Medal Of Honor

This week I've been getting into Medal of Honor (that should be Honour, shouldn't it?) and Fallout: New Vegas; however Fallout is gonna take more than a few days to get the experience that I know it's capable of. Medal of Honour, on the other hand, is like many other current day first person shooters, and was over quite quickly.

Medal of Honor is a reboot of EA's war franchise that was primarily focused on World War II. This years reinvention of the series takes place in Modern times, taking place during Warfare in Afghanistan. Not unlike other FPS Franchises.

STORY
The single player campaign follows various American (Allied) soldiers during the war in Afghanistan, taking place directly after the September 11th attacks. Players control Tier 1 operator "Deuce", Navy Spec Forces "Rabbit", Army Ranger "Specialist Dante Adams" and (for one mission) Apache gunner Captain Brad "Hawk" Hawkins.

The story is an entertaining one at the very least, but adheres to many Hollywood style cliches like the out-of-touch General who makes bad calls, the Colonel who disobeys orders because hes a "good guy" and the badass, yet still sarcastically comedic soldiers who are fighting a losing war.

This would be all well and good, if MoH hadn't been billed as a game "about the soldiers". Theres so many unrealistic and action movie-esque scripted events, that you get the sense that EA might not have thought the real soldiers were that interesting. But I digress, with all that, it comes up as a really exciting campaign.
And at the end of the day, would you prefer a gritty, realistic story where none of the Tier one operators communicate or a game with well written dialogue and awesome set pieces?

PRESENTATION
Medal of Honor looks absolutely amazing. Seeing this for the first time almost blew my mind. The particle effects and lighting effects are outstanding, and it runs really smoothly; even with all that's going on on-screen. I very rarely saw any evidence of a drop in frame rate, and the overall performance of the game was smooth.

That's not to say it didn't have any problems. I often noticed some texture problems, mainly in the pre-mission in-game cutscenes. These were rare, but pretty obvious when they happen.

The sound effects are possibly my favourite thing about this game, which may sound weird, but the action around your character is all the more real to you, if your senses transport you there; and the amazing sound effects really help with that.


GAMEPLAY
Medal of Honor plays out just like any other Modern War game out these days. You can crouch, go prone, aim down the sights, shoot, jump, melee attack... it's all there, and the controls work nicely.
The peek and shoot mechanic was a nice touch, allowing you a more tactical approach to fighting.
This must be mentioned; guns have a decent weight to them, and firing them feels as realistic as it ever will in a game.

However, the tactical approach goes out the window when you realise that your opponents don't act like real enemies. Instead of laying down covering fire and trying to flank you, they maintain their positions and pop in and out of cover. It turns into a game of Taliban whack-a-mole.

Some parts in the game do feel really awesome to play through though, whether its sneaking around an enemy village without getting killed, or laying down cover fire on an entrenched enemy position so your squad can advance.
Without giving anything away, the game puts you on the edge of your seat while defending a surrounded position and doesn't let you sit back till it looks like its too late.

In short, the single player campaign is fantastic. Not as "out there" as certain shooters that fling you over cliffs on snow mobiles, but very enthralling all the same.

The multiplayer gameplay deserves a mention separately from the campaign, as they were developed by different companies. EA DICE developed MoH's multiplayer, and they're best known for battlefield: bad company 2; apparently a stellar game.

Now, I'm an avid MW2 player, and didn't go into this game thinking it could match up; but I was quite happily surprised. Not only does MoH equal Modern Warfare 2 in many aspects, it surpasses it in some too. The epic sound design and visuals remain from the campaign; but because of the many players capable of joining one game; you get a chaotic, intense battlefield like none you will find in many other games.

Though the game caters more for Snipers in many of the maps, the class system is pretty balanced on the most part. Due to the class system, you'll find more people are adhering to a specific role, instead of camping or noob tubing.

REPLAYABILITY
With an outstanding multiplayer, and trophies/achievements galore; many gamers will spend hours and hours on EA's reboot of their classic series. If that's not enough, theres also Tier 1 mode, which pits you against the clock in an effort to finish the campaign levels on the highest difficulty.

Not for the faint of heart, i assure you.

OVERVIEW
With its amazing multiplay, entertaining single player campaign, and a bunch of OH MY GOD moments, I'm happy to say that Medal of Honour's reboot lives up to the franchise's former glory. It might not be a Modern Warfare, but at least it's storyline wasn't some crazy James Bond/Cold War conspiracy theorist's wet dream.


Next week, I should have a review of New Vegas, but at the moment, its shaping up to be extremely similar to my Fallout 3 review. Feel free to read that one till next week. See you next time!