It is crazy how well this old game’s formula and gameplay would work for a battle Royal. The first to innovate often fail commercially, but without them there is no growth.
I find it funny that Medal of Honor Airborne pulled off the “Open Combat Mission” concept from MWIII much more successfully by having actual friendly AI. Sure, the AI was mostly useless, but they still added a lot of immersion to the gameplay. Then combine it with the more open ended levels and it was a lot of fun (albeit short, but then again so was MWIII).
SAME EXACT STORY but i was 10 at the time but i still play this game I JUST FINISHED IT RIGHT NOW !! Every year i finish this at least twice .. and i am 19 .. 9 years passed and i can't stop playing it
You did a great job balancing the good and the bad of this game. It really had a lot on its shoulders when facing its competition but has so much good going for it that it really doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
Especially with how many people have dog piled onto the trashing of this game. I haven't played it and i doubt many of the people who "know it sucks," have a real* idea of the actual game. Very refreshing to be seeing the typical YT retrospective tone shifting from usually hostile/mocking to more reasoned takes
Truth. The series flash forwarding to the war on terror was too fast a jump, they should've tackled some of the wars and conflicts in between. Imagine leading scud hunts in 1991 or holding the Chosin Reservoir.
@@RMMilitaryHistoryIt is Treyarch which are usually better plus it had had the longest development time of any COD so far. I'm optimistic, i just hope it's not an American circle jerk and includes the other countries involved
to be honest i would love to see every moh game at least properly re-released, well apart from 2010 which is only ok, Warfighter which is dog poo, and gba port of underground - that said Infiltrator on GBA was awesome. I don't think Airborn even needs a "remaster" just a proper port, or maybe slight remaster with new options, maps and so on. But it looks great to this day thanks to awesome artstyle. Kinda like looking at diorama brought to life. I'm not sure how goldeneye styled psx MoH games would work on keyboard and mouse (enemies reaction was timed perfectly for control system), but i think they all deserve remasters. Think how awesome it would be to play slightly modernized European Assault, or once again play amazing Rising Sun campaing. And let's be honest, not a single game, not even wolfenstein, made nazis so hateable, so viscious, like the ones in Underground. The way they moved, the sounds of german shepards and heavy boots in frantic search of Manon, the music that felt like it was fine tuned for every mission, bringing pace to another level. I love older CoDs, especialy early consol ones right up to CoD3 (including - a favourite of mine), heck CoD Finnest Hour is even very MoH - like, but it's the Medal of Honor games that i value the most.
I was not able to buy a lot of games at the time, but playing their demos were a gift to have. I probably played the Medal of Honor; Airborne Xbox 360 demos countless times. Truly grateful for the Golden Era of gaming during the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. Developers took leaps of faith with wanting to create unique games, but now unfortunately we are dealing with an assembly lines of uninspired games with sole focus of promoting their digital stores.
This game was a significant part of my childhood. I got my first red ring of death on my first xbox 360 playing this puppy. When the gas mask MG42 soldiers showed up I kinda lost interest and would start a new game, replaying the first missions over and over again trying for each different landing zone and trying out every different tactic I could
I am one of the original MOH players here. Im 33 and played the original MOH and MOH Underground for ps1 and then got Frontline, Allied Assault, Rising Sun, Pacific Assault. Then I got our of gaming for many years and I've just recently installed Airborne on my pc and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm going to hook up my ps2 again and get Vanguard and all of the Call of Duty's I missed out on. Im also going to get COD WWII. Im so blown away how good Airborne is though. Im a WWII buff and the game just blows me away how good and how detailed the appearance is of WWII Europe and the depiction of the airborne troopers is incredible! And the M1917 Trench Gun is by far my favorite weapon in Airborne!! Game on!!!
If they had the time and funds back then it would have been so sick to see this engine in Pacific Assault, both these games were great in their own right.
Played through this recently for the first time on my Series X. There's something about grabbing the game's achievements 17 years after its release that I find weirdly fascinating. Time sure does fly by. The fact that I could buy this game all these years later is a beautiful thing. And also, this game is surprisingly one of the 360 games that supports the FPS boost feature. So it runs at 60fps on the Series S and X. I only say it's surprising because I didn't think it'd be one of the games they'd focus on giving higher frame rate support. But hey, I'm not complaining. Anyway, I found it to be a rather solid experience and very different from the other shooters of its time. For a first try by the developers, they nailed the free form level design pretty well. It's a shame they never got to try it again because there's room for improvement. Especially these days with the better hardware, the levels could be even more ambitious.
I'm glad I still own my copies. Bought it on impulse for PC while my dad got me a 360 copy for my birthday not knowing I already had it. The random ragdoll physics stood out while the lack of story drives home that you are a paratrooper completing objectives as part of grand operations. There will never be titles of this quality, especially in today's play to win and digital only games market.
This was a great review and a nostalgia trip. I remember when this game was new and loving it all the way through. And no one else I knew played it so I felt like I was alone in enjoying this master piece. I’m gonna replay it now on a Series X since it’s included on Gamepass ultimate via EA play. 🙌🏻
even though i play both cod4 and airborne,i will always have a soft spot in my heart for ww2 shooter,that parashoot mechanic is still top notch, i guess that's why i adore squad44 so much, great video
My dad bought it on PC back when new, but from that I remember our PC couldn’t handle it and my dad didn’t bother after, later on when I was about 14 in 2012, I added a GT 630 since that’s all I could afford with my allowance on the new family prebuilt that had a Athlon II X2 240 and 4gb DDR3 back in 2012, installed this game and played it for the 1st time and my dad played it through as well, LOVED IT , last time I replayed it was 2022 with a RTX 2080 lol and it was still lovely and amazing at 1440p, I still have the original CD copy my dad bought back in 07 but I did re purchase on steam a few years back
The state of the graphics and performance in combination with the accurate weapon audio and perfectly composed music is awesome. I think they did a pretty good job of simulating certain battles in ww2. All that and the fact that I am from Europe made me silent for a moment at 10:55. What a shame that they couldn't carry this out consistently together with a good story, the setup was clearly there. But thankfully we have other games that better carry out the emotional parts of these battles right? Together with some of the dev insights I think you perfectly captured all there is to say about this game. Keep up the good work!
