A well-implemented portable version of Medal of Honor still worth being played on the PSP despite some dust...
The organization of the three campaigns --or 15 missions-- too follows the scheme known from the game's predecessors on Xbox, PS2, or PC, and requires fulfilling one or more obligatory primary and several optional secondary objectives shown on the compass in order to be awarded the Bronze, Silver, Gold Medal of Honor, plus other distinctions, which gave the series its name. Preceded by Captain Christopher J. Weston's (Office of Strategic Services) typewritten briefing and supplemented through original WWII footage, the objectives usually consist in reverting German interests in occupied Italian, Dutch, Belgian zones by killing enemy soldiers, sabotaging facilities, stealing documents, liberating sectors marked through a flag, and usually include several moments of frantic skirmishes between the playable character plus his accompanying four-man squad and the largely outnumbering Nazi and Axis forces (the relation is about 1:10) appalling more through aggressiveness than their intelligence.
The friendly AI doesn't much better here, either, since although acting in a quite autonomous manner, squad members might be failing to react correspondingly when exposed to launched grenades while otherwise standing in the firing line, or else do not follow when having to alternate between different objectives so that one often finds oneself alone facing the incoming enemy waves.
The different checkpoint-less missions usually take up to twenty minutes being counted down in case of sector conquests, and most times require no more than a purely offensive approach with no much of tactical thinking other than the respective objectives' order, but running and gunning is satisfying mainly thanks to the gameplay controls allowing to employ both hands to simultaneously direct character and view thus compensating for the PSP's missing right analog stick.
Using the function buttons to orientate the camera along the x/y-axis and the directional keys to use objects, crouch, or change/recharge weapons initially requires one to abstract a bit from the accustomed control layout but intuitively permits a smooth, speedy gameplay with the left and right trigger assuming the usual aiming/firing tasks, and contributes to making Heroes a still enjoyable first-person shooter on the PSP.
The historical weapons loadout permits to carry a rifle, a pistol, and up to ten grenades during the missions and include the yet familiar Thompson, MP40, StG44, M1 Garand, Enfield, Bazoka M1, or Panzerschreck; as common, ammunition as well as health kits are randomly dispensed when killing an enemy soldier and therefore rarely run out given whose number, but supplementary kits are also stocked in the inventory to be taken when needed by pressing D-pad up, what again may cause occasional conflicts while executing other tasks like picking up a weapon or planting an explosive assigned to the same key.
The singleplayer campaign resumes the Allies' efforts in defeating the Axis forces --whereas in multiplayer mode also the latter side might be chosen-- and the dominant design is that of assault where hiding oneself is rarely required, yet while the enemies are a menace through their number rather than their tactical organization, the cover system generally does a good job permitting to automatically lean over when aiming while crouched behind a barrier.
Graphical quality is comparable to that on Xbox and PS2 and can be great for showing the details of a historic scenario --an Italian village, Dutch church, Belgian castle-- but also unappealing functional as to the usual caves, bunkers, and tunnels, while occasionally stirred through motion blur when too close to a detonating grenade --in spite of their being indicated on the compass and to be kicked back to the enemy.
Caves, bunkers, and tunnels however give also an idea about how various paths can be chosen to get to the different objectives of each mission and them thus a refreshing open-level touch in comparison to the more linear organization of many recent military game campaigns.
As likewise the somewhat outdated heroic title music, grenades and gun sounds match both historical and environmental conditions punctuated by the occasional random shout of enemies and squad members alike: Americans!, Germans!, Grenade!, Reloading!, Cover me!, Nice shot!, He's gone!, and so on. In multiplayer there is also the possibility to open the chat window to give (pre-recorded) vocal orders to squad members, like Enemy localized, Need reinforcements, Maintain position, Move on, Negative, or to transmit short text messages to the team or even globally. Yet with the chat window prompting the D-pad up key, no first aid kits can be carried during the multiplayer missions and health is not automatically recovered, though getting randomly respawned when killed shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds.
But there are other appeals to Heroes' multiplayer whose 15 maps can still be played in wireless Ad Hoc mode with seven friends, or in Skirmish mode against up to 16 CPU-controlled players, even after the EA server shutdown in August 2011 (and unless setting up one's own), as the different uniforms unlocked upon completing the singleplayer missions allowing to wear pink German pajamas in the aerodrome, red-dotted US underwear in the Italian village, black Gestapo leather in the Dutch church, or white Mountain Infantry gear in the Belgian castle, an original way to offer the multiplaying hero variety besides the maps and weapon loadout, or by choosing among the Deathmatch, Infiltration, Hold the Line, Battlelines, Demolition, Domination modes.
The game ends with a cinematic showing original footage about the Allied victory; yet as likewise in its three different campaigns, Heroes doesn't fail to make reference, or reverence, to yet another of Medal of Honor's heroes, the French resistant Manon Batiste (aka Hélène Deschamps), known from MoH Underground, who after having provided useful information about the Belgian operation now receives a proposal from Jimmy Patterson --without response--, whilst the Pacific War (cf. MoH Rising Sun) is yet to be won.
To be sure: Medal of Honor: Heroes is a game covered by yet some dust as likewise the historic World War II subject itself, but which as a still decent first-person shooter has enough entertaining moments to offer to making it worth being played on the PSP.