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| By Brad Cook The day is clear and bright, a stark contrast to the scared and nervous faces you see around you on the landing craft. An explosion rocks the boat next to yours, and every soldier turns to watch it become a smoking ruin that drifts listlessly in the water as the rest of the craft make their way to the beach. |
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 Medal of Honor brings WW II to your desktop with jaw-dropping realism. |
Your commanding officer barks orders you can barely hear above the gunfire that has become a roar in your ears. And then the landing craft hits the beach, the front door slams into the water, and the men in front of you drop in a hail of bullets. You make your way past them and to the relative safety of a tank barrier, but you still have a vast stretch of Omaha Beach to cover before you can hope to take out the German soldiers firing from their bunkers.
What difference can just one person make in a single battle and, in turn, the larger war?
That’s the question behind Aspyr Media’s new Mac OS X game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Set between the years 1942 and 1945, Medal of Honor puts you in the role of Lt. Mike Powell, who serves in the 1st Ranger Battalion. Your goal is to survive 20 levels based on the real military campaigns of World War II as you help the Allied forces win the war and prove that a single person can make a difference.
Some of the most realistic explosions you’ll
ever see in a game.
ever see in a game.
Part of a Larger Experience
Aspyr president Michael Rogers agrees, saying that “[Medal of Honor] does a great job of making you feel like you’re part of a larger experience.” He points to the aforementioned Omaha Beach level (which depicts the famous D Day invasion on June 6, 1944 that turned the tide of the war) as an example of that.
“The game depicts this battle in exactly the way I imagine [it was really like],” he says. “You’re in the heat of battle, not exactly sure what way to go. You listen to the people around you, some giving orders, others just plain scared. Medal of Honor gives you a sense of the chaos and uncertainty that an average person must have felt during the real event.”
You view the action through a first-person perspective, which means that you see everything around you with Powell’s eyes, an effect that enhances the immersive feeling of the game. In every mission you feel like you really are somewhere in the heart of Europe, deep behind enemy lines. Don’t be surprised if your mouse becomes slick from sweat and you find your heart racing a little faster than it normally does when you play games on your Mac. (A two-button mouse with a scroll wheel is a must-have piece of equipment
if you want to succeed in your missions. You’ll find several at the Apple
Store and the Mac Products Guide)
From deserts to lush greenlands, the detailed environments in the game set the stage meticulously.
You Are the Hero
Even though Medal of Honor is the kind of game that players have dubbed a first-person shooter (other examples include Return to Castle Wolfenstein and The Operative: No One Lives Forever), many of the missions require stealth and puzzle-solving in addition to taking out the bad guys. In one level, for example, you steal a German officer’s uniform and infiltrate a secret base to destroy a submarine. If you don’t show your official papers to every guard, or if you accidentally draw your weapon, your cover will be blown and the mission will fail.
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There are also missions where you have to act in concert with other soldiers (sometimes you’re tasked with keeping them alive, which isn’t always easy), and Rogers notes that “they react realistically to the challenges, dodging, running, and hiding the way you’d expect. And when they get hit, you can see them take damage the same way you do, limping or dropping to one knee.”
Ultimately, Rogers says, “you are the hero in each of the events,” and the success or failure of each mission depends on your skills as a gamer. Just try not to think about the fact that the fate of the free world rests on your shoulders.
As soon as your captain gives the signal, you must run across a minefield and make it to the next bunker. Are you ready?
When you’re done with the single-player campaign, there are several multiplayer options in Medal of Honor that will keep you busy for a long time. They include the traditional “frag or be fragged” games common to first-person shooters as well as team combat, complete with objectives, that’s similar to Return to Castle Wolfenstein’s online game mode. Medal of Honor uses the GameSpy technology, which means that you can go head-to-head against Mac and PC players.
Make the Switch to the Superior OS
Like all of Aspyr’s games, Medal of Honor was built for both Mac OS X and
Mac OS 9. Rogers points out that while the game is basically the same
regardless of the operating system, “the subtle technical differences [in
Mac OS X] really matter.” In Mac OS X, the player doesn’t have to worry
about individually updating parts of the OS (such as OpenGL) or setting the
best amount of memory. He adds, “It’s great to just ask people to run
Software Update to ensure they’ve got the most current OS components.”
You may just come across an enemy convoy.
On a welcome note, Rogers also says that gamers may see “a couple games
[from Aspyr] just for Mac OS X” sometime this year, but he has the specifics
wrapped up tighter than a top secret OSS communiqué. He also says that he’s looking forward to more and more gamers making the switch to the new OS because “the people buying and playing our games now on their Mac OS 9 systems can just run them on Mac OS X when they make the switch — no downloads or anything extra required.”
No matter which OS you’re currently using, make it your mission to pick up Medal of Honor as soon as you can. Look for your copy at the online Apple Store, a Apple retail store, or an Apple authorized reseller near you, and learn how one person can make a difference in the midst of history-changing events.
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The weaponry and vehicles of the WWII era are available to both the Allied and Axis players. Read about them on page two.   
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