Medal of Honor: Underground - PlayStation

Do you remember a brave young soldier called Jimmy Patterson from the first Medal Of Honour game? Well, he’s gone now, but his aide from the original, Manon, has moved into the role of main character in this sequel.

Medal Of Honour Underground, as the title suggests, tells the story of one young woman, a member of the French Resistance, and her fight against the occupation of her country by the Germans.

As a late 20th century first-person shooter, the original Medal Of Honour won a lot of admirers, and rightly so. The good news, or maybe the bad news, is that Medal of Honour Underground follows pretty much the same set of footsteps as the original. If it’s been a while since you’ve played the 1999 version, then you’ll really enjoy this follow up: creeping around in darkened streets and dank catacombs is always a lot of fun, especially when you get to shoot the baddies in the back.

There is, however, a sense of déjà vu when playing MOH Underground. The similarities in the missions are all too obvious. But there are new aspects to the gameplay. As in the original game, some missions demand stealth, but some require a much more gung-ho approach. There are new and deadly foes in the shape of motorcycle sidecar-mounted machine gunners. But the biggest improvement lies in the difficulty curve. While the first game was more or less a cakewalk right to the last level, Underground gets progressively tougher with each level, and by the time you are 60% of the way through the game, there are some rewardingly challenging levels that give a great feeling of achievement (and relief) upon completion.

The most outstanding feature is the atmosphere that hangs like a big black cloud over the European-set segments of the game – eerie doesn’t begin to describe it. Medal Of Honour Underground works really well as a solitary experience, and there is also a multi-player option where you can go head to head with a friend. But our recommendation is that you put yourself in a darkened room with this game and immerse yourself in the atmosphere. The only definite outcome? There’ll be a few more sleepless nights in store.