Electronic Arts
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Rating:
4 Stars
After rebooting “Medal of Honor” in 2010, it came as no surprise when Electronic Arts announced a follow-up title for this year. Totting the tagline “the only realistic shooter this holiday season”, it gave itself a lot to live up to; however, its predecessor proved that if any game could do it, “Medal of Honor” would be the brand. Once again, Danger Close worked closely with Tier 1 Operators, relying on them to actually write the story for the game, so they could pull from their own experiences and create the most authentic game possible.
The Fun Stuff:
Realistic it is, starting with the cut scenes. Just like “Battlefield 3”, there is an optional HD graphics download you can install, and it’s highly recommended that you do. The cut scenes are drop dead gorgeous. Occasionally, you’ll probably find yourself questioning if it’s live action or not. The graphics carry over into the game too. Although not quite as jaw-dropping as the CGI, they’re still beautiful and push the Xbox 360 to its absolute limits. Sound mixing is, once again, fantastic too which adds to the realism.
“Warfighter” also utilizes the Frostbite 2 engine, allowing for destructible environments in all the right places to add another subtle touch of realism. Wood shatters from grenade explosions and small chunks of the wall will chip away when grazed with bullets. It really shines during the door breaches. The coolest part is you can unlock multiple unique breaching animations so you can destroy that door in any way you please. Whether you decide to place a charge and blow the door to smithereens or take a tomahawk to the doorknob, it all happens in excruciatingly beautiful detail. You can spend all the time you want looking at the details too, because there isn’t any intel or collectible item you have to find during the campaign. For that, gamers everywhere rejoice.
There’s more to “Warfighter” than just shooting things. From time to time, you’ll find yourself behind the wheel – and it’s a surprisingly pleasant experience. One mission in particular, titled “Hello and Dubai”, has you driving for the entire mission. Don’t worry though; it’s anything but a chore. During one segment, the mission actually felt a lot like the ‘Burnout’ series, as it required you to take down enemy vehicles pursuing you. The driving is smooth and used just to the right amount that it’s always entertaining and never annoying.
The multiplayer has been overhauled too. You now always have a buddy who you can rely on for ammunition and healing, as well as temporary tactical advantages when they get killed. It still follows the FPS standard of kill streaks, ranking up, and unlocking new things, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as they’ve essentially become established components of any successful shooter. It’s actually a good deal of fun, and should become even more interesting next month when a new map pack tied in to the “Zero Dark Thirty” movie is released.
The Frustrating Stuff:
Unfortunately, though, for everything that “Warfighter” has done right, it seems they’ve done something wrong too. Despite the incredibly beautiful graphics, it seems they forgot – or simply ignored –the concept of “dynamic lighting”. In a game that’s going for realism, this is something that probably shouldn’t be overlooked. There’s nothing sillier and more disappointing (in a ‘realistic’ game) than realizing that your character is incapable of casting shadows, as is anything and everything else passing through lighted areas.
Taking another step away from realism, it sees the A.I. have gotten an intelligence upgrade –but not in a good way. The A.I. in the previous “Medal of Honor” were pleasantly realistic in terms of how they acted with you. Unfortunately, they’ve gained god-like intelligence on the hardest difficulties like in the rival “Call of Duty” series where the enemy knows exactly where you are before you even show up. On the bright side, you companions are equally intelligent and still just as capable of killing enemies for you like they were in the previous game.
Although having the ability to choose how you want to breach an area is really awesome, you’ll soon realize it’s purely cosmetic. No matter how you enter, it always turns out the same. Oh, and a very large majority of the time, there will conveniently be exactly 4 bad guys behind the door. It starts to feel repetitive pretty quickly.
Speaking of repetitive, be prepared for yet another training session running through airplanes. There’s even an achievement tied to completing the course with a quick time – something that should feel a little familiar to fans of the “Call of Duty” series… or pretty much any other modern first person shooter for that matter. To add to the awkwardness, this training actually takes place after completing the first mission, which throws you straight into the action and expects those unfamiliar with shooters to just deal with it. There is one awesome thing about the training facility, though. Without giving away anything about the story, it’s safe to say they do actually tie it in to the story in a very neat way.
Bottom Line:
For anyone who was a fan of 2010’s “Medal of Honor”, this is a must buy. For everyone else mildly interested, it’s probably still worth picking up if you can find a decent sale on it. The story and beautiful cut scenes are definitely worth experiencing. If you don’t want to divide up your time between multiple first person shooters this holiday season though, you’ll probably want to pass over this title as there are much better titles worthy of your $60 this season between “Black Ops II” and “Halo 4”, depending on which series you align yourself with.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter was developed by Danger Close Games and was published by Electronic Arts. It was released in North America on October 23, 2012 with an ‘M’ rating from the ESRB and an MSRP of $59.99. This review was based on an Xbox 360 copy of the game purchased on the release date.
Anthony Ortale writes news and reviews on behalf of Examiner.com. He does so much gaming in his spare time, it’s practically a full time job! If you like what you read here, please subscribe to his articles! You can also follow Tony on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook! If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email Tony any time at ortale.anthony@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you