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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2007

System: Microsoft Xbox 360

Also available for: Sony PlayStation 3, Windows PC

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Reviewer's rating: **½

ESRB rating: Teen

Game type: First-person shooter

Kind of like: Every other 'Medal of Honor,' but dropped out of a plane.

Best feature: Vertically layered maps and non-linear missions.

Worst feature: The parachute concept borders on gimmicky and the campaign is too short.

The bottom line: With 'Medal of Honor: Airborne' comes yet another in a long line of World War II shooters. While competitor 'Call of Duty' goes modern with its next installment, EA stays in a stale genre with arguably its best 'MOH' title in a long time. By focusing on a particular unit, 'Airborne' takes gamers into what was the innovative fighting unit of its time - the paratrooper.

Each mission starts by jumping out of a plane. Sounds fun, right? And because the flow of each mission depends on where you land, objectives can be completed in any order. Respawns happen in midair, allowing for a change in drop strategy if need be.

At first glance, the maps seem small compared to ground-based shooters in the genre. But with a vertical theme, most maps are built up rather than out, a concept that is frustratingly enjoyable in the final level. Although the gameplay is based on the squad concept, don't count on your platoon for help - the friendly AI is so dumb you'll wonder how The Greatest Generation won anything at all.

Parachutes also make their way into the multiplayer action, and there's nothing more satisfying than dropping a boot to your buddy's head from the sky. The standard objective and ground-based game modes also are available.

Kelvin Ma

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