Epic WWII Action from 1941 to 1945
Reviews (240)
Inherent mediocrity
A loyal and content follower of the Medal of Honor series since its inception on PS1 many years ago, I nonetheless approached this title with a considerable degree of trepidation.I'd never been disappointed with any Medal of Honor title I'd laid hands on.Yet many reports of this game were lukewarm or downright negative, and I expected to find that the MoH developers had finally made a critical misstep.To a certain degree, as it turned out, that was eventually revealed to be just the case.I didn't buy this game when it was first released-was indeed planning on just bypassing this installment of the series altogether-but when I later saw new copies of the PlayStation 2 version of it for sale on the cheap, I gave in to the beckoning voice of nostalgia and series loyalty and snapped one up.
First things first.Controlling console first-person shooters with a gamepad-a realm long surrendered to PC titles, and for good reason-is an acquired taste, yet one that has definite benefits even surpassing those of a mouse and keyboard in certain aspects once a player becomes accustomed to the scheme and limitations.As I see it, the key is in relying on strafing with the left analog stick during active combat, using that technique to adjust aiming weapons rather than the right analog stick, which almost always tends to be too sensitive to aim where you want when the adrenaline's flowing.An area where a gamepad excels over computer controls in FPS games is the analog nature of the beast, being able to pan the camera view around at a slow, cinematic movie-like pace or at any variable speed you wish, as well as being able to move your character at any number of speeds-not just "walk" or "run."Another noteworthy feature that console pads have is the force feedback effect, which has evolved far beyond the mere novelty it once was and has become an integral part of the gaming experience.Having said all that, the analog control mechanics of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun are on par with other FPS console titles and take no getting used to if you're familiar with the genre.The rumble feature works to excellent effect, thumping with explosions, shaking with gunfire and thudding like a heartbeat when your character's health gets low.The button layout-customizable only from a limited array of predetermined options-is another story, and it took me a while to become comfortable and natural with it.
A staple of the MoH series is the actual black & white World War II footage used to augment game missions, employed before or after each long mission, and that tradition is carried on here.Unlike all previous MoH titles, however, this game involves no combat with the German arm of the Axis, focusing instead on the wars in the Pacific and combat with the Japanese.Indeed, the initial mission has you waking up on board a US battleship under fire at Pearl Harbor, rescuing fellow naval personnel, manning a gun emplacement on the deck and, later on, on a small gunboat blasting frantically at the Japanese war planes peppering the smoky, crimson sky.The PS2 graphics are well-implemented and are up to the task in this instance.It's an action-filled, pulse-pounding, impressive beginning for the game, yet is over all-too-soon.After a promising beginning, however, cracks and flaws in design and execution begin to surface.Multiple missions have you creeping through dense tropical island foliage, yet the graphics engine seems to be unable to properly render natural, organic environments; instead of actual trees, shrubs and wildlife, you're given solid green walls on either side of a given path with just the images of trees and shrubs painted on them.And while there is the occasional mid-mission option of choosing one path or another to arrive at given objective, the green walls are always there, funneling you through a narrow path with no choice but to follow it.It might as well be a corridor shooter in these cases.And while some of the foliage is decently drawn, other parts of it are so pixilated that they look like something from the Atari 2600 era.The original Tomb Raider game from 1996 on the Sega Saturn rendered outdoor foliage as good as this game does.It's difficult to overlook such glaring deficiencies after spending so much time with, for example, the highly-detailed, photo-realistic, free-roaming gaming world of Far Cry.Yet this is the aging PlayStation 2 and I realize that a developer can only do so much with the available horsepower.
Another acute failing in Rising Sun is enemy AI.So many other games have advanced what is expected of the artificial intelligence programming, and this game is definite window into the past in that regard.You shuffle helplessly down confined corridors whilst the opposing forces magically pop out at you from predetermined spawn points.They stand dumbly in front of you as you pummel them with lead.Sometimes they will run, take evasive action and find cover behind some object.Yet even at these times you can shoot an extended elbow or knee or head that's jutting up from behind said cover and the enemy soldier will just stand there and take it, not reacting to being shot until he falls over dead.Japanese soldiers never seem to act in tandem, never seem to formulate any tactic to outflank or work together to bring you down; they just stand or kneel and shoot until either you and they run out of health.It's like a shooting gallery, and I found myself becoming lazy later on in the game, usually not even bothering to duck or use cover in conflicts, just standing there myself and spraying short bursts of bullets around.During the entire course of the game, the only time my health really became threatened was when a large gang of machine gunners would surprise or overwhelm me, or on the few eyebrow-raising occasions when a crazed, sword-wielding samurai soldier would charge and begin hacking at me before I could plant a bullet in his brain.Magical, inexplicable respawning also occurs, much to my everlasting chagrin.Clear an area, nab an objective, retrace you steps and find the area suddenly semi-repopulated with opposition.And let's not even get started on the stationary machine gun emplacements.Sure, it's been done in the previous MoH games too, but it's sure getting to be old hat by now: any time you take control of a stationary machine gun, wave after wave after wave of soldiers will spring into existence all in front of you for your mowing-down pleasure.The funny part is, these swarming enemy masses present almost no threat at all to you behind all the firepower your wielding.Just fire back and forth, like putting out a fire with a fire extinguisher.Funnier still is that these forces don't even begin to exist in the game unless you man the stationary guns, so can avoid these little shootouts if you wish by just not walking up to any of the emplacements.
