I have to admit that I am not much of a fan of FPS games. I played all the big names like Halo, Half-Life, Killzone and such but I never took more than a passing interest in the genre.  When I had the original Playstation I stumbled upon a game called Medal of Honor which, to this day, is still one of the very few FPS games I actually completed.

I have never played any of the Call of Duty titles, which is probably the MoH series biggest rival, but the reason I liked Medal of Honor and I mean the very first title, was because of the WWII authenticity.  The game was far from perfect but the atmosphere was great.  I then left the series only to pick it up again when Allied Assault was released.  After that I dropped it again, because I felt EA had begun milking the franchise too much.

So now I am playing Medal of Honor: Heroes on the PSP which is the first handheld MoH title.  I have to say that the presentation is superb, and really captures the WWII authenticity of the original.  In fact the whole game pays homage to the original PSX release, which some consider to still be the best in the entire series.

In Heroes you take part in famous campaigns throughout World War II (such as Operation Market Garden) in a bid to thwart the Nazis.  Graphically the game is very smooth, and whilst not showcasing the best of what the PSP can do performs well for what it offers.  The portable version packs all the punch of the older titles except that the missions have been scaled down for portable play.

By this I mean that in older titles some of the missions could take up to an hour to complete.  This includes completing the additional objectives.  In Heroes, the levels have been shortened, and even if you manage to get all the extra objectives, the longest a mission will last is about twenty minutes.  Fans of the series may be put off by this, but at least the chances of the PSP battery dying mid-mission are lessened.

At first the control scheme, which uses all the PSP buttons, left me floundering like a fish out of water.  The analog stick moves and the face buttons turn left and right and perform actions.  The trigger buttons fire weapons and zoom in and the d-pad changes weapons and allows you to crouch.  The Select button makes you jump or run faster.

Swallowing all this can be hard at first, but it soon becomes second nature and you start taking down Nazis easily and quickly.  Suddenly, Heroes becomes very addictive.  Each mission sees you taking part in a famous WWII offensive, and whilst you never feel attached to your commanding officer who issues orders or the AI controlled team-mates you fight with (Leave the deep WWII bonding to Gearbox), there is still a great war torn feel to the levels and environments on offer.

The game even uses old footage of real WWII offensives to help progress the story.  The problem is that the game can be a little too easy at times and the AI for enemies and allies is not that great either.  The game can be rushed through, or you can take time and complete the additional objectives for each mission and this is the approach I prefer.  Using the radar you can easily see where the primary objective is,  a large yellow arrow, as well as additional objectives which are illustrated by smaller blue arrows.

The game has you visiting the same locations several times in different states of war, which is a nice touch but the entire single player campaign can be completed very quickly when rushed through.  Luckily the multiplayer options are ace and allow for more than 30 players to play online at once and the PSP handles it all perfectly so that really shows what EA can do.

As you progress through the single player mode you unlock new costumes according to how well you do and these can be used online.  This is a nice touch and makes you keep playing the single player campaign until you finish it at least once.  On harder difficulty levels the game puts up a little more of a challenge but nothing that veteran FPS players cannot handle.

If you were disillusioned by earlier releases then this will be a pleasant surprise and it is probably the best FPS title on the PSP right now.  It definitely has enough to keep me playing it through to the end which means that die-hard fans of the series or even the FPS genre will definitely enjoy it.  Non-FPS players may also be surprised to see that the series is now heading in the right direction as portable war never played so good.

8 Ninja Heads out of 10

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