I was very pleasantly surprised by Medal of Honor Airborne, as the series had been going downhill as of late. This game recaptures this intense action of the original, and pairs it with a novel gameplay approach.

PROS: This game borrows a page from Grand Theft Auto, in that it attempts to give you an “open-ended” feel. It’s still relatively linear and scripted, but when you parachute into a mission, you are the one who decides which objective you tackle first. This is a much welcome change in WWII shooters, the majority of which are very, very scripted and allow no deviation (looking at you, Brothers in Arms). This game also features nice graphics, and while they are not cutting edge, the atmosphere in this game is terrific and really conveys the chaos of each mission. The missions are also fun and varied, and make strategic sense. The weapon upgrade system is nice, as it rewards using–and getting better–with a particular weapon. A little hint of an RPG game goes a long way to make this a better experience. The game is also pretty realistic, and shooting is marked by recoil, or aiming with iron sights. It’s hard to run and shoot, so this means to hit anything accurately, you need to stop, kneel and aim.

CONS: This game is incredibly short. There are only 6 missions, and depending on the difficulty level, you could finish this game in under 6 hours, easy. This is a shame, because the content is quite good, but the ending is abrupt and leaves you wanting more. For all the realism, the last mission is too reminiscent of Return to Wolfenstein, with its Nazi super-soldiers that walk around carrying and shooting an MG-42 from the hip! There is some enemy re-spawning, but it’s usually only limited to situations where you die and have to work your way through an area again.

Bottom line, this is a very fun game, a breath of fresh air for a stale franchise, but one that is over way too quickly, especially for a full priced game.

The MEDAL OF HONOR series were probably the BEST WWII FPS games available (with CODE OF HONOR and RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN a close 2nd and 3rd). The atmosphere, the feeling, the rush of being in the boots of WWII soldiers were unsurpassable!

True, MoH-AIRBORN may not be at par with the first MoH games, yet it is the successor MoH-PACIFIC ASSAULT failed to become! New movement options (peak above and below), a few RPG sprinkles (weapons upgrades!), improved graphics (especially the shadows!) and realistic factor (you REALLY need to get used to shooting from cover!). Finally, it is the unpredictability of where you start your mission and in what order you get your objectives completed that add some clear points to this game.

Now, here are the bad news:
- The game is TOO SHORT. By any standard. EA let, once more, greed get the better of their decision making: I am sure, as you are reading this, the other half of the game is getting burned onto disks labeled “Expansion”.
- Checkpoints. I hate checkpoint games! Not only because you usually end up dying just before reaching the next one – but mostly because it is the gimmick used by game publishers to artificially augment the game’s duration (by having us replay the same segments again and again…).
- The game is hit by the STALKER curse. The STALKER curse is when an excellent game is actually engineered for the…next generation of computers. STALKER is a uniquely open-ended FPS-RPG – yet my copy is gathering dust. My computer is not that shabby (P4 3.2MHZ, 2GB RAM, nVidia 7600GT-512MB on ASUS P4P 800) yet, as with STALKER, MoH-AIRBORN stutters and freezes all the time (and I found out that this is true even to people with even much faster PC systems).
As with STALKER, when I will have the system to play MoH-AIRBORN to its full potential, the game will be obsolete.

All in all, a good game if you have the PC system to handle its true requirements (and the patience to even then endure inconveniencing moments).

1.0 out of 5 stars
Problems
The game I enjoyed most on my old computer was Medal of Honor Allied Assault. With my new computer, I expected more of the same with Medal of Honor Airborne.

1.0 out of 5 stars
It just won’t work.
This game simply will not run on my machine. I more than meet the recomended system requirements, and I’ve tried just about everything I could find that might help.

3.0 out of 5 stars
Medal of Honor Airborne
Nice graphics, but could not figure out how to save as I progressed in the game. Had problems running software on my NEW PC. Not worth what I paid.

1.0 out of 5 stars
Most video cards “not supported”
I have an ATI X800XT pci express card (256MB) in my machine. Although this card is not listed with the “not supported” cards, that is the error msg I received after ordering and…