Review: 'Airborne' worthy addition to 'Medal of Honor' series

"Go! Go! Go!" is one of the first things you will hear after launching "Medal of Honor Airborne," as you follow your fellow soldiers toward the open door of a C-47 aircraft and parachute into hostile territory.

The latest in Electronic Arts' popular World War II shooter series lets you assume the role of a U.S. paratrooper in the most open-ended game in the franchise, which lets you land wherever you like -- be it on the ground within the safety zone, marked by green smoke or on a rooftop inside of an Axis stronghold -- and then combat the enemy troops by following one of a few paths to victory.

This non-linearity differentiates "Airborne" from past "Medal of Honor" games and other WWII shooters, and also carries over to your many objectives -- such as knocking out a Tiger tank or a communications tower, locating prisoners of war or eliminating a German commander. The objectives can be completed in whichever order you choose. The game begins with Operation Husky, where you'll drop into a Sicilian village, and ends with a climactic fight in and around a huge vertical concrete tower in Germany.

Once you're on the ground, however, the core game play will be familiar to previous "Medal of Honor" players: skulking around with a first-person perspective, swapping guns and grenades, and analyzing the environment with help from an onscreen map that indicates where the allied (green) and enemy (red) troops are. It's key to use cover and height to your advantage, such as crouching behind a wall or sandbags, or firing off balconies and rooftops.

But you first need to make it onto the ground safely. In the Microsoft Xbox 360 version, you can steer the chute using the left analog stick and flare the chute to slow down a tad by pressing and holding the flare ("A") button. You can botch your landing if you fail to flare your chute in time, which means it takes longer for you to get up and fight. A "greased" landing is when you approach the drop zone at an angle, hitting the ground running, so to speak.

In terms of customization, you can choose weapons to suit your objectives and unlock upgrades by performing impressive moves, such as taking down four or five enemies at a time. This adds an interesting role-playing game-like element to the action. Keep in mind, however, that some weapons have serious recoil, which can make them harder to aim and fire repeatedly.

Along with the eight- to 10-hour single-player campaign, "Medal of Honor Airborne" offers a handful of multiplayer modes for up to 12 players over the Internet, such as Team Deathmatch (choose Axis or Allied team; the team with the highest score at the end of the time limit wins) and Objective Airborne (choose your team, then fight the enemy to capture and hold three flags on the map).

"Medal of Honor Airborne" is an engrossing military action experience -- especially the second half of the story and team-based online modes -- that proves to be one of the best in the franchise to date. E-mail to a friend