I remember loving this and European Assault so much that Id record vhs tapes to watch the gameplay over again as a little kid. lol I also didnt realize how much innovation was made with Airborne.. Great vid bro!
Damn, you went old school with it! Yeah, back then EA wasn't afraid to experiment: MOH: Airborne, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space. It's sad to see what's become of them. Thanks for stopping by again :) By the way, I really love your channel banner. Did you make that yourself? I've been meaning to update mine as it is just a low res holiday pic. Any tips?
Imo, moh airborne came out a year too late. Cod 4 was too groundbreaking for moha to make any influence. But had this come out in 2006, it mightve had a chance. While not perfect, this is how mw3 2023s open combat missions shoulda been like.
Great video! I recently replayed this game after a very long time. I had forgotten how hard it could be at times, but I really enjoyed it and I'm glad to see there are more people who appreciate this game. About the soundtrack, while I agree many of the individual tracks are not as memorable as those of other MOH games, there are a few that really stand out to me. The main theme, Unblocking Utah (which plays during the tutorial jumps) Paestum Landing (which plays during the final battle of the second level where you must destroy AA guns in the ruins) and finally the game's end credits theme, which is as much an epitaph for the series as a whole as it is for the soldiers the game represents.
Thank you! Those are stand out track for sure. I couldn't really find a good place to discuss the ending credits in my script but I agree with you, that piece of music almost felt like a last hurray from Giacchino to the series. I do really enjoy the OST overall, but most tracks I wouldn't listen to outside of the game.
Loved this game when it came out. Was one of my favorites. My favorite MOH will always be MOHAA and it's expansions Spearhead and Breakthrough on PC. That was my very first taste of online competitive fps gaming. And I loved it dearly.
Fantastic video. I remember this was the game I actually wanted a Xbox 360 for (I grew up playing MOH Frontline and Rising Sun on Gamecube). I played it the first day I had my 360 and I had a hard time going to sleep that night because I was so excited to play it again the next day. It was a great MOH and great game, despite it's flaws looking back at it.
I’d argue that holding shift for strafing while aiming is an excellent mechanic. If you can’t move normally while aiming since it’s lean mechanics are pinned to the movement keys, your pinky is free to use to allow strafing while aiming
problem with Airborne was that it was created around a gimmick-the jump. The thing is- jumping out of the airplane into combat is just the first thing that paratrooper does- there's an entire campaign behind it. They now had to work around it because that is not how combat actually works, they ended up with this artificial notion that all missions have to start with the jump and suddenly they had to condense entire weeks of fighting into an hour after the jump. 3 years of combat (which realistically was more like 2 months of actual fighting for 82nd) condensed into 5 levels. Then they added those goddamn juggernauts. People that still wanted Medal of Honor wanted it to stay what it was after Pacific Assault, just better- a world war 2 shooter that makes you feel like you are there. Instead they got a condensed comic book version of the war. From the most realistic depiction of the pacific theatre to the most bonkers rendition of european in a span of 2 games. Just look at Brothers in Arms- THIS is what american paratroopers went through. This? This is just a game built around a single gimmick. I remember being a kid and waiting for this one like i never waited for anything before, like any kid brought up on Band of Brothers- Airborne were the coolest guys, we all wanted to see more of them. And 82nd was the perfect target- We got 101st in Normandy done to death, but not 82nd in Sicily or Holland. This was already fresh. we wanted this. Instead there was this immense dissapointment when i played it. I wanted to feel like a lil' soldier. instead i got nazi ubersoldiers.
I view it as the last of the 2000s era WW2 games, everything after this and World at War never came close to the same vibes of actually being in the war
Great video! Here's hoping that Medal of Honor gets rebooted again, but set in Vietnam. While I personally loved the 2010 one and Warfighter, I think having a game set in Vietnam would have been better because if you plan out the weapons in the game correctly, you can have a good mix of WW2 and Modern day weapons.
9:89 I remember in an Old video game magazine saying that MoH Airborne was going to have a much more in depth customization system for weapons more akin to what we'd expect from say CoD MW2009 with a bunch of different options for different parts of the gun. The Example they used was the Thompson SMG which you could choose between Drum and Jungle Style mags (two 30 rounders strapped together), having a stock or not, a forward grip or a trench knife mounted as a makeshift bayonet and the cutts compensator for the muzzle. This was supposed to apply for all the weapons but was apparently dumbed down for the release. I distinctly remember being the most disappointed about this feature not being used.
just reached your channel by the Pre rendered games vídeo and this one about medal of honor is great aswell, really loved your content, keep up the good work!
I really liked this game and even bough it twice. First for the 360 and later for PC, I even play it once in a while. MoH Pacific Assault is another gem in this series, as for me there aren't enough titles featuring the pacific theater.
OK FINE!!! Ill buy it if i see it (great vid as always , props for using interviews /videos with devs). Here is hoping we hear that theme in the future
My biggest complaints about this game was the inability to remove some of the unlockable attachments for each weapon. Once one was unlocked, it would be added to that weapon and couldn't be removed.
Never heard about Airborne, sadly innovative features are rare in modern FPS titles. I remember how EA was pushing Medal of Honor 2010 pre orders by guaranteeing access to BF3 beta
CoD1 had a really cool campaign IMO, bought it for the PS3 a couple years ago and i think i replayed it a couple times, it was a lot of fun. But Medal of Honor imo has it's own special place.
This is honestly the most unique WW2 game I’ve ever played or seen. Replayed it 3 times during adolescence and found it engaging, immersive and innovative even compared to the modern titles. It’s a mystery to me why the game was received kinda negatively
I love this game! I have it on Xbox 360 and the Controls are Great. The only part that bugs me is the heavy trooper with the mini gun, its Not accurate... I prefer the ww2 games and Medal of Honor were The Best!
@@posham219 I've never understood this choice. It doesn't fit in a Medal of Honor game, you'd expect to see something like this in Wolfenstein. It's even more wierd if you hear the developers talk about the game, they were so proud of the realism in their game. Makes you wonder how something like this made it in.
This game alot of firsts for me on the 360, and I've always loved it for that. If Airborne 2 was announced tomorrow I would be overjoyed. And then I was quickly snort a line of pessimism as I remember that EA hold the reins.
