As an Elite American Airborne Ranger (EAAR lol), you have the ability of leaning in and out of cover. This is very handy, because it reduces damage and adds strategy to combat, even though it feels a bit too sensitive when leaning in and out. It feels a lot better than a stick-to-the-wall type of cover system because it is a lot smoother to handle, and you won’t have the instances of accidentally taking cover behind something. The health bar is a variation of Halo style regeneration and the old arcade health meter. You start out with four bars of health, when you are shot, as long as a bar is somewhat filled, it replenishes after a few seconds. If the bar dissipates all the way you will lose that bar of health and move onto the next one. When all four bars are depleted, you die. There are health and ammo packs scattered all throughout the battlefield, as well as at the safety points marked with green flare, and this really provides strategy because you’ll have to choose to either lose health by landing in the middle of a battle, or stack up on ammo if you land at a supply zone. The problem is, retreating for supplies defeats the purposes of fighting, because to stop enemies from coming to a position, you have to physically move up and take the fight to them. If you retreat, or do not move up, enemies will infinitely spawn, which detracts from the realism of the game. Allies will not hold a position for you because they are absolutely brain-dead. They never die, but they stand in one spot, moving in predetermined directions. They have a tendency to get in your way when you least want them to. There were many times where I would through grenades, only for them to bounce off the head of an ally and land at my feet. Other times, they will even fire in the wrong direction - sometimes when there aren’t enemies around! Do not depend on them to save your ass.
A soldier and his rifle.
One of the key features of Medal of Honor Airborne is its weapon upgrade system. Each time you get a kill or headshot with a certain weapon, a little bar will fill up next to its image, and when the bar is full, your weapon will now upgrade. Depending on the weapon, you will receive upgrades such as reduced recoil for better accuracy, more damage, a larger clip or magazine or a grenade launcher. An upgrade system in a World War 2 game isn’t that realistic, but it provides incentive to play through the game and upgrade all the weapons.
In terms of presentation, Medal of Honor Airborne is hit-or-miss. Weaponry all sounds different which is nice, but a lot of the weapons sound more like cap guns then real guns. Explosions sound, and look weak and distinctly lastgen, and there aren’t many sound effects left after that. The music is very heroic in regular Medal of Honor fashion, but the lone trumpet, though very patriotic, is starting to feel worn out and overused. The voice acting used in clips of soldiers and during cutscences isn’t the best out there, but it is certainly better than average. Textures can be somewhat flat at times, but models are very nicely built, and lighting effects are very present. Character models are pretty detailed and facial expressions, though not always present, are a great addition. There are many CG cinematics that occur after an objective is completed, and though not terrible looking, they don’t look that great for a game on the Xbox 360. It would have been better if they were done in real time. Overall, this game certaintly isn’t bad looking, but its presentation as a whole lacks a bit when compared to other games on the console.
