Medal of Honor
Let us just reboot the series....for a nice crash and burn.
Posted October 14, 2010
The Medal of Honor series have been around for 11 years and always been focused in the World War II timeline. I’ve played countless MOH games: Allied Assault, Pacific Assault, Airborne, even the original on the first Playstation with good ole Lt. Jimmy Paterson. It’s no surprise that EA made the decision to change the timeline in the Medal of Honor series as the World War II genre has probably been explored fully at this point. With the Medal of Honor reboot they released this week, the series now takes place around our current conflict in Afghanistan, but right after the September 11th attacks. Of course, EA has moved to a time that’s populated with competitors in the Call of Duty series and even their own properties. They promised that Medal of Honor would have a level of realism that the other games lack. With this promise also came a bevy of controversy around the game due to the fact that people would be playing as the Taliban in multiplayer matches. While the developer, Danger Close, changed the name of the Taliban to “Opposing Force”, the game isn’t being sold on military bases, not surprising due to the subject matter.
But there’s a great story in here somewhere, right? The presentation is typical EA style, bombastic and over-the-top, thus negating the promise of a more realistic feel right off the bat. The narrative teeters on clichéd drivel, rife with idiotic generals making executive decisions despite the blatant stupidity of their actions and "hardcore" special ops soldiers thumbing their nose to the man to do what's right. Danger Close is pretty clueless on how to create endearing characters that you invest a little bit of yourself in while playing through the campaign. Their use of scripted sequences would give a brainless Michael Bay production a run for its money. I also hated being tossed in between becoming slightly invested in the story, and then ripped right back out again to wander the level looking for the stupid trigger spot that would start the next scripted sequence. It doesn’t hold a candle to Infinity Ward’s knack for storytelling in the Modern Warfare series.
But there’s a great, squad based shooter in here somewhere, right? The shooting mechanics are solid, but it really feels like you are an army of one most of the time. Your squad does a decent job of staying out of the way and providing all the ammunition you need to survive, but doesn’t provide a huge amount of support on the offensive front. Of course, this really doesn’t matter with enemy A.I. that hasn’t evolved in years. Different from other recent shooters, the enemy doesn’t work together to flank your position, but rather sits behind cover and pops out every 15 second to spray some bullets from their AK-47. Hey, perhaps how they actually fight in Afghanistan (yeah right...), but it's something that video game shooters evolved from 5 years ago. The Taliban soldiers are content to wait for a headshot to take them out. It’s a shooting gallery that doesn’t offer much a challenge to anyone that’s played a FPS in the past few years.
But there’s a ton of polish that went into QA’ing the game, right? There are some nasty bugs in the game that can’t handle due to AI teammates not triggering the scripted sequences or checkpoint reloading that breaks the scripted sequences. Any time that I had to suppress fire on an objective so your team could move forward, I was praying that my friendly teammates would trigger whatever scripted sequence that was supposed to happen next. If that didn’t happen, you are left trying to figure out what the next objective is for the next ten minutes while your teammates stand around. The only recourse is to reload the entire level and it was infuriating!
But at least the multiplayer modes are entertaining, right? The multiplayer is definitely the best aspect of the new Medal of Honor of the game, likely because it was handled by DICE, a completely different developer (that also handles the Bad Company series). I’ll definitely give them props for providing dedicated server support and the leveling system for unlocking new weapons. Unfortunately, the game’s large maps skew the advantage heavily to spawn camping snipers. With only three character classes to choose from, most matches I played were just tons of snipers laying patiently for a roving special ops or rifleman to enter their crosshairs. But if you like playing as a sniper, you will probably have a ball with the Medal of Honor multiplayer. Just don’t get surprised when you get booted from a server for spawn camping for the last hour. This style of annoying play is most prevalent in the Team Assault and Sector Control modes. Combat Mission and Objective Raid are more balanced, mostly because the goal is to take control of points rather than rack up a death toll. Multiplayer performance was typically decent, once again depending on the connection quality of the server.
In the end, you are getting a buggy, 4 to 5 hour single player campaign and multiplayer that doesn’t do enough to define itself compared to the vast array of competitors, ala Modern Warfare 2, Bad Company 2, etc… Add in a clichéd narrative (without the realism that EA promised in their marketing) that doesn’t make you empathize with any of soldiers and Danger Close has a big problem convincing EA to give them a crack at the sequel.
I can’t tell you how much it frustrates me to see the Medal of Honor series devolve in quality over the years. I remember playing MOH games for hours and hours before the Call of Duty series hit the shelves and loving every game. Since then, every subsequent release of the series makes me shed another tear for a once great series. The new Medal of Honor reboot for the PC, as well as the Playstation 3 & Xbox 360, should probably be avoided; at best, rented. It’s also probably a good idea to wait and see how Call of Duty: Black Ops turns out (just a few weeks away).
