Medal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead Expansion Pack

Rating:
Summary: Definitely not MEDAL OF HONOR quality!
Review: SPEARHEAD has virtually none of the game play quality which abounded in the original MEDAL OF HONOR. The movement of the characters is very choppy, even after you cut down on detail in the "Options" menu. This is the case even on the fastest computers (just look at the other reviews).

The historical quality of this game is the only thing it has going for it. I have never seen the movie THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE, but after playing this game, I would now like to. Also, I did not know that the paratroopers that landed in France before D-Day were coming in under heavy fire. I always figured they just went in quietly and for the most part, unnoticed. (Now, I feel stupid for having thought that.) So, the game does tend to open one's eyes to the horrors of war and what those men went through.

Actually, the primary problem I have with this game is that it's too difficult. Now, before anyone dismisses me for a wimp, let me just say that I love difficult and challenging games. But there are levels of difficulty in most games (this particular one included). Usually, it's "Easy," "Medium," and "Hard" - or something along those lines. My point is, if they wanted a super-hard game to show the player how tough war is, then they very easily could have provided those difficulties on the harder levels. For me, this game has no re-playability on even the easy level, much less the more difficult ones.

The difficulty of this game is not to be compared to other popular first-person-shooters like the Jedi series, GHOST RECON, the HALF-LIFE series, or even MEDAL OF HONOR: ALLIED ASSAULT. Those games and many others like them present certain difficulties, but after the player moves past the difficult part, there's time to catch one's breath a bit. In SPEARHEAD, it's constant action with no time or opportunity to stop and enjoy the game. I realize this is war. But it's also a game. In fact, it's a game first. And these two must be carefully balanced in order for the game to be a quality product.

This game is not a quality product.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: This game has more problems than I care to discuss. I have been a moderate game player for years, and never have I had more lock-ups, crashes and poor game play than I have had with this game. And, EA's site is a joke.

Buy a program from another company that actually works, and you don't have to screw around with just to start the program!

Rating:
Summary: Could Have Been Better, but Still Pretty Good
Review: Spearhead foreshadowed the horror that is Breakthough, through a shortfall in the single player campaign. The campaign had numberous flaws; too short, ridiculous missions and various little things that I won't go into.

The campaign starts with you parachuting into France during Operation Overlord. You land in a barn, and fight your way to your British comrades where for some reason your M1 Garand, MP40 and Colt .45 are replaced with an Enfield, Sten and Webley revolver. I'm not sure why, I guess it's so you can use different weapons for a change. I hear a lot of people complaining about having to use the Enfield instead of the Garand, but you can just use the Sten if you don't like the Bolt-Action rifle. Either way, the campaign starts off well as you and your new friends wander the countryside blowing up artillery pieces and finally a bridge ending in a predictable cutscene where the bridge blows up as the train is about to cross and it ends up falling into the water. Either way, the campaign is not bad up to this point. No complaints.

Next, you're in the Ardennes fighting your way past German lines to steal a supply truck. This part is ok, you navigate the map, blowing up Nebelwerfers (rocket launcher artillery that you should remember if you paid attenion in Allied Assault) after you use them to blow up German tanks and half tracks. Everything's ok so far. Once you reach a German supply depot, you fight your way to a supply truck where the campaign goes crashing into a river like the train in France. Next thing you know, you're in a half track with an anti-tank cannon. Your job will now be to protect the supply truck from swarms of Germans with perfect aim at great distances. Once you beat this part, you'll know why Hitler lost the Battle of the Bulge seeing how many tanks and half tracks you'll have to destroy just to pass. If by some miracle you do, rest assured it doesn't get better. The next section is just a waste of time, plain and simple. You have to run from foxhole to foxhole, waiting for the artillery barrage to stop. After what seems like 8 hours and 50 foxholes later, you reach the medic where you have to repeat the whole thing again. They should have just left this out as it's not challenging at all and it adds nothing to the game. Still, the worst is not yet over. Next you'll have to hold the line which is sort of fun as you're basically slaughtering a horde of German soldiers, but you'll fail in the most pointless of ways, if one German (it doesn't matter if he's the last one) makes it into your trench. Apparently that's all it takes, even if you kill him a second after. Then you have to run to another line and repeat the process and then go back and do it once more. From then on, the campaign picks up. You advance and clear out a town and your part in the Ardennes is over. Nothing more worth mentioning, really.

Berlin will satsify those are obsessed with sniping as it's pretty much laid out for that. Long ranges, rubble, unsuspecting Germans, you get a nice Russian semi-automatic sniper rifle. I prefer the Mosin Nagant (even more so because I actually own one in real life.) You'll get to blow up some tanks with sticky bombs and 88mm artillery cannons. You steal the plans then the game takes a course for the bizarre. You'll find yourself controlling a Russian T-34 all by yourself. At least in Allied Assault, you had a team, but this is ridiculous. That means you drive the tank and operate the gun (that is loading, firing and aiming) all by yourself with your head outside the turret (!!!). That's one well trained soldier. Then you fight your way back to where you started with the Russian guys I neglected to mention earlier where there's a (suprise) large dramatic tank battle. When you win, it's all over. Painfull short, not that great.

The multiplayer is where Spearhead really shines. It really makes up for Allied Assault's mediocre multiplayer by adding new modes of play (Tug of War which is a more flexible kind of Objective match, really) maps, skins, weapons, etc... Being able whack people with nearly every single weapon instead of just pistols is nice. The Russian PPSH is very nice for short ranges (near bottomless clip) and gives Allies the chance to use bolt-action rifles if they want. Replacing the shotgun for the Germans is the much whined about rifle grenade which is really fun to use. Even though players claim it is the same a the rocket launcher, it's not. You're more of a rifleman (it's just a Mauser Kar 98k that can fire a grenade at an arc at longer distances than you can throw a hand grenade.) You don't get regular grenades so you just exchange how you can use your grenades.

All in all, if the multiplayer wasn't such a huge improvement, I'd give it 3 stars. If singleplayer was better, I'd give it 5 stars. Either way, it's well worth your money as long as you like to play multiplayer.

Rating:
Summary: Fun but short
Review: An excellent expansion pack with many more weapons to be used. For example Anti-Aircraft gun, mortars, machine guns, and smoke grenades.

The multiplayer aspect is much better than MOHAA. You can choose from many more soldiers especially the British and Russian soldiers as well as their authentic weaponry.

Just plain Awesome!!!