Medal of Honor PS3
Medal of Honor for the PlayStation 3 and all the other platforms has arrived but fans of the title will be disappointed in yet another by the book FPS video game.
Ratings:
Graphics & Audio: 16/25,
Gameplay: 16/25,
Creativity 14/25,
Fun 16/25
Total: 62/100
Medal of Honor for the PlayStation 3 is here with all kinds of fanfare but the game merely averages just a hair above good but not up to the heights of greatness. Electronic Arts is the publisher and Danger Close along with venerable DICE release this newest in the series with all the fanfare a AAA title video game deserves.
Only problem is the game is just above average with good gameplay, good graphics and audio as well as a good overall feel but lacking anything that really stands out. The story would have been good enough had you been given a little more of something and less of what is actually here.
In Medal of Honor you're a Tier 1 operator, special forces in the Middle East fighting against the Taliban, first as a soldier on the ground than sniper and finally a helicopter gunner. I loved the gunner roles and a couple of the missions do mix up the action, this gunship role is now almost a staple of video games.
There's a couple levels where you are in the air and throwing missiles and bullets down on targets that work out very well and are really fun as well as hectic. Then there is the ground levels, the meat of any FPS game that should be a well paced ride through your targets to get to some final objective if you're good enough.
In Medal of Honor your corridor is very tight, walls brushing your shoulder tight, you have some levels that if you stray further than ten feet from the spot assigned to you death is instant. One level actually punishes you for this even though no enemies are in sight, I hate when you can't try to win a war your own way.
Other levels like the sniper merely have you take out targets as given in the specific order and no straying from this choreographed dance at all. You do not even have the opportunity to pick your routes or where you want to fight from other than a small twenty foot area in some missions.
You also spend a lot of time following your team mates and going where they and the level designers make you, tight corridors of rocky walls and bare cliffs hem you in for many. Other problems marred my experience with Medal of Honor which I can only hope will be solved with future updates, glitches are numerous in the PS3 edition.
One glitch has a level that did not load fully so walls and buildings are totally missing, so is the ground where the scene ends and a deadly fall awaits if you step off. This glitch is mentioned prominently on the internet so I know it is not one I unluckily found and is rare.
To have such a glaring error in level design or programming that half a level does not load is bad, but to have it happen with a console game like the PlayStation 3 and on a release is unforgivable. Other glitches are minor but just as annoying as having to restart the entire game like I had to from the first glitch, at least it was during the first part of the game.
I had an enemy hiding in a building and could not advance in the level until I killed him, the next part of the level would not trigger so I had to find this guy who was stuck inside a small hut. Other problems worked in my favor like triggers you could step into to start sequences before getting to the area and pick off guys from where they can't get you.
The games AI is bad, you can often outflank enemies simply by going around small objects like boxes and hit guys from behind or outflank entire groups by moving away from your team members. The games enemies seemed intent on hitting your group and if you could get to the side of any area you could often have the full group of enemies all looking in the wrong direction.
This poor level design and troubleshooting after the level has been completed happened throughout the single player game, I was just expecting more from a great series like this. Textures and graphics were okay but nothing I have not seen from other current games and audio was likewise okay and worked but not impressive.
One effect that looked terrible, almost like a game years ago was dirt and debris from large explosions, it looked like blocks of pixels falling straight down from the sky and not dirt. I was very disappointed with the single player and the multiplayer was the only saving grace for the game, at least it would have been if my controller had not gone with the latest PlayStation update.
A bit of explanation may be in order, as well as a setup for another review, I have a FragFX mouse and controller for the PS3 but since the latest update I can no longer use it. I received the PS3 version of Medal of Honor but no mouse controller, so I waited till I received the controller I had asked for from another company or the replacement of the FragFX.
I cannot use the joysticks of the Dual Shock controller in an FPS game so I waited until I got my mouse and keyboard controller from Penguin United, the Eagle Eye. So after getting my trusty mouse and keyboard working I delved into the single player, what a sad state of affairs that was.
The multiplayer was much better, being developed by DICE, creators of the Battlefield series, it was great, you have three available soldiers to play as, Rifleman, Special OPs, and sniper. Each have their own weapons and special tools but the main feature of this game is stacking kills to offensive or defensive strikes.
You kill three people with a headshot and you can call in artillery, or supplies for your troops, I'm not sure that this is the exact way each kill streak goes but you get the idea. The kill streaks are a common staple of the current first person shooter for both Call of Duty and Medal of Honor that are both good and bad.
They give you things that are a pain to deal with from both sides but they do not overdo anything to the point of making your time in the multiplayer annoying. They just did not do much that was all that different from previous editions of either FPS franchise and even took most of their playbook from the Battlefield series for the main gameplay.
There is unlock trees for the soldiers for weapons and toys but only the guns and things that deal death are used, no fixing vehicles and reviving comrades during the fight. You get to shoot without worrying about anything else which is not going forward in the FPS gaming genre.
I guess that is the problem with these new games, especially the AAA titles, if they do not push the envelope and make a feeling of wow, that was new, they are moving backwards because they are the top games. Medal of Honor for the PlayStation 3 is not the best work in the series and is actually one that I would put in the lower half of the titles list of games.
With the release of other top titles already out and soon to be released this game just begs to be left alone and put on the must rent category at the very least. Medal of Honor for the PlayStation 3 was a bitter disappointment and I would skip it for better games.