As for most of these "fanboy" written 5 star OMG OMG OMG this game is just sex. Gives me cheepies in my panties. Just Ignore them. And that's at least 95% of all the reviews written here on GOG. This game just IS NOT THAT GOOD!!!!!
Overall is it only a "fair to middling" game. Far short of what I expected from the progenitor of such a long and successful series of later releases!!!!!

I'll just give the pros and cons:-

Pros
- storyline and other game texts are very well written
- mission design is mostly well done
- the program is stable, not had a crash to desktop once on my PC..... yet......
- this edition is at least the definitive version with all the official addons bundled in (even though they are not much really)

Cons
- 3D GFX engine is below par, even for 2002..... I mean, in that year Half Life 2 was well on it's way - and it had 20x better 3D on it! MOH:AA is more comparable to the like of late 90's games such as Half Life 1, Unreal, Quake 2 etc - Also a LOT of glitches in those GFX too - possibly due to issues with such an old engine running on such a modern PC, maybe not something that happened back then on old PCs
- the SFX engine is flawed, distant enemies sometimes sound as if they're right on top you!
- exceptions to the well designed missions exist..... such as the D-Day Beach Landing and mission set near Brest (Mission 5) with all the totally invisible snipers. You WILL need to cheat on those - even on Easy - which normally is WAY too easy!!!!!
- some missions go for the utterly lame and infuriating trick of spawning enemies from thin air, behind you and at close range..... I HATE THAT!!!!!
- you can't reach many seemingly open areas, seemingly gentle slopes are impassible, open roads and doorways have invisible forcefields
- your squad mates AI is AWFUL, their only AI behaviour is "if enemy seen then run right at them with cocks in hand and shout shoot my dong please", which is a problem when mission criteria mandates they don't get their dongs shot off.....
- totally unrealistic, what few vehicles there are have no kind of actual armour stats or anything, totally inappropriate ammo sharing between weapons - eg The M1 Thompson can use picked up MP40 ammo - when the M1 used .45 ACP and the MP40 used 9mm Parabellum!!!!! NOT compatable AT ALL!!!!!
- another unrealism is objects being indestructable to weapons that should easily vapourise them..... the static 88mm Flak18's for example, your grenades, bazookas and panzerschrecks wont even scratch them!!!!!
- the game is utterly "step by step", "follow the set path", "drag you along by the nose" in style. There is NO scope for any kind of sandbox type action. NO scope for doing missions in differing ways.
- maps are small and claustraphobic
- hit detection is poor
- 3d object collision detection is bad also, your man will snag on doorways, tiny little steps, trees, bushes etc when you need him to move quick!!!!! Seemingly wide gaps and spaces you'd think you'd get a Tiger through and your man just won't do it - just how fat is his ass?!!!!
- no game physics whatsoever, you'll mostly notice this at the OUTRAGEOUSLY STUPID ways your grenades always bounce right back into your gob!
- enemies can see you, and hit you, from impossible angles, and through multiple layers of scenery, eg through 8 trees
- stealth tactics are a joke
- the game is VERY short, even WITH the two official add-ons
- and I've so far not found any unofficial add-ons..... there does not appear to be a mod community whatsoever
- once you've completed this game, you'll never want to run it again!
- no ALT-TAB to Windows, which is albeit a small annoyance, eg if you want to go through a walkthrough whilst playing
- allegedly will NOT run on later Windows, so Windows 8 users, FORGET IT, DON'T BUY..... but then again, that is unfortunately common with all old games. :(
- German Shepard dog owners beware! You have to kill loads of them. Feels awful if like me you own and love a GSD :)

How the hell some of the reviews on GOG can justify themselves when ultra-hyping this very humdrum mediocre game is beyond all ken - and all it does is mislead the punters!!!!! I bought it on the strength of these false fanboy masturbatory reviews, and was left very disappointed..... DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEM!!!!!

Sod it! I'm downgrading this game from "humdrum mediocre" to "horse's jet shit"!!!!!
(Joke - BTW - i still give it a 2/5 below par mediocre but not the worst game around rating)

It is not just this game but most games on GOG get 5/5 reviews if the reviewer has any kind of nostalgic affection or liked it for more than an hour.

As for the rest of your post, I can't tell if you're trolling or not. Complaining about realism and intentionally misremembering what first person shooters looked like back in 2002. Half-Life 2 was not "well on it's way" at the time, at best it was being put together as a FAKE proof of concept at the time in time for E3, ie scripted fake gameplay footage.

MOHAA is a standard fare early half 2000's WWII shooter. Take it for what it is and there is your 3/5 experience.

There is a lesson here - never read reviews or look at ratings. You will miss out on low-rated gems and get upset by games that receive massive hype and acclaim.