Found this vid by accident. Really good video. I enjoyed it very much Btw i have to disagree about bayonet on shotgun (or mp40). I used it most of the time bcuz its fun to charge attack enemies. Well except the Storm Elite. But hey! Everyone have their own style to play this game and i respect yours. Thanks for this video. Really make me want to play this game again..
Thank you! And yeah, it can definitely be fun but it didn't make too much sense as a shotgun's usecase is already close range. The game was 5 bucks I think on the EA store and works on modern machines!
It's honestly a shame the game ended up under performing and led to the series being shelved, it was among my favorites in the series but it seemed inevitable as the times were changing and Medal of Honor was lagging behind the competition
My only real complaint with this game was how the enemy could just kind of magically zero in on where the player was regardless of the circumstances. I remember sniping from a tower and have the Germans start firing on my concealed position before I had even engaged. Beyond that criticism, I still really enjoyed this game. Spent a lot of hours in it. Edit: having watched this, I now wish I could replay the game and really listen for the sound design and such. I didn't appreciate that stuff as much when I was a kid.
@@GameTalesHQ agreed very odd also another thing I hate is the m1903 Springfield upgrade where you seem to shove a clip to fill it up in one go but there is a scope on the gun still so it looks very weird. Was waiting for more recent videos on this game
@@WhatsUp-fe8jc Yeah I noticed that! If you have a historical advisor on the team you shouldn't make these mistakes imo. Maybe they went for gameplay over historical accuracy, but it just doesn't fit the game if you ask me. I hope you enjoyed my take on this otherwise awesome game :)
To be frank I can get past the 'storm unit' hip-firing MG42 boss, Medal of Honor has always had this element of mixing history with what-could-be's, from giant railguns to fort schmerzen etc, considering the 82nd didn't jump into Varsity nor was there ever a jump into a flak tower, I think it's okay that they took some more unaccurate liberties with those missions, while still making them feel authentic.
It is a shame that your AI teammates never got any real depth because the voice performances in the plane were a big standout to me personally. They really bring the ‘we’re in a flying coffin and we need to get the hell out of this thing’ tone for the beginning of each mission save market garden. I think they did mean to give the troops more character but it got cut for time cause the two paratroopers that have consistent speaking roles and names are found dead at the charge you set off at the end of the flakturn mission.
For sure! That's one of the moments of brilliance I was talking about, very unfortunate they didn't expand on that. That two year development cycle was just a tad bit too short I fear.
That part actually made me sad as I never realized it until I played the game as an adult. I ran for my life through, followed the trail, and when I got to the end point I thought the devs just forgot about them until I played it again. I knew there were dead german soldiers and my dead allies, but I didn't realize the implication, nor notice that one of the soldiers was trying to crawl for the plunger. But when I did notice that, I realized that those two soldiers were fighting against overwhelming odds waiting for me, and when one was dying, he was trying to detonate the explosives with his last breath. Which was dark because in my mind my immediate thought was "Oh, if I didn't make it out and he was able to crawl to that thing, he probably would have blown me up." Even if I didn't know their names or their ranks or anything, it was a pretty humanizing moment for me.
My only complaint from playing this when it originally dropped and playing it in the last 12 months is the weapon upgrades cant be removed once earned which I never liked as sometimes you just want the standard gear for more immersion in my way of gaming
There’s definitely lot of flaws in this game- the ads movement, spongy enemies, and not the greatest of maps but I still love it and damn unreal 3 still looks good
"Who does the army trust the most airborne, who do the ladies love the most airborne, who do the nazi's fear the most AIRBORNE !!!" I played it both for 360 and PS3 and it was a neat approach to the different enemy types, the nazi storm elites those mf's were crazy, shooting a MG42 from the hip and taking all your shots like a boss lol.
The MOH Airborne is more arcade in game style with the level boss-like character such the nazi storm elite and a less character-focused storyline which I found interesting in the Pacific Assault if not only for its graphics. I think Pacific Assault will be great if they have similar graphics, AI response and melee action to the CODWaW Pacific campaign.
The only thing (except some problems with gameplay and lack of story that youve mentioned in the video) ive had with a game was those nazis with mg 42s. It totally killed all the immersion in the game for me.
If the parachute animations were better and the story/setting more realistic I would have played it more. But it’s very immersion breaking with the liberties taken.
The trailers werent lying when they said you could land anywhere. Sometimes I like to equip a Springfield and land on a church tower to provide sniper support to the squadmates below. On Sicily I wanted to take out the rooftop Flakvierlings as quickly as possible so I made a risky landing on the roof of the mayors office.
Lovely to find this pop up in my feed! I thought you nailed it on the points that it was unique and enjoyable, but felt “soulless”. It really did lack a lot in the narrative department. Plus, its absolute marriage to airborne drop mechanics made it feel like they missed potential with any kind of linearity thrown in between missions! Like, the Battle of Normandy France didn’t JUST take place on June 6th! There was plenty more to do on the ground after the jump that I think they could’ve worked with. Consequently, each mission felt disjointed, and the game was too short. Like 5 hours, if I remember correctly. A MOH game with the graphical fidelity and innovative mechanics of Airborne alongside the length and progressive narrative of Allied Assault would have a lot of potential. Great job; enjoyable video!
Game starts by respecting the WW2 setting unlike BFV and especially CoD Vanguard, but then Airborne just gives up and tosses the knock off Jin Roh The Wolf Brigade MG42 soldiers at you. Man I miss the 2000s and early 2010s years of gaming. Be cool if we got a new single player focused FPS inspired by Airborne.
Played it when it came out. Idk if it rented or bought it at the time but it wasn’t a bad experience I had fun with it. Definitely a different take on it like you said.
I generally liked the game but I remember that the MG super troopers and weapon upgrades were really bad. Some upgrades were not historical and many weapons came with scope at some point which usually killed the weapon since engage distance was usually small and you cannot downgrade it or cancel the upgrade. But as I googled a bit now it looks like it scope can be detached with a key specified in settings or disable weapon upgrades tweaking the ini file.
I remember those days very well and I can say without hesitation that the Call of Duty game was the only thing that separated this game from being a success. Airborne would have sold twice as many copies had it not been for the Modern Warfare game. Airborne was a fantastic game and it never got the credit that it deserved simply because of the time that it was released. It's like trying to remember the best film from 1977, because no one can remember anything but Star Wars lol.
