Medal Of Honor: Heroes 2

After reading the critics' reviews and player reviews, watching gameplay videos, and reading up on the game's features, I could not resist the hype, and rented the game. I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed when I first started playing the game, because I have an Xbox 360, too, and I am inevitably spoiled by the graphics and the processing power of the 360.

The first thing that strikes an owner of both systems is the dull graphics. Unfortunately, the characters and the environment feels like a revamped Quake 2 engine is rendering them. You see clouds in the sky, but they are not moving. You see Allied soldiers' faces, but they are almost identical and card-board-like. The animation is not great either.

The next thing that disappoints is the lack of numbers of enemy soldiers. The first level starts off on the beaches of Normandy yet there are a handful of Nazis shooting at you. This is true in most cases throughout the first two levels.

The third problem is the AI as most people have already reported. I'm not exactly sure whether we should call it the AI or something else, but there's just something not right with the way that you get into a gun fight with Nazis hiding behind crates that are literally two feet away from you. So rather than just smashing each others' heads at an arms length, it looks like there's a dozen adults kneeling and standing up constantly on the opposite sides of a wooden box, while shooting with automatic rifles and all sorts of guns. However, this is usually more obvious during close range battles. Yet you'll get used to it the more you play.

All of the above is a little bit hard to swallow after having played Call of Duty 3 on Xbox 360 where there are a million Nazis and Allied soldiers opening fire from all directions, and explosions and people dying all around you, where the graphics are drop dead gorgeous.

Nevertheless, I kept on playing and playing and the game just grew on me. There's no doubt about it that the controls are the star of this show. It takes a while to really find your most favorite settings with the controls as you update the horizontal look speed, vertical look speed, your dead zone area, and aiming accuracy, but once locked in, you're set to have an incredible time despite all of the game's short comings. It all feels natural after a few hours of playing, and adjusting. This IS the future of aiming and shooting gameplay mechanics. You've got it all: aiming, shooting, reloading, leaning, zooming, melee, crouching, weapons switching, hand-grenade throwing, etc.

It's not only the basics, but also the additional controls for non conventional weapons and other equipment. The bazooka controls, the machine gun turret, the artillery, the radio fine tunning... It is just amazing, and so natural. Yet you can customize all of that if need be.

Even though the graphics during the game are not so attracting, the overall quality of the presentation throughout the game is top notch. Menu graphics, and design, mission briefings and voice overs, music... It's all really well done.

One other cool thing about this game is that although the Wii does not have the "achievements" system built-into the platform, the game manages to provide you with a very similar mechanic that makes it even more fun to go out of your way to accomplish more than just the required tasks during the game. You get rewards for killing 50 or more enemies with each weapon. You get rewards for completing secondary objectives. You get rewards for not dying once in certain difficulty levels, etc.

The multi-player has been one of the focal points of this game. I found myself playing the game online as if I had never played a decent regular TDM before. Once again the controls of the game bring a fresh touch to the entire multiplayer aspect. Every FPS player owes it themselves to try this game online. Even the hardcore diehard PC FPS fans will find something to like here. Also I'd like to point out that the EA Nation system that is used for the online multi-player interface is absolutely fantastic, and I've not had any lag whatsoever.

The last thing I'd like to mention is how much fun the arcade mode is. It just brings back the memories of good old times when we used to play the "point-at-screen and shoot everything with your plastic gun" days. It's something even your girlfriend would enjoy. I'm very tempted to buy the Wii zapper to play this mode, and other games that are coming out in the near future with zapper support.

I would recommend renting this game first to see if you'll like it or not. Play it for a few hours. See if it feels right. Customize the controls. Play online. Play the arcade mode. Win some of the rewards. Play at veteran level. If you like the world war two genre shooters, there are a lot of reasons why you'll want to keep the game. Yet there's a chance that you may not be able to get into the whole deadzone thing soon enough. However, if you liked the controls of Metroid Prime Corruption, there's no way you will not love this game.

Two words - Highly Impressed. NOTE: I meant to give this game 4 stars, but hit 5 stars by accident. I cannot re-edit the star ranking. It's a 4 star game, not a 5 star.

I am going to start out with Multiplayer because that is the first thing I did after I started up the game. Wow, what a blast. You will be pleased to know that there are NO FRIEND CODES. The game uses EA Nation. I've never experienced EA Nation before and I have to say, Nice job EA. This game has online Leaderboards where you can see how you rank with everyone else. You can go into EA Messenger and actually find people you played with and request to add them as a friend to your buddy list. You can go into the lobby and see what servers are up, map being played, rules, etc. How cool is that?

There is nothing like this yet on the Wii as far as the online experience. Online is only going to get better from here on out on the Wii. The game supports up to 32-players online. I experienced absolutely no lag and no disconnects. The game is smooth and a joy to play online.

Only one problem with game - no Voice Chat. That would of been icing on the cake. But, I think that is more of Nintendo's problem or restriction, not the developer.

NOTE: There is no split screen or LAN Multiplayer. It's all online. I know some people were wondering about that. The box shows 4 player, but it's not true. It's 1 Player solo and 32 Player online.

Single player campaign mode is also very fun. I have played previous WWII games on the Wii and this one is hands down the best so far. I have occasionally come across some dumb AI moments (an enemy just standing there looking at me), but what game doesn't have those now and then. The AI is actually pretty good overall. There are three levels of difficulty. I find Veteran (middle difficulty level) to be very challenging.

There is also an Arcade mode where you can either use the Wii and Nunchuk or the Wii Zapper. This mode is on rails where you just aim and take out the enemies. It's actually pretty fun. A nice mode if you just want to kick back and not worry about controlling your movement and camera. NOTE: Arcade mode doesn't support 2-players which is odd.

Visuals are pretty nice. Yes, they could of been better - a lot better. Especially with some of the current Wii games out there. The Wii can do so much more graphically than what many third party developers have been doing lately. I would say Metroid Prime 3 is a better looking game, but this is still not bad.

The audio and music is very impressive and there is also a lot of voice over which draws you in. Supports Dolby Pro Logic II.

This was developed by EA Canada - Team Fusion. This is their first Wii effort and for a first time developer on the Wii, this is a pretty nice. I can't wait to see what FPS they make next for the Wii.

Pick this one up. Best FPS controls so far, tons of controller customizing (I mean a lot), great single player campaign and online 32-player Multiplayer with no friend codes.

There is a lot of value in this title: a solid first-person campaign, a pick-up and shoot arcade mode, and a Wii first, a 32 multi-player online mode.

The FPS controls feel great (As good as Metroid), the graphics are decent, and the voice acting is OK. I am missing the Red Steel gun tilting a bit, but I must say that EA nailed how a Wii FPS should use a sniping rifle.

The online multi-player is fun, although it can feel repetitive after the first ten to twenty minutes; It's not the stuff all-night gaming sessions are made out of. The single player campaign is challenging, although don't expect much intelligence from your fellow troops (or enemies for that matter).

Overall, for fans of FPSs who have a Wii, this is an easy buy, and worth the full price.