Review: Medal of Honor (PS3)
When EA announced that Medal of Honor was going the way of Call of Duty and becoming a modern-themed shooter, I was a bit upset at the fact that another one of my beloved WW2 franchises was jumping onto the bandwagon. A few years ago it seemed all the major war-themed shooters focused on WW2 and we got sick of it. Now-a-days it seems all the war-themed shooters focus on the modern day and we are getting sick of it.
Medal of Honor was met with some controversy (wait, a shooter with controversy, when has that ever occurred?) given that it deals with the ongoing war in Afghanistan. While I can completely understand why this is considered controversial, why are we more open arms to games that feature Nazis (that killed millions of Jewish folk for simply being Jewish), but when it comes to dealing with facing the Taliban/Al Qaeda, we all blow hissy fits. At the end of the day, both are/were enemies of America.
Medal of Honor deals with origins of America’s retaliation of the 9/11 attacks in. You play as Tier One, a battalion that hosts the best of the best in America’s Armed Forces. You will play as four different soldiers, whose events are all linked together in some way or another during the three day storyline. Unfortunately, these three days feel more like one as you will complete the single player campaign in just a few hours (five or six hours for casual FPS players). While the game may not compensate those who seek longevity, the single player campaign is not to be overlooked. It is quite an addicting experience and the only reason you will finish it in one or two sittings is because you will not want to put it down. Being able to experience the war from four separate viewpoints is a welcomed addition, and it shows the concept of ‘Brotherhood’ that the game is so adamant to market.
If you play through on Normal you will die here and there but overall it doesn’t bring that great of a challenge during most missions. If you want a challenge, play the game on Hard. The AI manages to find cover, and will fire back on you if the opportunity presents itself but there are times when the AI (both friendly and enemy) are just downright stupid. There was an instance where the mission came to a stand still because one of my friendly AI brothers decided to glitch humping a wall a few meters back – and I had to give him a nice man-ly push to move forward.
Earlier in 2010 EA released Battlefield Bad Company 2 – which is considered by many to be one of the best online shooters – an opinion I agree with. Given the critic acclaim and the overall positive reception of the developers of Battlefield, EA chose to give the multiplayer responsibilities of Medal of Honor to DICE (the single player was developed by Danger Close). Many were excited with this news, as was I. When playing the beta of the game I couldn’t help but to feel underwhelmed by the experience. It felt like Battlefield, but a more generic version. When I went online in the full game I had the same feeling again, but as you continue to play you think less of what it is missing from Battlefield and rather feel it is in fact a game on its own. The MP is not forgiving on your health. A few shots will kill you. The game does features regenerating health but you will die far more often here than you would in Battlefield. When you get hit, take cover immediately if it is at all possible. The game has a bit of a learning curve online but after about a handful of matches you will get the hang of it and instead of crying foul you’ll be glued to your screen to make sure you are not in your enemy’s crosshairs.
The game adds some replayability to the single player campaign with Tier 1 mode. In this mode you can replay any completed mission but there’s a catch – it is timed and you can’t die. If you do die, you will have to start from the beginning of the mission. You are awarded medals and a leaderboard rank if you complete the mission under par time – which is not hard to do as long as you keep moving. It’s a nice addition to the game that makes you think before you just shoot at everything that moves. Conserve your ammo because the “Request Ammo” feature you were given in the campaign is not featured here. Your ammo is valuable and expect to use enemy weapons at times (though your pistol is always set at infinite ammo).
The only flaw with Tier 1 mode is that the leaderboards seemed to be hacked/glitched. There are players on there that have completed a 20-30 minute par time mission in under nine minutes. It simply is not possible to complete some of these missions in the times that are posted on the leaderboards. This is an unfortunate circumstance as you will rely on having a friends list filled of legit Medal of Honor players to be able to take your stats seriously. It doesn’t ruin the experience, it simply just adds an annoyance. Here’s to hoping EA fixes the leaderboards before the online crowd begins to fade away.
For PS3 buyers, each new version of Medal of Honor comes with a remastered version of the PS2 classic Medal of Honor: Frontline – which is considered to be the best Medal of Honor game on consoles – PC users will argue Allied Assault takes the crown. It gives a nice incentive to buy the PS3 version because you are given two games for the price of one. You will need the Medal of Honor PS3 disc to play Frontline though, despite you having to install Frontline to your PS3′s hard drive.
To sum up my experience, Medal of Honor may not be breaking any ground in the FPS market, and may simply be just another shooter but it is one that is worth playing. Now-a-days you can find this game below its reduced MSRP ($39.99), as most major retailers sell it for under $30. The single player campaign is short but is one you should experience – the mission titled “Belly of the Beast” is one of the more memorable missions in a shooter in quite some time if you ask me. The multiplayer is made by the guys/gals you made Battefield, but it is its own experience that forces you to adapt to your surroundings and is not forgiving. Tier 1 mode adds replayability to the campaign, but it’s a shame that the leaderboards are a mess.
If you are on the fence of which version to buy, it goes without saying my preferred version is the PS3 version because of the addition of Medal of Honor Frontline. If however you simply don’t care to play Frontline again or it is not a deciding factor, all three versions of the game play the same (though PC users, as you should expect, get the best out of the graphics). If you are in the need of a shooter by all means pick it up. For $40 you get a decent experience as long as you are interested in going online. For anything less, it won’t be considered a waste of money. Fans of the franchise may be a bit upset with the transition to modern day but let’s face it – if it stayed in WW2 we’d be hearing nothing but “why is Medal of Honor still milking D-Day?” I just hope Brothers in Arms doesn’t take its battle to the modern day if Ubisoft and Gearbox decided to continue the franchise.
Verdict: B-
