Medal of Honor: Underground

The Good
Just like the first game, makes decent (though not brilliant) use of graphics, sounds, Michael Giacchino's composition and physics. The introduction of tanks and halftracks makes for interesting variety and challenge. The variety in levels ranging from Paris to Morocco to Crete makes not only variety but also tells us something about the conflicts and Nazi activities at the time.

There are some good rewards for finishing your missions, once again the historical footage and explanations of the war and technology as well as very interesting behind-the-scenes material. And then the game has its very own parody-styled castle mission, which brings James Patterson back into action, but is also difficult to complete, with enemies having strange attack capabilities that the ones in the main gameplay don't have.

The Bad
There are so many historical inaccuracies in the game, including the late date of the Battle of Monte Cassino in June 1944. More inaccuracies are found in the weaponry being found in missions months before their production dates in real life. It seems like the game makers were glorifying the weapons rather than going for realism and using names, objects and places that took their fancy, suggesting that inadequate research went in the game's development. Other decisions made by the developers are really inconsistent, such as James Patterson being made Manon's partner a month after he joined the OSS and completed his first three missions, which messes up the plot.

Now the kinks in the gameplay. The multiplayer has the same faults as before. When it comes to weaponry, you often play the missions with three different weapons instead of four, talk about being under equipped. So many objectives now feel more like fetch quests than actual covert operations and the objective to hide the printing press is the most unimaginative one ever (why couldn't the Resistance do it themselves?). Once you get to the third level of the sixth mission, you have three dreaded rail-shooting segments that downgrade your targeting capabilities and accuracy. And to top it all off, you're hardly earning a medal after completing a mission, just souvenirs like a piece of V1 bomb, which defies the game's title.

The Bottom Line
It is evident that this game is a rushed and dished out prequel to Medal of Honor, which fails to provide the satisfaction from completing the objectives and accomplishing the missions. The fact that historical accuracy has dwindled gives the game a more tankbuster (not blockbuster) trend from a movie.

To this end, play this game just for kicks, but don't expect anything special. I can only recommend it to PlayStation and Medal of Honor collectors and not WW2 Enthusiasts. It's more fun to watch a satisfying WW2 movie like "The Guns of Navarone".