Medal of Honor was inevitable. With the unrivaled success of Modern Warfare it was apparent that other publishers weren’t going to let the latest money-printing-fad in first-person shooter games pass them by without taking a crack at it. Medal of Honor attempts to set its self apart as the serious and realistic alternative to the bombastic military-fiction of Activision’s games. It is set in the real-world war of Afghanistan and emphasizes a respect for the troops. It isn’t entirely successful; the single-player campaign is short and the consequences do not feel as impactful as they were intended to be. On the other end of the disc, the multiplayer is fun, but very familiar.
The single-player campaign motivation is muddy at best, though I suppose that is a problem with the real-life war as much as it is with the game. The goal – as one of the characters puts it – is to “keep killing motherfuckers†and “lay down the hate.†At the midway point the motivation changes to a rescue mission, which probably should have been more emotional than it was. Part of the problem is that the game transitions from one set of characters to another and it is hard to keep track of who is who sometimes.
It is hard not to notice the issues with choosing Afghanistan as the setting for the war. It is a ten year old war that the majority of Americans do not think about and do not understand. That sentiment translates to the game. There were affecting portions of story, and I did feel a deep sadness for the troops that are stuck fighting only for the man and woman next to them and not for some greater purpose.
The gameplay is a mixed bag, but for the most part it lands on the positive. Guns feel snappy and responsive, and shooting enemies feels satisfying. That is a big part of a game like this, and Danger Close (the game’s single-player developer) did an excellent job of competing with Infinity Ward on that front.
Variety is also the spice of war. The campaign is fairly short, but it feels even shorter because the pacing is well maintained with varied gameplay sections. The variety will give players the chance to use a long distance sniper rifle, man a helicopter-gun, and ride ATVs across the rocky terrain. The standard combat is also filled with variety thanks to the shifting player perspective. As a Tier-1 Operative, missions are quieter and filled with more precision, but as an Army Ranger the game gives tons of enemies to be mowed down in big battle sequences. A highlight includes trying to hold a position as hundreds of Taliban attack and destroy the hut that acts as a shelter.
The mix in the mixed bag comes from some annoying scripting issues and simply not feeling like the game can let you off a leash without fear of breaking something. There is a very specific path that the player is supposed to follow – sometimes it branches – but if you try to stray from that branch you will meet a nice invisible wall. I often times tried hop up a step that was obviously scalable and was again met with an invisible wall. If the game wants you to wait for the rest of your AI controlled team, then you will have to wait before proceding.
Getting caught on objects was another annoying aspect of the game. Eventually I became accustomed to the game world, but it was still frustrating to think that I couldn’t try to walk over a 6-inch high object because my Navy SEAL’s foot might get stuck.
I was also killed about three times for sprinting into a duck. The duck button will cause the player to slide forward and into place if it is preceded by a sprint, but it doesn’t snap-to-cover. So if you hit the duck button a bit late there is chance that the character will simply slide alongside the rock and into the open where he will instantly be killed.
The scripting wasn’t a problem for most of the game, but it did break down at least once on me. I came to an area with several enemies and my AI partner warned me that we should wait for them to split up. The first time I waited and killed the closest guy who was alone, but I still tripped some invisible alarm. I loaded it up again and this time waited for a long time to see if I was supposed to wait from some cue from the AI, but he just sat there saying nothing. I loaded this section several times and I never figured out how to do it stealthily.
Another instance led to an invincible enemy who could not be killed until he finished his script. A big problem with the scripting is that it simply is too noticeable. If an NPC crosses point X, then it will trigger script Y. These things could be hidden behind a few more smoke and mirrors.
The graphics are detailed and the frame rate is a steady 30. This isn’t the best looking game on the market, but it is far from the worst.
Occasionally it was very hard to tell what was going on. Get used to the AI telling you about someone firing an RPG at you and you having no idea where it is coming from. The animation on the other hand is very well done; again, it isn’t the best but it more than gets the job done.
Multiplayer is a completely different animal. We haven’t yet had a chance to get significant time with the muliplayer portion now that there are more than 12 people on the servers, but things are essentially what they seem.
There are going to be people who love Medal of Honor‘s multiplayer, but it doesn’t bring a whole lot new to the table. What it does bring is a fun experience with all the staples of addictive multiplayer shooting. Ranked progression, different loadouts, special actions (or killstreaks), and super satisfying combat. However, there isn’t a whole lot new that DICE (the game’s multiplayer developer) hasn’t already done in Battlefield Bad Company 2.
New isn’t a requirement for good, and this is the case for Medal of Honor. The maps are well designed and provide Call of Duty scale with many Battlefield elements and modes.
The biggest issue for the multiplayer is that Halo: Reach just arrived and Call of Duty: Black Ops is only just around the corner. The harshest thing I can say is that it feels like DICE is still competing with Modern Warfare 2 and maybe even only Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As a whole package it just won’t be able to compete. This shouldn’t stop many fans from having a blast with it, but on paper it can’t stack up.
One thing this game does do that is better is throw players in a pre-game warmup where kills and deaths don’t count while the server waits to match up other players. I didn’t notice this when the servers were full, but when there were only a handful of people playing it was miles better than staring at a loading screen.
Also, Playstation 3 fans who feel burned by Call of Duty‘s close relationship with Microsoft may lean towards EA’s game, as they have apparently cultivated a similar relationship with Sony.
Medal of Honor is a likeable game, and had it come out in this form 1 or 2 years ago it might stand a better chance of pleasing fans than it does now. As it stands today, with a lackluster campaign and a “me too†multiplayer, the game just won’t be able to stand toe-to-toe with the other games in its genre. Â
