Release Date: November 13, 2007
Developer: EA Canada – Team Fusion
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: First Person Shooter
Rating: T
Players: 1

When I first inserted Medal of Honor Heroes 2 into my Wii I didn’t expect it to be as good as Call of Duty or any other popular shoot em’ up games for a few reasons. EA’s developing team (Team Fusion) had many difficulties making the game with the Wii’s unique control scheme that could make the game a very bad first person shooter. I had some hope since Metriod Prime Corruption 3 raised the bar a little, but EA has disappointed me in the past. Secondly the World War II theme has been used way too much throughout the Medal of Honor series and its been a while since a good Medal of Honor title was released like Allied Assault.

Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is probably the best and most precise first-person shooter to come out for the Wii. The controls are very smooth and are way more comfortable than any other shooter made for the Wii. The controls aren’t that detailed like some shooters and are very simple. You use the Wii remote to aim, the A button to zoom in or spike a grenade, B to shoot and the control pad to change weapons or crouch and stand. It takes some time to adjust to these unique controls but once you do you’ll start liking the game. Some games rely on the Wii’s technology like Medal of Honor due to the lack of buttons. Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 Utilizes gestures perfectly as the gestures are so precise. To make your soldier lean a certain way you move the Nunchuk left or right. Flick the Wii remote in an upwards motion to reload your weapon and flick both Wii Remote and Nunchuk forward to use a melee attack. Gestures are good for guns like the shotgun, if you reload fast after each shot killing your foe is more likely. To reload a shotgun you shake the Nunchuk. Gestures aren’t just used for fighting. In missions you might need to use the radio to contact your base but you need the right station. To get the right frequency you rotate the Wii remote clockwise to move the radio’s dial right and Counter Clockwise to move it left. The controls are brilliant in the game but it’s hard to change your view quickly which might cost you a life.

The game provides enough guns and weapons to provide a good FPS experience. From Snipers to Bazookas, Medal of Honor has it. The Allies and Axis has similar weapons that have a slight difference for example the Thompson has six rounds of ammo and twenty shots per round compared to the axis’s MP40 that has four rounds of ammo and thirty-two shots per round. With the main gun you select you are equipped with a grenade and a backup handgun. Your grenade and handgun depend on if you’re on the allies or axis side.

Shoot em' up, as this .50 cal demostrates

Forget about the great controls, Medal of Honor has terrible AI which is a major problem. The game isn’t challenging at all because when enemies respawn they appear from the same place and to proceed you have to kill them in pairs and not all at once. Sure doesn’t feel like a war, right? Enemies tend to respawn two to four times and always appear in front of your eyes. All you have to do is shoot and kill with no strategy whatsoever. EA’s team fusion did a horrible job making the game challenging and made it way too easy to beat.

Campaign mode is single player and contains eight missions that should take roughly five to nine hours to complete and provides a story to keep you entertained. Arcade mode is a more traditional and casual mode where the game controls movement so you can concentrate on fast moving action. It also has a lot of options like controlling the difficulty, changing your settings and selecting the mission. It’s good for beginners who want to experience a first person shooter without dying every two seconds. The main reason I would play Arcade mode is too experience Nyko’s perfect shot hand gun or the Wii Zapper. Once the game loads prepare for the Arcade action to begin!

The main reason I and many other hardcore gamers bought Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is to play online. The main game is way too short so playing others in EA Nation is a great way to enjoy yourself and kill some time. Its multiplayer is magnificent with a massive maximum of 32 players a game it won’t be hard to find someone to kill. With only three modes online; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag and only six maps (port, sewer, city, monestary, village and base) the game seems repetitive and can get boring after a while. With over 10,000 people in the game’s online rankings it isn’t hard to find an active match. Its rankings include weapon leaders which can encourage people to thrive with a certain gun. You get a choice of six uniforms online; three for the allies and three for the axis.

The Australian version has no multiplayer at all which has been a subject of criticism. EA's official response to the lack of multiplayer for Australia was: "Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for Wii does not support online functionality in Australia. We made an error in the documentation and marketing materials. We are very sorry to have caused confusion for our customers. We will provide a refund to anyone in Australia who wishes to return the game to EA because of the lack of online functionality.”

EA Australia has decided not to comment on why the online component of the game was excluded from the game, which has led games websites and forums to speculate that the company did not deem it profitable to host the local servers necessary for low-latency play.

The graphics impress me but aren’t superior like Call of Duty’s. The graphics are only emphasized on the important parts of the games such as the guns but you don’t see them throughout the game in different areas which can be disappointing. Their developers made the walls and ground have texture, the guns look real and made the boats look old and unused which caught my eye a lot and made me grin. Nothing special to say about the graphics, the game is all about the gameplay.

The sound in Medal of Honor is brilliant, it makes World War II more immersive then ever and gives you a tense but exciting mood throughout game. Listening to the Menu’s music over and over doesn’t get annoying like most games and the sound of the guns sound so realistic that you know when someone is trying to snipe you. To improve the sound they could have made the soldiers say random messages or grunts when they die or shoot. It would be more realistic to hear a Nazi yelling or someone making grunting noises while dying. The grenade explosions are just a little “Boom” and don’t make you wince every time you hear one explode nearby. With all the gun fire it is sometimes difficult to hear grenades which should be overheard over every weapon.


Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Longevity: 8/10

Overall: 33/40 (82.5%) Impressive

Medal of Honor 2 would be a very mediocre experience if the controls were horrible, EA’s Team Fusion has done a good job ensuring owners of the game are satisfied paying fifty dollars for Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. Game developers should learn from Medal of Honor in the future when making FPS games for the Nintendo Wii. I wouldn’t recommend buying the game now unless you’re a hardcore First person shooting genre fan. Online is dying, E3 is coming up and expect a new version or another game similar to Medal of Honor to come out and impress us soon.

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