Medal of Honor provides a realistic insight into tactical modern warfare in an ongoing struggle against the Taliban
Contains: Strong Bloody Violence
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Medal of Honor is a Modern First-Person shooter that is a reboot of the series and takes place in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
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STORY - 3/5
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Set in a real country in a real-life war zone and following objectives to take down the Taliban with tactically realistic assaults on enemy territory, Medal of Honor has proven controversial for its realistic depiction of ongoing war efforts out in a war torn country. However, despite it's heavy criticism for lack of respect to military and the families the modern war has engulfed at the present time, this modern First-Person shooter will please those looking for tactically realistic objectives, missions and combat, and makes every situation as engaging as possible.
The single player campaign takes place in 2002 in Afghanistan. For half of the game, players assume the role of a DEVGRU operator codenamed "Rabbit", of AFO Neptune. For the remainder, the player alternates between the roles of a Delta Force sniper code-named "Deuce", of AFO Wolfpack, as well as Army Ranger Specialist Dante Adams of the 75th Ranger Regiment, and AH-64 Apache gunner Captain Brad "Hawk" Hawkins. You'll be inserted into many true-to-life scenarios, where typical in-game objectives are expected to be similar to those issued in real life such as raiding terrorist hideouts, hostage rescues, undercover operations, performing reconnaissance, coordinate fire support and long range sniper support. Each objective is surprisingly engaging, and while your deep involvement with the missions might not brush up on the actual story behind these missions because of some clichéd cutscenes, it's a worthwhile experience from the perspective of highly trained Tier 1 operatives hoping to destroy a current threat in the present day.
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CHARACTERS - 3/5
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There is no real character depth created in Medal of Honor, but this is a war game - characters come and go, live through situations or die with respect, and each character you progress through objectives with is unlikely to make you feel any emotion towards, but you will however feel compelled to doing the tasks you are constantly asked to do with great anticipation and trust in many battle-hardened relationships with other soldiers.
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GAMEPLAY - 4/5
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As the gameplay was designed to be realistic, EA hired several consultants from the United States military, and this was a gamble that succeeded with nearly every aspect in the gameplay department. Not only were the missions intended to be as true-to-life as possible, but the actual gunplay is very professionally made, is solid, and makes the realistic modern warfare action intense and thoroughly enjoyable throughout the campaign. The structure of missions is split up equally so that you are never playing through entire levels doing the same thing, and so the intertwining of action sequences is choreographed in many believable ways you'd expect in a determined war effort on enemy encampments and buildings. All enemies have very similar weapons, which is a realistic touch that may go unrecognised amongst the riveting set piece battles, but this makes for a positive point and also an unfortunate negative point. Positives to bring up about the limited weapon variety is that its staying true-to-life like intended, as soldiers obviously and respectively won't wander around the battlefield looking for new weapons to make use of, but the downside to this is that you will be using similar weapons throughout the course of the game with not much options to vary your weapon selection. But the main aspect of the lack in weapon variety is that it doesn't really strike you at the time until you actually think about it afterwards, and the large amount of non-repetitive scenes ranging from stealth to long range sniping mean it's a consistency that doesn't interfere with the action. Shooting enemies feels great, the blood splatter is authentic and headshots look and sound really cool, but not only are the shooting mechanics firmly solid, but resorting to your knife as a quick reaction melee attack shows a firm grip and provides great hit detection with the brief death animation occurring just after. Time has been well spent on Medal of Honor for representing a real-time war struggle with little error for accuracy, and the solid action, and varied level sections will never fail to entertain even if the game finishes earlier than expected.
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GRAPHICS - 3/5
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Medal of Honor could have been so much better if it looked better and maintained that visual consistency, but sadly there are many inconsistencies that vary from lacklustre texture work and to a shaky framerate that occasionally hinders the gameplay. Missions you undertake will mostly take place during the day, but some missions are performed under the silence of the night sky, and this is where the visuals highlight there small, but noticeable, errors. Textures are not as sharp as they could be at night, maybe the same could be said during daytime missions but perhaps the light covers up the issues, or perhaps the developers just didn't put all heart and soul into the visuals during dark hours and struggled to capture the correct visual integrity. But whatever way you look at it, Medal of Honor just isn't a stunning looking game and with some brief stutters during cutscenes, the graphics have a lot to be desired and fulfilled to fully capture the realism intended to be created in a present, ever-raging conflict.
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SOUND - 4/5
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The music for the game was composed by Emmy-nominated composer Ramin Djawadi, who recorded his score with ethnic instruments, electronics and a string orchestra in Los Angeles, and while the soundtrack is quiet for the most part of the game, and only briefly introduced in dramatic set piece confrontations, it nails the right tone you'd expect in amongst modern conflict. American alternative rock/nu metal band Linkin Park produced a song called The Catalyst that was used in the pre-release trailers for the game, and was then again used in the end credits of the game, and a brilliant song it is with some strong lyrics aimed at conflict.