As for MOH:AA - yeah, it has some flaws and annoyances, plenty of historical inaccuracies, and there are definitely plenty of people giving it a 5 because of nostalgia. But I don't think it is bad at all.
Personally, I feel it has actually held up better than other military shooters from the early 2000's. I recently tried replaying Call of Duty and Vietcong, which were two of my favorite games when they came out in 2003. Today, I didn't really enjoy them at all. I found them boring and annoying.
Then I played Allied Assault, and was surprised that I enjoyed it just as much as I did 12 years ago.
I liked a lot of the little things. The weapons look good, sound good, feel powerful, and are really fun to shoot. I like that the character feels "heavy", like he is carrying a lot of weight. I like that the game had a very slight horror vibe to it.
The levels are smaller and more straightforward than other games, but I thought the levels were well designed with great detail.
Overall, I just thought it had a great tone, and I had fun whether sneaking or shooting.

Eh... Just my thoughts. Everyone has 'em. I was bored and wanted to write about mine.

It always sucks playing a game that you don't like. Hopefully you enjoy your next game more.

I felt that too - the music strangely reminded me of earliest Resident Evil games in some parts. I'm sure I remember HL2 hitting the shelves in 2003, and I bought it in 2005 well after the game had well matured, having set up on the then new Steam system, and had a lot bugfixes/patches and mods available.

As for 3/5, well we're not in that much disagreement, i'd give it 2/5!

**** Had a double post here..... can't delete it neither, but can edit it all out.....

HL2 was released in november 2004 after a long delay. Steam on the other hand was released in september 2003. Around 2006, HL2 had matured into a completely different game on a technical level, though you can't really tell by going through the original singleplayer adventure.

At the time near the end of 2004, there was no other first person shooter able to compete with HL2 in being a complete package of visuals and game design. It was a major step up for first person shooters. 2002 era shooters like Medal of Honor can hardly be faulted for not measuring up to a game that is practically a whole generation apart. It does fairly well compared to similar games pre-2004 though.

Not that I care much for these primitive scripted corridor shooters, they haven't aged well.

I will have no trouble upgrading MOH : Breakthrough to 3/5!!!!! Hell, maybe even 4/5!!!!!

It just feels so much better than Allied Assault!!!!!

Levels are bigger and even more carefully designed - the silly impassible open ground bug is still there, but better map design reduces it happening
More weapons and enemies! Even smoke grenades!
The new Italian troops AI seems fairer than the uber-elite crack SS 25th century tech cyborgs in MOH:AA - so far no more impossible angled 20000m range through the entire Black Forest hits against you. They don't hit you 11 times out of 10 anymore neither :)
They don't auto-spot you through 50ft thick walls at a range of 30 light years no more neither :)
Stealth tactics now work!!!!!
All static weapons are now useable - shame some are placed in positions where you can't actually make use of them (eg the Granatwerfer near the canal in the Tunisian levels) - but I bet they make multiplayer a real hoot!!!!!
GFX seem better - especially texture detail and lighting - now IT IS competent with other 2002 games!!!!!
Seem to have fixed the wonky SFX
Maps are bigger, but I'm wondering about how big "Breakthrough" is as a whole - some of the other reviews remarked on how short it was (and the MOH:Spearhead too)
No longer finding my man getting snagged on tiny pebbles, flecks of dust and other miniscule obstacles
Shame your squadmates still have total shit for brains!!!!!
Hit detections seem to have been tweaked for the better....... no more flimsy chain link fences acting as impenatrable barriers!
View ranges seem to have been increased on some maps
Difficulty level much more balanced - no more way too easy areas, and then suddenly ridiculously impossible areas. Now it's a reasonable challenge in most parts.

Saying all that, I've come to what seems to a bug stop in the proceeding during one of the Operation Husky maps. The map which starts with you and a British officer in a jeep which then meets what looks like an Italian P26/40 heavy tank..... upon which your driver hurls off the road - and informs you he's "hidden a bazooka near that glider"....
well, no bazooka nowhere..... even searched with cheats on as it is impossible otherwise with that tank constantly harassing you. Then you get to the "Assist 82nd Airborne" objective.... the compass just points to an empty room..... and the objective never flags as "complete"........ one big huge bug stop!

Edit - thanks to a good walkthrough and restarting the level, got past that bit.

But you can now FORGET what I said about "fair difficulty" - I take it all back. It gets UTTERLY F**KING SP*ST*C STUPID.

The "tank assault" bit took me 14 attempts even WITH god mode AND infinite ammo on!

The "defend the communications tower" I did NOT even complete WITH god mode and infinite ammo - just totally went "F**K THIS" and rage quit after the 40th "mission fail".

I believe this is the final part of "Breakthrough" anyway - so there's no more to see even if I did complete it - life's too short for pointless BULLSHIT like that!

That experience shoves "Breakthrough" back down to 2/5..... more of a "Breakdown" at the end eh?

I bought this game because I'm a fan of first person shooters. I hated it with every fiber of my being. I think I only played three or four levels before I had enough and deleted it from my hard drive. The final straw was in the mission where I had to sneak up to the enemy base and take out the guards in the tower. When I'm hidden and sneaking up on your base and I take a sniper shot from cover, you do not get to immediately return fire with 100% accuracy. That pisses me off Far Cry did the same thing, and got the same treatment.

