As was the case with fellow WWII title Call of Duty 3, the emphasis of this Wii release is placed firmly on innovations offered by the updated control system. The Wiimote and Nunchuk act very much like a mouse and keyboard – arguably the preferred setup for first person shooting titles. Holding the Wiimote in the same way one would brandish a lightgun, the player is able to aim their on-screen firearm and accurately pinpoint enemy targets like never before. Turning is achieved by aiming the crosshair towards the edges of the screen, which ‘pushes’ the viewpoint in that direction. Movement – including the all-important strafing - is handled with analogue stick on the Nunchuk.

Several ‘gesture’ commands are available, such as jolting the Nunchuk sharply downwards to drop the your character onto one knee for a more accurate firing stance, flicking it sideways to perform an about-face or moving it towards the Wiimote to simulate the act of reloading a clip into a rifle. Unfortunately these gestures are difficult to execute when in the middle of an intense gun battle and the similarity of each movement can often result in them being confused far too easily – for example, a swift flick of the wrist can sometimes be interpreted by the game as several different commands. Things quickly degenerate into a Russian-roulette style experience, with the player not entirely sure what on-screen event will occur when they perform a movement.

Thankfully, all of the gestures can be turned off and a variety of buttons on the two controllers can take their place, but one feature of the control method that works very effectively is the handling of grenades. First the player is called upon to select the general direction in which they wish to toss a grenade. When this is done, a swing of the arm sends the deadly charge skywards. It’s a very simple use of the Wii’s motion-sensing capabilities but remains tremendously satisfying and creates a convincing link between the player and the on-screen action. Sadly, other aspects of the game succeed in severing this connection with depressing regularity.

EA has always maintained that the MoH series is an ‘authentic’ representation of what it was like to fight in these horrific battles. When playing Vanguard, it doesn’t take long to see that these claims are pretty superficial. Although the series is based on one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of mankind, Vanguard is completely devoid of blood and gore. No matter how many bullets you pump into enemy soldiers, you won’t get a sniff of claret.

The flimsy realism is further dented by the employment of a health system similar to that found in Sony’s lamentable Getaway. The player is able to heal their character by simply finding a quiet spot and keeping out of enemy fire. This totally destroys any impression of realism the game might have otherwise alluded to. Many other FPS titles seem to be employing this method, possibly hoping to emulate the excellent shield system of the Halo series, but you have to question just how realistic can a game possibly be when it expects you to believe that bullet wounds can be patched up just by 'having a bit of a rest’! Although the traditional videogame concept of using health packs to fix up lethal wounds and then continuing to take on an entire battalion of bad guys is undeniably ludicrous, it still seems more realistic than the scheme utilized here.

The stupidity of the enemy AI further erodes any semblance of realism the game might have contained. Like so many FPS titles these days, Vanguard relies heavily on pre-scripted set pieces to create tension. Unfortunately it’s annoyingly easy to trip the game up without even realizing you’re doing so. For example, on the first level there’s a bottleneck on some stairs where Italian soldiers pour fire onto your unit from above. The game is scripted in a way that it expects the player to hang back and return fire for a short period before being commanded to take the stairs by force. However, it’s just as easy to leave your unit and pelt up the stairs before this particular ‘scene’ plays out, which results in the enemy soldiers continuing to fire upon your allies regardless of the fact that you’re successfully scaled the stairway and are stood roughly a metre behind from them. During the course of the game, several similar situations of AI lunacy were noticed. It’s an unfortunate issue that completely destroys the feel of authenticity the developers obviously wished to achieve. The heavy reliance on set pieces, combined with the hemmed-in nature of the level design removes any degree of freedom and things quickly descend into a painfully predictable series of ‘stop-start’ moments. The procedure is basically to move from one location to the next, kill some bad guys, await further orders, then repeat until the level is complete. As unbelievably hellish as actual combat must be, it's doubtful that it is ever this linear.

Wii owners have had to endure the crushing disappointment of lazy PS2 ports for a few months now – we’ve had the aforementioned Call of Duty 3, Heatseeker and Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and all have featured visuals that seem worryingly similar to their PS2 counterparts. Sadly, the upsetting trend continues here. Vanguard is not what one would call an attractive game. Character models are passable, but the levels themselves range from bland to downright ugly; Call of Duty 3 is not exactly the most visually striking FPS in the world, but it’s certainly graphically superior to Vanguard in many respects. While the Wii isn’t going to trouble the 360 or PS3 in technical terms at least, it is certainly more graphically capable than these lethargic conversions would have you believe.

The audio is, on the other hand, much more accomplished. MoH has a track record of using stirring tunes, and many of the more notable themes are reproduced here. When the first game in the series was published for the Playstation, much was made of Steven Spielberg’s involvement and the game was even sold as a kind of ‘Saving Private Ryan – The Game’. The music certainly evokes memories of that film. Aside from the music, there’s plenty of dialogue which creates a convincing impression of being part of a living, breathing army unit. Sadly, much of what is said is painfully corny.

Despite all its numerous shortcomings and failings, Vanguard still manages to entertain to a certain degree, mainly thanks to the control method. It certainly isn’t perfect, serving more as the middle ground between the traditional joypad setup and the mouse and keyboard perfection of PC-based FPS games. But it nevertheless manages to lift what is a below-average FPS game to heights it otherwise could only have dreamed of, by, for example being able to assume a firing stance, lean out of cover and zoom in for the perfect kill – all in the space of a few intuitive moments – making small elements of the game tremendously satisfying.

If nothing else, Vanguard serves as a pretty good indication of how well suited the Wii’s control setup is for this kind of game and one can only hope that future releases, most notably Metroid Prime 3, will succeed in adding what Vanguard lacks – a decent videogame to back up the inventive controls.