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But there’s a great story in here somewhere, right? The presentation is typical EA style, bombastic and over-the-top, thus negating the promise of a more realistic feel right off the bat. The narrative teeters on clichéd drivel, rife with idiotic generals making executive decisions despite the blatant stupidity of their actions and "hardcore" special ops soldiers thumbing their nose to the man to do what's right. Danger Close is pretty clueless on how to create endearing characters that you invest a little bit of yourself in while playing through the campaign. Their use of scripted sequences would give a brainless Michael Bay production a run for its money. I also hated being tossed in between becoming slightly invested in the story, and then ripped right back out again to wander the level looking for the stupid trigger spot that would start the next scripted sequence. It doesn’t hold a candle to Infinity Ward’s knack for storytelling in the Modern Warfare series.
But there’s a great, squad based shooter in here somewhere, right? The shooting mechanics are solid, but it really feels like you are an army of one most of the time. Your squad does a decent job of staying out of the way and providing all the ammunition you need to survive, but doesn’t provide a huge amount of support on the offensive front. Of course, this really doesn’t matter with enemy A.I. that hasn’t evolved in years. Different from other recent shooters, the enemy doesn’t work together to flank your position, but rather sits behind cover and pops out every 15 second to spray some bullets from their AK-47. Hey, perhaps how they actually fight in Afghanistan (yeah right...), but it's something that video game shooters evolved from 5 years ago. The Taliban soldiers are content to wait for a headshot to take them out. It’s a shooting gallery that doesn’t offer much a challenge to anyone that’s played a FPS in the past few years.
But there’s a ton of polish that went into QA’ing the game, right? There are some nasty bugs in the game that can’t handle due to AI teammates not triggering the scripted sequences or checkpoint reloading that breaks the scripted sequences. Any time that I had to suppress fire on an objective so your team could move forward, I was praying that my friendly teammates would trigger whatever scripted sequence that was supposed to happen next. If that didn’t happen, you are left trying to figure out what the next objective is for the next ten minutes while your teammates stand around. The only recourse is to reload the entire level and it was infuriating!
But at least the multiplayer modes are entertaining, right? The multiplayer is definitely the best aspect of the new Medal of Honor of the game, likely because it was handled by DICE, a completely different developer (that also handles the Bad Company series). I’ll definitely give them props for providing dedicated server support and the leveling system for unlocking new weapons. Unfortunately, the game’s large maps skew the advantage heavily to spawn camping snipers. With only three character classes to choose from, most matches I played were just tons of snipers laying patiently for a roving special ops or rifleman to enter their crosshairs. But if you like playing as a sniper, you will probably have a ball with the Medal of Honor multiplayer. Just don’t get surprised when you get booted from a server for spawn camping for the last hour. This style of annoying play is most prevalent in the Team Assault and Sector Control modes. Combat Mission and Objective Raid are more balanced, mostly because the goal is to take control of points rather than rack up a death toll. Multiplayer performance was typically decent, once again depending on the connection quality of the server.
Graphics
- Visually, the game is gorgeous to look at, both the character models and the sweeping grassy landscapes. You do need a hefty graphics card to crank up all the little graphic tweaks. Even more stunning, the particle effects (such as weather changes or dust whipping through the air) are probably the best I’ve seen in a FPS. Just watch a building scatter all over the place when hit with an explosion and see if you aren’t impressed. The only caveat to such detail is that you will still seen texture loading problems and a occasional hiccup in the framerate. I tweaked the visuals down a good bit to see if the game would also run on my older Dell laptop and it can be done, just with great sacrifice to the resolution, shadows, particle effects, AA, etc… You are probably better off picking up the console version if you only have a laptop to play this on.
Audio
- The sound work is just as phenomenal as the visuals, but you really need a 5.1 surround sound system to get the full effects of the bass-heavy explosions and the directional ambient audio of bullets whizzing past your team. The heavy weaponry packs a punch and that mounted heavy machine gun is going to make the cat run from the room in terror. The voice work is just as excellent (although the script occasionally stinks it up) and the chatter over the radio is helpful. The musical choices also fit the game, with the exception of “The Catalyst” by Linkin Park. Ugh, talk about a terrible track to feature with the game.
Conclusion
In the end, you are getting a buggy, 4 to 5 hour single player campaign and multiplayer that doesn’t do enough to define itself compared to the vast array of competitors, ala Modern Warfare 2, Bad Company 2, etc… Add in a clichéd narrative (without the realism that EA promised in their marketing) that doesn’t make you empathize with any of soldiers and Danger Close has a big problem convincing EA to give them a crack at the sequel.
I can’t tell you how much it frustrates me to see the Medal of Honor series devolve in quality over the years. I remember playing MOH games for hours and hours before the Call of Duty series hit the shelves and loving every game. Since then, every subsequent release of the series makes me shed another tear for a once great series. The new Medal of Honor reboot for the PC, as well as the Playstation 3 & Xbox 360, should probably be avoided; at best, rented. It’s also probably a good idea to wait and see how Call of Duty: Black Ops turns out (just a few weeks away).
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum