MEDAL OF HONOR: PACIFIC ASSAULT, Electronic Arts
The Medal of Honor series has built a reputation as the game industry's answer to "Saving Private Ryan": lots of bullets, blood and guts, movie-quality music and sound and unrelenting action. EA's latest, Pacific Assault, builds on this foundation by adding a welcome sense of depth to its game play.
| | | | ___Personal Tech E-letter___ Washington Post personal technology columnist Rob Pegoraro answers reader e-mail and expands on themes he touches on in his weekly newspaper column. The e-mail version of this weekly feature includes links to the latest gadget and software reviews.
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The game starts at Pearl Harbor and then carries through across most of the game's major battles, up through Tarawa. As in earlier Medal of Honor titles, you take on the role of a single soldier, in this case Marine Tommy Conlin, in a variety of missions. You even get to pilot a plane in one of Pacific Assault's 35 levels.
But unlike in earlier Medal of Honor games, it's no longer all about you. You can no longer turn the tide of war single-handedly -- you can't even survive without the support of your squad. The artificial intelligence that animates the enemy forces is enough to see to that. The Japanese troops here are smart enough to camp out in dense foliage, toss grenades to smoke you out or sneak up behind you with bayonets, depending on the situation. The game also allows them to react to changes in a combat environment; blow up a stack of barrels with a grenade, and they'll use the debris as cover to attack from. There's now no way to win a battle without careful planning and coordination with your comrades in arms.
An equally welcome addition to the game is the corpsman you must summon if you're injured, instead of simply picking up canteens or first-aid kits that -- how convenient! -- just happen to be lying around. You also can only call on your unit's corpsman to patch you up a limited number of times in any one level of the game. This dose of realism is badly overdue in the war-game genre.
Playing or even watching Pacific Assault is a visceral experience. The landscapes may be beautifully drawn, but the combat is intense and brutal. If you look closely, you can spot bullets splashing in water -- but letting details like that distract you might not help you live very long in the game.
Collectors take note: As if this release's Hollywood-grade presentation weren't enough, EA is also selling a $60 "Director's Cut" of the game, which adds another weapon to your arsenal (a light machine gun), a World War I timeline presentation, commentary and a making-of documentary.
-- Tom Ham
Win 2000 or newer, $50
ADOBE READER 7.0, Adobe Systems
