Medal of Honor: Frontline

aka: MOHF, Medal of Honor: En Première Ligne
Moby ID: 6826
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

In Medal of Honor: Frontline, you play as Lt. Jimmy Patterson, a member of a special forces team.

As a soldier during WW2, you must complete various missions and objectives. You will take part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, seize the Nijmegen Bridge, infiltrate a weapons facility, sabotage a German U-Boat and more.

You will have access to historically accurate weapons and equipment, such as pistols, rifles, and explosives.

Parts of the game will have you working alongside other soldiers, which adds to the overall experience. Some missions require you to use stealth, where you must pose as a Nazi and show identification without giving yourself away.

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

346 People (255 developers, 91 thanks) · View all

Lead Designer
Lead Engineer
Art Director
Lead Animator
Lead Sound Designer
Lead Artist
Lead Character Modeller
AI Lead
Test Lead
Concept Artist
Associate Lead Designer
Producer
Associate Producer
D-Day Producer
Senior Producer
Executive Producer
Development Director
Localisation Producer
Designers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 35 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 80 ratings with 6 reviews)

A decent FPS on the PS2, but could've ironed out some issues.

The Good
+ Customisable controls
+ Excellent presentation
+ Great soundtrack
+ Adequate graphics


The Bad
- Clunky, stiff controls
- Some cryptic mission objectives
- Unstable framerate
- Finicky hit detection


The Bottom Line
Presentation: 90/100
The introduction is excellent, as well as that the first level is a part of D-Day, and can sometimes feel like as if you are part of the battle.

Graphics: 80/100
The graphics are adequate, as well as much of the level designs, but the framerate can sometimes drop if the action gets very hectic.

Audio: 87/100
The gunshots are realistic, and the voice-acting is passable. But what stands out in the sound department is the excellent soundtrack. This game also supports Dolby Surround.

Controls: 55/100
Medal of Honor: Frontline is a decent game, but could've been better if the developers ironed out some control issues. The controls is one of them; while having the ability to customise almost any button is a great idea, but being forced to use an imprecise aiming sensitivity is not, turning and looking can be either too slow or too fast, and also there's no auto-aiming or a sensitivity adjuster to remedy this issue. To add insult to the injury, you have to be pinpoint accurate, and aiming in general is stiff and unfriendly. The controls is a mixed bag with no auto-aiming, and with the imprecise aiming which is compensated by customisable controls.

Difficulty: Easy but technically frustrating
The game on easy is generally very easy, while hard is fairly difficult, especially when you're fidgeting around with the aiming. Getting shot is not as easy to tell as it was in the previous games; in the original Medal of Honor, the screen would violently shake, indicating that you're taking damage, but here, the screen makes a small screen jerk that's almost unnoticeable.

Gameplay: 80/100
The main gameplay is great, but leaves room for improvement. The AI is adequate, the level designs are good, but there are certain issues in gameplay, such as how it's sometime hard to tell if you are taking damage or not. While that there's no blood anywhere in the game, the enemies sure like to put a show to their rather long death animations, but it can turn redundant as some animations can become delayed. The rate of fire for most weapons are reasonable (eg. Colt .45, MP40), but some are questionable (Silenced Pistol).

Overall: 79/100
Medal of Honor: Frontline is a decent game, but its weaknesses, such as the crippled control can affect the gameplay. If you can overlook these flaws, you'll have a lot of fun with the game.

Score: 79/100

PlayStation 2 · by SamXNE_997 (167) · 2014

Witness the beginning of the decline of the 'Medal of Honor' series.

The Good

MOA:F looks, feels, and (especially) sounds like its three predecessors on the PS1 and PC. It's a very well put together game, with solid level design and fairly good graphics (nice explosions). The authentic WWII sound effects add a lot of ambiance to the game.

The missions are well paced, and your objectives are generally clear; you don't spend a lot of time wandering around confused, wondering where to go next. There is a very helpful feature that allows you to access hints about your current objectives by pressing the 'Select' button. This doubtlessly saved me a few hours of wandering around in frustration on some levels.

