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Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 92
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MOH Review by nation15
Audio & Visuals
I wanted to start with this because it was probably the most surprising part of the game to me, also one of my favorites. The visuals I'll break down into two parts and I'll explain why later. The audio is absolutely outstanding. After a few hours of playing you'll find yourself ducking when you hear a bullet whiz by you and strike the wall behind you with a resounding thud. In single player the audio is the best I've heard as far as gaming goes, and I have an extensive amount of experience with shooters. Games might make you feel like the weapon you're holding is powerful by how it takes down enemies or what it does to the environment, but Medal of Honor is the first one that makes it sound like it'll rip right through someone, and for that I applaud them. The environment effects (bullets hitting different objects) is also well done and obviously thought about. If you have surround sound, make sure to use it for this game, turn it up, and serenade the neighborhood with the sweet sounds of 2900 ft/s death. The sound carries over into the multiplayer making seemingly easy situations very tense with the amount of noise going on around you. I can't do the sound justice, rent the game just to hear it.
As far as video is concerned the campaign and tier 1 portions of the game operate on a heavily modified Unreal 3 engine providing stunning visuals, terrains, and some very entertaining physics. The engine makes great use of bullet effects on the environment and people, especially on the long-range sniper missions where you put a fifty cal to good use dismembering anything you point it at. This is a great engine and I wish they would of carried it over into the multiplayer. Concerning the multiplayer, it uses the Frostbite 2.0 engine introduced in Bad Company 2, and although it appears to be a much more visually polished and stunning version of it, it lacks some features. While it looks better than Bad Company 2, it misses out on the destructibility that made the Frostbite engine (and Bad Company for that matter) well known. I'll discuss how this effects gameplay in the multiplayer section.
Audio wise, this is the best sounding piece of entertainment I have ever heard, the Skywalker ranch should take note of how to make war sound like war.
Video wise this game is stunning in single player, but loses a lot of its gloss in multiplayer. Closest in comparison is Bad Company 2, however it is a much more polished and tuned version of the graphics in BC2.
Gameplay
I got this game at midnight after getting off of work, after MONTHS of waiting for this game to come out so I must admit that I probably over-hyped myself for the game and that never leads to anything good. I rushed home, pulled up my massive chair, and started the install and instant patching. While the game's loading times seemed abhorrently bad, it was only a first load thing which was quelled by a reboot of the system after install. Navigating the menu's is simplistically straight forward, leaving very little flair or creativity in the menu. It borrows the menu setup from Call of Duty, having different selections for multiplayer and singleplayer which take you into different menus. I was most excited about the multiplayer aspect of this game and was looking forward to applying my well tuned gaming skills into griefing kids who needed to be in bed anyway. I instantly jumped online with my buddy Ryan and we started to deploy the hurt. Multiplayer sucked me in but at the same time felt a bit lacking, the gun selections are very limited, and the customization that was expected is not there.
However, this did not stop us from playing for the next five hours straight, only losing connection once which on launch day with tons of people is quite a feat. I loved every minute of it, only getting upset about how imbalanced the Sniper Rifles felt. I decided to save the single player campaign for when I finished the multiplayer trophy set. This came a lot quicker than expected and I was able to breeze through it all by today.
Gameplay wise the multiplayer plays a lot like a Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare hybrid, utilizing a fast based gameplay with more open maps and longer gaps between spawn points. It's very entertaining in most modes and I thought it alone was worth the purchase considering the playtime one could get out of this. Unfortunately for you people who need a goal to strive to or it's just not fun, after only 8 hours online I've managed to place myself in the PSN Top 10 Global Leaderboard, unlock all multiplayer trophies, and obtain the highest rank in Assault, while halfway there in both Sniper and Spec Ops. I'll explain more on that later. It's fun, but the goals you strive for in most games just aren't there. This seems to be more of a casual approach than it's competitors.
Then I found singeplayer and a whole new fury arose in me. The singleplayer gameplay is amazing and I'll go into detail below, but switching from DICE's Frostbite 2.0 version of MOH, to EA's Unreal 3 version of MOH is like night and day. Not just in looks but in gameplay too, and it makes me want to slap someone at EA. I would hands down rather have the singleplayer's engine and gameplay formed into a multiplayer mode than play what is included now. Don't get me wrong, the multiplayer gameplay is very entertaining, but completely blown away by the singeplayer.
Single Player
This is a story you want to be involved in. I was fortunate enough to not be burdened with a nagging woman or work today, as I was off and she wasn't. This being the case, I was able to sit down and immerse myself with no interruptions into this amazing campaign. From the start of the story up to last mission I didn't really feel the characters had a lot of depth, and that no attempt was made to form a connection with them. Games like Brother in Arms that tell a personal story that you delve into like a book allow you to be much more involved in the story...it just wasn't there for me in MOH. That is, until the last mission. I don't want to spoil it for those of you that havn't played it yet (shame on you), but I will say that I found myself shedding a man tear at the end, and you ain't right in the head if you don't feel something, military or not.
I played through the single player campaign on the hardest setting available (not Tier 1 obviously, as that's not technically the campaign) and never felt challenged in combat. The game wasn't as merciless as Bad Company 2 or Modern Warfare 2 on the hardest settings, you actually had a chance of living through an entire mission without snapping your controller in half. On the other hand, what Medal of Honor did well that no other game I've found has is set you in a perilous situation. Imagine my surprise after blowing through the first couple of missions with no challenge that I was on the edge of my seat clenching my controller in worry. This is what the game does well, rather or not you think the gameplay is slow compared to your action movie-esque games, you'll find yourself in the same situation.
The story of this game is great and keeps you involved. While you may find the enemy AI simplistic, you'll wish you had more help when you're sitting behind a technical that was just used as a car bomb sent right at you. The walls are coming down in on the building you're in and theres dozens of enemies coming from the hills, and none of them like you. You have three other SEALs with you but maybe 70 rounds between the four of you, overwatch just RTB at bingo fuel and theres no help in sight. This was the first "Holy Shit" moment in the game, but certaintly not the last, if you play the campaign and find it dull, wait until you hit this part, it definitely picks up after this. I won't get into the rest so as not to spoil the story, but it is great and definitely worth playing through at least once.
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