Medal of Honor: Pacific Assualt wastes no time in throwing the player right into the action. Players assume the role of a Marine named Tommy Conlin, who starts the game off in a boat headed toward a shore that is literally swarming with Japanese Soldiers. This is an exception to the usual game play, since most of the game has you crawling through dense jungles with your squad in hopes of catching the enemy by surprise. The enemy AI makes excellent use of cover, will try to use grenades to flush out your team, and will switch to the bayonet when they get close. Also, they don't follow a scripted movement, so no two games on the same level ever play out the same way twice. Ammunition is pretty scarce, so marksmanship and conservation are heavily emphasized. Nighttime action is especially intense since it is difficult to discern, among all the foliage, where the enemy soldiers might be hiding. "Dying" changes the screen to black-and-white and fades while voices from the past echo in your mind. At this point, you'll have a slight chance of being rescued... although it rarely happens.

The pacing gets broken up after the first scene, as Tommy flashes back to boot camp, where the player has to go through the slow process of the un-skippable tutorial. However, this is the only time things slow down, as the player will be immediately be taken to the attack on Pearl Harbor and participate in some amazing story sequences. The use of actual WWII footage alongside in-game cinematics makes the player really feel like they were part of history. After Pearl Harbor, the player is sent to the Pacific jungles, where he will be shooting hordes of Japanese soldiers who seem to come out of the woodwork. Of the two dozen missions within the campaign, there is one where you fly a plane, but everything primarily takes place in the jungle. Although the action is quite intense, and later missions are very difficult, the total amount of gameplay in the single player campaign is pretty short. While many players will be screaming about how heavy machine gun nests and attack plains are making their lives miserable (and as they make strong use of the quicksave and autosave features), very good players may get through the campaign relatively quickly. Setting the difficulty level to "realistic" will take away most of the HUD so that players won't have health or ammo meters or crosshairs. Completing optional mission objectives and earning medals through heroic feats encourages replayability. The destructible objects create a nice feel. You can break the cap off a canister and launch it like a missile or blow up cars and fuel barrels with mounted guns.

Tommy can issue a few basic commands to his squad, but your men are generally pretty intelligent on their own, even though they may occasionally do weird things. One of the more impressive aspects of the game has to do with getting injured. Instead of scavenging for canteens and medical packs for health like in the previous game, the player will have to rely on calling the corpsman for healing support. The player will have several opportunities per mission to do this. When running low on health, the player presses a key to call the corpsman over and he will look you over, apply a patch, shoot you up with a needle, and you'll be in perfect condition again. This is certainly more believable than gaining health through drinking from canteens. The player will also have to watch for signals from the squad leader and move with the squad. Some of the squad chatter can get a tad annoying. Team members will become very repetitive with their compliments, congratulating you on your marksmanship a little too often - even when you haven't actually fired a shot yet.

As to be expected, Pacific Assault sports some of the best graphics and sound of any game to date. Bullets fly through leaves, splinters fly off trees, and tinny sounds can be heard as bullets hit metal. The nice graphical touches, like the screen blurring from firing mounted guns, aren't available in lower graphics settings and a pretty powerful computer is needed in order to appreciate everything the game has to offer.

There is a short list of multiplayer features, but they are done well. There are three modes: Free-for-all, Team Deathmatch, and Invader. The first two are self explanatory, but the last is unique in that it puts Japanese against American forces across eight different maps on objective-based missions. One team will have a sequential list of objectives such as blowing up a target, stealing documents, or radioing to headquarters while the defensive team works to stop it all from happening. The game's visual indicators and audio cues keep players up to date on their mission objectives and keep the flow of the game going nicely. Additionally, the multiplayer matchup tools let you jump right into a game without having to sort through a list of servers. Pacific Assault supports up to 32 players across a large collection of complex maps.

One of the more off-putting aspects of the game is the noticeably long load time, even on the most powerful computers. It doesn't seem to matter what the graphics details are set at, what the size of the map is, or if you're loading from scratch or returning to a quicksaved position. These long load times apply to both the single player and multiplayer experience. Also, while the flying sequence is a nice change of pace from rooting through jungles, the controls are a bit clunky, making things much more difficult than they have to be.

The DVD edition includes a WWII timeline, in-game music, and behind-the scenes movies along with some historical information. There are also some short interview sequences with WWII veterans. Pacific Assault can be used as a sort of learning tool for all those who are interested in knowing more about the game or the war itself. There is a pop-up facts window that can be turned on to explain WWII facts during gameplay, but this doesn't appear to be implemented as well as it should. Using a little pop-up window during gameplay isn't very informative when you're more concerned with shooting down planes instead of reading factoids. The other option is to pause the game completely, which disrupts the game on a number of levels. It stops the action in its tracks and requires the "F" key to close. This is bad, considering doing so will also cause you to stop using your mounted gun. It's a nice idea, but in the end, too intrusive to use.

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is a fantastic addition to the series; its authentic weapons, great sound design, gorgeous graphics, and well-plotted script make for a great gameplay experience. The orchestral music and actual Japanese-speaking enemies bring everything to life and make players feel like they're in a movie. In a market where players are buried under a ton of WWII-themed games, Pacific Assault truly stands out as one of the best.