Activision has Call of Duty. Ubisoft has Tom Clancy. Sony has Killzone. Microsoft has Halo. Nintendo has Metroid. All great franchises that have gone on to sell millions of copies. Like the other big names EA too has created a worldwide phenomenon; Medal of Honor.
The series started on the PlayStation and has created several hits that cemented the Shooter genre in the gaming industry. However it was always about World War II and after spending 15 years worth of games, the setting has grown pretty stale. After Medal of Honor: Airborne’s disappointing sales and critical response the series has gone into hibernation, until now. With EA Los Angeles creating the single-player portion and DICE (Battlefield Series) creating the Multi-Player portion Medal of Honor already sounds like a guaranteed success; or is it?
At E3 2010 EA finally took the lid of the Medal of Honor reboot and gave us the first gameplay footage of the game ever. Set in modern Afghanistan, the player becomes a Tier One operator who is charged with some of the most dangerous and covert operations within the war. While the campaign and missions are completely fictional, the settings aren’t. Every map, every piece of terrain you step on is modeled after the real place. The map Kabul Ruins is pretty much an exact replica of the city Kabul.
The beta has 2 maps with only one map per gametype. Team Assault and Team Mission are the name of the game and each offers a different yet very familiar way to play. When playing Medal of Honor you can’t help but feel that it is a hybrid of the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises. Button layout is a mixture of both games with each lending something to the layout. Unlike both however, the game has a slower pace to it. The characters move much slower then both series making the game feel a little less like an arcade shooter. Like the other games though it is extremely easy to get killed. Standing out in the open is just not a good idea, although the Kabul City Ruins map offers a lot of CQC rather then open areas. The death problem isn’t as heavy as games like MW2 though as unlike in those games you do not have super-vision in Medal of Honor. Here it is extremely hard to see far ahead of you even with sights on the guns. This makes aiming at people in a distance tremendously difficult, but it can also make it easier to escape a quick burst of gunfire determined to hit your skull.
There are 3 classes within the game with some customization. Rifleman, Spec Ops, and Sniper classes. Rifleman gets Assault rifles, Light Machine Guns, and grenade launchers for his assault rifles. Spec Ops get Semi-Automatic rifles, shotguns, and rocket launchers. Snipers get sniper rifles. All classes come with a standard pistol and a grenade and can be tricked out with scopes, suppressors, and all other gear that has been seen in lots of other shooters. What makes Medal of Honor unique is just how much more in-depth the customization goes. Ammo can now be tricked out with different types offering more power at the cost of range or vice-versa. The game also focuses squarely on upgrading what you do have. In the beta, it seemed very clear that the main weapon and the eventual second weapons received after leveling up are the only guns unlocked in the game. For example the American Rifleman starts with an M16 and upgrades are made for it in later levels, however aside from the M249 SAW, he cannot get any more weapons. This however is still a beta and more weapons could become available in the full retail version.
Into the game we find Team Assault and Team Mission. Team Assault is Team Deathmatch. Kabul City Ruins offers up a pretty good entry point for the game. It’s a map that requires careful planning due to tight corners. There are many choke points enemies and allies can use. DICE wanted to create a more realistic scenario in the shooter and they have defiantly succeeded. The matches are always pretty equal because the balance of power is still always shifting because whoever holds certain points of the map controls it. Even without there being locations to capture, Team Assault still manages to capture that frantic feeling Battlefields Conquest mode always had.
The next game mode is Team Mission. In order to think of Team Mission correctly imagine Rush Mode in Bad Company 2. One team (Americans) tries to capture specific points while the defenders (Taliban) attempt to knock off all of the enemy’s life tickets. The Americans are always the attackers while the Taliban always defend. The map is called Helmand Valley which is a huge map filled with trees, sand, and mountains populating the background. Battles in this map can be hectic as vehicles are added to the map. Vehicles however are not the powerhouses they are in the Battlefield series, in fact they really only aid. They can clear paths and do damage, but they also can’t take much from Rocket launchers. Team Mission is satisfying, but it isn’t as popular as Team Assault limiting playtime. Things can be disorienting at first because there is little instruction on how the match works but is easy to get the hang of after a while.
To ensure that battles remain hectic and never boring, DICE has implemented some smart ideas. The first is that the maps are expertly designed to fit the 12vs12 ratio. It never feels like you’re searching for a while to find an enemy. The second is that respawn times are virtually non-existent. Usually you just see an animation of you dying, a picture of the person’s loadout, and then back to the class screen. It’s extremely easy and takes the frustration out of dying and then waiting to rejoin the frag-fest.
Visually Medal of Honor doesn’t look bad, but its nothing spectacular either. Some textures can look a little muddy and the textures on both sides blend into scenery a little too much. There are also a lot of repeating textures at the moment for both side’s models. This also leads into the animation problems. Animations in the game are extremely stiff to the point that it’s a bit uncomfortable to watch them. Death animations are extremely painful and highly unrealistic with the model actually holding his hands up with his head arched up. Pretty weird. There is time to fix all of this however as EA and DICE still have some pretty good time.
Killstreaks make an appearance in the form of Scorechains. In the beta, all that is available is the ability to activate radar or the ability to select a spot to rain mortar fire upon. Medal of Honor does a lot of things that other shooters have been doing for a while, but it makes its own mark upon the genre in some positive ways. Hopefully EA and DICE can go in and fix all the quirks and I’m sure we can have a fantastic game on our hands. Medal of Honor is due out on the PS3, 360, and PC on October 12th.