During gameplay, most of the sound effects are accurate accordingly to what's happening on screen, headshots and dismemberment with powerful weapons are probably the highlight for the sound, but many other weapon reloads and footsteps on the sandy grit below you are also purposely made and contribute immensely to sustaining the realism. Voice acting on the battlefield between miscellaneous characters is correctly intense and believable, as a tone of urgency is always evident when it comes down to acting efficiently and shooting appropriately depending on the objective, and the voice actors all sound commanding in their roles they have.
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CONTROLS - 5/5
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Apart from a couple of differently organised directional buttons, the control layout is identical to the configurations in the Call of Duty series, and so moving from one First-Person shooter to the next will be an easy transition to make, with no real changes to how you approach cover or aim and fire down the iron sights of weapons.
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ATMOSPHERE - 4/5
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Medal of Honor isn't a game that takes you to different locations around the globe on your attempts to thwart threats against your country, but in fact keeps the consistency of environment variety with little difference from one to the other. The enemy borders are inescapable, and your core objective throughout the game is to stop the opposing force called the Taliban, where you are frequently placed in outnumbered situations just like you'd expect, and where enemy hideaways truly are convincing in their structure for independent evil planning. There is also great geographical awareness to the landscape and presentation of enemy territories, never varying greatly so that you are always knowing the fact of exactly where you are and why you're there. Each encampment or building you are told to assault on is plausible in atmosphere, where enemies take up likely positions to guard, and your team of elite soldiers show authenticity in their stealthy attack pattern to either plant a beacon or immobilize enemy presence to a critical minimum before engaging in an all out assault to the death with silenced weapons. The music is credible for being very silent during night missions, and so stealth approach really does give the right impression for negotiating under tight and nervous conditions, and then when the completely opposite occurs during a daytime assault, your squad rightfully are quick at reacting and shouting commands to each other to give the impression of being under pressure in a difficult situation with confidence to rid the area of the Taliban forces with little vitalities of their own soldiers.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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The Taliban are a challenging army of enemies that have their own set of objectives and beliefs in the present heated climate of war, and in Medal of Honor they'll face their match as you progress from enemy territory and dispatch many of them, with the sacrifice of some casualties. They are quick to notify your presence, and are very accurate at shooting with their primary AK-47 assault rifles and finding solid forms of cover to take quick refuge behind. When in direct conflict the enemies plan reasonably well and use their own turf of land to their advantage by hiding in the hills, but it's the way they enter each scene that makes you think how unrealistic they are. In most instances, enemies will pour out of mountainous hills or doorways, with no real reason to their entry, and continuously flow out of the space until you've killed enough of them from which they'll hold back their other waves of troops for other instances instead. Your squad mates also prove invincible, and I honestly am unsure if many (if any) of your team die during fierce shootouts. Apart from that, convincing animations on both sides of the war and realistic responses to level design and points of interest in terms of finding cover are all well developed and integrated to make the savage enemy groups force alertness on your army because of their unpredictability to using their own land to an advantage.
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LENGTH - 2/5
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Medal of Honor is a well paced modern shooter, but unfortunately falls short on the average time you expect in a game, and you'll clock in probably about 6 hours worth of gameplay before Linkin Park's new hit single starts playing during the end credits.
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REPLAY VALUE - 2/5
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Some fast-paced action, combined with slow-paced methodical objectives make replaying Medal of Honor worthwhile if you enjoyed your first playthrough, but the short length means it probably won't stay in your collection long, unless you enjoy the multiplayer component. The single player does entice back veteran gamers to try out Tier 1 mode for the campaign however, where the difficulty is set to the maximum, mid-mission checkpoints are disabled, there's a target time that must be completed under par and headshots and kill chains briefly pause the time. This challenge mode isn't for everyone, but it is worth playing to test your skills and times against the world leader board. In conclusion Medal of Honor reboots the series with very positive results, it doesn't quite gain the recognition it deserves against its competitors, but in the end delivers a tactically engaging campaign with realism and accuracy showed to near perfection in many departments across the game. The core subject in the story raises some controversy from the recent happenings in the present conflict in Afghanistan, but despite the controversy, this modern First-Person shooter provides a believable insight into a gritty and seemingly never-ending war that still rages on today.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8/10
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Good Points: Tactically engaging mission objectives, Intense and realistic modern warfare action set in a real life warzone, Consistency in level design creates a believable atmosphere in which the game is set, Solid gunplay, Mostly accurate sound effects and convincing voice acting.
Bad Points: Short campaign, Occasional shaky framerate and texture issues.