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Medal Of Honor
Back in 1999, when World War 2 games weren’t a dime a dozen and the Playstation was ruling the roost, a little game called “Medal of Honor” made its debut on said console. I had my doubts about a first person shooter on console, but was soon hooked on the game after I overcame the learning curve of playing with a gamepad instead of keyboard/mouse combo. The series spawned many successful sequels across various platforms. The Call of Duty franchise, created by Infinity Ward, has taken an iron grip on the market in recent years. Interestingly enough the company was formed by ex-members of “2015” who had a hand in creating Medal of Honor Allied Assault. With a lot of history behind it and a genre that is dominated by big names, EA has opted for a reboot of the franchise. The question is, can it recapture its former glory?
Leaving the trenches of World War 2 behind, Medal of Honor is set in a modern day Afghanistan. Enemies consist of Taliban and Al-Quada forces while you take control of different characters. Most of the game is spent in the boots of a counter-terrorist operative, called “Rabbit,” but you’ll see the fight from the eyes of a Delta Force member, Army ranger, and even an Apache gunner. This adds some welcome variety to proceedings and adds more npcs to flesh out the story. Speaking of story, I’m still not sure what the overall plot of the game is supposed to be. There’s plenty of Hollywood style cut-scenes of commanding officers making bad judgment calls from their cushy U.S. offices, while men in the field are hurling themselves into danger to protect their comrades. While playing the missions, the objectives are always crystal clear and lots of chatter keeps you updated, but beyond that, it’s a mystery. Judging by the large amounts of enemies that hound you every step of the way, the Taliban could have found a way to clone terrorists for all I know. The missions mostly take place in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan with occasional forays into towns, caves and enemy strongholds. Some snowy areas and one or two night missions break up the endless dusty brown visuals. It’s not that the graphics are not good, because they are, but it is far from spectacular. The detail on the uniforms and weapons are meticulous, but the environments are nothing to write home about. It doesn’t help that it feels like you are being led by the nose through the levels, either. You can flank enemies during skirmishes, but forget about any kind of exploring. I know that its just the way that the genre has evolved, but it still feels very linear and very scripted. The screen is free of any clutter, so if you want to see the HOD you have to press the “H” key to bring it up. Overall, the visuals are what you would expect of this type of game. Its nice that you can at least see your character’s limbs when helped up by other squad members or when you perform a close combat kill. You’ll be surrounded by team members at all times and they are quite a talkative bunch. At least the voice acting is decent, and all the military jargon being bandied about makes it sound very authentic. These guys bring their part in battles, but for the most part they are just there as walking ammunition supply points. There isn’t a huge weapon selection and you are encouraged to stick with what you have, instead of scavenging enemy weapons, but I didn’t have any problems with this. You get to ride a ATV at one point in the game, and while it isn’t on rails like the helicopter segment, its still pretty restrictive. The night missions look a bit drab and the stealth sections they contain are implemented very halfheartedly. Breaking cover and mowing down foes brings virtually no penalty and since you can just crouch behind a wall until your health regenerates, playing the game like a gung-ho action movie is quite possible. This is all fine, but unfortunately done before by Call of Duty, which doesn’t help this game’s cause much. At only five hours, the single player campaign lacks a bit of punch, although it has a few tense “last stand” moments. Like I said, the voice acting is quite good and complimented nicely by some authentic sound effects. When grenades go off near you, there’s a nice concussion effect and explosions sound suitably meaty. The music is quite minimal, but good nonetheless. There’s a lot of ethnic as well as orchestral elements which delivers a nice atmosphere. The controls are fine, but definitely have that “console port” feel to it. There seems to be no weapon recoil, so killing enemies is simply a case of pointing and clicking. The multiplayer mode runs on a completely different game engine than the main game, and once again has more than a passing resemblance to the Call of duty franchise. It also generated a bit of controversy with the ability to play as the Taliban. They have since been renamed the “Opposing Force” but the damage has already been done. First person shooter fans are known to be slavishly devoted to their game of choice (think Call of Duty vs. Battlefield) so Medal of Honor had a lot of hopes and expectations riding on it. At the end of the day it was a decent effort that was fun to play while it lasted. Medal of Honor is a pretty by the numbers first person shooter. Its unlikely that it will lure away fans from the other major franchises, but its an interesting diversion all the same. Hopefully the franchise will take bigger risks for the next installment and deliver something truly spectacular.
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System Requirements
TAGS: Medal Of Honor, Tier 1, Delta Force, Army Rangers, Apache, Afghanistan
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