It was a good game but incredibly short. Completed it in less than two hours. They also released the game without dedicated servers so multiplayer was dead on arrival.
It's a shame they went for a hub-like structure. The first level is the best because of the open world structure and the part of being something bigger than yourself. From rooftops you can see small firefights around the city while you consider the best approach. Is it better to try sniping the enemy from range or maybe attempt to capture one of their MG42? This gameplay breaks down pretty quickly once you understand you're in a pipe. It's not the narrowest pipe ever but it's still a pipe and the enticing open world has usualle been split into three of them. This really hurts on repeat playthroughs when you're forced to take pretty much the same approaches every time. And you'll have to play the levels several times if you want to level up your weapons. They're a ton of fun fortunately so it's a little different with all of them. Still, a little more faith in the open world aspect would've been nice. The last level is fortunately a savior in this regard with the most interesting approaches and possible tactics.
The problem with Airborne was its innovation potential mixed with an excessive distancing from MoH's traditional elements. The gameplay is fine, but there is no motivation given for how or why things should be done. It is the prime "grunt" experience, but even MoH:Vanguard did this better, introducing a tight-knit group of friends/fighters you always have by your side without losing focus on the greater struggle going on as the war progresses. Airborne was technically interesting, but it was hollowed out, leaving MoH fans alienated and new players uninterested.
MoH:A definitely has a nice replayability value. The premise of trying to keep away from linear gameplay was a good try as well, though I wish the maps would have been a bit bigger and packed with more AI and background combat. My biggest gripe is the implementation of "boss" enemies that were weird and out of place... It's like the devs took one step forward, but another step back in various places. Also, the game was rather short, because the missions are focused on the combat air drops that the 82nd AD conducted during WWII, rather than other individual battles in-between. I wish there were more missions that follow each parajump, and only then start a new chapter, like how it was done in Brothers in Arms (although the first two games focused on Normandy and the last one on Operation Market Garden). Other than that, since I'm a WWII history fan, there were some inaccuracies or inconsistencies in the game but it wasn't too bad. Regardless, I am disappointed with Respawn Entertainment trying to revive the franchise by releasing Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Despite the fact that the game is VR-only (I'm not against the idea as a whole), the execution of it was terrible, as it lacked in many places and didn't have the same soul as the older games, even if comparing to the modern war MoH titles. Thank you for this video. Really liked it. Straightforward without wasting time
I agree with you on all points! I didn't mention it in the video, but the game is really short indeed with it's six missions. I haven't played Above and Beyond, but i'll take your word for it. The reviews were pretty mixed as well. And thank you for the compliment :)
Too late to beat Call of Duty, too early to prevent Fortnite. This is the curse of Medal of Honor: Airborne.
Great video, as always.
Hahah, thanks 👊🏼
A great game released at the wrong time. 2007 was when ww2 games were starting to lose popularity.
P.S. Dont ever compare Fortnite to MOH.
It is crazy how well this old game’s formula and gameplay would work for a battle Royal. The first to innovate often fail commercially, but without them there is no growth.
I think multiplayer was battleroyal-ish kinda. You spawn by parachuting and maybe thats what influenced some battleroyale games
I find it funny that Medal of Honor Airborne pulled off the “Open Combat Mission” concept from MWIII much more successfully by having actual friendly AI. Sure, the AI was mostly useless, but they still added a lot of immersion to the gameplay. Then combine it with the more open ended levels and it was a lot of fun (albeit short, but then again so was MWIII).
This was my first game on my first console. Being a WWII nerd at age 12, I fell in love with it right away
SAME EXACT STORY but i was 10 at the time but i still play this game I JUST FINISHED IT RIGHT NOW !! Every year i finish this at least twice .. and i am 19 .. 9 years passed and i can't stop playing it
You did a great job balancing the good and the bad of this game. It really had a lot on its shoulders when facing its competition but has so much good going for it that it really doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
Thank you! I agree, I'll always commend developers that dare to try something different. Can't let these games be forgotten by time.
Especially with how many people have dog piled onto the trashing of this game. I haven't played it and i doubt many of the people who "know it sucks," have a real* idea of the actual game. Very refreshing to be seeing the typical YT retrospective tone shifting from usually hostile/mocking to more reasoned takes
I’d love a proper come back of Medal of Honour. Set in wars that seldom get the FPS treatment, Korea/Op Desert Storm would make good settings
Truth. The series flash forwarding to the war on terror was too fast a jump, they should've tackled some of the wars and conflicts in between. Imagine leading scud hunts in 1991 or holding the Chosin Reservoir.
The next COD is supposed to be dessert storm, hopefully they don't screw it up
@@mrcaboosevg6089 yeah I heard that, I’m not expecting much from it
@@RMMilitaryHistoryIt is Treyarch which are usually better plus it had had the longest development time of any COD so far. I'm optimistic, i just hope it's not an American circle jerk and includes the other countries involved
@@mrcaboosevg6089 other coalition countries would allow way more variety of weaponry
If any game deserves a remaster it's this game. I loved this game back in the day and still play sometimes today.
Agreed..
Also
MOH Underground
Pacific assault too
@@Coronet_shop
I almost forgot about it ..
@@khalid6722 age is kicking our ass
to be honest i would love to see every moh game at least properly re-released, well apart from 2010 which is only ok, Warfighter which is dog poo, and gba port of underground - that said Infiltrator on GBA was awesome.
I don't think Airborn even needs a "remaster" just a proper port, or maybe slight remaster with new options, maps and so on. But it looks great to this day thanks to awesome artstyle. Kinda like looking at diorama brought to life.
I'm not sure how goldeneye styled psx MoH games would work on keyboard and mouse (enemies reaction was timed perfectly for control system), but i think they all deserve remasters. Think how awesome it would be to play slightly modernized European Assault, or once again play amazing Rising Sun campaing.
And let's be honest, not a single game, not even wolfenstein, made nazis so hateable, so viscious, like the ones in Underground. The way they moved, the sounds of german shepards and heavy boots in frantic search of Manon, the music that felt like it was fine tuned for every mission, bringing pace to another level.
I love older CoDs, especialy early consol ones right up to CoD3 (including - a favourite of mine), heck CoD Finnest Hour is even very MoH - like, but it's the Medal of Honor games that i value the most.
