Why even put Panzerschreks in the level if they're not for blowing up the halftracks? Why make it so that they can only be stopped by killing the machine-gunner when we just blew up tanks a couple of levels ago with the same weapons? As is the case with most EA games these days, the presentation values in Medal of Honor: Airborne are quite good.
Tanks will only drive in circles around track and halftracks are only used to block entrances in the last level and can't actually be blown up. When you do fight against vehicles, it's not really very satisfying. infantry combat is fun, but a little more variety couldn't have hurt. I can't help but feel there were some more missed opportunities to stir up more frenetic chaos by implementing bigger weapons or more enemy and friendly vehicles pounding it out. You'll find some of the levels are much more open than others but all definitely have a different feel, good defensive emplacements, and lots of increasingly difficult enemies. Each of the objectives will require some adjustments of tactics and movement. It's not necessarily a bad thing since a lot of the action is fun, but the paradrop can sometimes end up feeling more like a gimmick rather than a revolutionary way to approach a shooter.
Some of each level's objectives end up forcing you down a direct and linear path like a corridor shooter. While there's a lot of choices to make about which direction to run and attack a problem from, some of the freedom provided by the paradrop is an illusion in some of the levels. It is possible to kill enough enemies quickly that friendly troops will be able to move forward, but that didn't happen often.
In order for enemies to stop spawning, you'll have to jump down and advance the action yourself. Because of the way the game is structured, enemies will continue to re-spawn in the area of objectives so that the challenge remains consistent. The main problem is that in some of the missions, landing in those high positions doesn't really mean much. It's also nice to be able to land on the high ground to get a good view of the action and shoot a few enemies before jumping down. A compass will show the way to the various objectives so that it's easy to steer in the right direction. It also provides an opportunity to drop into a new location if the previous one was a little too difficult or even complete one of the five different skill drops (drops in very specific areas). Where the best location is depends on how you want to play the game, a mechanic that certainly is useful if you want a challenge or find that it's more fun to start out in a certain place on a map. Once floating in the air, it's a matter of steering the parachute to the best location to start the fight.
Instead of starting players out in each linear level on a path where there's no variation, EA LA decided to let us choose where to start each mission by throwing us out of a plane. Medal of Honor: Airborne takes a different approach to World War II shooters. Still, it's a good game overall and the best game in the franchise in some time. While there's definitely some good entertainment value here, the campaign is short, and the multiplayer isn't incredibly deep. After a long line of disappointing games in the Medal of Honor franchise that just never could recapture the magic successes of Allied Assault, we finally get Medal of Honor: Airborne that combines high presentation values and good, fast-paced fun.