There used to be a time when an expansion pack was a waste of money that catered only to the hardest of hardcore fans by providing maybe one new weapon, one new enemy and possibly a few new levels.  Thankfully, those days are long gone as some truly phenomenal expansion packs are coming out. With expansions like Frozen Throne (WarCraft III), Secret Weapons of WWII

(Battlefield 1942), Spearhead and now Breakthrough (both for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault) hitting the market, gamers can now expect an enriching experience that not only builds upon the original game, but even surpasses it to become a unique experience separate from the original.  Breakthrough is one such game, as it gives gamers a close look at an often overlooked area of World War II, the Mediterranean campaign.

Breakthrough puts you in the shoes of Sgt. John Baker as he fights his way through a variety of missions in Northern Africa up through Italy.  Your fight through the Mediterranean will take you through eleven new historically accurate single-player levels, like Kasserine Pass in Tunisia and Monte Cassino in Italy.

The game has quite a few new touches that make the game a fun and authentic experience.  There are not fewer than twelve new weapons from both the Axis and Allied sides, including new Italian weapons, like the Beretta Model 34 handgun, the Moschetto Automatico submachine gun and many other cool weapons.  The game also has an all new multiplayer mode, Liberation.  In Liberation, if your character gets killed, you must then wait in a prison until someone from your team comes and “liberates” you.

The gameplay, while showing its age in spots, is still excellent.  The very first stage, Kasserine Pass, is furious and heart-stoppingly fast, about on the same level as the D-Day stage in Allied Assault.  Explosions and gunfire happen in every direction, and a sandstorm blinds and deafens you.  Are those allies or enemies in the distance? You can’t tell, but everything happens so fast that you’ll soon find out as they try to shoot you down.  This stage does a great job of setting the pace for the game, and although it does slow down in some spots, it’s still as intense an experience as you’ll find in a PC game.

However, seeing as how the original game is almost two years old now, it does have a few sore spots.  The AI hasn’t aged very well and enemies still make quite a few stupid mistakes for no apparent reason.  It’s quite easy to draw them out from around a corner and kill them one by one as they come into your sights.  In some bizarre instances, enemies will stop right in front of you and not fire or anything.

The graphics are also a bit of a mixed bag given the game’s age.  Don’t get me wrong, Breakthrough looks pretty damn good for a game that’s over a year and a half old.  However, in an age of dynamic shadows, advanced bump mapping and enhanced lighting effects, older games like Allied Assault begin to show their seams.  Medal of Honor still features some great character models and weapons, but the characters move a little stiff and wooden, the explosion effects are phony-looking and the environments seem a little drab and life-less.

However, one area that Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is still a stallion is the sound department.  Upon the release of the original game, Allied Assault wowed gamers with some of the best sound ever to pump through a PC speaker system.  Now, the sound is still nothing short of phenomenal.  Explosions are loud and vibrant, chaos comes at you from every possible direction, weapon-fire sounds as authentic and realistic as ever, and the sweeping motion-picture quality soundtrack is still epic.  The voices and acting are excellent as well, featuring allies yelling orders to you clearly and enemies yelling nastiness at you in real German (and now, real Italian).

While some may not necessarily be into the idea of buying yet another Medal of Honor expansion pack, if you loved Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Spearhead you’d be missing out on an incredible experience that puts you in the middle of a much neglected WWII campaign.

Breakthrough requires Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to play.

Gameplay: 9.0
While showing its age in spots, Medal of Honor is still a tremendously fun game.  The new North African and Italian stages are intense and exciting and as fun as the original game (the Kasserine Pass level has as much impact as the D-Day level of the original).  However, the AI is still not quite what it should be, as enemies make a lot of stupid mistakes.

Graphics: 8.5
Being an expansion pack, Breakthrough’s graphics are ultimately limited by the original game by which it’s based, in this case a nearly two year old game with an obsolete graphics engine. While some things in Breakthrough look great, like the character models and weapons, most of it looks quite dated.

Sound: 10
The sound in Breakthrough is pretty much on par with other games in the series: phenomenal.  The sound is crisp realistic and intense; without it, Breakthrough would not be anywhere near as exciting an experience.  I’m hard pressed to find anything wrong with the sound at all.

Difficulty: Medium  

Concept: 8.9
Okay, so it’s the second expansion pack for Allied Assault.  However, it does feature much of the excellent cinematic elements that the series has become renown for. Plus, it takes place in Northern Africa and Italy, two areas that haven’t gotten much play from game developers even in a time where WWII games are coming out of the woodwork.

Multiplayer: 9.3 
If you didn’t pick up Spearhead, then you can expect Breakthrough to greatly enrich your multiplayer experience with a plethora of new options, improved system for finding game servers (one that doesn’t require GameSpy), and a host of new game modes not included in the original.  However, if you have Spearhead, then other than the new Liberation mode, you won’t find anything new.

Overall: 9.2
Breakthrough is precisely what an expansion pack should be; it takes the original game and builds a completely unique, exciting experience off of it. I know some of you out there are thinking “Another Medal of Honor expansion pack? Big deal.” All I can say is don’t sell Breakthrough short, or else you’d be missing out on a fantastic experience.