I was not able to buy a lot of games at the time, but playing their demos were a gift to have. I probably played the Medal of Honor; Airborne Xbox 360 demos countless times. Truly grateful for the Golden Era of gaming during the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. Developers took leaps of faith with wanting to create unique games, but now unfortunately we are dealing with an assembly lines of uninspired games with sole focus of promoting their digital stores.
This game was a significant part of my childhood. I got my first red ring of death on my first xbox 360 playing this puppy.
When the gas mask MG42 soldiers showed up I kinda lost interest and would start a new game, replaying the first missions over and over again trying for each different landing zone and trying out every different tactic I could
I am one of the original MOH players here. Im 33 and played the original MOH and MOH Underground for ps1 and then got Frontline, Allied Assault, Rising Sun, Pacific Assault. Then I got our of gaming for many years and I've just recently installed Airborne on my pc and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm going to hook up my ps2 again and get Vanguard and all of the Call of Duty's I missed out on. Im also going to get COD WWII. Im so blown away how good Airborne is though. Im a WWII buff and the game just blows me away how good and how detailed the appearance is of WWII Europe and the depiction of the airborne troopers is incredible! And the M1917 Trench Gun is by far my favorite weapon in Airborne!! Game on!!!
If they had the time and funds back then it would have been so sick to see this engine in Pacific Assault, both these games were great in their own right.
God the jump
Sequences of this game was so fucking amazing every time
Played through this recently for the first time on my Series X. There's something about grabbing the game's achievements 17 years after its release that I find weirdly fascinating. Time sure does fly by. The fact that I could buy this game all these years later is a beautiful thing. And also, this game is surprisingly one of the 360 games that supports the FPS boost feature. So it runs at 60fps on the Series S and X. I only say it's surprising because I didn't think it'd be one of the games they'd focus on giving higher frame rate support. But hey, I'm not complaining.
Anyway, I found it to be a rather solid experience and very different from the other shooters of its time. For a first try by the developers, they nailed the free form level design pretty well. It's a shame they never got to try it again because there's room for improvement. Especially these days with the better hardware, the levels could be even more ambitious.
I hear those soundtracks and tear up... childhood...
airborne was the last and really nice send off to the ww2 series. I really enjoyed dropping in and fighting my way through. Wish it was longer.
My main take-away from this, is I really wish I had whoever's job it is to fire weapons and drive vehicles for video game sound technicians.
I'm glad I still own my copies. Bought it on impulse for PC while my dad got me a 360 copy for my birthday not knowing I already had it. The random ragdoll physics stood out while the lack of story drives home that you are a paratrooper completing objectives as part of grand operations. There will never be titles of this quality, especially in today's play to win and digital only games market.
I'll forever miss 2000's EA...
This was a great review and a nostalgia trip. I remember when this game was new and loving it all the way through. And no one else I knew played it so I felt like I was alone in enjoying this master piece. I’m gonna replay it now on a Series X since it’s included on Gamepass ultimate via EA play. 🙌🏻
Thank you! Enjoy your playtrough :)
even though i play both cod4 and airborne,i will always have a soft spot in my heart for ww2 shooter,that parashoot mechanic is still top notch, i guess that's why i adore squad44 so much, great video
My dad bought it on PC back when new, but from that I remember our PC couldn’t handle it and my dad didn’t bother after, later on when I was about 14 in 2012, I added a GT 630 since that’s all I could afford with my allowance on the new family prebuilt that had a Athlon II X2 240 and 4gb DDR3 back in 2012, installed this game and played it for the 1st time and my dad played it through as well, LOVED IT , last time I replayed it was 2022 with a RTX 2080 lol and it was still lovely and amazing at 1440p, I still have the original CD copy my dad bought back in 07 but I did re purchase on steam a few years back
It's a damn good looking game and still a lot of fun, thx for sharing your story :)
new retrospective channel discovered fuck yeah
Welcome! Glad to have you! 😄
The state of the graphics and performance in combination with the accurate weapon audio and perfectly composed music is awesome. I think they did a pretty good job of simulating certain battles in ww2. All that and the fact that I am from Europe made me silent for a moment at 10:55.
What a shame that they couldn't carry this out consistently together with a good story, the setup was clearly there. But thankfully we have other games that better carry out the emotional parts of these battles right?
Together with some of the dev insights I think you perfectly captured all there is to say about this game. Keep up the good work!
I remember loving this and European Assault so much that Id record vhs tapes to watch the gameplay over again as a little kid. lol I also didnt realize how much innovation was made with Airborne.. Great vid bro!
Damn, you went old school with it!
Yeah, back then EA wasn't afraid to experiment: MOH: Airborne, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space.
It's sad to see what's become of them.
Thanks for stopping by again :)
By the way, I really love your channel banner. Did you make that yourself? I've been meaning to update mine as it is just a low res holiday pic. Any tips?
Imo, moh airborne came out a year too late. Cod 4 was too groundbreaking for moha to make any influence. But had this come out in 2006, it mightve had a chance. While not perfect, this is how mw3 2023s open combat missions shoulda been like.
Great video!
I recently replayed this game after a very long time. I had forgotten how hard it could be at times, but I really enjoyed it and I'm glad to see there are more people who appreciate this game. About the soundtrack, while I agree many of the individual tracks are not as memorable as those of other MOH games, there are a few that really stand out to me.
The main theme, Unblocking Utah (which plays during the tutorial jumps) Paestum Landing (which plays during the final battle of the second level where you must destroy AA guns in the ruins) and finally the game's end credits theme, which is as much an epitaph for the series as a whole as it is for the soldiers the game represents.
Thank you! Those are stand out track for sure. I couldn't really find a good place to discuss the ending credits in my script but I agree with you, that piece of music almost felt like a last hurray from Giacchino to the series. I do really enjoy the OST overall, but most tracks I wouldn't listen to outside of the game.
On console, at least for Xbox when using a sniper scope you had to gently squeeze the trigger to steady the scope. One of my favourite mechanics!
That's cool! Then you probably had more control over the lean mechanics as well right?
Brothers in Arms retrospective when?
I have probably 1000 hours in this game from the years 2008 - 2013 on xbox 360. I thought this game was the best thing ever, and still do.
