It's 17th August 2019 in here,
74th anniversary of my beloved country. That mean i will review another game
with militaristic theme and 'lone wolf soldier' protagonist. So i play Medal of Honor - Infiltrator (2003) on
Gameboy Advance.
That's the typical Medal Of Honor title right there. Meanwhile
that guy either running away because he must immediately report on explosion on
castle over there or he's the culprit that he must run for his live. As you
know that (most) Medal of Honor games
take period on World War 2. If you're curious what's the condition of our
ancestor during that time. Well, they're conquered by Japanese after some
Hollander (previous imperialist) surrender to them and run with tail between
legs.
Here's the main menu. Unlike
Medal of Honor that i've played, it consists of distinctive menu list instead
of whole office room with map board acts as 'new game' or file holder acts as
'save/load' and so on. In here, we have: 1) Campaign, is the main missions of
the game 2) Multi-player, to play the game with your GBA-buddy (but i don't
know how it works in emulator) 3) Option, is for your usual setting 4) Extras,
contains extra game mode, credits, and Nintendo gamecube link (which i don't
know what on earth it does) 5) Quick Start, to play any mission that you
have played so far in Campaign for quick game without black & white movie
scene and background mission. My plan is simple: play some missions on new
game, some from quick start, and continue where i left off. I should mention
that i played this game before but i abandoned it because i'm ignorant sod.
On to 1st mission, there's some
movie about landing via amphibious ship. This is no Operation Overlord but the
mission is still important at least that's what the background briefing said.
After the movie, i got presented
with this objective list. Main objective: secure everything. Might as well as write
"Kill any enemy you encounter" there.
Naturally if you're about to
storm a beach, you'll be transported by amphibious ship and i'm happy with that
because i very like this vessel. We got machine gunned and bombarded from off
screen. But we can land safely.
R.I.P amphibious ship (and my 3
comrades). D:
Besides me, there's 2 other guy
who survives but they run so fast that we can't work together. So i'm on my
own.
I though all of Medal of Honor are First Person Shooter
but this one isn't. I'm not complaining. On contrary, i have soft spot for game
with top-down perspective like Mutant Penguin, Team Buddies, or Lost World. The control is simple yet
solid. Directional pad to move. 'A' button to shoot in your facing direction.
'B' button to change your weapon. 'L' button to reload. 'R' button to lock your
facing direction and if you combine with moving, allow you to sidestep/strafe.
In this bunker, you can change
your weapon set which only consist of 2 weapon: firearm and explosive.
Initially, i'm armed with Thompson SMG and hand grenades but for now i will
change it into M-1 Garand rifle and Dynamite because i like bolt-action rifle.
My shooting style is well aimed single shoots rather than spraying bullets as
many as possible. Kind of like semi-sniper, you see. Moreover, i forgot to hold
the shoot button to autofire while using the SMG so i can't kill enemies more
efficiently in result i took too many damage. My health from 99 to 4 because of
that.
Not far from the bunker, there's
Nazi soldier with MG42 machine gun. Although it's not shielded, i can't shoot
him because my bullets are blocked by the machinegun itself! So you have to
lure him into pointing his machinegun where he's exposed to your shoot or you
can shoot that red barrel as it's written in shooter game code that "red
barrel should explode when it's sufficiently shot". Unsurprisingly, i'm
dead immediately in this moment. But don't worry, i still have 1 more live
(represented by helmet on bottom left HUD)
There's branching part here. If
you go right, you go to progress the main mission. If you go left, there's
ammunition cache that you must destroy in order to fulfill sub-objective and
small canteen to restore your health. If you destroy the ammo supply, enemies
will spawn and you get a chance to welcome them with MG42.
Heavy_specialcompleted07.wav
Good thing, i carry dynamite.
It's easier to use for destroying gate or ammo boxes. Just simply activate it
and drop it near the things. Whereas grenade, you have to throw it near them.
Oh, look! A medical tent.
According to Geneva Convention, medic staffs there should heal me even though
i'm their enemy. Not really. There's just some klutz leaves med kit box there
for me to take. That's all.
"Ambush!" said my
soldier or maybe my comrade off screen and there's indeed Nazi soldiers spawn
to attack me. I recognize that "Ambush!" shout from Medal of Honor - Allied Assault. It came
out in 22th January 2002 so i suspect that EA use assets from previous game to make this one.
You can only enter buildings that
don't have door that block your way in, like this house. It serves no purpose
except to peek a machine gun nest and a soldier ahead.
Sniper_specialcompleted44.wav. My
shoot manage to sneak past into machinegunner's head. That's my snipping luck
skill there.
Inside of building that's guarded
by the late machinegunner, i find another sub-objective: desert map document.
But it looks like Nobita's zero-score test rather than important map.
Passing another gate, i'm in
another turret section. I forget to tell you how the control regarding
machinegun nest. Directional pad to rotate it. 'A' button to shoot it. 'L'
button to use/leave the machinegun. 'R' button to move it left and right within
small degree. Unlike in FPS, this machinegun doesn't need to cooldown. So feel
free to spray your bullets here.
