Medal of Honor Warchest (PC)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * *)

This sort of package is the games' equivalent of The Director's Cut movies — basically the same but with extras added so it can be sold again.

Warchest comprises MOH Allied Assault, which came out in mid-2002, and its two subsequent expansion packs, Spearhead and Breakthrough.

Allied Assault leveraged off two earlier MOH games for the PlayStation, which were developed by Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Interactive.

While Allied Assault was farmed out to another developer, it bore the Spielberg stamp, and its centrepiece mission, the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach, borrowed from the harrowing opening of the producer's World War II movie Saving Private Ryan.

For those who haven't played it, you take the part of American secret agent Lieutenant Mike Powell who crops up at strategic points during the latter stages of the war.

While realism takes a back seat to action, Allied Assault does give you an understanding of what it must have been like to be under fire in situations where the odds of getting killed were about the same as England winning the next rugby World Cup, long but not out of the question.

You can't run into situations with all guns blazing, but rather need to work out a plan of action and execute it carefully with precise timing. Discretion is usually the better part of valour.

Two years is a long time in this rapidly moving industry, but Allied Assault still stacks up. The graphics — excellent then — are merely good now, and few games today will take as long to work through with its six missions and more than 30 demanding levels.

The difficulty of Allied Assault put off many casual players and the first expansion pack, Spearhead, made things easier. But it was hardly good value for the amount of content and playing time it added.

Breakthrough was a much better effort in the time it took to play through.

This expansion took the game to North Africa and southern Europe and, while essentially the same as its parent game, offered a different playing environment.

Such re-releases usually retail at a substantial discount but Warchest is around $90. You can argue that Allied Assault would have been around $100 and the expansion packs $50-$60 each but $90 does seem on the high side.

In early 2002, it needed a cutting-edge system to play, but the requirements seem modest today and for that reason, Warchest will appeal to many who have upgraded since its original release.

EA, R16

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