Medal of Honor Review

Once standing as the definitive shooter experience, the "Medal of Honor" franchise has been overshadowed by the "Call of Duty" juggernaut in the past couple of years. For this franchise reboot, EA took the series away from its WWII roots and put it into modern combat. EA is desperately trying to win back some of their loyal fans with this game, but unfortunately, they don't do anything new to evolve the series—nor the genre.

The six-hour long campaign does a decent job of providing a credible story that is not as cheesy as one would expect. Taking place in Afghanistan during the first stages of the war there, Medal of Honor follows the story of four Tier 1 operators, elite members of the US military. The characters are likeable and there is actually a tangible connection between them. You will often be tasked to save the life of the soldier you were just playing as in the previous mission.

Unfortunately, there is very little variety in the gameplay. Nearly all the missions involve you shooting bad guys as you attempt to reach your next objective. There are some cool stealth segments, as well as a cliché sniper mission, but nothing stands out once the credits start to roll.

One major flaw is that the presentation is really inconsistent. While at times the game looks great, there are certain aspects that can really hurt your eyes. The character models look horrible, and the blood looks like a bunch of red squares. Thankfully, the sound design is top notch; every shot fired that hits you in the gut, as well as the grenades, makes you flinch as they go off near you. The soundtrack does an admirable job of setting the mood, avoiding the rule that all games set in this type of location need to have a Middle Eastern soundtrack.

There are also some nice details that help build a sense of realism. You can adjust the rate of fire in most weapons, and there is actually a function that lets you lean around corners. However, the enemy lacks any intelligence whatsoever, which turns every mission into a shooting gallery—something that takes away from the realism the developers were trying to convey. Also, there appears to be some effort put into making the game gorier than most shooters, but again, this just falls flat with sloppy presentation.

The multiplayer feature is a fun distraction for what it's worth. The action is tense and the maps are really well designed, with tight corners and plenty of sniping roosts. However, the lasting appeal is not as great as one would expect: there are very few maps and even fewer game modes, all of which have been done before.

It is a lot of fun once you get into it, and there is a decent upgrading system in place, but it is hard not to feel like they left some part of the multiplayer from the game in order to charge you more money once the downloadable content comes out. Not only was the multiplayer feature designed by a completely different studio, but it also used a different engine than the single player; and although they look similar, there are major gameplay changes. You cannot go prone or lean in multiplayer, and the cool slide-move present in the single player is gone; the guns also feel completely different, making it a completely different game. Some might say you are getting two games for the price of one, but it just comes off as lazy design.

   Overall, "Medal of Honor" is a run of the mill, shooter-themed game. While the fact that you are officially fighting the Taliban is refreshing, the gameplay suffers from repetition and visual glitches. If you must play it get a rental—EA should have really left this one cooking in the oven a bit longer before trying to compete with others of its kind.