Video games allow storytellers to directly involve their audiences into the heart of the action and drama. Players can experience first hand how a heroic act can turn the tide of battle, or a noble sacrifice can live long in the memory.
If you're a storyteller like Steven Spielberg, you might be so good at telling stories in film that you walk away armfuls of Oscars and Golden Globes for Saving Private Ryan, and the need to dive into the world of video gaming wouldn't be necessary.
But that's not what he did. Fresh off the success of Saving Private Ryan came the interactive Second World War experience, Medal of Honor, as well as a few sequels, the highlight of which (in the Spielberg-era, at least) being Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
Lt. Mike Powell takes centre stage here, taking on several missions for the OSS in an attempt to thwart the German army and help secure an Allied victory. Are we up to the challenge?
Fun Times
The cinematic intro teases the Normandy beach landings and inspires us to believe that one man can make all the difference in this war. Not necessarily a superhero, but that any one man with the courage and valour to do so can bring an end to this bloodshed.
II last played Allied Assault when I first played it, four years ago now. I wrote a brief paragraph of notes that says "Played until I got stuck in a stealth section 4 hours in." I guess I'm not that one man who can change things... Let's unpack what's going on then.
Each mission begins with a briefing where archival stills are spliced alongside in-game environments to try and give you some sense of time and place. The stills all look like they were screen-capped from a low-quality video, and it's a little jarring to see them side-by-side with what are obviously in-game models, but that's just nitpicking. This is just a briefing about going into North Africa, rescuing a member of the SAS and starting the ball rolling for a bigger invasion.
If the video doesn't hook you, maybe the wall of text before you start will.
When Allied Assault finally gets going - with an explosive start to our infiltration mission - it holds up pretty well. Character models are a bit... mushy?... like everyone was carved from a potato, but it's easy to see who is and isn't your target here, and I don't mean 'because your buddies aren't the ones shooting at you'.
As you might imagine, some sense of realism, or at least cinematic realism, is on display here. Your squadmates will operate independently of you, moving from room to room and firing at the enemy, but they are noticeably running on set paths and waiting for checkpoints. Not distractingly so, just noticeably.
They can be picked off by the opposition, with their names and fate popping up on the screen to remind you that this is the reality of warfare, but it doesn't quite come across like we've lost anybody important, I'm sorry to say.
While squadmates were falling, I was wondering why my rifle wouldn't reload. Then, like an idiot, it hit me: you can't reload an M1 Garand until it goes ping.
The mission is broken up into stages because the levels are quite open, in so far as they are outdoor corridors. You're clearly funnelled towards where you need to be, but it doesn't feel that way. Eventually, we free Grillo from his cell and proceed to hunt down some explosives to finish the mission.
Paying careful attention to the searchlights, we try to make our way through the German forces for a second time.
My notes all those years ago said that I only stopped playing because I got stuck. That's because Allied Assault's missions are lengthy, and flow from one area to the next with so little downtime that you think to yourself, 'oh, well, just one more bit then', as often as 'when does this mission even end?'
Frustrations
It sounds like a negative, of course, wanting a mission to end, but I don't know why I wanted that. Was the gameplay too simple? Was I bored of the environments? Did I just want to see some action in the form of the Normandy landings, rather than skulking around in the shadows blowing up tanks?
The controls are straightforward and are set up as you'd expect them to be. You can scroll through your weapons, you can toggle your run speed, everything makes sense. It handles smoothly, you can aim precisely - and will have to because there are a lot of long-range firefights - and I wasn't getting stuck on anything or struggling to move.
Environments are simple on account of what games could pull off back then but have detailed textures and lighting that, in places, you can interact with. Doors to open, barrels to explode, bases to navigate... it, too, feels straightforward. Anyone can find their way through Allied Assault, even with an unusual radar design.
The action was there too. Firefights can take place at any range with many weapons, and enemy soldiers will often drop prone to decrease their profile and increase their accuracy. If you don't outright kill them, they may even get up after a short time and continue the fight.
By all accounts, this is a solid game, worth playing, but here I am thinking it's dragging on, and I don't know why.
Further Fun Times
After blowing up everything I could find, Grillo busts through the fence in a vehicle (it won't be the last time he does that) to pick me up and take me to an airfield in need of some fireworks or something.
Allied Assault was picking up again. Was it ever dropping off? The game sweeps you up with whatever is going on, and you've no choice but to go along with it. Some aircraft need blowing up? Let's do it. A lighthouse needs to be lit to signal support? Let's light that sucker up.
Final Word
Finally, after forty minutes, mission one came to an end - and just as swiftly, the briefing for the second mission began. There's just no time to stop. Allied Assault doesn't want you to ignore it for a second. You want to experience war? Here, have some conflict. Have some more. Come on, there's another bit of war around this corner. After that, there's even more.
From North Africa, we head to Norway, and then to France, and after that, I don't know, because as I say, I got stuck and didn't know how to progress. By that point, though, I had played for nearly four hours straight because that's what happens when you fire it up - it's so easy to get into and play that you just play. And play some more. And then keep playing.
It's not that it is addictive, just that the story is always in motion, bringing you along for the ride. It wants to grab your attention, and it does. It looks and sounds like a game that has had earlier success, learned what it needs to do, and has continued to do what works.
It's also a game that has that storytelling, cinematic approach to it all. We're meant to think about it in a different way to shooters like Quake and Doom. They were games with a story. This is a story in the form of a game.
But it is still a gamified story. You're still a bit of a one-man army, superhero type of guy. You can do it all, anywhere that is required of you, and even though you should feel bad when your squadmates don't make it, you know that they're really just part of the game you're playing, not the story you're experiencing.
The history of the Medal of Honor series is a bit of a rollercoaster. I haven't followed it at all, and couldn't name half of the entries to it, but I've had a good time playing Allied Assault, even if I got stuck. I'd like to find out where it goes. I wouldn't mind finding out about the plot a little more, too. Maybe I should have read all those words before the mission. And in the middle of the mission. And before the next mission...
If you want a solid shooter set in the Second World War, there are countless games to choose from, many of them of course better than this one, but it was Allied Assault that set that first bar, and it set it well. You won't be disappointed with any amount of time you put into it.
Fun Facts
Hate large PC game boxes? Allied Assault is just for you, as it was the first U.S. PC game to use the Interactive Developers Software Association's standardised box size.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, developed by 2015, Inc., first released in 2002.
Version played: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault War Chest, PC, 2004.