But all is not lost in the world of Rising Sun.For all the game engine failings during the aforementioned levels, the graphics are still impressive in the more traditional MoH settings.My favorite level of the game begins at night in Singapore, a stealthy infiltration on the docks.You're crouched in shadows, the old boards of the dock creaking underfoot as soft waves lap the posts and hulls of moored ships.Light fog rolls across the docks, casting and eerie, phosphorescent glow.Up on the mainland, glowing businesses and buildings of the town proper are visible: ghostly eyes shrouded in mist.Half-seen enemy guards lounge and patrol in lazy patterns.Equipped with a one-shot-one-kill stealth weapon, the player creeps along and either sneaks by them or takes them silently out, one by one: a muffled whoosh, a projectile contacting target, the sighing grunt as he falls and the fog-muted splash as he plummets to the murky depths.It's a great beginning, and the level progresses from there into the city proper with some open street-to-street combat and hostage rescuing.There's also a nicely done level that places you and a squad of friendly AI troops on board a small boat chugging slowly up a narrow waterway.Under shadowy night skies, under the impassive eyes of the moon and stars, under the overhanging, somehow menacing branches of trees and darkly emerald topography, the soldiers whisper back and forth.Did you see something?Did you hear something?Be ready, men.We scan the shorelines, left and right, left and right again, but see nothing.Time passes.The slight murmur of the outboard motor.The conversations of insects.The wind rustling through the leaves.Tension builds.What was that?Suddenly, gunfire erupts from the canopy of night: red on green and black, the ambush is on. Once again, a terrific, cinematic moment.I also liked most of the Bridge on the River Kwai level.From a distance, the far off outdoor vistas are compelling and epic, and working your way along high above the rushing waters of the river had a certain dramatic, cinematic flair to it.At one point in this level, you descend onto a line of railroad tracks, and I heard the oddest trumpeting, grunting noises coming from behind me.I turn around and, wonder of wonders, there's family of elephants mulling about on the tracks.It was such a cool, out-of-place, surreal moment.And another example of the uneven nature of the MoH graphic engine: amidst the backdrop of some questionable outdoor environmental visual rendering, these animated elephants were nearly photo-realistic.Later on, there's a fun little section of the game where you actually get to ride atop a big ol' elephant as he crashes madly through the woods, you all the while scorching the trees and surrounding rock formations with gunfire in an attempt to take down the bad guys before they can hurt you...or your friend, the elephant.
Yet most of the game falls in the range of average to slightly below average, and certainly a been-there-done-that feeling surfaces all too often.The single-player portion of the game is notably short, probably only 6 or 7 hours long.They attempt to make up for this by offering the enticement to replay the game several times to get better "scores" and thusly earn medals for particular performance grades, but I personally didn't see much use in that.There's also a split-screen, cooperative, off-line multiplayer option that affords you the ability to wade through all the single-player missions with someone else, which is a nice inclusion, as well as PS2 online support (which I don't subscribe to).There are a couple of classy extras thrown into the mix as well: interview clips of actual WWII soldiers discussing their parts in the conflicts represented in Rising Sun, and an interesting section called Letters from Home, which features the reading of actual letters written by WWII servicemen.Still, a few memorable gameplay moments and a unique platter of extra features aren't nearly enough to save this game from its .
LOOK AT THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i thought this game was pretty cool withall the japanese soldiers and pearl harbor and everything. other people say it's boring and the AI is bad, but i like mindlessly killing japs!!!!have played frontline and it is really col too, but i can't pick which one i likebetter. anyway, blowing upstuff is lots of funso ha!!!!!
This is the end result of a rushed game
The Medal of Honor series is famous for releasing great historic war games. With the instant success of MoH: Frontline, it left people wanting more, and EA wanting more money. MoH: Rising Sun is about as unfinished of a game as you can get. The sad part is the graphics in MoH: Frontline look better than MoH: Rising Sun, and Rising Sun was released a year or so after Frontline. Not only that, but Rising Sun is extremely short and you should be able to complete the game in 6 hours tops. One thing I did like about this game is that it at least has multiplayer offline and online, but even those features can't save the game. The computer generated cut-scenes in the game that set up the next level you will play are horrendous. I've seen better on PS1. The games AI switches from being terrible to being downright dumb. You will be in situations where your standing right in front of the enemy and they won't even shoot you. You will be in situations where the enemy will fire the opposite direction of where you are. There are some minor technical glitches such as bodies floating in the air and some collision issues. Some areas of the game you could be hiding behind a wall or rock and the enemy can shoot right through what your hiding behind. Another collision issue is that you are able to walk through certain things you shouldn't be able through. Some examples being benches, chairs, some areas of the ships. This game also has a hefty framerate problem. The first mission and last mission have terrible framerate. The rest of the game stays at a decent pace for the most part, but chugs and chugs here and there.
I appreciate how they have all the different videos that you can watch after you beat the game. I think that's important on a game like this. It shows movies of veterans speaking about their effort in the war and other historic videos.
All in all even WW2 and MoH fans will have a hard time liking this game. I'm a fan of historic war games and I can admit this game was simply rushed. I recommend getting Call of Duty: Finest Hour.
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Extremely Disappointing
