Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

It may be called Rising Sun, but I'd say the sun's starting to set on the Medal of Honor series. The game does have its moments: Escaping from the bowels of a Pearl Harbor carrier, infiltrating a secret meeting of the enemy command, riding shotgun on a gunboat or in the back of a truck--most of Rising Sun's gameplay is solid-but-predictable first-person shooting, but each mission has a special event or two that stands out. As for replay, alterations to levels for the two-player co-op mode is reason enough to pick the game back up after the seven or so hours it will take you to finish the first time through. The problems--and they are big problems--are with the A.I. and graphics. The vast burned-out cities and dense jungle levels are ambitious in design, but in execution they look drab and simplistic. Convincing outdoor environments are always tough to pull off, but the big green walls, angular trees, and blurry textures in Rising Sun don't come close. As for enemy behavior, it's so embarrassingly bad at times, it's hard not to laugh. Japanese soldiers don't react to gunshots whizzing by, can often be found inexplicably staring at walls, and slowly spin in a circle when they miss with bayonet attacks, searching for a new target like a broken robot. It's not enough to completely ruin the game, but this kind of lazy execution makes me wonder how much life this franchise has left in it.

Aside from a few moments of forgivable melodrama, Rising Sun handles its Pacific theater setting surprisingly well. From Pearl Harbor to the Philippines to a dense Burmese jungle, the player's progress through the game follows the Allies' path to victory, which is quite cool. Otherwise, Rising Sun is a mediocre affair. Flat backdrops, jagged vegetation, and contrived obstacles destroy any sense of historical immersion. Characters don't even face you when they're talking to you--they turn to a predetermined direction and recite their lines whether you're nearby or not. And the enemy is entirely predictable, so even the firefights quickly become rote. This tour of duty is fit for serious war buffs only.

Rising Sun's depiction of Pearl Harbor and America's part in the war to follow is on par with a Hollywood feature. Unfortunately, it's also as much a victim of bad acting as most summer blockbusters. When a soldier, either friend or foe, isn't saying something stupid, he's often doing something stupid. No matter how stunning the set, it takes only a few missed cues to taint a shot, and here it seems like the A.I. forgot to read the script. Rising Sun's bang-to-buck ratio is high, but the epic presentation sometimes overshadows the gameplay. Some 35 percent of the action clamps you to rails and turrets in scripted sequences where every enemy seems determined to run or fly directly into your line of fire. Even so, I couldn't put this game down, if only to witness the next astonishing level.