Medal of Honor was conceptualised by Steven Spielberg, following the massive success of his World War II film Saving Private Ryan. Yet after that irregular presence, the two Medal of Honor games to reach #1 in 2002 were just the beginning and there would be regular games of their type thereafter.

If you stretch one or both words of the definition a lot you can bring in Tiberian Sun, Star Wars: Rogue Squadronand Metal Gear Solid from 1999, but otherwise there’s… GoldenEye 007, and then you have the Strikeand Cannon Fodder series from earlier in the ‘90s and all the way back to the ‘80s for Platoon and Commandoand Operation Wolf. Looking back through my list of the bestselling games each week in the UK, there is a distinct lack of that type of game making it to the top prior to 2002. The question of individual events changing the wider course of history also comes up when thinking about the military shooter genre.

The intro to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault posed a question: can one man truly make a difference? The game then answered that question at length: if that one man has the ability to run at full pace for miles carrying an extensive arsenal, and after being hit by a hail of bullets to take an instant swig of medicine and carry on as if nothing had ever happened, if the enemy are incurious at the micro level and fail to identify this man-shaped superweapon and redirect their war effort accordingly at the macro level then, yes, one man truly can make a difference.

Medal of Honor: Frontline (EA Games, PlayStation 2, 2002)

Medal of honor allied assault theme