The first mission pack for
MOH:AA, did not really live up to the original
game, but only due to many small problems. It
really needed more polishing and playtesting.
Spearhead is made up of three
missions, each containing roughly five levels
each. The first mission takes place around the
French countryside of Normandy. The visuals
were good, living up to the original game, as
was the gameplay. I will say the video intro
is quite possibly the best intro to a video
game I've seen. It begins with you parachuting
out of a plane, flying through the air with
carnage all around you, and eventually crash
landing through a barn. Very intense.
For me, mission two was where
the problems begun. Mission two took place in
a nice snowy atmosphere, but it's the gameplay
that ruined it. I eventually got up to tank,
and having not received my stickybombs yet,
could not proceed any further and had to start
the level again. It was not clear at all the
steps required during this level, as you need
to blow up various equipment.
The third mission took place
in Berlin and was really quite bland and ugly.
The level design was flat, very open and the
destroyed buildings were just a little too destroyed.
Eventually I got to a point where I had four
tanks to take on with a single rocket turret.
Completely impossible, and I was forced to put
god mode on. I'd already also left another two
tanks behind. I'm guessing at some point I was
supposed to have received sticky bombs, but
that was not the case. Eventually I then get
my own tank so here begins a long tank level,
the finale. The tank level in MOH:AA was my
least favourite, so having to play through more
of this in what is already a short mission pack
was not a good way to end it.
Add to this short playtime
(only a few hours) the endless clipping problems
as you get stuck on all sorts of small trees
and even changes in terrain level. In the last
mission I was able to use tiny pieces of barbed
wire to my advantage, blocking tank rockets.
Apart from the final mission,
the level design only barely lives up to the
original MOH:AA, but gameplay needed much more
playtesting and it was far too short to cough
up money for.
