Is Medal of Honor Airborne any good?

[Kestastrophe]

I had an urge to play a WWII game, so I tried out the Airborne demo. I was surprised at how good it was. The aiming was solid, and the cover mechanic, which allows almost entirely free movement while in iron sights, felt much more intuitive and less clunky than Killzone 2's touted first person cover mechanic. I did notice some hit detection issues, and sometimes the enemies didn't react after a non-lethal shot, which was very annoying but didn't seem game breaking. Anybody play this?

[trippingmartian]

...the cover mechanic, which allows almost entirely free movement while in iron sights, felt much more intuitive and less clunky than Killzone 2's touted first person cover mechanic.

I was surprised this cover mechanic wasn't aped by other games. I've only played the demo, but that really stood out to me at the time.

[duckman2000]

Yes. There are issues of repetition, but that's hardly anything new for the genre, and it's certainly more open ended than most war shooters around. And the "cover" system hits the perfect middle ground.

I was surprised this cover mechanic wasn't aped by other games. I've only played the demo, but that really stood out to me at the time.

Cynical response here, but I think it's just a matter of developers taking the easiest acceptable route. I ended up not liking the cover system in KZ2 very much, felt that it was a bit overdone, but I appreciate that they at least put one in there, and designed proper enemy A.I. for it.

[dark1x]

I thought it was pretty good (especially on the PC) and I was already sick of WWII shooters.  It's much less scripted and linear than a Call of Duty game, but still manages to provide similarly intense scenarios.

[Eel O'Brian]

the last level is an almost-wolfenstein type blast, i wish the series would just chuck "realism" out the window and go for broke in that direction

[duckman2000]

I'd like to see this team take on far future warfare. Just replace the parachutes with dodgy jetpacks.

[Kestastrophe]

And the "cover" system hits the perfect middle ground.

Cynical response here, but I think it's just a matter of developers taking the easiest acceptable route. I ended up not liking the cover system in KZ2 very much, felt that it was a bit overdone, but I appreciate that they at least put one in there, and designed proper enemy A.I. for it.

I agree completely. The KZ2 cover system did feel overdone, but i would still rather have that than no cover system altogether ala Call of Duty (getting hit behind cover  ).

I was surprised this cover mechanic wasn't aped by other games. I've only played the demo, but that really stood out to me at the time.

That's the first thing that I thought too. I didn't pay any attention to this game when it came out, but it has been a full two years since and I haven't seen anything like this implemented in another game.

i wish the series would just chuck "realism" out the window and go for broke in that direction

The first thing that I thought about the demo was that the game was going for a more realistic route compared to CoD. It is very hard to aim from the hip, and the cover system/lean mechanic made for a much more methodical progression. I also thought that the gun animations and handling were more realistic, even though the sounds were kind of disappointing, with some sounding like type-writers.

[Eel O'Brian]

the single player is awesome, but they half-assed the multiplayer

[dark1x]

I can't understand why it didn't get more popular, maybe because it wasn't PS3 or 360 exclusive and missed the hype?

Obviously multiplayer is very important.  Airborne didn't receive a lot of attention from EA, had poor multiplayer, and a late PS3 port (during the time when UE3 to PS3 ports were generally shitty).  Not surprised it failed to catch on.

[ManaByte]

If you want to buy it, get this:


For $20 you get:

Airborne
Allied Assault
Allied Assault Breakthrough
Allied Assault Stronghold
Allied Assault Warchest Extras Disc
Pacific Assault Director's Edition (the SE)
10th Anniversary Michael Giaccino soundtrack

[ManaByte]

Stronghold = Spearhead.

[Kestastrophe]

I picked it up, omg the sniping is godly and super satisfying. I played a bit of mp and it was terrible, but the first 2 missions in single player were great. There were like 20 people total online, and 2 of the 3 games I played had a dropped connection due to host quitting