Medal of Honor Retrospective: Medal of Honor Airborne

Medal of Honor Airborne was released on the Xbox 360 and PC in September 2007 and on the PlayStation 3 in November 2007, developed by EA Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts.

Medal of Honor Airborne puts you in the shoes of PFC Boyd Travers, who is a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. The missions take place throughout Europe, in locations like Italy, France, and Germany and the levels chronicle major operations of the war, including Operation Market Garden. Within this very loose framework lies the best Medal of Honor game in years and arguably one of the best in the entire series.

In almost every conceivable way, Medal of Honor Airborne is a better game than most of its immediate predecessors. By far the greatest part of the game is the airborne aspect, meaning you parachute down onto the large, essentially open world map. That option opens the entire map up and lets you pick your starting position. Start in the green smoke with ammo and back-up? Go for it. Start on the roofs with a sniper rifle and pick people off? Go for it? Start behind enemy lines and work your way forward? Go for it. The game lends itself to all these playstyles and is without question the most replayable shooter I’ve ever played.

Another fantastic element is the peek and lean cover system. When you use iron sights, it stops your movement, but if you’re behind cover, you can use it to lean to the sides around cover or peek over it to shoot. To reload, just lean back behind it. It is by far the best cover system in a FPS I’ve ever seen. Cover is a very difficult thing to do right in this style of game, but it feels like they nailed it here. The weapon upgrade system is also a big innovation. While lots of games let you do this, I’ve never seen it done the way it’s implemented here. It rewards you for sticking to a certain gun and gives you three ranks of unlocks as you use them. Wanting to unlock all the features of every gun also lends itself to replays and lends itself to experimentation.

As always, the sound and music are well above the average set by other games. Michael Giacchino returns to the franchise for the first time since Frontline and contributes another classic and grandiose score. The gun sounds, grenades and explosions have never sounded better, and with the added power of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and current generation PCs and the solid foundation of Unreal Engine 3 (the engine that powers most games of this gaming generation), the game has never looked better, either. It is by far the most visually impressive Medal of Honor game to date.

Medal of Honor Airborne is the pinnacle of the gameplay evolution that began in earnest with European Assault. Large open maps, complete freedom to play however you want, and a unique upgrade system combine to make one of the most innovative and underrated shooters of the last 5 years. Released under the massive shadow of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, this game never got the credit it deserved. It is the best Medal of Honor game since Allied Assault, and it is my favorite Medal of Honor game of the entire series and one of my personal favorite games of all time. This entire retrospective would not exist without the strength of gameplay this game showed me.

A must play for any fan of innovation in the FPS genre or any fan of shooters.