**The Bad**

This is NOT the PC 'Medal of Honor: Allied Assault', nor is it even really the original PS1 MOH games. The controls are absolutely awful, almost to the point of making the game completely unplayable. There are numerous different control schemes to choose from, and even an option to customize the controls to your liking. This is all for not, however, as the aiming is always imprecise and sluggish, regardless of what controller setup you choose. There is no way to adjust the sensitivity of your aiming mechanism, and it is consistently difficult to aim at even the closest of targets. Many times did I unload a whole clip at a Nazi at point-blank range, only to miss and miss and miss due to poor control. The targeting reticle moves around too quickly and sloppily, except when in sniper mode, in which case it moves painfully slowly.

The graphics, while nice, aren't anything to write home about. The AI, both enemy and friendly, is spotty. Your squadmates will often lag behind and stand around while you move forward into combat. Nazis often just stand there and let you shoot them again and again, without running or taking cover.

There is no in-mission save, which inevitably leads to the unwanted repetition of boring and tedious sections of the game. Multiplayer in previous MOH games has always been every shade of boring, and it was wisely left out this time.

**The Bottom Line**

I have yet to play a truly good FPS for the PS2, and this one certainly breaks no new ground. While MOH:F has a lot of flaws, it will probably scratch the itch of gamers who don't have a PC or an Xbox, the platforms where the quality FPSs seem to all be landing lately. Rent it first though, because the controls really ARE that bad.

PlayStation 2 · by Entorphane (337) · 2002

Excellent war game that help paved the way.

The Good
The first time I saw Frontline on a shelf at Blockbuster I was a little curious, after seeing so many articles about the PC versions and the original PSone games, I was intrigued that a newer console version was released. I knew that it wouldn't be as good as the PC version, but still I was pleasantly surprised.

To start of the graphics are phenomenal for that time, even though they are a bit dated now. The tracers from gunfire, the dirt and mud from mortar rounds impacting, grenade blasts, rock chipping around you, it really does convey that you are in a war zone. Also the texturing and the lighting are pretty damn impressive too, even to this day I'm still impressed how well this game looked back then.

The controls take a little bit to get used to, but luckily they are easy to learn and once you get them down pat, it's not a problem. The music is great as well, each level's music fits and certain situations can get your blood pumping.

The choice of weapons really help the game along, from pistols, grenades, machine guns and rifles (my personal favorite is the Springfield 03) and the plentiful ammo and health refills in some of the easier modes can make the game bearable, especially when you are ambushed which happens from time to time.

The variety of levels are a plus too, from storming the beaches of Normandy to a U-Boat even, there's no lack of variety. Two of my favorites is the mission in the Netherlands and the Nijmegen Bridge where the sniper rifle is present. It's really fun to use it and pick off Germans especially the ones running, it's always fun to watch them flip backwards or shooting them off of the Nijmegen Bridge.

In short, this game really does have a lot to offer.

The Bad
Well, a few things did bother me, one was the physics of the NPCs, it's a shame they couldn't incorporate some kind of rag doll effects instead of the preset animations. It's not really a drawback, just a personal preference, however it can be fun too at times, especially if you use the sniper rifle to shoot out an enemies knee having them fall face down and shoot through the top of their head (what can I say, I love to do sadistic things at times). I do wish though that vehicles could have been implemented, you can use fixed machine guns from time to time, but it would have been nice to use a tank, a half-track, shoot from a plane or something. To me that was a major disappointment.

Now the lack of blood doesn't bother me, in fact I think that is what gave the game a kind of charm, the thing that bothered me was the storming of the beaches. Now bear in mind, I know that the technology was a bit limited back then, but I was expecting something along the caliber of Saving Private Ryan with dead bodies strewn across the beach especially after the boat capsizes and you can see men get shot through the water, similar to the movie. Sadly though, you only get a few dead bodies, now true there is a lot of chaos with mortar rounds and machine gun nests bearing down on you which helps it along and distracts you from the lack of bodies.

Also along the lines, the game doesn't have that feel of realism that the modern war games have, instead this one has a pure sense of going commando. Now true some missions you have some help and run with a squad at times, but infiltrating a U-boat in a crate, taking out basically an entire division at a dock, sabotaging a armored train or even breaking into a top secret Nazi facility. This game is a bit more fiction, but still it has it's charm, it just doesn't have that sense of realism storyline-wise that the modern day games have.