Loved this game when it came out. Was one of my favorites. My favorite MOH will always be MOHAA and it's expansions Spearhead and Breakthrough on PC. That was my very first taste of online competitive fps gaming. And I loved it dearly.
My childhood, Allied Assault V2 Rocket Snipers only and Day of defeat 3.1
Fantastic video. I remember this was the game I actually wanted a Xbox 360 for (I grew up playing MOH Frontline and Rising Sun on Gamecube). I played it the first day I had my 360 and I had a hard time going to sleep that night because I was so excited to play it again the next day. It was a great MOH and great game, despite it's flaws looking back at it.
I’d argue that holding shift for strafing while aiming is an excellent mechanic. If you can’t move normally while aiming since it’s lean mechanics are pinned to the movement keys, your pinky is free to use to allow strafing while aiming
In theory it sounds pretty good! In practise it felt horrible for me personally!
problem with Airborne was that it was created around a gimmick-the jump. The thing is- jumping out of the airplane into combat is just the first thing that paratrooper does- there's an entire campaign behind it. They now had to work around it because that is not how combat actually works, they ended up with this artificial notion that all missions have to start with the jump and suddenly they had to condense entire weeks of fighting into an hour after the jump. 3 years of combat (which realistically was more like 2 months of actual fighting for 82nd) condensed into 5 levels.
Then they added those goddamn juggernauts. People that still wanted Medal of Honor wanted it to stay what it was after Pacific Assault, just better- a world war 2 shooter that makes you feel like you are there. Instead they got a condensed comic book version of the war. From the most realistic depiction of the pacific theatre to the most bonkers rendition of european in a span of 2 games. Just look at Brothers in Arms- THIS is what american paratroopers went through. This? This is just a game built around a single gimmick.
I remember being a kid and waiting for this one like i never waited for anything before, like any kid brought up on Band of Brothers- Airborne were the coolest guys, we all wanted to see more of them. And 82nd was the perfect target- We got 101st in Normandy done to death, but not 82nd in Sicily or Holland. This was already fresh. we wanted this. Instead there was this immense dissapointment when i played it. I wanted to feel like a lil' soldier. instead i got nazi ubersoldiers.
Yeah, a lot of unrealized potential sadly. I might cover Brothers in Arms on the channel someday, I absolutely adore those games!
I view it as the last of the 2000s era WW2 games, everything after this and World at War never came close to the same vibes of actually being in the war
For me that title belongs to Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (2008)
i’ve been singing this game’s praise ever since i played it on my ps3. not enough people talk about it!!!
Medal of Honor: Vanguard walked so that Medal of Honor: Airborne could run
Great video!
Here's hoping that Medal of Honor gets rebooted again, but set in Vietnam.
While I personally loved the 2010 one and Warfighter, I think having a game set in Vietnam would have been better because if you plan out the weapons in the game correctly, you can have a good mix of WW2 and Modern day weapons.
9:89 I remember in an Old video game magazine saying that MoH Airborne was going to have a much more in depth customization system for weapons more akin to what we'd expect from say CoD MW2009 with a bunch of different options for different parts of the gun. The Example they used was the Thompson SMG which you could choose between Drum and Jungle Style mags (two 30 rounders strapped together), having a stock or not, a forward grip or a trench knife mounted as a makeshift bayonet and the cutts compensator for the muzzle. This was supposed to apply for all the weapons but was apparently dumbed down for the release. I distinctly remember being the most disappointed about this feature not being used.
The song and lines from the tutorial mission play on repeat in my head whenever I'm about to make a static line jump
If Airborne came out one year earlier, it would’ve remained a relevant series.
The multiplayer was heaps of fun being able to drop back in after dying.
just reached your channel by the Pre rendered games vídeo and this one about medal of honor is great aswell, really loved your content, keep up the good work!
Thank you! I'm glad you like my other content as well :)
MOH Frontline was one of my favorite games of all time. It straight up defined an entire genre.
I really liked this game and even bough it twice. First for the 360 and later for PC, I even play it once in a while. MoH Pacific Assault is another gem in this series, as for me there aren't enough titles featuring the pacific theater.
OK FINE!!! Ill buy it if i see it (great vid as always , props for using interviews /videos with devs). Here is hoping we hear that theme in the future
Thanks for stopping by again! 👊🏼
@@GameTalesHQ thanks more making good content
@@GameTalesHQ anytime
My biggest complaints about this game was the inability to remove some of the unlockable attachments for each weapon. Once one was unlocked, it would be added to that weapon and couldn't be removed.
Yep, for some reason you could only remove the scope of the STG44 🥲
i cant believe i forgot about this game. god tier experience
Grew up with Airbourne. Really fun title, loved what they did with the uniforms and enemy variety when I got older.
Never heard about Airborne, sadly innovative features are rare in modern FPS titles. I remember how EA was pushing Medal of Honor 2010 pre orders by guaranteeing access to BF3 beta
A lot of people missed this game back in 07! Hahah wow, that's one way to get people to buy your game.
@@GameTalesHQ Thx for a video
@@EtsuKanno Thanks for watching! I remembered your comment on my cod1 video and thought you'd enjoy this one :)
I loved this game when I was younger, recently reinstalled it
I had just completed my first playthrough a few days ago and it was awesome definitely under appreciated
For sure!
Great Video! thanks for putting so much effort in, thoroughly enjoyed and subscribed
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Love this game on gamepass sadly the last levels are just annoying with the mechinegun germans
STG44 and Gammon grenades
The Spearhead expansion pack for Allied Assault had a combat jump on D-Day but you’re with the 101st not 82nd.
CoD1 had a really cool campaign IMO, bought it for the PS3 a couple years ago and i think i replayed it a couple times, it was a lot of fun. But Medal of Honor imo has it's own special place.
I absolutely adore this game, this, AA, and EA were some of my fave WW2 era games as a kid
This is honestly the most unique WW2 game I’ve ever played or seen. Replayed it 3 times during adolescence and found it engaging, immersive and innovative even compared to the modern titles. It’s a mystery to me why the game was received kinda negatively
I think it was mainly because of the lack lf story and the game's length. But I agree, it should've gotten more attention
I love this game! I have it on Xbox 360 and the Controls are Great. The only part that bugs me is the heavy trooper with the mini gun, its Not accurate... I prefer the ww2 games and Medal of Honor were The Best!
