History YMMV / MedalOfHonor

* OlderThanTheyThink: Manon Batiste (who was the HeroOfAnotherStory in the original 1999 game and the main heroine of the 2000 sequel ''Underground'') predates the recent controversies of female protagonists in historical World War II games by almost twenty years. [[RealityIsUnrealistic For bonus points]], her character is based on a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hélène_Deschamps_Adams real female Nazi hunter]].

* BizarroEpisode: ''Underground'' have the secret level, "Where Beagles Dare" and "Panzerknacker Unleashed!" where you took a break from fighting Germans to infiltrate a castle occupied by dogs - andromorphic dogs capable of firing machine-guns and operating tanks - before entering a secret German lab full of automatons resembling the toy soldier from The Nutcracker. Also there are [[RoboticUndead robotic zombies]] who can self-destruct to take you down.

* {{Narm}}: The opening level of ''Rising Sun'' puts the player on board a battleship during the middle of the Pearl Harbor bombing, where they have to navigate the bombed ship by using a fire extinguisher to put out various fires in their way. Unfortunately playing on co-op reveals that instead of carrying the tank with one hand and aiming the nozzle with the other like any functioning human being, the player character instead leaves the hose attached to the tank and aims the extinguisher like a gun.

** The regular Mauser [=Kar98k=]. Its fire rate is atrociously slow for a non-scoped gun, its laughable damage per shot (three center-of-mass shots to kill a human!) makes it look like a pistol, and reloading it is so sluggish, you'd think you're being teased by your in-game avatar. Fortunately, you're never stuck with it in single-player – in the sole instance where you can get one, you also get a Springfield.

** The series has always presented a version of history that [[AmericaWonWorldWarII gives America more credit than it had earned]], but it didn't get out of hand until the franchise's later days. In earlier games, the most notable historical inaccuracy one could note was that an American soldier was taking place in operations that historically consisted entirely of other groups like the French Resistance or British SAS. ''Frontline'', the first console release after the franchise was sold to EA, and ''Airborne'', the last WWII-set game in the series before it was taken "out of rotation", present a good study in contrasts, as both have a mission set during Operation Market Garden, but present it entirely differently - ''Frontline'' shows it as it was in reality, the Allies' most notorious bungle, and your objectives through the mission are concerned much more with simply trying to keep yourself and as many allies as possible alive to get out of Arnhem without accomplishing much of note against the Nazi war machine; ''Airborne'' instead presents the battle as going relatively smoothly for the Airborne divisions who land in Nijmegen, and the narration afterwards presents the battle as a great victory. Their climaxes also give a good contrast: ''Frontline'' has the player take part in a bombing raid to destroy a prototype jet before it can be shipped out and mass-produced, which skirts by because it takes place in an area that really did undergo an Allied bombing mission right around the time that mission is set, with the game simply giving a more dramatic reason for that specific one - ''Airborne'' ends with the 17th Airborne assaulting a flak tower, a mission the Americans never undertook in an area a flak tower was never built in, which on top of it has its defenders include outright super soldiers lugging around MG 42 machine guns as if they're as light and easy to use as the player's rifles.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Despite them later marrying, Manon and Jimmy never actually interact face-to-face in the series on-screen, considering how EA took part in the co-op craze with games like ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', the fact we never got a co-op title that expands on the relationship of both of them is a waste.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: A criticism of some titles is the fact you play as an American Soldier who ends up taking part in non-American parts of the Conflict (Such as Russia in Spearhead/European Assault) and not really allowing the player to actually play as non-American Forces (outside of Underground/Allied Assault Multiplayer) technically started with 1/2 missions of the first game, such as the Norway Heavy Water Plant. (Which was destroyed by Norwegians IRL but in-game was repaired afterwards and you have to destroy it again.)

* HilariousInHindsight: The opening FMV to the original game ends with the line, "Are you ready to rise above and beyond the call of duty?". Beginning in 2003, going above and beyond ''Call of Duty'' is exactly what the ''Medal of Honor'' series was trying to do.

** TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Despite them later marrying, Manon and Jimmy never actually interact face-to-face in the series on-screen, considering how EA took part in the co-op craze with games like ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', the fact we never got a co-op title that expands on the relationship of both of them is a waste.

* {{Narm}}: The opening level of ''Rising Sun'' puts the player on board a battleship during the middle of the Pearl Harbor bombing, where they have to navigate the bombed ship by using a fire extinguisher to put out various fires in their way. Unfortunately playing on co-op reveals that instead of carrying the tank with one hand and aiming the nozzle with the other like any functioning human being, the player character instead leaves the hose attached to the tank and aims the extinguisher like a gun.

** TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Despite them later marrying, Manon and Jimmy never actually interact face-to-face in the series on-screen, considering how EA took part in the co-op craze with games like Dead Space 3, the fact we never got a co-op title that expands on the relationship of both of them is a waste.

