Average Customer Review: ( 99 customer reviews )
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First of all, the game is even more dramatic. It starts off with the Pearl Harbor bombing scene, which is even more dramatic than the Omaha Beach scene Frontline started with. The game's levels are much more fun, and are more exciting. Rather than leading you down a linear path like in Frontline, there are several paths, and many ways to get each thing done. However, there are no puzzles, just bigger and more complex levels.

Rising Sun takes place in the Pacific. Certain levels have you in a boat, and the water effects are incredible. Graphics are very good, with more detail than in the first. There is still no blood or gore. The sound effectds are again excellent, and the music adds to the cinematic feel.

Control is great as well. There are two setups to choose from, just like in Frontline. One is classic, using one analog stick. The other is a dual analog stick setup that plays like Red Faction 2 or Halo. You can also fully customize it from the options menu.

Multiplayer is included this time around. It feels much better than the muliplayer mode from Frontline. The levels are well designed, and there are over 15 of them. There is no online play, but four player split screen is supported.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun is a must buy FPS. It is historically accurate, and Frontline's flaws are cleaned up.

19 of 20 found the following review helpful:

I WAS SHOCKED.......IN A BAD WAYDec 10, 2003
By MATT SCHWARTZ
I have never written a review for a game before. Im only doing it because of the shock value of playing this game. I am a monster fan of the Medal of Honor games and was eagerly awaiting this one. I played a couple levels and kept noticing how easy it was, the enemy A.I. was pathetic. Many times I literally stood for several seconds within point blank range of the Japanese and they couldnt hit me before I calmly aimed and fired. and the thing is Im not one of these gamers who spends 10 hours each day playing games and needs a difficulty level thats so hard that you need a novel-sized tip book to get you through. I actually like linear, easy to follow games that offer decent, but not too challenging gameplay. The thing is, it was just so easy that I kept swearing that the system must have automatically gone to the easy level somehow. Here is what finally shocked me into a near heart attack. I was just about to finish what I thought was about half of the games levels and I told myself that before the next level I would have to up the difficulty to the hardest level because it was just too easy. What happens? I finish the level thinking Im about half finished the game and the credits start rolling!! I finished the whole game! I thought I was seeing things. I went through the main menus thinking there must be something I missed. My jaw was on the floor. Here I am a weak game player at best because I just dont play that many games, and Im finished this game in no time at all. I never thought I would be so dissapointed in a Medal of Honor game. Its almost as if it was a rush job. Now I know what people mean when they label a game a "rental only". I have no problem spending money, but this isnt worth anywhere near $50.

19 of 23 found the following review helpful:

This review will save you Fifty DollarsDec 16, 2003
By M. Hendrickx
I have never been so unchallenged by a video game in my life, and since I am no video game pro, that is saying a lot.

I bought the game on Friday, the day it came out, and beat it today, Wednesday. It took me about five hours spread over 3 playing sessions to beat it.

There has been a lot of hype over how realistic the Pearl Harbor scene is in Rising Sun, and unfortunately it was undeserved. Instead of the breathtaking gunfight the ads promise, you basically flee to the deck of the sinking ship and then fire blindly at enemy planes with a rifle. Then you get on a gunboat and fire blindly at some more enemy planes. End of level. They could have done so much more with this Pearl Harbor scene.

After the somewhat unique first level, the game retreats to what is practically a clone of MOH Frontline, except you are shooting Japanese instead of Germans. Rising Sun is identical to Frontline on even the most basic levels. For example, there is a bell tower in Frontline you must go up in, and, guess what, there is one you must ascend in Rising Sun too! As far as weapons go, you get the same sniper rifle and assorted machine guns. Allegedly, there is also a bazooka available, but in the only level in which I found the bazooka missiles, the bazooka itself was nowhere to be found, so I never got to use it before beating the game.

The ending of the game, as other reviewers have pointed out, is the biggest sham I have ever seen in a video game. You make your way through an aircraft carrier, get into a plane, and blow up the aircraft carrier once you have taken off. Even the ending is a clone of Frontline: for those of you who have played it, Frontline ends with you taking off in a plane.

To say I was shocked when the game credits started rolling after I blew up the aircraft carrier would be an understatement. I thought I had at least a few more levels left, if, for no other reason, because I had not yet used the bazooka. Not to mention that the ending to the game was simply anti-climactic.

The people at Electronic Arts must have been behind schedule on the development of the game, and, determined to release it in time for Christmas, resigned themselves to releasing a sub-par product and propping it up with extensive marketing.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:

VERY, VERY , VERY SHORT + EASYDec 11, 2003

I have loved MOH since the first PS1 version so it was with shock and anger that I watched the credits roll after what I thought was about half of the game. Way too short, way too easy, graphics OK but the whole thing has the feel of an expansion pack not a $50.00 game. This does feel like an absolute xmas rush job by - congrats EA you got the thing out for christmas but you've soured some of your best customers.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:

Great game play - WAY TOO shortNov 30, 2003
By Mick Forbes "Wee Free Man"
I pre-ordered this on Amazon.com after playing the "Frontline" version for many many hours and being very pleased with it. While you could review every level, my main impression is this:

(PROS) The game play is great. The Japs you are fighting use a different AI than the Germans. They will rush at you instead of diving for cover, even if you are manning a machine gun. Very disconcerting at first. On one of the levels you are walking though the jungle with a sniper rifle and a pistol. You use up your pistol bullets pretty quick, have no grenades, and the Japs are popping up out of fox-holes ahead of you! A real pain at first, but you can find a box of pistol bullets next to a truck, and later on there is a machine gun on the top level of a building under construction you can use. Makes the rest of the level much easier. The makers have changed the controller setup so you no longer need to move two joysticks to aim, reverting to the easier, left joystick moves you, the right joystick aims / looks. You can also change the controller setup as well, but I did not use that feature so can't really comment on how well it works. I like the multi-player feature where you can play in split screen mode, so you can "actually" play with your friends rather than taking turns. Too often "multi-player" means having to sign up for Xbox Live.

(CONS) It is FAR TOO SHORT!!! My friend and I finished it in TWO DAYS. Didn't use any cheats and had it set to NORMAL difficulty. Neither of us are "hard-core" games, we just enjoyed playing it and kept going. I think there are only 6 or 8 levels to play. We never really ran short of ammo or health the whole time. Not really a huge challenge, you just have to figure out how to get past the Japs and plod along through the level. VERY disappointing given the number of levels in MoH FRONTLINE.

Great game play, but not as good as MoH Frontline (worth a 3.5 out of 5), but not worth my $...USD (hence the 3). Should have rented it for a week. We went back to playing MoA Frontline when we were done with "MoA Rising Sun".

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