Comparing the franchise’s debut on the PlayStation 2.
Despite almost a three year gap between debut release’s on the PlayStation 2 – the elder, Medal of Honor takes this first competition in a land slide.
Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Medal of Honor: Front Line
**Note for my three regular readers 😂** These are just the trailer videos I regularly post for the reviews. I know I should be doing more in game videos but I need a better capture card as it’s generally so small on the screen it’s hard to play the actual game on. Someday as I get better and upgrade and have more time between working 50+ hours and helping my wife with our crazy toddler!
Phew. That’s a lot of action. It should be noted that right out of the gates neither of these games are fucking around and a lot can be said about both experiences. They are as vastly different as they are similar. While Finest Hour follows the tales of several soldiers on the allied side, Frontlines almost feels like a spy shooter at times as you only assume the role of Lt Jimmy Patterson.
So as far as Macro goes – I do like CoD’s approach here. I feel like they cover more ground and more of the actual realities and brutalities of the war as they travel the globe explaining different theaters of the war.
That I am afraid for Finest Hour is one of the only legs it gets up on the two year older, Frontlines.
At this point in the franchise’s young life, Call of Duty starts off as an identity crisis. Caught somewhere between deadly serious and over the top action. It refuses to lean in to either side and overall it suffers for it.
On the other hand Medal of Honor knows exactly what it is and has the advantage of high expectations and an even higher budget. I mean, Spielberg worked on the series. Elements of it are replicas of scenes from the film, Saving Private Ryan. But the best thing they do is weave seamlessly between the serious war themes and back to almost silly human aspects of the AI.
The actual game engine itself for Finest Hour is fantastic. It can accommodate dozens of soldiers on a battlefield smoothly which can immerse you in a huge battlefield type setting. Medal of Honor struggles with this aspect and tends to make the levels larger and spread its clumps of soldiers out farther and farther but when it comes to the soldiers actually acting like soldiers Medal of Honor takes the cake.
They converse, smoke cigarettes, go to the bathroom, drink and play cards. All tiny details that almost always makes for a significantly better playing experience than your typical shooter because frankly, shooters can get boring. Medal of Honor: Frontlines goes into this knowing this fact and changes it up in ways games just hadn’t thought of it yet at the time. It really goes a long ways compared to games that don’t do it.
As far as combat goes the AI is pretty close with a slight edge to MOH. The enemies will zig zag, drop to a knee or roll on their bellies to avoid you drawing a bead on them. Call of duty enemies at this infantile stage of the series only take cover and toss grenades to flush you out.
THE REVIEW
Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Metacritic Score: 76
Buffalo Retro Score: 84
Metal of Honor: Frontline
Metacritic Score: 88
Buffalo Retro Score: 90
As reflected in my own scores as well I feel compelled to agree with the critics here. If I could only choose between these two games for the rest of my life it’d be a quick and decisive choice.
So round 1 goes to : Medal of Honor
MOH: 1
COD: 0
How will next round pan out? I have no idea. I have never even played either to be honest. So that’ll be fun. Thanks for dealing with me flooding your WordPress readers with these two games the past couple of days. You will be getting a break from me while I work on the next titles.
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