3/5 ★ – WrathofBen's review of Medal of Honor: Heroes.

I really expected to hate this game based on my experience with the Wii port of its sequel, but Medal of Honor: Heroes on the PSP REALLY surprised me. This is a competent little fps game for the handheld, even if the campaign is around 3 hours long. You play as 3 returning "heroes" from the franchise's past, John Baker from Allied Assault, James "Jimmy" Patterson from Medal of Honor and Frontline, and William Holt from European Assault. I have to say, it's disappointing that the game didn't give Griffin from Rising Sun any spotlight here, since his story was left unconcluded. But, it's still cool that the game allows us to play as these characters one last time, even if it's in a campaign with almost zero story to it. Baker is part of Operation Avalanche, while Patterson is aiding with Operation Market Garden. Holt is tasked with helping finish the fight at the Battle of the Bulge. While there is no real story here, the 3 campaigns are opened with a narration from Colonel Hargrove from the older games. This appears to be the last time he makes an appearance in the franchise, so it was bittersweet hearing him again. He also give you one last cutscene at the end of the game telling you how the stories of these 3 heroes ends, with Jimmy getting a very earned happy ending (depending on Manon's answer to his important question... lol). As a fan of the franchise, and having played all of these games, this was a really fun, although odd, way to conclude these characters' stories. Gameplay surprisingly feels solid here. I feared that the one stick of the PSP wouldn't be enough for good fps controls, but the control scheme I picked seemed to do the job just fine. Face buttons controlled movement, while the analog stick controlled the camera. Some buttons got multiple uses, depending on how long you hold the button down. Heck, sprint is just double tapping the forward button (triangle). It's not ideal in today's world, but for the time and the hardware, it's surprisingly good. Enemy difficulty isn't too bad either. They really feel balanced with the idea that you are playing with very difficult controls, so the game allows some lenience. I played the whole game on medium with just the right amount of difficulty. Gunplay also feels great here, with the STG-44 and BAR being standouts. Honestly, this game was so fun to play! I almost with I had played Heroes 2 on the PSP, since the motion controls for that game were horrific. Mission structure suffers here, with each one either being grab documents/blow stuff up - return to spawn, capture these points, or eliminate all the enemies within the time limit. Luckily, each mission has its share of side objectives, which genuinely were addicting to accomplish, even if they got a bit repetitive. It allowed me to explore the impressively large maps that would be reused as Skirmish and Multiplayer maps. The levels themselves LOOK great, but the objectives themselves are lacking. Luckily the gunplay makes up for it. Even if your friendly squad mates constantly yell at you and throw grenades at your feet for no reason. When you complete each mission, you unlock medals for accomplishments in the campaign, as well as Multiplayer outfits for your character to wear, from American Marine to German Pajamas. These also work for the game's Skirmish mode, which is essentially single player multiplayer. You play against a group of bots in a FFA match and try to rack up as many kills as possible. If you die, you have to wait 10 SECONDS to respawn... This was my only real complaint about this mode. Otherwise, I could see myself as a kid putting HOURS into this mode alone. What a fun little extra to throw in for those with no ability to play games online! Lastly, let's talk graphics and audio. Graphics are shockingly good here, with maps and textures having more detail than expected on the PSP. There's VERY little music used in this game, but the music that is there is from Michael Giacchino's Allied Assault score. Weapons all have unique audio (except the Enfield rifle having the Garand metal *ping* noise on reload... that was weird). Seriously, this sort of feels like a technical marvel on the PSP. A hidden gem, if you will. I don't know if Heroes 2 ran this well on PSP or not, but if it ran as well as this game, I'd take that! Medal of Honor: Heroes was a surprise to me. While the campaign length was disappointing, what was there was really fun, and could've been one of my favorite games on the PSP as a kid. And getting a conclusion to all 3 characters from the previous titles as a nice cherry on top to a game honoring the "Heroes" of Medal of Honor. If only Heroes 2 had done that... 6/10, easy. It's nothing groundbreaking by today's standards, but it's a solid title with a lot to offer. ESPECIALLY on the PSP. Okay... NOW I think I'm done with this series. At least until I can get my hands on Infiltrator for GBA and Above and Beyond on Meta Quest 2. Until then, I need an FPS break...