Medal of Honor Heroes PSP Review

EA have been brave and loyally stuck with the ordinary conventions of their popular World War II series, thus Medal of Honor Heroes remains an FPS. Many folk believe the genre is impossible to recreate on Sony’s handheld (the people behind Killzone included) so the question is, does Heroes succeed in making FPS mechanics work on the PSP?

The latest entry in the historically authentic series boasts three very different campaigns, and brings familiar characters – Lt. Jimmy Patterson, Sgt. John Baker and Lt. William Holt – back to the frontline. You’ll begin in Italy, and then move to Holland and Belgium, with each of the campaigns having an equal of five levels to shoot through.

To answer the question in the opening paragraph, Heroes is perhaps the must manageable FPS controls you are going to find on the PSP. There’s various schemes to try out, although we found that the default controls were perfectly serviceable once we were entirely used to which button corresponds to what action. By default the analog nub is used for movement, the face buttons meanwhile move your sights, and the R button is used to shoot at the constantly coming Germans.

The single player campaign may not be as intense as other versions in the series, but this is still unmistakably a Medal of Honor title (decent AI and all). As a handheld title the missions are kept relatively short, although what’s disappointing here is the lack of variety, which makes the game seemingly obsessed with capturing flags. You do get to blow some stuff up, but these moments are sadly few and far between, and with that said it’s a good job that the core shooting mechanics are fun to use, although it has to be said that more diversity certainly wouldn’t have gone amiss.

This lack of diversity also falls into the bonus missions, which predominantly involves you seeking out documents over and over again. These missions also feel like they have been put into the game to extend the lifespan, although with or without these side tasks the campaign seems to be over rather suddenly.

Comfort can be found in the skirmish and multiplayer modes to keep the game off the shelve for a considerably longer time. Multiplayer can be played via ad-hoc for up to eight players, and there’s also an online mode that caters for a total of 32 players. There’s a healthy amount of modes, although to play via ad-hoc all players must have a copy of the game handy, as Game Sharing is unfortunately absent. If you aren’t able to play the game against other players, then the skirmish mode is an option, pitting you against AI-controlled opponents opposed to actual people. Many will agree that such modes aren’t quite as fun when you aren’t playing against other living and breathing players.

Graphically the game is pretty good, although glitches such as soldiers merging into walls is disappointing. The game still has the background ambience that one would expect from the series, although sadly there’s no music at all, which is a real shame, as there’s been some truly excellent musical pieces on earlier games in the series.

To say that Medal of Honor Heroes is an absolute triumph as an FPS on the PSP would be stretching the truth a little, although EA’s brave attempt at getting the genre working on the PSP has to be admired, as does the rather large level of success that they have achieved at doing just that.

7/10