"Medal of"--OH SH!T! RPG!!!
I know this came out in 2010, but I was able to get my hands on Medal of Honor recently (that, and the new one is coming out later this year). I didn't mind this game so much, as I liked the leap from doing the World War II style to the more modern battles, especially in the Middle East. This game also gave me a new aspect of "mountain warfare."
STORY:
Medal of Honor truly went towards a soldier-aspect, with real situations from actual soldiers being implemented into the story. The mountain warfare was one of the most impressive things they did with this game, from sniping on mountains to the scary spider holes that they had. It seemed when everything was all right, that's when the worst would happen. They would come out in a ridiculous amounts of waves rocking RPGs, AK47s, PKMs. I was glad, however, that the other guys in my unit were carrying ammo. It was scary to see how nearly invincible they were, and you wonder why we had such a hell of a time with the war in Iraq and dealing with finding Osama Bin Laden.
The story kind of starts off in a scary aspect, when you're with one of the elite squads of the U.S. Military, and they are in a Chinook helicopter. Suddenly it gets hit by an RPG, and you have to jump out before it crash lands. It then goes back six months previous to the start of the main mission where you're looking for a special Person of Interest. You are then almost blown up from an I.E.D. placed on a dead body that looked like the guy they were trying to find. After that the games moves onto another four soldiers that are a part of the Delta squad for the Army.
You also play as the U.S. 75th Army Regiment that gets dropped off in what seems to be Omaha Beach in WWII, except it's an uphill battle on a mountain side. Let's just say it was a bad place to be dropped off, as all the Taliban came pouring out from the tops of the hill and just made it one hell of a battle. The story bounces back and fourth through the groups on the mission aspect, but if you're a person that likes first-person shooters I'd recommend renting the game or buying it cheap price on Amazon.com.
GAMEPLAY:
When I started playing Medal of Honor I had a different feel to how the guns were set up. I have to give that to them, though, seeing that they were able to make it different from Battlefield 3 (since they used the same Frostbite 2 engine). The graphics were done very well with how they did the ground layout, along with the sun-and-sky elements to create the shadow effects. The sniper part of the game was also interesting, as it gave you a bit of the realism with how the bullet would drop depending on the angle.
However the main issue I had with the game was it didn't give you a map HUD, which made it hard to figure out where I was going. The only good thing I saw regarding this issue was the up button on the D-pad would give you the location area of what the spotter was telling you. The gun designs were nicely done, from the M4s and SAWs to AK47/74s and the RPGs. I'm impressed with how this game was done and how realistic it was. It's just sad that this game didn't do very well. Fortunately EA Games is making a follow-up to this game called Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which is due to come out on October 23rd 2012.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I know that this game wasn't everyone's cup of tea, seeing that it ended up getting its arse handed to it by Battlefield and Call of Duty. (It's kind of like what happened to "Weird Al" Yankovic's film UHF, which got swallowed whole by both Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.) It was more or less the bad timing, and the fact that the last Medal of Honor to come out was MOH: Airborne. I know that Hero's came out but I can't count that being on the portable. Medal of Honor didn't do so well because it failed to catch up with the other modern military shooters, as people weren't interested in another WWII game. Warfighter, though, should give the Medal of Honor series the big jump it needs, hopefully making it the frontrunner it was before.
FINAL GRADE: 9.1 (out of ten)
Game: Medal of Honor
Developer: EA
Publisher: EA
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Genre: FPS
Official Site
I dedicate this review to all the men and women that have served or are serving right now, and those who gave their lives to the cause of yours and my freedom.
The photo above is the Medal of Valor, and it's an honor for those who can obtain it. The recipients of this medal usually made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save one or more people in battle. If you see someone who owns it, make sure you show the utmost form of respect!
