyes peeled for the next objective and it lets you use your imagination to fill in the narrative blanks that are in the game due to its age. Some of the levels don't benefit from their age though, because many of the areas look exactly the same and loop within each other. Sometimes the only way to progress is through a grate near the floor that's covered entirely in darkness. There will be times when you're wandering around for a while. There are no mid-mission checkpoints either, which is a frustrating relic of the fifth and sixth generations of gaming. If you die, you're going back to the start. Luckily missions are fairly short.
Story: Almost nonexistent. You're Steven Spielberg's World War II fan-fic OC Jimmy Patterson, who is good at literally everything, from killing Natzees to theoretical physics. You go through a series of episodic missions, which have you sabotaging certain pieces of the German war machine, such as the V2 rocket or the D2O reserves for their atomic bombs in Norway. It's a very standard World War II game.
Overall, I would've docked it two points for this dated design, but it gets half a point because it keeps score of how many times you can shoot enemies in the dick. Sovl. If you don't mind some old jank, give this game a shot. It's pretty fun and memorable.

Well how about that, the movie guy wrote a video game story!

You know, for someone just going off of his son playing goldeneye on n64, Spielberg didn't do so bad for his first try! Of course it's not without it's faults. The levels can be very short enough where you could probably beat this all in one sitting (whether that's a good or bad thing to you is subjective), and the AI can be a major pain to fight against when they can stand half a magazine of bullets halfway through the game. But other than that, I had a pretty good time playing this! Ah, and that Michael Giacchino ost will always be a treat to hear.

Can you believe the best song is through a small radio and in the credits if you check it out? Anyways, Is it going to be on a must play again for me? Probably not, but I am glad that I got to play through the franchise's first baby steps. Hell, even recommending something like this game can be rough with the control scheme and could be a huge barrier for gamers these days. I almost had blisters playing through this on an emulator, just because the dual stick option wasn't the best scheme for me. I did end up with scheme two, where it made me feel like I was playing doom with the way I was speed strafing all over the levels.