The Medal of Honor series has long stood as one of the best shooter series on either PC or consoles. However, the series has not quite evolved enough to keep up with the rest of the pack, with excellent WWII FPS titles like Call of Duty being thrown into the mix. However, Rising Sun makes an attempt to bring the series into unexplored territory, by taking a look at the Pacific Theater, an area that has gone largely unexplored in the WWII FPS genre. However, this entry in the Medal of Honor series just feels like more of the same, and the problems from last year’s Medal of Honor: Frontline (poor AI, choppy framerates and tough controls) are still present and even more glaring. While a fun and exciting experience most of the time, Rising Sun has a host of problems that should’ve been fixed with Frontline.

Rising Sun focuses on the Pacific Theater aspect of the second World War, putting you up against the Axis powers in the East. You’ll fight with a host of historically accurate weapons, and tour to such historic locations at Guadalcanal, Singapore and even Pearl Harbor. The game opens, in fact, with you awaking on a ship during the Pearl Harbor assault. This sequence is very well done, embodying the same kind of excitement as the D-Day mission in Frontline. Japanese Zeros soar over head, bullets tear past your head, and warships explode and sink. The atmosphere is very tense and does a great job of thrusting you into the day that will live in infamy.

However, the rest of the game falls short of the expectations brought about by the first stage. The gameplay is fairly linear, giving the game a really closed off feeling. You go from point A to point B, killing bad guys along the way. The level design is quite simplistic, not really giving you much reason to explore.

The controls have been slightly improved from Frontline, but still pretty cumbersome. The aim function has been slightly automated, but you still need manually aim quite a bit, which does interrupt the quick pace of the game and feels pretty uncomfortable after a while.

The AI is also quite poor. Enemies have horrible aim and follow predictable attack patterns. You’ll have some friends show up at certain points to fight alongside you. However they are lousy shots as well, leaving pretty much all of the responsibility of fighting the battle up to you.

The graphics are okay, but not much an improvement over Frontline. The character models look pretty good as do the weapon models. However, the environments are very drab, with simplistic and muddy textures and overall uninteresting design. The framerates are still extremely choppy, fluctuating between 60 fps all the way down to the teens.

The sound effects are pretty good. The voices sound great, both the English and Japanese sound authentic and well acted. The sound effects are largely unchanged from Frontline, but still sound great. The music, although it may sound a little too dramatic, still works with the theme of the game.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun is a good game, but fails to live up to the standards set both by the series and some of it’s better imitators. The game doesn’t bring the series to new heights, but rather provides more of the same, including the shortcomings of its predecessor, like lousy AI and cumbersome controls. Here’s hoping the next installment will be a much needed breath of fresh air for the series.

Gameplay: 7.5
Rising Sun feels great initially, as the Pearl Harbor sequence is very well done. However, the developers must have been a little lax with the rest of the game. Most of the flaws in the predecessor, Frontline, have gone unfixed, like the lousy AI, poor controls and overly linear level design.

Graphics: 7.5
The character models look pretty good, although the animations can be a little stiff at times. The weapon models look pretty good, an improvement from Frontline. However, the environments are still murky and made up of very simple textures, and the framerates are very choppy.

Sound: 8.5
The sound effects are quite good (and THX Certified, to boot). The voices are accurate and add to the atmosphere of the game. The weapon effects and explosions sound very good, although not much of a change from its predecessor. The music may seem a little too dramatic, but serves its purpose for the game.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7.0
Rising Sun takes the series to a different arena by moving the series across the Pacific. However, the game fails to evolve and move the series forward in terms of gameplay.

Multiplayer: 7.0
The multiplayer aspect is largely unchanged from Frontline. The game boasts a few four-player modes and a two-player co-op mode. However, the game doesn’t have online play, like the PS2 version.

Overall: 7.3
Rising Sun had the potential to bring the series to a new level, setting it in a new campaign that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention. However, the game holds onto a lot of the same problems that plagued Frontline and that ultimately sours the experience. Plus, with no online play and murky graphics, the GameCube version is certainly the runt of the litter. Here’s hoping that the next installment in the series is the breath of fresh air that this series desperately needs.