I found another bunker. This time
i have a chance to get BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) but i only can have 3
grenades (which is half amount from Thompson SMG set).
Although i can shoot pass the
sandbag for some reason, i opt to use grenade for safer way to deal with
enemies here. You can hold 'A' button to increase your throwing power. There's
small indicator on how your throwing strength. The longer you hold the button,
the farther your arm pose to the back. It's nice graphic feature.
After another turret section, i
secure the lighthouse and signal a flare for USS Dallas (DD-199) on the back to
advance. Soldier_autocappedcontrolpoint03.wav
Next mission (through 'Quick
Start' game) is simple: protect said Destroyer. How hard can it be, huh?
Oh, i see! It's crosshair shooter
section like Operation Wolf or what
have you. Move the cursor with direction pad, shoot either machine gun with 'A'
button or cannon with 'B' button. You can slow the crosshair movement by
holding 'R' button. Simple and easy control scheme. Maybe because i played Cabal last year, i'm conditioned to
shoot those tank with machine gun and that don't work obviously. So i have to
use the cannon that have mysterious cooldown after firing it. Mysterious
because there's no indicator or whatsoever to show us how long it take to
reload. All i need to do is wait for the timer to run out with occasion of bump
the crosshair to rightside to advance the scenery.
Like the famous Taito's crosshair
shooter, there's occasion of medipack parachutes from above for you to shoot in
order to refill your health. It's cute.
On another mission, i have to
infiltrate a mansion where i will meet Diesler to get some intelligence. Spoiler:
he's traitor. You know the gist of infiltration, right? Do it stealthily. Or
you can just gun blaze all the way, it's totally fine [Bit Sarcasm]. If you get
caught on searchlight or enemy's sight or you make explosion noise, alarm will
be sounded and enemies will start to spawn to get you. Avoid the searchlight
isn't hard, it has pattern on each section of the map. You can also use your
weapon to club your enemies if you can get close to them unnoticed, preferably.
The melee method is quite responsive, thankfully. Actually, I want more lethal method of stealth takedown than just use your gun's stock to
smack the enemy unconscious like using knife or something. But that doesn't
discourage me to use sneaky way. I'm trained for this from playing Tenchu back in the days.
This one is unavoidable. I have
to (once again) destroy ammo supply as secondary objective. Why i'm so fixated
to accomplish the sub-mission? Because i'm kind of completionist. If you play
this in campaign mode, you can unlock extra feature by fulfilling secondary
objective. I think.
You can quickly see your
objectives by pressing 'select' button. Oh! I have to get another secret
document. Joy! [Medium Sarcasm]
That Nazi officer refuses to walk
away from explosive barrel. So i blow it. Demoman_specialcompleted11.wav
Once i enter the mansion, i get
caught by bullets and grenade immediately. There goes my live, again.
There's the document, just lying
on the floor. Does Nazi don't have budget to buy file cabinet or something? I
like the (late) officer that station in chair near piano. As if i'm
interrupting his hobby of playing Moonlight Sonata in his free time.
Here's Diesler himself and i have
to stare at his trouser's zipper for few seconds before the game pulls me back
to main menu. 3:
Later at
'Unexpected Party' level
It's another crosshair shooter level
but this time you have limited hand grenade instead of battery cannon and you
have to hold grenade button to increase throwing distance. Because this level
takes place in one screen, you can only hope some medkit hide behind barrels
around here. Therefore your healing item is also limited. There's some occasion
where enemy soldier try to man field gun on the center so mind that besides
others that try to take potshot at you from windows and also tanks.
After that level, i decide to
continue where i left off. I forgot that my man's name is Murphy. I'm about to
name him Lt. Powell from Medal of Honor
Allied Assault. As i told you before that Diesler is double-crosser and i
have to end his miserable life.
You know the moment when the game
is getting seriously hard if it doesn't give you any tips. :p
It's yet another crosshair
shooter and this time it takes place in submarine base. Here i shoot Diesler
right in his hat. Yep. That's the one in hanged scaffold and blinking white
because i hit him, you see. I don't think no matter how many bullets that he
take, he can't be defeated not even interrupted from shooting me. I might as
well as ignore him and more focus on his henchmen.
End Game, huh? Reminds me of the
last Avengers movie so Diesler are going down for sure.
This level is no kidding. It's quite bastard hard. Enemies
have more hitpoints and are able to fire more rapidly than my SMG. Plus their
gun has more range. There's 3 arena before facing Diesler himself and enemies
will come from 4 corridor in cardinal direction. This one is the easiest
because there's decent amount of obstacle for your cover.
Maybe second area is the worst
because, there's only this hole that doesn't offer you protection from enemy's
Panzerfäust meanwhile you have to close in to enemy because you only armed with
Thompson SMG. So many times, i wish i can switch weapon to BAR or M1 Garand.
Preferably the latter. At the start of every next arena you're given small
medical canteen to restore your health. You also have to heavily rely on chance
of enemy dropping either small canteen or small ammo. Not to mention, the loots
doesn't last forever so you have to pick them almost immediately. Therefore i'm
resort to savestate at this point.
