Medal of Honour Tier 1 review

When EA games first brought out the Medal of game, it was the first ever second world war based first person shooter game. With it becoming an instance hit within the gaming world, it wasn’t long before EA games created a series of war based games. In 2007, EA games dominated the gaming world with the release of Call of Duty; Modern Warfare.



Now three years later 2010, EA have re launched the Medal of Honor series, with Medal of Honor ; Tier 1 Edition. This current game hasn’t let its millions of gaming fans down in the slightest. In fact the new game, is so fresh and current, that the gaming conflict is based on the current warfare occurring in Afghanistan. Despite this fresh new game style, there has been much controversy surrounding the setting of the game. One controversy in the game is the fact that at one stage in its development a player can play as the Taliban in the multiplayer death matches.

The basic features of the game is similar to that of Call of Duty; Modern Warfare. There are however, a number of new levels that make use of all the gadgets and tech that are available to us military. During these levels users will use such things as helicopters gun turret, quad bikes and arrange air strikes.

Despite some glitches in the game such as the frame rate being slow when a lot is going on, the visual presentation is of a high quality and the game flows incredibly well.

Ultimately, despite a shorter campaign, Medal of Honor offers a solid and reliable game.

The multiplayer - developed by Battlefield: Bad Company developer DICE - is similarly mixed. It aims for the middle ground between Modern Warfare’s intimate game of armed hide-and-seek and Battlefield’s expansive skirmishing. But the result is a multiplayer that just feels stretched. The match-types are all familiar, spread out over maps that are intricately crafted; meandering landscapes that offer players different vantage points and hideyholes. Again, the environment can be Medal of Honor’s biggest boon, requiring you to be carefully aware of your surroundings. But the maps are physically too big, even with 24 players, and contrive to form unnecessary bottlenecks and choke points. It’s a setup that favours sniping, and once an opponent is camped in a suitable position it can be a cycle of attrition, dying and respawning, trying to locate the guy picking you off as you move into enemy territory. Medal of Honor eschews killcams and doesn’t even give a hint of where your latest death came from. It’s a feature that’s keenly missed, surprisingly, meaning that new players can’t learn from a chain of clumsy deaths.



For experts, however, this back-to-basics approach may lead to more satisfaction. Certainly, Medal of Honor’s multiplayer has a ferocious sense of kill-or-be-killed. It’s fast and dangerous, while the large, layered maps can provide the setting for some engaging back and forth battles.

It’s a game that requires a fair amount of dedication to master. While Modern Warfare’s upgrades come thick and fast, Medal of Honor asks a little more of you to unlock new toys. There are three classes - Rifleman, Spec-Ops and Sniper -and each class must be upgraded separately. Rewards come slower, and killstreak perks are harder to activate and less powerful than in Activision’s game. It all ties into Medal of Honor’s more tactical sense of war, and is smartly balanced, not letting the best players obliterate everyone else on the map with an over-powered perk.

It seems likely that a dedicated fan-base will reap the rewards of Medal of Honor’s approach to multiplayer, but its attempt to bridge the gap between Call of Duty and Battlefield isn’t entirely successful. It will be interesting to see how many Medal of Honor players will jump ship as soon as Black Ops lands in November.



That, of course, is EA’s biggest challenge. Medal of Honor is entering an extremely crowded genre. Its admirable attempt at creating a more respectful and considered representation of modern war is to be commended, and certain moments shine bright enough to suggest that the franchise has a lot more to offer. But it never crosses the threshold into greatness, either in its visceral thrills or in its sober, but ultimately a little bland, tale of the soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. Such lofty goals need more bravery, more commitment to its cause. Let’s hope the inevitable sequel does more to earn the respect it so desperately craves.