BOOM...that's nice. BANG...ok. Another cut scene that has my character on the floor looking around because he was hit by a grenade, only to be saved by his brother in arms...seen it. Nothing about this is wrong, but it has been done many times over in just about every military first person shooter (FPS) title. The difference this time is that Medal of Honor does it just to do it without reason. Everything about this game feels uninspired and rushed.
As I fired up the game, the first thing I noticed were the load times when switching from multiplayer and campaign. The load times could last up to several minutes (this is after installing the game onto my hard drive). The load times in general are bad in this game. There was more than one occasion that the in-game loading resulted in either the screen freezing completely with the in-game action still going on, leaving me to play catch up. and the game began to have heavy lagging problems which in return the music would cut in and out, non-playable characters (NPCs) began to lag and the sound effects brifely didn't exist. As annoying as this sounds, this was the least of my complaints.
The dialog seemed to be full of itself. I always felt like I was either watching a cheesy 80's action movie or the militay chatter between the NPCs seemed clich'e. I don't mind profanity, especially when it comes to military games, it bring a certain reality, but whenever profanity was used it seemed forced and more for shock value. As far as the story goes, it makes Modern Warfare 2 look like it could be nominated for an Oscar, because it doesn't have one. It's just the player going from one battlefield to the next without explaning what you are doing and why you are doing it.
The developers stressed in every interview that they were focusing on being the most realistic military shooter around, and in some ways they succeeded. The sounds of the gun fire (when it worked) was incredible. The guns felt like they had weight and power; but for every technical achievement, it fell behind on three other things. For example, the details. If I'm on a night mission why is my partner wearing sunglasses? If I'm on a sneaking mission why am I riding an ATV, the loudest vehicle possible? Again, if I'm on a night mission and I'm told to switch to night vision why are none of my squad members wearing them when I put them on?
FPSs in general are a linear experience. Great developers decieve the player by making him or her believe that they are choosing their own route. Medal of Honor instead streamlines the experience giving the player an extremely point A to point B level design which results in this so called realistic shooter feeling less like an FPS and more like a shooting gallery. Medal of Honor's A.I. doesn't help much either. The A.I. in general is clumsy on both sides. The few times I died was because of my own mistakes (cooking a grenade for too long, miscalculating a grenade throw, etc.) which was even on it's hardest difficulty.
There aren't that many redeeming qualities about Medal of Honor. It has many glitches, the draw distance is laughable, character design is uninspired along with the script and their big set pieces. The only aspect of this game that was decent, was their multiplayer that was developed by DICE (who created the Battlefield Bad Company series). Even though it has small problems like spawning points, the maturity of DICE as a developer is present throughout this mode. The multiplayer alone saves this game from earning its spot in the bargin bin any time soon.
Over All Grade: C
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