Nov 2, 2010
Edited by Capersaway
If Medal of Honor is merely copying its more successful younger brother (Call of Duty), then the imitation does not resemble the more recent chaotic, one-note games. For me, that is where the single player portion of Medal of Honor succeeds; returning the military shooter to a place that doesn’t feel like one long grind of ever increasing explosions in place of a coherent plot.
Medal of Honor, unfortunately, isn’t a successful single player game. For all of its lofty ambitions, the portrayal of the conflict in Afghanistan is poorly contrived. References to incompetent leaders and their long-suffering, capable subordinates are well intentioned but are handled with the skill of a trashy airport thriller rather than a searing indictment on western military chauvinism. The result often feels forced and trite. If this was the BBC, it would have more Spooks than Edge of Darkness.
Looking beyond the former negativity, there are plenty of thrills along the way. For example, there is an interesting variety of action as one switches from the stealthy Tier One units to the more traditional ground pounding grunts. (To my dismay, some of the Wolf pack’s sneaking around often appears to merely pad out a shockingly short single player campaign.) The introduction of the regular Army into the conflict, with an ambush and the downing of a Chinook, sends shivers down the spine. This has an authenticity that makes Medal of Honor feel like it has something to say that’s worth listening too. If the rest of the campaign was as good as this section, which really should have been moved to beginning, then we’d have a much better game on our hands.
The combat, especially the guns, contained in the campaigns are very pleasing. There’s less of the “spray and pray” tactic. Gamers will be involved in long range as well as short range battles. All the weapons coupled with realistic sound effects thundering from whatever sound system you may have add an exciting atmosphere everyone craves. The night missions, where different color tracers light up the battlefield, are visually stunning. Individuals who prefer close quarter battles may not enjoy the various long distance battles; but I am not one of those. Unfortunately, the excitement created is somewhat ruined by the linear maps within the missions. Frequently, it is hard to tell what to do next because you’ve failed to reach some invisible trigger, or reached it too early which is last generation mechanics.
The enemy AI is very poor. Their collective stupidity in the face of danger had me feeling sorry for the opposing force. Calling down the 105mm howitzer fire from a circling AC130 gunship might be a technical marvel, but felt like an act of barbarism. The legions of kids that are going to be playing this game aren’t going to give a damn. Those of you that enjoy difficult game play and suspense, not just “cool, guns”, will be somewhat disappointed. There are moments that feel you really aren’t on the side of the angels here as you easily and mercilessly slaughter the enemy barley breaking a sweat. You owe it to the opposing force and the AQ to play this game on hard to give them a fighting chance.
The campaign isn’t cohesive thanks to varying technical and mechanical quality within the missions and the storyline. It is amplified in sections filled with seemingly well designed scenery. Sometimes, the objects don’t feel like they share the same space. The lack of cohesion is a result of whatever engine, that hasn’t been programmed correctly, is doing (It feels rushed and incomplete). Don’t expect Battlefield Bad Company 2 visuals here!
There are some odd UI choices too. I know this is a personal observation but the color your reticule turns when pointing at a friendly was always a nasty shade of blue reminiscent of the color Internet Explorer 5 used for links. I didn’t want to see it again. I guess this could be easily fixed and changed to a less glaring shade of green.
The soundtrack is fantastic (I’m not talking about the acting; it’s as good as you can manage given some of the terrible, well-meaning dialogue forced upon the cast) during the battle especially the gunfire, and the explosions. If you pipe it through a surround sound system, the effect is outstanding. This is one of the highlights of Medal of Honor that can be followed all the way back to the very first game on the PC. It’s nice to hear aural quality still being prioritized. I expect the game could win awards for the soundtrack.
Where does this all leave us? As a single player game Medal of Honor is worth playing. The gunfights are actually pretty good once you’ve ramped up the AI but the game play and design of the missions themselves are hit and miss. When they work, they work very well! When they don’t, you’ll be wondering why on earth you’re driving around Afghanistan in the middle of the night on a quad bike! Truth be told Medal of Honor feels like it had another month or so of polishing to complete before EA kicked it out of the door! You don’t expect to get stuck on scenery items and have to reload a checkpoint these days but it’s happened enough on both of my playthroughs of the campaign to confirm my former conclusion…The game was rushed out before the release of the next installment in the Call of Duty series.
I enjoyed Medal of Honor’s campaign more than I didn’t enjoy it but given all the controversy surrounding this game, I expected a lot more in the storyline and level design. Medal of Honor is different enough that it offers potential for a genuine alternative to the forthcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops, but lacks polish and focus. Tackling the controversial subject of an ongoing war requires something special and alas, MoH’s single player campaign doesn’t measure up. Critics of the video games industry aren’t really going to find anything shocking here to fuel their idiotic reactionary campaigns. Conversely, the industry isn’t any closer to showing it has the ingenuity or insight to accurately and tastefully represent such important world events. Instead, it’s an entertaining FPS, with some shoddy graphics that may as well have been set in Spurlackistan.
Well written sir! A fine critique.
Well done Tango. Well written and I agree with ya on most of it.