Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003) [PS2] review

We are running Maui Week, a multi-day event designed to raise awareness of this disaster and the suffering inflicted upon Hawaii. A lot of folk have asked me where and how they can help. We will be directing people all week-long to the Hawaii Community Foundation – Maui Strong Fund where you can give to help the people of Hawaii, though I encourage you to explore other charity options if you’d like. Please help us to perpetuate Hawaii, its traditions, its way of life, its history and heritage, and its peoples!

-Red

 “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

A peaceful Sunday morning in Honolulu, Hawaii is suddenly broken by the sound of explosions, planes screaming through the air, and alarms blaring. On December 7th, 1941 the United States navel base in Hawaii was brutally attacked by Japanese forces. This was a deliberate move to try and knock the United States out of the War even before they entered it. The hectic scene during and somber moments afterwards would be remembered through history. Along with the loss of 21 navel ships, over 2,000 men lost their lives when an armada of 300 enemy planes appeared that morning.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun tries to replicate the visceral scene and scale of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Released in 2003 by EA Games, Rising Sun would pick up the World War II setting in the Pacific Front only two years after Medal of Honor: Frontline which depicted the European conflict. It would boast a co-op campaign and the ability to spar with friends or AI bots in a multiplayer mode. The Nintendo GameCube version of the game would require two disks while the PlayStation and Xbox version only requires one.

The Day of Infamy

The campaign opens with some backstory for the main character, Corporal Joseph Griffin, who is fast asleep on the USS California. He is suddenly awakened by explosions and people screaming. The opening level of the game is both exciting and brutal as you watch fellow soldiers try to escape the carnage. Equipping a fire extinguisher, Joseph makes his way through mangled metal, burning kitchens, and exposed electrical wires until reaching the top of the ship. The game takes a bit of a turn, having the player shoot enemy planes out of the sky and stop torpedoes from destroying the ship. The more arcade style of the second half does not take away from the destruction around you. The final part of the mission has you witness the destruction of the USS Arizona which sunk with over 1,000 crew and officers still on board.

I was 12 when I originally played Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, even then what the initial level described struck me. Coming from the previous game Frontline, which was a more jovial experience, it was shocking to say the least.

The Pacific Theater of War

Rising Sun was the first video game that I had played that tried to convey the horror of war to a younger audience. There are still moments of arcade first-person-shooter action but laced throughout are accounts of the horrendous actions that happened in the Pacific front. The visceral nature of the first level is not lost on the rest of the game which pits Joseph against kamikaze attacks in the jungle, spy missions in Singapore, saving POWs before execution, and helping the Australian Special Forces destroy an important bridge. The level of horror would not be seen again until Call of Duty: World at War which used the latest graphics and modern consoles to give an even more horrific look at the conflict.

Throughout the campaign Joseph travels all over the Pacific Front. After the initial attack at Pearl Harbor, he is sent to the Philippines with his brother. After showing courage and tactical intelligence he is tasked with sabotaging Japanese equipment while working with undercover agents. This is a lot like the previous entry which also saw the main character going behind enemy lines and infiltrating compounds to sabotage German forces.

Joseph will find himself in places like Guadalcanal, Singapore, and Thailand. Each mission gives you multiple objectives and are fairly long for the time. These missions also give you cinematic cutscenes and bombastic set pieces. Guadalcanal starts with Joseph and some Marines on a river in a small boat, part way through the mission a member of your team is eaten by an alligator. During the mission in Singapore you infiltrate a meeting between Japanese and German officers, keeping a low profile throughout. In Thailand Joseph commandeers an elephant with a machine gun mounted on top. The campaign ends with Joseph stowing away on a Japanese aircraft carrier and bringing it down from the inside.

As mentioned before, the arcade and bombastic sections of the game have serious moments and events to keep the game grounded but it is hard to remember this while gunning down enemy soldiers while riding an elephant. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun tries it’s best to have a healthy mix but sometimes fails to keep the action in check, the one-man-army trope is strong with this one.

The Cancelled Sequel

The overarching narrative of Rising Sun has Joseph traveling the Pacific front trying to find a gold smelting operation deep in enemy territory. His brother is captured in the Philippines but seems insignificant because he is barely spoken about during cutscenes. The main campaign does have a decent story but loses aspects of it throughout due to how far Joseph must reach to continue his exploits. In the final mission on the Japanese aircraft carrier, the main antagonist kills your friend and takes your brother off the ship in an airplane. The credits start rolling from there leaving the player with a major cliff hanger.

The sequel to the game would have had the player take control of Joseph’s brother, Donnie, as he tries to escape a POW camp. Unfortunately the game was cancelled due to Rising Sun receiving mixed reviews. Luckily, in a future installment of the franchise called Medal of Honor: Heroes, it is known that Joseph is leading raids on POW camps implying that he eventually saved his brother.

A Lasting Impact

Even though the game received mixed reviews, I’ve always had a soft spot for this entry in the Medal of Honor franchise. The cooperative campaign and multiplayer was a lot of fun when I was a kid, especially with the ability to have AI-controlled bots running around. After replaying the campaign last year, I have a deeper appreciation for what this game was going for. It does stray off course with overly bombastic set pieces but it keeps itself centered as well. I found the mission design to be great and really enjoyed the changing environments. The opening with Pearl Harbor sets the bar high for the rest of the game and it does not reach those same heights but it is still enjoyable none-the-less. The promotional material focuses heavily on the attack at Pearl Harbor which may have set the game up for failure.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun sets out to give a less campy version of World War II and it succeeds while also staying true to it’s arcade nature. If you have the means and enjoy first-person-shooters, I would recommend picking this game up for PlayStation 2, GameCube, or Xbox. The PlayStation 2 version was the one I played last year and it ran perfectly fine. It’s unfortunate that so many older games like Rising Sun are stuck on their respective consoles and with the Medal of Honor franchise MIA we may never see re-releases of these classic games. There is a certain charm to PS2 era first-person-shooter games that has been lost with modern hardware and a standardized control scheme. Returning to this classic was great and really helped me see why it’s special.

Pixel Perfect

Recommended

Look forward to more Hawaii-related content this week and don’t forget to help the people of Maui!

YemmytheFerret (Yemmy) is a podcast host for the shows Ferret64 and Film Freakz. He also is a variety streamer on Twitch who enjoys platformers, shooters, and action RPG’s. His favorite game is Banjo-Kazooie and currently resides in Ohio.