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Platform
Xbox 360
Genre
Shooter
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Developer
Danger Close /
DICE
ESRB
M (Mature)
Released
October 12, 2010
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- Realism and historical accuracy
are refreshing
- Highly tactical multiplayer gameplay
- Overall high production values
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- Online player balance issues
- Questionable scenario design choices
- EA Online Pass
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Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360)
Review: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (360)
Review: Metro 2033 (360)
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Medal
of Honor
Score: 5.5 / 10
It has been almost a decade since the
United States invaded Afghanistan, subsequent to 9/11 and the Taliban's
refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden. It has been long, bloody, and
filled with not only tragedy but heroism. It is in this theatre of
conflict, what many had claimed for years was a "forgotten war" after
the invasion of Iraq, that the newest iteration of Medal of Honor takes
place.
Set sometime during the early days of the invasion, MoH's single-player
campaign takes us through a cinematic storyline involving two different
Advanced Force Operation teams, a squad of U.S. Army Rangers, and a
brief sequence with a pair
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complain about with regards to the visual aspects of the game. Character
models are well detailed, as are weapon and vehicle models. Effects such
as smoke and swirling dust help add to the depth of realism in the game,
as do the visual enhancements of thermographic and night vision modes
when the player has the opportunity to use them. While there weren't any
obvious visual problems in the single-player campaign, there were
noticeable problems in the multiplayer component, including clipping
issues, model pop-up, and a bit of texture cracking here and there.
During one multiplayer match, it was particularly troublesome when the
crosshairs of my scope on a sniper rifle wouldn't display at all until
after I had fired a shot and right before the animation to work the bolt
commenced. Needless to say, it was an impediment to my effectiveness for
the team.
As with the graphics, sound has little to provide in the way of
complaint. Weapon sounds are distinctive and well done, the voice work
is top notch in terms of clarity and characterization for the single
player mode, and the musical score being evocative without being
overwhelming. If there's any complaint on the single player side of
things, it's packaging in Linkin Park's "The Catalyst" as the end credit
song. I like Linkin Park quite a bit, but tacking on one of their
singles and not having any other songs from similar artists just makes
it feel like a cheap tie-in. Multiplayer fares a bit better, with the
only problem that I observed being a small issue with my headset not
seeming to pick up my voice properly from time to time. Usually, leaving
a match and going into a new one resolved the problem.
It is in the gameplay that Medal of Honor does some really good things
and some really stupid things. For the single player campaign, the
developers take us through the early days of the Afghan invasion when
Special Forces units, the fabled "Tier 1 operators," roamed the rough
countryside of Kandahar and Paktia looking for Osama bin Laden and the
hiding places where he and his recently ousted Taliban supporters were
laying up. From there, the action builds to a fever pitch as Rangers,
SEALs, Delta Force operators, and a pair of Apache attack helicopters
move through the mountains of southern Afghanistan, culminating in a
series of events which appear to be loosely based on the real life
events of Operation Anaconda, staged in and around the Shahi-Kot Valley
in March 2002. I give high marks for Danger Close's efforts to make the
single player campaign fast paced and engrossing. However, I have to
also penalize them for delivering a campaign that's way too short. With
nine years worth of material, they could have given players a much
better view of the Afghan War and the role of Special Forces in that
war. Instead, we get an abridged history of one major operation with a
lot of the meat cut away. If there was any one mission that I
simultaneously enjoyed and could have done without, it was the short
level playing as the Apache gunship designated "Gunfighter Six." The
sequence itself was fun, but it was far too short, and the only level of
its kind. It was a tease, really, which pretty much sums up the whole
single player campaign. At the end of the campaign, when the credits
start rolling, it feels not like you've had an engaging experience, but
that you've had an engaging experience dangled in front of you which
never gets delivered.
Some will argue that Medal of Honor's main selling point isn't the
single player game but the multiplayer. Here too, we see results which
are very satisfying and results which are totally unsatisfying. The
gameplay is not quite so over the top like Modern Warfare 2, and it
definitely pays to have people on your team who know how to work well
together. There is definitely a strong tactical feel to the maps and the
various objectives of the gameplay modes which is a definite change of
pace from the pure run-and-gun of Call of Duty.
Players can choose one of the three classes, usually switchable after
being killed, with which to do battle. Advancement is made on a class
basis rather than a player basis, so a player who has reached the
maximum level in the sniper class won't necessarily be as dangerous if
he hasn't been keeping up on the rifleman or SpecOps class. As a player
goes up in a class, new weapons and weapons modifications become
available. Certain maps are more conducive to one class or another, so
the opportunity for a balanced rate of progression through the ranks is
certainly possible. The problem here is that the rate of progression is
painfully slow for new players. The chief culprit for this is the lack
of dedicated servers. Without the servers, the players are thrown into a
jumble which might lead to a well balanced mix of roughly equivalent
ranked players and classes or a bloodbath of low ranked players being
slaughtered by higher ranked players. While the map designs themselves
are quite well done, there are some questions about the gameplay modes
that leave me scratching my head. I cannot fathom why the Objective Raid
scenario is locked with respect to the defenders always being the
Coalition forces and the attackers always being the Taliban (or OPFOR as
they're referred to in the game). By the same token, I cannot understand
why the Taliban are always the defenders in the Combat Mission scenario
and the Coalition forces are the attackers. The two scenarios are
distinctly different from each other, yet there's not any realistic
reason I can discern outside of designer fiat that an Objective Raid
scenario couldn't be run where the Taliban has to defend their two
pieces of equipment, nor is there any equally realistic reason that the
Coalition couldn't be require to hold off a large scale assault. Locking
down aggressor and defender forces in this fashion robs the game of some
perfectly good gameplay value.
As for the "free" DLC pack that adds a "last man standing" gameplay
mode, it's a fun and to me highly realistic scenario which nicely mimics
the life-or-death nature of a combat operation. I just wish you didn't
have to use EA's idiotic Online Pass to be able to download it. It
should have been included in the actual release, not held back and
dangled in front of players to justify EA's banditry.
While the developers took a commendable risk to bring Medal of Honor
into the current era, and are to be praised for trying to bring us a
more realistic experience than the competition, the effort suffers from
the overly short single player campaign, questionable scenario
structures and player balancing issues in multiplayer, and the
continuing stain of EA's Online Pass scheme. Fans of the series and
those looking for something less over the top than Modern Warfare 2 can
find a lot to like in the game, but they need to be aware of the very
strange limitations within its Standard Operating Procedures.
- Axel Cushing
(November 19, 2010) |