Yes, FarCry did indeed do that. You could be hidden amongst the densest of bushes, and their snipers could still hit you from 5kms away 100% of the time - no exceptions. Thing is with FarCry, they didn't spot you at all until to made a lot of noise - ie start shooting. That game also had a long view distance (with MOH does NOT). Once you knew where they were, you could headshot them and take them out from 5km 100% of the time too!!!!! So the game was playable overall.

The thing I hated most about FarCry was the checkpoint based saves..... I remember these checkpoints being hours of gameplay apart on some levels - one where you had to take out 3 comms towers was one - and the game used to frequently crash as well on that level.

Went through "MOH : Spearhead" this evening. Took me just 4 hours to complete. As the reviews said..... SHORT SHORT SHORT SHORT!!!!! It did not help having to cheat through the entirety of some maps due to ridiculously unbalanced difficulty levels again. Some areas wouldn't even tax a 4 year old, others were just utterly stupid.
Other than that it has the same improvements over Allied Assault that Breakthrough has - and would likely be great on MP.....

Shame I CANNOT FIND EVEN ONE MP SERVER..... on ANY of them, Allied Assault, Breakthrough nor Spearhead!!!!!
I wouldn't mind playing even against bots..... but it ain't even got that feature!!!!!

I understand all your criticisms, and I've been playing the game for the first time just today. I'm playing on hard difficulty.

I honestly think it's a pretty fun game. Even with all of its faults. And yes, the difficulty is quite absurd in some sections, but like many games of the time, they expect you to be using and abusing the quicksave function.

I'm at the manor house level, and once I figured out that you can walk with shift to sneak up on enemies, stealth became a lot more playable. I had no idea what I was doing on the Uboat level so I just killed everyone. If only I had known then...

But yeah, it's a lot more fun if you don't take it seriously. The weapons feel great, and that's all that matters. The Thompson and MP40 in particular are super fun to use. Maybe I'm a masochist for playing on hard, but I don't find it that big of a deal. It's just a lot of trial and error. Knowing where the enemies are, and being able to make your shots.

Almost every sentence written by the OP is hyperbole and he talks about cheating.

Patience and humility would go a long way in improving your hobby experience. Maybe it is time to leave this insignificant mainstream shooter and focus on games you actually like. My life quality has improved a lot since I stopped tearing my hair out over how Outcast both bores me to death AND pushes me into an irrational hateful frenzy at the same time.

That felt just like being sneered at by some Dawkins worshipping uber-smug humanist in an argument about Darwinism.

BTW - I HAVE left this " insignificant (very well put IMO) mainstream shooter", I've finished the main game + the 2 expansions with a mixture of normal play and (eek!) cheating..... and with the absence of any other expansions or mods won't likely be coming back.
Therefore you can now go and be happy Sufyan!

This game is best when playing online.

I just begin to play the game (literally, my first 8 hours) and must be with you in certain points of above, the AI of the allies is dumb, at least only one mission requires they to survive (and in the firsts one I think they are immortal). The distant soldiers voices yeah... make me shoot some times.

The d-day is an exception, that by "realism" need to be a hell (Well, at least the mission is in the others beach where the tanks truly arrive to the coast for protecting the soldiers). But truly, is hard to understand how reach the sand without dying (and I think there is no one who not curse the soldier that died with the flares)

The suddenly soldiers that appears... yeah, the mission where you got inside of the mansion with the alarms... is that, I'm with you, I even saw how a soldier spawned in front of me (I swear, the game force me to be a camper)

Right now I'm having a issue in the Sniper's Last Stand, there is a literally invisible sniper, after many deaths and youtube walktrough and being unable to find the sniper I activated the god mode, and waala, the shoots come from nowhere, not sure if its a bug (i.e. a soldier who stay behind a collision wall) or is normal (Though youtube players didn't had that ghost) By that time, I only remember Red Faction as the only FPS who take that in the gameplay (Though could be totally wrong)
And I'm not sure why "claustrophobic", I mean, the houses are immense, (or I'm totally lost to the wanted meaning for the word in the games?)
The vehicles armor, I think so are related that was not the norm in that time. I think that is why you has infinite saves, because this is like Dark souls, "Prepare to die" I don't remember many FPS games from that time that take the stealth approaches... oh wait, Deus EX, ok, you win, the Stealth is a joke.
But the strange angles, the problem come from the animation from the soldiers and programming. I have noticed, a soldier in front one door can kill me when I'm in the wall (OUCH) that is truly a flaw in the game design.

The Alt-tab to windows mean they overwrite the keyboards interruption for the game, as should always work (By example BG games that are older) and by that time the thing was very stable, not sure why they did it and probably is not a good sign. Well, I'm using Win 8.1 and didn't had any problem with the game running, not even a single crash

I personally will give the game two or three stars once I finished it. I like it, but truly you are going to die multiple times (I'm playing in the hardest mode) and in some levels there are abuses of spawn system and the AI has real issues. But I love the physic of the weapons, though the sniper aim seem to be perfect.

Glad someone else agrees Belsirk! Makes a change from fanboys lecturing me! :)

You will find the Breakthrough and Spearhead expansions much better than Allied Assault - but still be prepared for some very stupid parts, have the cheats ready for when you really need them!