The Bottom Line
In the end, Frontlines is still pretty damn impressive to this day, now true compared to the newer games (next-gen not withstanding), especially the Call of Duty games it really doesn't match up that well. Still, Frontlines came along at the perfect time and helped pave the way for the future Medal of Honor and Call of Duty titles on the consoles.

So if you have never experienced this game at least give it a shot, odds are you can find it cheap at any local video store especially now with the declining of the PS2 on the horizon, it'll be pretty cheap, but you will still get your money's worth.

PlayStation 2 · by Big John WV (26954) · 2009

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
XBOX credits piltdown_man (232926) Mar 23, 2016

Trivia

Enigma machine

During the second mission of chapter two, "Storm in the Port", you are on a German U-Boat and have to steal any information you can and sabotage the boat. However, the level contains a bonus objective that is not told to you by the game. You can find a German Enigma Machine, and by pressing the action button can take the machine's codes and complete the bonus objective, and earn a medal for the action.

The German Enigma coding machine was not fictitious. It was in fact real. The Enigma was an encryption and cipher machine that the Germans used most famously in WWII. The system of encryption for the Enigma was extremely complex, and only through operator error, procedural error, or captured codebooks (a.k.a cipher) could the Allies decipher the messages. As a result, the Enigma's codebooks and secrets were extremely well-guarded. The simple fact that you can walk up to the machine and steal the codebook is questionable in the game, though such a feat certainly would have been awarded.

There is also the matter of historical accuracy. During WWII, only 15 cipher books had been captured, and the Americans and Canadians had one each. The rest were performed by the British. As well, the Naval Enigma cipher was actually captured by a British boarding crew on the U-110, not a single American soldier.

Besides the historical background, the little objective is also a reference to the WWII movie U-571. The plot of the movie details an American naval crew attempting to capture the Naval Enigma cipher aboard the U-Boat U-571. This movie is also just as historically inaccurate as the game, which suggests, perhaps, that it was even the basis for which the objective was based on.

Another funny reference is that in the cheat menu, the typewriter you enter in cheats on is actually the Enigma itself.

German version

In Germany the game had to be pulled from the shelves and all the covers had to be reprinted, because there was a swastika on the back cover and Nazi symbols aren't allowed in (or on) games there. For the same reason all Nazi flags in the game were replaced. Additionally all level statistics (except time and overall evaluation) were removed, the cutscenes using historical film material were re-cut and all words like "Nazi", "Hitler" or "Führer" were avoided during localization. A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Nazis

All of the Nazis speak real German. If you go to the cheat menu, and turn on subtitles, you can see what they say if you sneak up on them unnoticed. Some of the conversations they have are quite humorous, and can be pretty long as well.

References

Several of the chapters in the game are actually modeled off of famous WWII movies and novels.

The first and most obvious one is the "D-Day" mission, modeling its missions, plot, and setting to the movie Saving Private Ryan. Besides the entire plot and completely recreated setting, several elements are borrowed from the movie, including the hopeless abandonment on the beach, the frantic bunker gunfire, shelling, and storming the seawall.

Chapter two, "Storm in the Port" also takes its setting from Saving Private Ryan. The first mission is a reenactment of the climax of the movie, where you must fight through the broken wreckage of a French town to help the Allies in their struggle against advancing Axis soldiers and tanks. The second part of the chapter, storming the German U-Boat pen, also models quite a bit of its scenery and costume design off of cliche German submarine movies.

It makes sense that the game would borrow heavily from Saving Private Ryan; Steven Spielberg directed the movie, and also had a major part in the production of the game.

Another one of these chapters in the game is titled "Several Bridges Too Far". This is an homage to the WWII 1970's book and movie A Bridge Too Far. The plot of the book and movie detailed Operation Market Garden, the failed Allied attempt to break through German lines at Arnhem in the occupied Netherlands.

In an reenactment, the chapter in the game puts you on the front lines of Operation Market Garden. The missions take you through the war-swept city of Arnhem, where you actually rendezvous with the men trapped behind enemy lines in Nazi occupied Netherlands. Throughout the chapter, you even meet most of the characters that are portrayed in the movie.

Information also contributed by Matt Neueboom

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

GameCube, Xbox added by Kartanym. PlayStation 3 added by MAT.

Additional contributors: MAT, Istari, Indra was here, Jeanne, Patrick Bregger.

Game added June 27, 2002. Last modified February 20, 2024.