This game was on the edge between old more arcady shooters and more modern Call of Duty type things, this why experience of playing it for the first time in 2022 was a bit weird one. Like, on one hand, for me personally, it did felt late later, more new WW2 fps game, being using idtech3 engine and all that advanced stuff with comrades and attempts at grounded designs and realistic approach. However, other mechanics more arcady, some elements and scripts which we expecting as given from Call of Duty 1-2 here are more raw and primitive.

I can only imagine how memorable this game was back in the day, being, sort of the first of its kind with this Normandy landing, street fighting in northen french towns and so on. However, nowadays, it may be a bit bleak and simple compared to games which followed it, same as some of its raw mechanics, like forever mentioned sniper mission, may feel dated.

My favorite mission was in night winter french town stealth section, there it worked really well, sad, that there are not that much of memorable places like that.

Liked nods to the original PS1 games, however, despite having similar mission structure, over dramatic animations of enemies etc. for me that game not felt quite like the PS1 ones. Still, if you enjoy FPS games from the era, like RTCW, give it a shot.

I hope you like getting sniped with pinpoint accuracy from enemies through bushes through which you can't see, because that happens a lot in this game and it always ruins the experience. There are so many different instances of cool moments being undercut by bad design, like the D-day mission where you raid the beach, all you do is wait for machine guns to stop firing and then move, rinse and repeat for way too long, it doesn't feel intuitive and you just have to figure out that the enemies (that you can't even see due to limited draw distance) will arbitrarily stop shooting for a few seconds which isn't fun. There are also points where the alarm is on and you can't turn it off, which results in infinitely spawning enemies which generally goes on for too long and gets annoying. Objectives often just feel copy-pasted to pad out the game's runtime and get old fast. Stealth isn't very fun, sometimes the game just wouldn't allow me to stealth walk or crouch which didn't help, but at least they often give you the option to disregard stealth just go guns blazing which is a nice mercy. Also, I would like to mention that the enemy sniper placements in this game are just cruel, I had heard of the notorious sniper town mission which was just as bad as its reputation, but there are so many other instances of getting sniped through trees and bushes that you have no chance of seeing them through and random corners of the map and it wore me down emotionally over the course of this game. I also can't believe how badly they messed up the shotgun in this game, the thing is about as effective as a pellet gun which was very disappointing. Sometime the game can actually be fun, missions with multiple paths through them can be fun to make your way through, running and gunning, but these moments do not make up for all the garbage level and enemy design. Playing this was almost a complete waste of time if you ask me. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that if I quit the game had beaten me, and I wasn't about to be beaten by this awful mess of a game.

We needed a representative for the "World War 2" shooter, Electronic Arts' third "Medal of Honor" was perfect for this spot, the game, much like "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", used Quake 3's id Tech engine.

The Omaha beach landing was memorable in this run-and-gun shooter, as well as the feeling of infiltrating Nazi occupied villages and bases, featuring frantic encounters and ingenious level design keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole playthrough. The soundtrack was composed by the notorious Michael Giacchino, winner of multiple awards - Oscar, an Emmy, and three Grammys - and known for his works composing the score of "Lost", "The Incredibles" and the recent "Spider-Man" movies. The graphics push id Tech 3 to its limit while keeping the gritty charm reminiscent of "Quake 3". The multiplayer was notable for its "freeze tag" and "base building" modes, which encouraged team play and made for some memorable clan wars in our Q3 days.

Following its release, all of the 22 original team members from the team that had worked on "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" left "2015, Inc." to found "Infinity Ward", beginning what would become the start of the popular Call of Duty franchise.

Since I've recently played through the original Call of Duty, I figured I'd play through this spiritual predecessor of it as well. In this context my review will function more as a comparison than an independent review.

First of all, despite the two games looking very similar at first glance, they are very different under the hood. Allied Assault definitely plays more like an actual game, as opposed to Call of Duty's "Simon Says" shenanigans. Here there's an actual level design that allows for some limited tactical maneuvering. Locations feel like actual places, with rooms and alleys that are completely optional for you to explore. Level geometry is less restrictive, therefore feels realer. This means you can occasionally get to places that you weren't meant to access, and it feels rewarding.

The majority of the game is spent in shootouts and stealth missions, with occasional scripted set-pieces, as opposed to Call of Duty's constant bombardment with the latter. Thematically Allied Assault focuses more on infiltration missions. It's a game about small groups of men destroying the Nazi machine from the inside. In my review of Call of Duty I mentioned how British missions (which were also mostly infiltration missions) were the most boring parts of the game. And here it becomes plainly evident why. Call of Duty's close-quarter sections put you in claustrophobic linear corridors with little to no room for maneuvering, whereas here you are always given more than one option of how to handle your problems. Some missions feature stealth, but it's rarely, if ever, mandatory. Several missions almost allow you to choose the order of completing your tasks - a concept the series would later expand upon, making it almost their trademark.

Now one myth I want to dismantle is that, compared to Allied Assault and all the other shooters at the time, Call of Duty made you feel like a helpless single soldier among many others just like you, by adding AI companions. I think this is something CoD fans like to tell themselves to make the game seem bigger than what it really is. The truth is Allied Assault also had AI companions, as well as many other games. The only difference being: they didn't have names attached to them. And don't tell me those names actually make a difference, because they don't. It doesn't matter what your AI teammates are called, when they lack personalities and act stupid. In both games you're mowing down hundreds of enemy soldiers while your teammates run around like idiots, bumping into walls and throwing grenades under themselves. I actually prefer Allied Assault for having less missions with AI companions.

But there are obviously many ways in which Allied Assault is inferior to Call of Duty. There is no proning, melee attacks or aiming down sights, the enemies are much tankier, the compass can't indicate elevation, the crosshair is static. These aspects don't necessarily ruin the fun, but they make Allied Assault feel archaic within its genre. Though these things were common with many shooters that came out before it, those shooters didn't belong to this subgenre that was still in its developmental stages. Allied Assault just happened to come out in this transitional period before the genre truly came into its own.

What does ruin the fun though is the last couple of missions, but especially the penultimate one. It starts with you having to pick out snipers from tiny windows of civilian houses in this foggy French town. This was very frustrating, as in most cases enemies blend with the background or are outside your FOV (thus hidden in the fog). You end up having to expose yourself to the shots just to figure out where they're coming from. Needless to say, I died many times there. Then there's a tank-driving section, which are always shit in these games. They're slow, clunky and plain boring. At least this one didn't have invisible walls. Then that is followed by an escort mission. And finally there's a section where you have to call air strikes on enemy tanks before they destroy your tanks, which is also a sort of semi-escort mission. The final mission also involves escorting a squad of rangers and making sure they don't die, but at least this time it's a very short segment. But the final mission is just plain too difficult. There's too many enemies, and the level design can be confusing at times.

Overall, I'd say about 70% of this game is a solid FPS. While Call of Duty makes you feel (when it works) like you're in a war movie, this one feels more like a war-themed action movie. But in this case the feeling doesn't come from cinematic set-pieces, but rather from the actual gameplay. When you're tricking the Nazis by masquerading as one of them and infiltrating their base or winning in gunfights against a high number of enemies and the (fantastic) soundtrack kicks in, you feel like an action hero. That alone isn't really a reason enough to play through the game, but within this genre there are really few games that execute this basic gameplay this well. It is a shame that many other aspects of the game are either dated or poorly executed.