Written by Jeff Buckland, 8/19/2006
Played on:
Windows
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was a bit of a surprise to gamers when it was released very early this year - it offered a great mix of single player action with a pretty fun multiplayer mode, and it did it all with excellent graphics and lots of nice touches. The major complaint people had with the game was that the single player mode was too short and ended very abruptly. On top of that, the multiplayer modes were fun but flawed, making it boring for most players after only a few hours of play. Still, it was very successful, and it was one of the best selling FPS titles in 2002.
Spearhead is the expansion for EA and 2015's World War 2 shooter, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and it adds a new single player campaign and lots of new stuff for the multiplayer game. For an expansion pack, Spearhead has a hefty price tag, ranging from thirty to forty dollars. The biggest problem I have with this expansion is very similar to the one I had from the original game - it's way too short.
The venerable Quake 3 engine is still in use here, and sadly, Spearhead doesn't add any new graphics features over the original game. The single player campaign does look better overall, though, and (as expected) the game does require a slightly faster computer to handle it all.
There are a bunch of options to play with to get the game running on slower hardware, although I would probably disagree with the game's posted minimum requirements - it would just run too slow for me on that kind of computer, even with everything turned down. Still, if Allied Assault runs fine on your machine, then this will most likely run alright as well.
Almost nothing has been changed here from the original game - all the controls are the same, all the options are still here, and the vehicles and other weapons you can use all feel just right. This was an obvious case of "don't fix it if it ain't broke".
Spearhead's graphics are about as good as they were in Allied Assault, and while the original game's visuals were great almost a year ago, they are a little lacking now. Games like Morrowind, Battlefield 1942, and Unreal Tournament 2003 have raised the bar for PC graphics, and Spearhead isn't really living up to those expectations.
That being said, the visuals are still very well done, giving the game an authentic feel as you head from France to Belgium to Berlin. There are several nice touches that are brand new here, giving this expansion pack its own feel. Still, more would have been better.
I'll start off saying that Spearhead has some really good gameplay in there, if you can ignore the frustrations of a few extremely hard, annoying missions and other minor little problems. The biggest problem here is that the game is simply way too short; I finished this thing in under four hours, and while there were plenty of new weapons and other bits and pieces, the short single player mode didn't put them to much good use.
As is the way with Medal of Honor games, this expansion will have you taking on the role of a specific soldier - this time it's US Army Sergeant Jack Barnes. As Barnes, you will parachute in behind enemy lines just before the invasion of Normandy, defend Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, and finally wreak havoc in Berlin just before the end of World War 2. These three missions are cut into a few levels each, with each level having several goals for you to complete as you go.
You will have a different commanding officer in each of the three major areas of the game - he'll give orders out, and you will need to protect him during the mission. In Allied Assault, each major mission would start with a voice acted briefing, and then mid-mission goals would come to you as a letter shown during a loading screen. It seemed a bit silly and cheap to do it this way, and EA has apparently noticed. This time around, your CO will give you orders during the mission, and most of the goals you need to complete are explained to you by a character in-game. It's much better this way, and makes it that much more realistic.
Even after all that, though, the game still lacks. There are quite a few weapons to be had, many of them new to Spearhead, but you will only get to use the best ones sparingly. When looking at just how quickly you go through the range of weapons, it becomes obvious that EA needed to stuff a few more hours of gameplay in to really make it worth it.
EA is really pushing the multiplayer side of this expansion, as they seem to have spent almost as much effort here as they did with the single player game. The new Tug of War mode adds a lot to the teamplay-based game, although those who have played the Day of Defeat mod for Half-Life will be saying "been there, done that". Still, it adds some much-needed goals to teamplay.
There are a total of 12 new multiplayer maps in Spearhead, four of which are for the Tug of War mode, and the rest are for deathmatch. The new weapons are usable in multiplayer, as well as new sides to pick: the British and the Soviets. The thing is, all of this stuff is great if you're a fan of the Allied Assault multiplayer game, but if you got bored of it, you will find yourself bored of this almost as quickly anyway. Battlefield 1942 does much better in the multiplayer WW2 department, so if you're looking for something as good as that, then you will want to skip Spearhead.
The Medal of Honor games always have great sound effects, and this is no exception. The orders you receive mid-mission are all spoken with some pretty good voice acting, the weapons sound unique and satisfying, and explosions are massive. Ambient sound is wonderful, and really helps convey the idea that there is a war going on around you.
The music is also done in the usual Medal of Honor style; it's all orchestrated with a little bit of an Indiana Jones-like adventure flair thrown in. The music sounds great overall, and it isn't overbearing enough to be a nuisance. I left the music turned on the whole time, which is a rare thing for me to do with PC games.
If Spearhead just had a few more hours of gameplay, it would be much more worth the price. The fun vehicle levels, tons of weapons, gun emplacements to use, and scripted, cinematic gameplay all show just how short the single player mode is, even if it's generally really good stuff. The new multiplayer content is also nice, but only the more diehard Medal of Honor fans will probably really appreciate what's in here. In the end, Spearhead provides too little gameplay - even for an expansion pack.
