The first indication that this is not your normal shooter is the game's interesting plot. You are a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), an elite special forces unit formed in World War II. They are the ones who go behind the Nazi enemy lines to help the cause in defeating the imminent threat. Players take control of Lieutenant Jimmy Patterson, who showed incredible camaraderie and bravery during an Allied raid the night before D-Day. When enlisted into the hospital to recover from his injuries, he mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Medal of Honor picks up on the events that occurred to Patterson after leaving the hospital.

This interesting story set up allows for a conglomeration of unique missions to be developed. At first they consist of merely making your way through confined passages with Nazi soldiers in them to a destination on the other side of the level. Once a couple missions blast on by, though, the heat is turned on up a notch. Now you're required to do things like terminating an aircraft capable of horrific destruction, searching for a useable crowbar, prying open a latch to a heavily guarded base and discovering the entrance to the main section. And that's all just in one mission! There are even better ones, that require having to turn two valves hidden in near opposite sides of a level, with each one of them releasing a certain chemical. When the two chemicals combine it creates a deadly gas that begins to wipe out the entire base. Thankfully, you have a trusty gas mask that prevents you from receiving the full extent of the damage. Medal of Honor's missions are almost never repetitive and usually always bring something original that makes you want to play just one more mission before turning off the game.

DreamWorks has built a very solid engine for Medal of Honor that allows them to pull off some spectacular graphics and visual treats on the aging PlayStation hardware. The environments are some of the most atmospheric I have ever experienced in a first person shooter - PlayStation or PC. Medal of Honor features many subtle details, for example; As you move through the levels, you'll find that they are littered with actual German words and phrases. If you spoke German, chances are you could read it. If you happen upon enemies, and decide to battle up close, the odds will soon be stacked against you as. At that point, more men can be alerted of your presence and will gang up on you all at once.

Medal of Honor's hit system is a feature that is nearly unheard of in a PlayStation game. Shooing at various points on the enemy's body will make them bend and fall over in pain in different ways. Take a pot shot at their helmet and instead of killing him it'll just knock the helmet right off and put him in an extremely bad mood. Put a shotgun blast right to the chest and he'll go reeling back. Interestingly, the developers decided not to turn this into a gore fest, as can be seen by there being no blood spilled after someone is shot. Not terribly realistic, but the action in Medal of Honor is so intense that this is purely minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Adding to the atmosphere is the incredible soundtrack and sound effect that have been created. You can be crouching along waiting to take out an unsuspecting guard when suddenly, in the distance, you'll hear more guards yelling and a large volley of shots. This would alert you to the fact that you don't have much time until your hiding place is discovered. The musical accompaniment is incredible and is one of the greatest game soundtracks, especially a first person shooter, available on the PlayStation.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of downfalls to the Medal of Honor experience. Firstly, in a couple of the missions, I found my character getting stuck behind some boxes. Most of the time it was behind explosive boxes, so simply shooting the boxes would remedy the problem. The problem was that it would end up killing me in the process, resulting in having to start the mission from the beginning. Secondly, the multiplayer is a bit weak. After playing the extraordinary single player campaign, I was looking forward to also a great multiplayer game. It can be fun, but you might want to look at Activision's Quake II if you're looking for a more deathmatch oriented title.

Others I have talked to have had trouble with Medal of Honor's controls, but I personally, had absolutely no issues with adapting to what was there. Preferably, this is a game that you should pick up the Dual Shock controller for, since the who analogs allow for easy maneuvering, aiming and shooting simultaneously. The rumbling feature adds greatly to the atmosphere, and is used correctly, not in excessiveness just to show off the feature.