Medal of Honor Heroes 2 Review
Medal Of Honor Heroes 2 is one of those games that almost feels pointless to review, as your personal opinion on the game will no doubt be shaped by everything BUT the game itself. Do you like WWII shooters? How do you feel about the Wii Zapper? Or the Wii control scheme as a whole? Do you like rail shooters or FPS games more? Are you satisfied with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles? Or do you need more home light gun goodness? Do you feel games need online multiplayer or is it a pointless endeavor? When someone asks you what you thought of EA’s latest Medal Of Honor game, these are all the things you’ll consider, maybe never even stopping to think of whether or not it it’s a good game in and of itself. I’ll take that mystery out of your hands; Medal of Honor 2 Heroes is about as good a 3rd party FPS game as the Wii may ever get, but if the theme or genre isn’t your thing, no amount of time with the game will convince you as such.
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Not only will Medal Of Honor 2 Heroes be judged by everything but its actual gameplay, it hits the market with two strikes against it before the box is even opened. First, a near identical version is available for Sony’s PSP, making it easy to dismiss this as another crappy Wii port/rush job. The other stigma the game carries is that its is a shooter released right along with the Wii Zapper, so it must be a Wii Zapper game, right? Wrong. On both counts.
First, wary parties can rest assured; this is no rush job port. The game looks fantastic and is easily the graphical superior of its handheld cousin. Not to say that the PSP version doesn’t look great as well, but the Wii version isn’t another cut-and-paste job from old development kits. It’s been done before and there is no doubt we’ll see more lazy PS2/PSP/Wii games, but Medal Of Honor 2 Heroes thankfully stays away from all that. The graphics are just the beginning; the Wii version has an online mode and some of the most interesting uses for the Wii-mote and nunchuk yet. These both stand as proof that EA really took their time making this game as good as possible.
Also, just because this game came out right around the same time as the Wii Zapper, I think it is safe to say that Medal Of Honor 2 Heroes is NOT a Wii Zapper game. Sure, the Wii Zapper can be used and the game can be customized to make doing so easier, but no matter how hard the game tries to accommodate the new peripheral, it feels awkward, makes the game’s control scheme not only less fun, but less interesting and nearly impossible to get a handle on. This game is not, repeat, is NOT compatible with the Wii Zapper, despite the company’s claims to the contrary.
With that out of the way, lets talk about the game itself. Like every other Medal Of Honor game, this one puts you in control of a soldier in some of WWII’s most storied and romanticized battles. You’ll storm the beaches at Normandy, fight through occupied France and even into the heart of Nazi Germany itself. The story only exists to link you, a fictional soldier, to these historic battles and string you through them, but it is interesting enough to keep most players engaged from beginning to end. Personally, I’ve always felt that playing video games based on real-life wars, wars that have survivors walking around to this day, is completely and totally insensitive and wrong, but if you don’t think or care about that kind of stuff, the story and battles are a good framework on which to hang the action. I just sleep better at night when I’m playing games based on the great plumber/turtle/mushroom conflict of 1904. Wait… you’re telling me that didn’t happen? Oh, great. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t major in History, huh?