Here's funny moment in the last
arena where me and my enemy play Cat & Mouse game behind giant yarn roll.
XD
The final battle is so intense. Diesler
in white coat and his 2 friends immediately siege me with either bullet barrage
or grenade. It was so intense that i fail/forget to capture the moment, you
have to trust me. In this screenshot, i have killed Diesler and one of friend.
Now that only one last enemy here i can stay in this corner, safe from his
bullets. Like in previous section, Diesler and his friend have super firearm
that can deliver bullets from far distance with remarkable speed. But you can
overcome them by throwing grenade before entering this area. Perfect grenade
throwing can save the day.
After that, there's black and
white documentary of victory parade in America. boys show us smile and peace
sign. Confetti everywhere. Star and Stripes flags are waving. Everyone is
happy.
Oh, i thought there's more level
in Campaign but no. It's over. So i abandoned this game at more or less 90% of
campaign progress. Shame on me! I conclude that the campaign consists of 5
mission with 3 or more levels. Therefore there's at least 15 levels in
campaign. Quite short in my opinion. By completing campaign mode, i unlock
extra game mode: Survival and Max GI. You can choose them at Extra menu on main
menu.
In Max-GI mode, you replay the
campaign but your uniform become black and your gun has maximum range even the
SMG. This is appropriate reward from beating enemies (including Diesler
himself) with super gun on last level. Heavy_specialweapon08.wav
In survival mode, -as you can
guess- you have to survive as long as you can. You start near weaponry bunker
to allow you to switch weapon to your liking before you walk to survival arena.
Here's my summary on the arsenals:
1)
Thompson SMG set, is good for those who like to scatter bullets
from close distance. The SMG has highest fire rate, fairly small damage per
bullet, magazine with 30 bullets capacity, and has the biggest bullet deviation
when reach long distance. You can compensate its inappropriateness to long
range by having the most grenades.
2)
BAR set, is the most stable weaponry in any kind of situation but
you can only have 3 grenades. The rifle has the second highest fire rate,
moderate damage per bullet, magazine with 20 bullets capacity, and has the
second smallest bullet deviation when reach long distance.
3)
M1 Garand set, is only for those who keen on precision shot. You
must make each bullet counts except maybe for the last one. You can waste it to
reload sooner. Did you know that M1 Garand rifle can't be reloaded if there's
still bullet within like in history fact? Once last bullet is shot, there' loud
'Ctiiing!' noise come out from it. The rifle is bolt action rifle meaning no
auto-fire at all. The rifle has clip that consists 8 bullets, biggest damage
per bullet, and has the smallest bullet deviation when reach long distance. It
also has the longest shooting range like you can shoot across entire screen
with it unlike BAR and Thompson that has limited range. You can use the
explosive to destroy secondary objective easier or trap any enemies who are
eager to come near you.
4)
Pistol and bazooka, is well...the worst set in my opinion. M19A1
Colt handgun has the smallest damage per bullet, magazine with 7 bullets
capacity, has the worst fire rate and slightly smaller bullet deviation when
reach long distance than BAR. It also has the shortest firing range. But in
return, you posses the best explosive weapon: the bazooka. You can kill any
soldier in one hit with it and it's the best weapon to take out machine gun
nest or tank. Think of this arsenal kind of resemble with Team Fortress 2's
Soldier.
Because i didn't mention about the
last set before, i will use it on this survival mode and you can guess how does
it works there.
But to hell with that. I will
just use machine gun nest here. In this arena, there's also limited amount of
big medical box kit. But you can also hope that deceased enemies will drop
medical canteen.
Everything goes well until
they're smart enough to throw grenades to me at once. Game Over.
Electronic Art's Medal of Honor - Infiltrator (2003) isn't
First Person Shooter game in the series. But the gameplay is engaging yet solid
enough. Any Top-down shooter game with strafing, get my seal of approval
immediately and this game certainly get it. I believe there's many Top-down
shooter game that have more variation than this. Searching every crook and nook
of the level only gets you to secondary objective or health/ammo refill. But
that's quite true to the core of nowadays AAA FPS game. There's 1 level where you
got to deal with tank and you can get in ones yourself but i don't show it to
you. Sorry. The graphic is quite standard of GBA and the music are quite good.
There's speech from other Medal of Honor (i
believe) that some of them will helps you to identify some condition such as
"Medic!" shouts if you're in critical health or "Men down!"
if you lose your live. The control is precise enough. The crosshair shooter
section is also quite good though you have to tank damage in most part of it
and that get tedious. You can shoot enemy's grenade but it's much more
difficult to do then in Cabal. Moreover, enemies don't flinch when get shot unlike in overhead shooter level so you can't interrupt their attack there.
It's obvious that Medal of Honor - Infiltrator (2003) get
recommendation from me. It's not FPS game but it's interesting enough with
arcade-y game pace. It's also one of Medal
of Honor game that i manage to finish besides 2 other in PSP. Meanwhile i
quit on Medal of Honor - Allied Assault because
it get frustrating due to enemy snipers. In this game, i only have to worry about
machine gun nest and bazooka soldier which are manageable enough.
