Medal of Honor Review




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Developer: EA Los Angeles / DICE Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: October 12, 2010 Available On: PC, PS3 and Xbox 360

Electronic Arts has had it rough as of late. The company lost its position as the number one third-party publisher to Activision Blizzard, it has been posting annual losses with hundreds of employees losing their jobs, and many of their franchises are in desperate condition. Medal of Honor was one of those franchises. That was until the latest game came out. The Medal of Honor reboot, the first non-World War II game in the series, is a shot of adrenaline that the company seriously needs.

Unlike World War II, which was fought over 60 years ago, Medal of Honor launches players into a modern war; one that is not only fresh in the memories of people’s minds, but still ongoing. You play as American Special Forces in Afghanistan. The content matter seems to be controversial, but the developers stress that they have worked closely with the military to make it as tasteful and respectful as possible. When you compare it to Call of Duty’s scene where you shoot up an airport full of civilians, everything in Medal of Honor is rather tame.

Appropriately enough, you will be playing in a lot of stealth missions. This reflects the new type of warfare that America is waging, rather than the old formula where numbers were just as important as anything. Since the game takes place in Afghanistan, you can expect to spend most of your time in the mountains and small towns of the country combating the Taliban. Only a few missions deviate from this: one is inside of a helicopter and the other is on an ATV.

For those that are more looking for story, I would recommend just a rental as the game is excruciatingly short. So short that you could have blinked and missed the entire game. Seriously, it is only four or five hours long. Considering multi-player is where most of the time is spent, I won’t hold it against the developers too much, especially considering the comparatively short experience with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.



The multi-player in Medal of Honor is developed by a different team from the single-player. DICE, the makers of the Battlefield franchise, are behind Medal of Honor’s multi-player. There are four main multi-player modes. Combat Mission is an objective-based mode where you either play as Coalition forces or as the Taliban. If you are on the Coalition, you have to plant C4 on five separate spots on the map, each progressively deeper on the map. The Taliban simply has to stop the Coalition from setting off each of the targets, ending the game after Coalition forces run out of a certain number of lives.

The other team-based missions (there isn’t a “death match” to speak of) include Team Assault, which is basically a team death match type deal. Sector Control is a domination type mode where each team has to fight for three different flag locations. Holding it will add score for your team and the team with the highest score wins. Objective Raid is really just a variation on Combat Mission, except instead of having five consecutive targets, you have two separate targets.

In each of the multi-player modes, both sides get a chance to play as the Coalition and as the Taliban. This makes it fairer since the weapons vary slightly and both teams have a chance to go on offense/defense. Finally, the Hardcore mode exists to give gamers an extra challenge. It is not a mode in its own right, but instead a playlist of Team Assault, Sector Control and Objective Raid with hardcore settings.

Once you weigh the single and multi-player experience in Medal of Honor, it is clear that the value is there if you expect to play online a lot. The single-player, while entertaining, just does not last long enough to consider it a satisfying experience. On the other hand, the multi-player is well developed and fleshed out. The developers at DICE know what they are doing. Without a doubt, this is the best multi-player a Medal of Honor game has ever seen. At any rate, it is a welcome sight to see Medal of Honor back in the game.

Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 8.5
Creativity: 8
Replay Value/Game Length: 9
Final: 8.6 out of 10
Written by Kyle Bell Write a User Review

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