Medal of Honor Vanguard user review

Going back to the well.

Review written by
Nova

I've never had a real 1st person shooter in WWII before and I thought that I might start with this. Do not be fooled by the eerie, yet curious cover and somewhat appealing screenshots. The game in itself is enjoyable, but with almost no time to enjoy it.

Gameplay

This game, just as any other shooter for the Wii, took in the use of the Wii Remote. The controls were similar to Red Steel, but that is not a good thing. While the game includes a melee attack, using it is completely useless because the button to press is one of the numbered buttons on the bottom of the wiimote, and in order to reach that you have to let go of the pointing position you were in. By the time you hit the button, your view has already swung around to the other side. This also happens when you try and switch weapons.

Another major problem was the nunchuck control. There are movements for kneeling, jumping and going into prone, but these are mixed up with the movement for spinning around fast too often to use them. It is much more worthwhile pressing the buttons for this. I don't remember using the spinning control on purpose once.

The Multiplayer was a bit of a let down because it is the same as every other WWII game I have seen. There is no originality. In fact, I can't say that there is any originality in the game at all. But not all of it was bad. I enjoyed having no health bar. However, it is very obvious that you are nearly invincible while all of your enemies die in a few shots. In fact, you can take a million bullets before you die. You'd just have to space them out.

I actually enjoyed the missions however, and it's not like the shooting was bad, just not the best. I enjoyed the zoom feature that let you lean from side to side, and I enjoyed the difficulty the game had to offer.

Lifespan

There is only one word needed to describe the lifespan. Short. I was able to finish the game in less than 3 hours and I bet that some who are better than I who could beat it quicker than that. The game could have had such promise if it were only longer.

Graphics

The graphics are decent, but that could be because I use a HD component cord so everything looks a lot better. But even with that, the polygons are stubby, the textures blurred, and the faces of the people don't change at all when they speak. One major problem I faced was the lighting. I couldn't see anything half the time and I often got lost because of it. In multiplayer, the graphics are slightly better because there is less space and action. But it still lacks.

Walk up to a tree and notice that close up, instead of leaves, it's a bunch of golf ball-sized pixels. Not exactly "next-gen".

Sound

The last category was probably the best of all four. Each gun, person and environment sounded different, giving the game a unique sense of diversity. Another aspect I enjoyed was the realistic high pitched noise that played when a grenade went off near the player.

This shows a high sense of reality and it feels like you really are this character and not just looking through a camera stationed on top of a soldiers head. The soundtrack was very nice too. It was a little exaggerated and it sometimes felt too much like a movie. Other than that, there isn't too much to say about the sound.

Conclusion

This game is fun for a casual gamer who only plays when they have 30 minute breaks during their busy lives. The game is only good for rent. It's definitely not worth the full retail price.