The past few years have not been kind to the storied Medal of Honor franchise. As rival franchise Call of Duty soared to greater and greater heights, the Medal of Honor series struggled to keep up. It’s setting had even become a joke as every year we gamers were treated to a glut of World War II shooters.

It was obvious that a change was needed to spark the franchise back to the top. New studio Danger Close was brought in to handle the single player campaign and legendary Battlefield creators DICE took care of the game’s multi-player mode. This was the first game in the series that was going to have an M rating. The setting has also been changed from World War II to modern day Afghanistan.

Everything was in place for Medal of Honor to challenge Halo and Call of Duty for shooter supremacy.

First off the graphics are amazing. The game uses a modified version of Battlefield Bad Company’s Frostbite engine. Character models look great, but it’s the environments that really pop. As I fought my way up a mountainside, I would find myself stopping to look at these gorgeous vistas. I found myself saying “Wow, maybe we should take a trip to Afghanistan.” In other words, the graphics are good enough to make me want to take a trip to the middle of a war zone.

The story is fairly typical for the genre. It pretty much hits all the notes you would expect if you’ve been playing shooters this generation. It’s not bad, but if you remember anything from the story a year from now, you are probably the guy that wrote it. You’ll do some sniping, you’ll do some sneaking, you’ll get knocked down and your buddies will have to help you out in a little scripted scene. It’s all done well, but at this point it’s all pretty standard stuff. I will say that I enjoyed the Medal of Honor campaign more than Black Ops, but found it less memorable, if that makes any sense.

I doubt that anyone is really picking up Medal of Honor for the campaign though. Most people will spend their time in the game’s multiplayer modes. And this is where the game really shines.

There are three classes to choose from, Rifleman, Special Ops, and Sniper. You’ll level up each class independently unlocking new gear as you go. I tried all three classes but pretty much made my money as a Special Ops soldier.

If one team works together and supports each other, things can get out of hand quickly. As players rack up kills and meet objectives they’re rewarded with bonuses. And once it starts going bad it is very difficult to come back. It is awesome when you are on the winning side raining fire on your poor opponents’ heads, but it is not so fun when your own cranium is being bombarded with mortar fire.

The game rewards strategy and sound tactics. If you try to run straight at your objectives without taking the terrain into account, you will probably get shot in the head by an unseen enemy. Evaluating your environment and planning ahead will trump shooting skill most of the time.

My main complaints are the A.I. and the weapons. Numerous times enemies stood there while I unloaded multiple 3 round bursts into their chests. The weapons lack the proper oomph. When I fire 3 shots into a guys chest he should do more than mutter under his breath and continue shooting at me. He should probably die or at least fall down or something.

This is not just 1 or 2 weapons either. They all feel underpowered. I never once felt like I was carrying directed death in my hands. This is compounded by the laughable enemy A.I. If they were using any sort of tactic other than ‘hey there is a lot of us,’ I never noticed. Besides, I don’t think using the same attack strategy as antelope is the best idea.

If you are trying to decide between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, I would go with whichever console your friends play since the majority of your time will be spent shooting them in multi-player. Otherwise go with the PS3 version, which comes with a HD remake of the PS2 classic Medal of Honor: Frontline.

The game is a lot of fun and definitely worth a play-through, but in the end, Medal of Honor falls just short in its mission to re-assume the throne as king of the FPS genre.

This review is based on the PS3 version of the game provided to the reviewer by EA.

Tags: Danger Close, DICE, FPS, Medal of Honor, multiplayer, ps3, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.