I have enjoyed my far share of FPS shooters so when this game arrived I was very excited to throw it in and see what kind of experience I would have. Medal of Honor throws you into a modern day battlefield facing off against the likes of al-Qaida and the Taliban forces. This EA publish and developed by Danger Close studios FPS is there first foray into an FPS. You play as multiple armed forces units that have been dropped into the hostel middle east. You are tasked with eliminating any local hostel forces that you come across. Just like in previous Medal of Honor games they like to state the fact that this game has been made with the help of real Marines and other military personnel. So when the characters in the game are talking, they talk mostly in military jargon like calling out an enemy position at 12 o' clock or 9 o' clock and referring to minuets as mics. It takes some time to get use to.
On one of the first missions you are tasked with clearing out an airport hanger and airfield so that the Tactical Operations Center can set up an HQ. Medal of Honor doesn't have much of a story to follow, so you aren't going to miss anything if you skip over the cut scenes. The game takes you through multiple mission types including sniper missions, stealth missions, and the new standard in FPS games vehicle missions. The game play feels really scripted, sometimes you just have to run to a certain point of a level and the game will take over and go into the next cut scene. Some of the cut scenes you feel like you should be playing them instead of watching them. For example, you get ambushed by a lot of enemy forces and you can only survive if you run for cover, all the while your comrades are being killed all around you. That would have been fun to play and not have the controller on the ground watching as it happens.
The game is very linear and it feels like it is holding your hand through the four to five hour campaign. That is right the single player campaign is that short, after the game is over I felt like I wanted more, but I did not want to go through the main campaign again, it does not offer much replay value at all. The load times after you die are quick and it gets you back into the action. There is some jankyness to some of the missions. For example in one mission you are trying to be stealthy and killing anyone you come across without setting off any alarms, but you get to this point where there is a camp of enemies sitting around a camp fire. You and your team decide to take them out, so they count up how many there are and as soon as you start firing on the hostels an enemy comes out of a hiding spot and throws alcohol onto the fire to warn other camps that there is someone there. If you try and kill the guy before he does that he will not go down, but as soon as he is done with his breaking bottle animation you are able to kill him.
The vehicle missions feel like any other vehicle mission in a FPS shooter, at one point you are the gunner on top of a truck and then a gunner in a helicopter. One mission has you driving ATV's from camp to camp clearing out each camp site of any enemies. In addition to vehicle missions there are snipping sections where you tasked with killing groups of enemies. You have to snipe anywhere from 800 to over 1000 yards, at that point you have to take your shots at the right time or you can miss easily due to that fact that you have to take into account of the wind and if the enemy is moving at all. I enjoyed these sections, due to the fact that they break up the game play and the great distance the bullet has to travel before it strikes the enemy is amazingly fun.
The controls are responsive and feel good when you fire your gun. You are able to carry two main guns and your pistol. You cycle through your weapons with pushing the Y button or the triangle button depending on the platform you are playing on. But the only way to get to your pistol is to double tap the weapon cycle button; I did not realize this until the game was more than half way over with it. You are as able to lean around cover but it is not necessary and I never used it throughout the game.
I did encounter slow down in some parts that I didn't think the game would have it. It bums me out when a FPS has any type of slow down. The graphics look good especially when buildings explode, but I don’t think the game was running at 60 frames per second. I also ran into some draw distance bugs in which one of the first levels where I had a sniper rifle. There was an open door to a barn and on the ground you could see a lantern sitting on the ground. Well when you looked through the scope of the rifle you would not see the lantern and then it would pop in and this would happen every time. I also ran into some shadow popping in and out depending on how close you were to the shadow. Your AI companions do a good job at taking out the enemy AI. But they do get in the way, at times I would be looking down the iron sights of a gun trying to pick people off some enemies, they would all of a sudden step in front of me and get hit. It gets frustrating when you are stuck behind a small wall with 3 other guys trying to get a shot off without hitting your guy instead.
With the single player campaign being so short and not having any replay value at all other then get some extra achievements there is no point to replay this game. I hope that the four to five hour length is not becoming a standard in FPS, in some games that seems to short and for this one it is. I did enjoy my short time with the game when I was playing it and not watching scripted events with the controller out of my hands. Medal of Honor is a very competent FPS and if you love FPS you will be willing to look past some of the imperfections and you will enjoy your time with it.