Another World War II sim is added to the crowded genre of first person shooters, but this time EA has changed the European shores for the Asian jungle. Let's see if the change of locales has influenced the quality of the acclaimed Medal of Honor series.

Graphics:

From a visual standpoint, this game is somewhat of a mixed bag. The level design is often quite beautiful, such as the bridge in the jungle, the temple and the misty Singapore harbour, but lack of detail and a sloppy framerate spoil the experience.

Textures may look good from a distance; they turn into a blurry mess when taking a closer look. Other graphical flaws are machine guns floating in the air and enemy soldiers walking though objects. The occasional pop-up can be overlooked, but the framerate drops are annoying and appear unnecessary, since both graphics and artificial intelligence (A.I.) don't seem to exhaust the GameCube's hardware.

Though the cinematic quality of the film sequences is all right, the image itself is blurry and a bit unstable. It's not a major complaint, but I thought I'd put out a warning to those who think the cinematics are as good as in the beautifully rendered TV-commercial.

Sound:

The musical score is excellent. It's much like what you'd expect to hear in a World War II film and therefore creates an exciting atmosphere. Changes in gameplay are accompanied by rising music and make the experience more intense.

The rattling sound of fifty year old machine guns is convincing, and other sound effects are adequate as well. Passing planes, bombardments, distant gunfire, it all sounds realistic.

Gameplay:

Rising Sun is a standard first person shooter, in contrast to shooters with a tactical, stealth or puzzle element. Though each mission consists of different objectives, you don't do much besides shooting. There is a part that invites using stealth techniques, but spoiling your cover is without consequences. Objectives like blowing up stuff is usually done for you by a computer controlled characters, so you'll only have to provide cover. Most of the time there's just one way to complete a goal and even then the way you have to solve the mission is often prompted. The game does feature some on rails shooter sections, which means you occasionally find yourself travelling on a vehicle, while shooting everything that comes into range.

Despite being pretty linear, Rising Sun is far from boring. Action sequences pass in rapid succession, providing some truly engaging moments. It feels a bit like playing the action scenes from several films, partly because the influence of movie classics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Thin Red Line is clearly visible. You'll get the most enjoyment out of this game if you just follow the path that the makers have laid out for you and enjoy the ride. This is fun, but this game tries too hard to be film, which it is not. It therefore denies gaming as a unique medium, under using its potential. In my opinion, allowing the player to find his own way to the top of a hill to secure the base up there would be more challenging and would also offer more replay value, as you could try it again another way.

The paragraph above is a personal annoyance, so if you're okay with the nature of the game, don't pay any attention to it. What probably will irritate most players is the load of shortcomings that together can make Rising Sun quite frustrating. Like the way enemies spawn: they come from a shed that you've just cleared or appear with dozens out of the blue as soon as you man a mounted machine gun. Or the fact that you can't pick up enemy weapons, but almost every guy you shoot leaves a bottle with some healing potion. Not to mention the videogame clichés: when are soldiers going to learn not to seek cover behind a pile of fuel drums?

The A.I. not very good as well, especially your team-mates are stupid. Sometimes they don't even shoot an enemy that's standing next to them and they have the nasty habit of walking in your line of fire.

Playability:

When I first tried to shoot a soldier, I hit about everything in the vicinity except for my target. The controls of Rising Sun take some time to get used to, to say the least. I'm not asking for mouse/keyboard precision, but other titles prove it's possible to implement better controls than these. After tweaking the sensitivity and using the L-button for a more steady aim it becomes bearable, but it's still annoying in more difficult stages. The – probably realistic – recoil of the antique weapons doesn't make the already troublesome aim any easier.

Besides shooting you have grenades at your disposal, which fortunately can be thrown at any time by pressing Z. There's also a Halo-style melee attack which is useful, but looks fake as it doesn't look like you're actually hitting your opponent.

Lifespan:

The game is rather short and of average difficulty. The nine missions can be completed within eight hours, though replay is rewarded with bonuses. Part of this involved getting high accuracy ratings, which can be quite frustrating as you have to overcome the controls instead of the game.

Lasting appeal can be increased by the multiplayer modes. The entire game can be played in cooperative mode, which has been slightly altered to better suit two players. There is also a reasonably good four player mode. It resembles the GoldenEye setup and has quite some arenas and supports bots. It's not as good as TimeSplitters 2, but as you've probably had that for over a year now, Rising Sun may prove a welcome change. Though slight framerate problems in single player are usually followed by disastrous juddering in multiplayer modes, this is not the case in Medal of Honor. The framerate holds up pretty well in both coop and deathmatch modes.

Final Say:

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun has some great parts like the train level, but also some frustrating moments. Trying to aim properly while the framerate is unsteady and the only guns at your disposal are machine guns with terrible recoil is the most important cause of these. It's not a terrible game, but it could have been much better if EA had taken the time to iron out the flaws. But that doesn't help you now. So try before you buy.