Ah good to hear the controls are better on the Xbox! And I'm the same, I'd love to see a new Medal of Honor game set in World War 2!
The trooper with the gas masks is firing an mg42 from the hip, I hated the enemy and to me it made the game cartoonly
@@posham219 I've never understood this choice. It doesn't fit in a Medal of Honor game, you'd expect to see something like this in Wolfenstein. It's even more wierd if you hear the developers talk about the game, they were so proud of the realism in their game. Makes you wonder how something like this made it in.
This game alot of firsts for me on the 360, and I've always loved it for that. If Airborne 2 was announced tomorrow I would be overjoyed. And then I was quickly snort a line of pessimism as I remember that EA hold the reins.
This and World At War, the last WW2 shooters in their series'. I've played them both so many times, it was a fantastic game
Found this vid by accident. Really good video. I enjoyed it very much Btw i have to disagree about bayonet on shotgun (or mp40). I used it most of the time bcuz its fun to charge attack enemies. Well except the Storm Elite. But hey! Everyone have their own style to play this game and i respect yours. Thanks for this video. Really make me want to play this game again..
Thank you! And yeah, it can definitely be fun but it didn't make too much sense as a shotgun's usecase is already close range. The game was 5 bucks I think on the EA store and works on modern machines!
Love the Band of Brothers Part slides
It's honestly a shame the game ended up under performing and led to the series being shelved, it was among my favorites in the series but it seemed inevitable as the times were changing and Medal of Honor was lagging behind the competition
I had to do a persuasive speech in my first semester of college in fall 2008, and I argued that this was the better game compared to CoD4.
Loved this game, I quite facing the super soldier, was like wolfenstein and an actual challenge.
Man imagine if someone used this concept on a modern game. Id but the hell out of it
squad44 have parashoot mechanic,but its PvP
My only real complaint with this game was how the enemy could just kind of magically zero in on where the player was regardless of the circumstances. I remember sniping from a tower and have the Germans start firing on my concealed position before I had even engaged.
Beyond that criticism, I still really enjoyed this game. Spent a lot of hours in it.
Edit: having watched this, I now wish I could replay the game and really listen for the sound design and such. I didn't appreciate that stuff as much when I was a kid.
It's very cheap on EA play if you're on PC!
Brothers in arms needs to return with this open map format
I'll be happy if we get a Brothers in Arms game period. It's been 16 years since Hell's Highway :(
They had a feature to remove an attachment on one gun but not the rest very annoying
Correct, you can only remove the scope on the STG44 for some reason. It's a very odd choice!
@@GameTalesHQ agreed very odd also another thing I hate is the m1903 Springfield upgrade where you seem to shove a clip to fill it up in one go but there is a scope on the gun still so it looks very weird. Was waiting for more recent videos on this game
@@WhatsUp-fe8jc Yeah I noticed that! If you have a historical advisor on the team you shouldn't make these mistakes imo. Maybe they went for gameplay over historical accuracy, but it just doesn't fit the game if you ask me. I hope you enjoyed my take on this otherwise awesome game :)
@@GameTalesHQ agreed! Great video also enjoyed the video about gun would Love a call of Juarez video bound in bloods seams great
@@WhatsUp-fe8jc Thanks! I've played the first two in that series around the time they came out. I might cover them on the channel in the future!
To be frank I can get past the 'storm unit' hip-firing MG42 boss, Medal of Honor has always had this element of mixing history with what-could-be's, from giant railguns to fort schmerzen etc, considering the 82nd didn't jump into Varsity nor was there ever a jump into a flak tower, I think it's okay that they took some more unaccurate liberties with those missions, while still making them feel authentic.
Fair! It didn't work for me though.
It is a shame that your AI teammates never got any real depth because the voice performances in the plane were a big standout to me personally. They really bring the ‘we’re in a flying coffin and we need to get the hell out of this thing’ tone for the beginning of each mission save market garden. I think they did mean to give the troops more character but it got cut for time cause the two paratroopers that have consistent speaking roles and names are found dead at the charge you set off at the end of the flakturn mission.
For sure! That's one of the moments of brilliance I was talking about, very unfortunate they didn't expand on that. That two year development cycle was just a tad bit too short I fear.
That part actually made me sad as I never realized it until I played the game as an adult.
I ran for my life through, followed the trail, and when I got to the end point I thought the devs just forgot about them until I played it again. I knew there were dead german soldiers and my dead allies, but I didn't realize the implication, nor notice that one of the soldiers was trying to crawl for the plunger. But when I did notice that, I realized that those two soldiers were fighting against overwhelming odds waiting for me, and when one was dying, he was trying to detonate the explosives with his last breath.
Which was dark because in my mind my immediate thought was "Oh, if I didn't make it out and he was able to crawl to that thing, he probably would have blown me up." Even if I didn't know their names or their ranks or anything, it was a pretty humanizing moment for me.
Still have the PC version and I play after some years. Very enjoyable game along with Brothers in Arms : Hells Highway
The Brothers in Arms series is one of my favorites as well. Definitely a game series I'll cover on the channel in the future!
My only complaint from playing this when it originally dropped and playing it in the last 12 months is the weapon upgrades cant be removed once earned which I never liked as sometimes you just want the standard gear for more immersion in my way of gaming
the last good one, really. also the controls were just as weird feeling on a controller
There’s definitely lot of flaws in this game- the ads movement, spongy enemies, and not the greatest of maps but I still love it and damn unreal 3 still looks good
"Who does the army trust the most airborne, who do the ladies love the most airborne, who do the nazi's fear the most AIRBORNE !!!" I played it both for 360 and PS3 and it was a neat approach to the different enemy types, the nazi storm elites those mf's were crazy, shooting a MG42 from the hip and taking all your shots like a boss lol.
Hated those mfers
@james9311 Right !! I'd use half my Gama Grenades plus 2 or 3 mags from the B.A.R right to the face, then watch the rag doll effect LOL
The MOH Airborne is more arcade in game style with the level boss-like character such the nazi storm elite and a less character-focused storyline which I found interesting in the Pacific Assault if not only for its graphics. I think Pacific Assault will be great if they have similar graphics, AI response and melee action to the CODWaW Pacific campaign.