** ''Allied Assault'' has a few. Day of the King Tiger, the fifth mission, is a double whammy. Sniper's Last Stand has German snipers EVERYWHERE, so you're forced to inch around any and all corners and make extensive use of the quicksave feature just to move across the street; the second half is not ''as'' heavy on snipers, but it's an EscortMission – at least the CombatMedic in the crew is generous with the healing. The following mission, The Hunt for the King Tiger, pits infantry with Panzerschrecks against a tank ''that doesn't have a machine gun''.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Manon Batiste (who was the HeroOfAnotherStory in the original 1999 game and the main heroine of the 2000 sequel ''Underground'') predates the recent controversies of female protagonists in historical World War II games by almost twenty years.

** ''Allied Assault'' has a few. Day of the King Tiger, the fifth mission, is a double whammy. Sniper's Last Stand has German snipers EVERYWHERE, so you're forced to inch around any and all corners and make extensive use of the quicksave feature just to move across the street; the second half is not ''as'' heavy on snipers, but it's an EscortMission – at least the CombatMedic in the crew is generous with the healing. The following mission, The Hunt for the King Tiger, pits infantry with Panzerschrecks against a tank ''that doesn't have a machine gun''.
* UnfortunateImplications: As mentioned above, the idea of a war-themed video game taking place in a historical setting, though not an entirely new concept at the time, did not sit well with some including Capt. Dale Dye and Medal of Honor recipient Paul Bucha, both UsefulNotes/VietnamWar veterans. Bucha was initially incensed at the concept of such a game as he felt that a video game depiction would tarnish the award--Spielberg considered canning the project due to said objections, but the veteran was convinced otherwise when he was shown a demonstration of the game, as it was intended more as an interactive historical experience rather than a run-of-the-mill run and gun gorefest as with the likes of ''Doom''.

** Panzerknacker Unleashed from ''MOH Underground''. The first level had dogs that could be killed by 8 pistol shots or one shotgun blast. The 2nd level had zombies armed with automatics and ridiculous accuracy [[spoiler:that explode when killed]] as well as armored knights that are always charging at you.

** ''Allied Assault'' has a few. Day of the King Tiger, the fifth mission, is a double whammy. Sniper's Last Stand has German snipers EVERYWHERE, so you're forced to inch around any and all corners and make extensive use of the quicksave feature just to move across the street; the second half is not ''as'' heavy on snipers, but it's an EscortMission – at least the CombatMedic in the crew is generous with the healing. The following mission, The Hunt for the King Tiger, pits infantry with Panzerschrecks against a tank ''that doesn't have a machine gun''.

* MemeticMutation: The Bread Is Delicious[[note]]In ''Frontline'' you could recover a small amount of health by eating freshly-baked bread, which would be accompanied by this message.[[/note]]

** ''[[VideoGame/MedalOfHonor2010 Warfighter]]'': [[BigBad The Cleric]], the leader of several [[MiddleEasternTerrorists terrorist factions in the Middle East]], is in reality [[spoiler:Hassan Rasheed, a wealthy Arab banker from Dubai]]. Convincing hundreds of people to follow his cause of "fighting the Eagle", The Cleric trains them and sends them to commit various terrorist acts, like taking half a dozen people hostage and trying to kill them and the soldiers who arrive to save them. Discovering a powerful bomb, called PETN, Hassan sends several [[SuicideAttack suicide bombers]] to various train stations to blow themselves up and kill countless innocent people. When Task Force discovers his base of operations and attacks it, Hassan sets his building on fire, along with all his men inside, and tries to blow himself up, hoping to [[TakingYouWith me take down the US soldiers with him]].

* BestLevelEver: Die Sturmgewehr and beyond in ''Allied Assault''. Why? Because you get to use the [[GameBreaker StG44]].

** ''Allied Assault'' has a few.
** Day of the King Tiger, the fifth mission, is a double whammy. Sniper's Last Stand has German snipers EVERYWHERE, so you're forced to inch around any and all corners and make extensive use of the quicksave feature just to move across the street; the second half is not ''as'' heavy on snipers, but it's an EscortMission – at least the CombatMedic in the crew is generous with the healing. The following mission, The Hunt for the King Tiger, pits infantry with Panzerschrecks against a tank ''that doesn't have a machine gun''.

* OneSceneWonder: ''Pacific Assault'' grants you use of the Browning Automatic Rifle in all of ''one'' level; specifically, the very first level at Pearl Harbor ''shooting at planes''.
* ScrappyWeapon: ''Allied Assault'' has two.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The first game's score was... massively theatrical.

* MostWonderfulSound:

** The epic battle music, as [[http://www.tracksounds.com/reviews/medal_honor.htm noted]] by film score [[http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/medal_honor.html reviewers]], clearly has a JohnWilliams flavour, especially his work for ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. The theme for the German Army ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xulvBtTMfY The Radar Train]] (at about 2:44 - 2:59) compare with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jOIxV3t1E Brother of the Crusiform Sword]] (at about 0:50) ) is clearly reminiscent of John Williams' theme for the Germans in that movie. This is no wonder, since the game's producer was Creator/StevenSpielberg and the tone of the first 1999 game was an adventurous and light-hearted version of WWII.