Plenty of explosives – Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

**Medal of Honor: Allied Assault** (2015, Inc./EA, PC, 2002)

[This is a guest post for which I am happy to welcome back Ben Bulbeck, who is on Twitter as @Pixelated_Ben and previously wrote about Wave Race 64 and contributed to the Goldeneye 007 post]

EA is a publisher known for its ability to exploit – I mean, explore – a franchise year after year to tempt us gamers to part with our cash for the latest instalment. The Medal of Honor series launched on PlayStation in 1999 and spawned many sequels including Allied Assault on Windows PC and Mac in 2002, which recreated World War II combat with the help of a modified Quake III engine.

The single-player campaign places the player in the boots of Lieutenant Mike Powell, an American soldier whose missions during World War II would bear some similarities with Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg was involved in the creation of that movie, and Allied Assault). The most haunting mission is “Operation Overlord”, which places the player amongst the visceral brutality of the assault on Omaha Beach, and is perhaps one of the most memorable missions of any first-person shooter. Approaching the beach in a boat loaded with troops as bombs whistle and land in the water is a foreboding start to what becomes a relentlessly oppressive level in which you feel the odds really are stacked against you.

Upon exiting the boat, a large expanse of water must be crossed before the beach can be reached. In the distance, a sheer rock wall is just visible, with look-out towers embedded within it, spewing bullets towards you. It seems an insurmountable distance to cross successfully, which is of course the point. A video game cannot possibly hope to replicate the absolute fear that the soldiers at the time would have experienced, or the damp cold water and the smell of wet gear and acrid smoke, but as a visual and aural recreation of the odds to be overcome, the mission was a notable success for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Aside from the single-player campaign, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is a significant gaming moment for me because it was the first time that I went to war, online. Up until that moment, the thought of being blasted to bits by a stranger online hadn’t really appealed to me, but as I found myself to be in quite masterful control of Lieutenant Powell in the campaign mode, it gave me enough confidence to patrol the wilds of online play, M1 Garand rifle in-hand.

Although various game modes were available, the one I spent the most time playing was the Objective mode on the V2 Rocket Facility map. My memory is hazy (war has that effect), but I recollect that the Allies had to infiltrate the German base, and plant explosives in two positions on the map: in the control room, and beneath the rocket itself. The Axis team had to defend their base from sabotage. Exploring the network of corridors within the base was a real thrill; knowing that at any moment an enemy soldier could appear, ready to send you back to the starting point with a hail of bullets. Another highlight was the Destroyed Village area, navigating the ruins of war-torn buildings, on a map based on a level that was cut from the campaign mode. There was genuine variety amongst the different multiplayer maps, and I lost many hours becoming addicted to this new-found thrill of online gaming on my PC.

The game ultimately received glowing praise, with a Metacritic score of 91. There have been many subsequent releases in the series, but Allied Assault remains the most notable for me, not only for its immersive recreation of such a tragic period of history, but also for the fact that it enticed me online to share in the glory (and failure) of working as a team to succeed in some challenging objectives. At the time of release, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault presented the realities of World War II at its most frighteningly interactive.