One Marine Can Make a Difference
Always popular with first-person strategists, the Medal of Honor series, now in its sixth year, manages to create both an immersive and historically accurate FPS with each and every game released. And the same is true of the latest addition from Electronic Arts - Pacific Assault.Set in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, Pacific Assault brings with it some 25 brand new single-player missions that, for the first time, allows would-be soldiers to assume full control of their very own squad. Throughout the game, your squad members developer their own skills and even change their behaviour patterns and personalities. It's a beautifully dynamic feature that makes the whole process feel a little less, shall we say, programmed. It also helps to make an already historically accurate venture even more believable.But there are a number solo duties too, that, with the aid of some new weapons, prove just as immersive. EA has even gone to the extent of working with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society to ensure the authenticity of the series remains intact. Locales are faithful to the real-life event, and improved lighting effects and textures reinforce Medal of Honor's status as one of the best World War series out there. You can issue commands, blow things up, solve puzzles and even call for aid - and that's just the single-player game.In multi-player, things are a little different. Accommodating anything up to 32 players, Medal of Honor veterans can engage in classic online gaming that includes a new Invader mode and eight specially designed scenarios. The online levels are adequate in size and extremely well suited to multi-player gaming strategies.The single and multi-player campaigns in Pacific Assault, though quite different from one another, are equally captivating, and it's really not that difficult to see why the series has been running for so long.