One of the best games I ever played.
I played this game here and there for 10 years and now you're telling me that I can throwback grenades!!??
It's never too late to learn! 😎
What a great channel & what a great video. Thank you
Thanks for checking out my other stuff :)
I really loved this game. I'm glad someone else appreciated it like i did.
The only thing (except some problems with gameplay and lack of story that youve mentioned in the video) ive had with a game was those nazis with mg 42s. It totally killed all the immersion in the game for me.
If the parachute animations were better and the story/setting more realistic I would have played it more. But it’s very immersion breaking with the liberties taken.
The trailers werent lying when they said you could land anywhere. Sometimes I like to equip a Springfield and land on a church tower to provide sniper support to the squadmates below. On Sicily I wanted to take out the rooftop Flakvierlings as quickly as possible so I made a risky landing on the roof of the mayors office.
Lovely to find this pop up in my feed! I thought you nailed it on the points that it was unique and enjoyable, but felt “soulless”. It really did lack a lot in the narrative department. Plus, its absolute marriage to airborne drop mechanics made it feel like they missed potential with any kind of linearity thrown in between missions! Like, the Battle of Normandy France didn’t JUST take place on June 6th! There was plenty more to do on the ground after the jump that I think they could’ve worked with. Consequently, each mission felt disjointed, and the game was too short. Like 5 hours, if I remember correctly. A MOH game with the graphical fidelity and innovative mechanics of Airborne alongside the length and progressive narrative of Allied Assault would have a lot of potential.
Great job; enjoyable video!
I agree with you on all points! And yeah, the game's about 5 to 6 hours long. Thanks for watching 👊🏼
Game starts by respecting the WW2 setting unlike BFV and especially CoD Vanguard, but then Airborne just gives up and tosses the knock off Jin Roh The Wolf Brigade MG42 soldiers at you. Man I miss the 2000s and early 2010s years of gaming.
Be cool if we got a new single player focused FPS inspired by Airborne.
Played it when it came out. Idk if it rented or bought it at the time but it wasn’t a bad experience I had fun with it. Definitely a different take on it like you said.
I recently instaled it on my pc, already completed it 3 times, got the three medals, but still need to get the stars...
You can actually detach the scope on the STG44. I think the command was L3 on the PS3 version.
Correct, it's the only gun thay has that option sadly!
@@GameTalesHQ If only it were available for the Gewehr 43. I prefer the Gewehr without the scope in the game.
@@Theakker3B Exactly my thoughts!
I generally liked the game but I remember that the MG super troopers and weapon upgrades were really bad. Some upgrades were not historical and many weapons came with scope at some point which usually killed the weapon since engage distance was usually small and you cannot downgrade it or cancel the upgrade. But as I googled a bit now it looks like it scope can be detached with a key specified in settings or disable weapon upgrades tweaking the ini file.
I remember those days very well and I can say without hesitation that the Call of Duty game was the only thing that separated this game from being a success. Airborne would have sold twice as many copies had it not been for the Modern Warfare game. Airborne was a fantastic game and it never got the credit that it deserved simply because of the time that it was released. It's like trying to remember the best film from 1977, because no one can remember anything but Star Wars lol.
I honestly loved this game, played the shit out of the multiplayer
It was a good game but incredibly short. Completed it in less than two hours. They also released the game without dedicated servers so multiplayer was dead on arrival.
Yeah, an extra year of development would've done wonders for this game!
Great video and analysis! Thank you!
My first MOH.
It's a shame they went for a hub-like structure. The first level is the best because of the open world structure and the part of being something bigger than yourself. From rooftops you can see small firefights around the city while you consider the best approach. Is it better to try sniping the enemy from range or maybe attempt to capture one of their MG42? This gameplay breaks down pretty quickly once you understand you're in a pipe. It's not the narrowest pipe ever but it's still a pipe and the enticing open world has usualle been split into three of them. This really hurts on repeat playthroughs when you're forced to take pretty much the same approaches every time. And you'll have to play the levels several times if you want to level up your weapons. They're a ton of fun fortunately so it's a little different with all of them. Still, a little more faith in the open world aspect would've been nice. The last level is fortunately a savior in this regard with the most interesting approaches and possible tactics.
I agree, the first level's design is the best. I also really liked Market Garden personally!
The problem with Airborne was its innovation potential mixed with an excessive distancing from MoH's traditional elements.
The gameplay is fine, but there is no motivation given for how or why things should be done. It is the prime "grunt" experience, but even MoH:Vanguard did this better, introducing a tight-knit group of friends/fighters you always have by your side without losing focus on the greater struggle going on as the war progresses.
Airborne was technically interesting, but it was hollowed out, leaving MoH fans alienated and new players uninterested.
Great summary! I still enjoy the game though 😌👌🏼
The game accurately depicts Italian Infantry as Level 1 enemies.
😂👍🏼
MoH:A definitely has a nice replayability value. The premise of trying to keep away from linear gameplay was a good try as well, though I wish the maps would have been a bit bigger and packed with more AI and background combat. My biggest gripe is the implementation of "boss" enemies that were weird and out of place... It's like the devs took one step forward, but another step back in various places. Also, the game was rather short, because the missions are focused on the combat air drops that the 82nd AD conducted during WWII, rather than other individual battles in-between. I wish there were more missions that follow each parajump, and only then start a new chapter, like how it was done in Brothers in Arms (although the first two games focused on Normandy and the last one on Operation Market Garden). Other than that, since I'm a WWII history fan, there were some inaccuracies or inconsistencies in the game but it wasn't too bad.
Regardless, I am disappointed with Respawn Entertainment trying to revive the franchise by releasing Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Despite the fact that the game is VR-only (I'm not against the idea as a whole), the execution of it was terrible, as it lacked in many places and didn't have the same soul as the older games, even if comparing to the modern war MoH titles.
Thank you for this video. Really liked it. Straightforward without wasting time
I agree with you on all points! I didn't mention it in the video, but the game is really short indeed with it's six missions. I haven't played Above and Beyond, but i'll take your word for it. The reviews were pretty mixed as well. And thank you for the compliment :)
my opinion is that having a weak story is what crippled this potentially good game
A good story would've made this game so much better, for sure!
@@GameTalesHQ thx, lovely video 🙏