MOH FTW!

Image via Screw Attack

“DICE & EA team up again” – you saw the headlines and read the articles on blogs and in magazines all over the globe that after the huge success of the Battlefield series, A star developer DICE and heavy hitting publisher EA would be working on a new title. A blast from the past, Medal of Honor, giving the franchise a reboot after its many years off the multi-million dollar FPS radar. Those of you who doubted the new game, shame on you! EA are currently holding a closed beta for the multiplayer version of the game (this mode is what DICE have been working on) and I can tell you that not only does it dismiss opinions that it’s a ‘cookie-cutter FPS clone’ it stands up to the high standards of Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2 before it.

Click ‘Read More‘ to find out what I thought of the beta.

It’s important to note that this is the multiplayer beta, I’ve already said that but it’s something to remember. It’s no ‘refined’ , ‘perfectly designed’ single player mode but DICE’s amazing talent, even in the beta, shines through and the integration of EA’s modern take on the game with DICE’s multiplayer mode polish, really show off how much effort has been put in to ensure that MOH will be a giant-killer. By giant, I mean Call of Duty, of course.

Like any half-decent writer or aspiring journo at that should, if you haven’t got the foggiest what the game’s about and haven’t played MOH since its pre-next-generation days, I’ll set the scene. Every Medal of Honor game has been set around some sort of conflict ( read : World War 2 ) and this upcoming game sees you playing as a group of US soldiers who are the elite of the elite. So far up in the ranks and so secretive that only 2 people know their real names : their Mothers and the President. The game is also based on real life ‘Tier One’ soldiers (the elite guys) and the conflict in the Middle East. To MOH, the Middle East is one country, a place that needs no introduction, Afghanistan.

Image via the Official Medal Of Honor website

Sticking with the Afghan warfare genre, the beta puts you right in the middle of the fight, as either a regular ‘non-elite’ soldier, suited up in a camo-outfit or as a native Afghani Taliban soldier dressed in cloth robes. No, the Afghanis aren’t dressed in bathrobes but they are clothed in actual clothing that they might wear to the very real battle. Another point to the development team for realism. As a member of the US Army, you’ll get the choice between 3 soldier types, something that was really great from the Battlefield series, they are : Rifleman (machine gun, grenade launcher) , Special Ops (assault rifle, rocket launcher) and for you happy map campers, there’s the Sniper (does what it says on the tin really). The Taliban forces are of similar classes (with different names) but come with other guns at their disposal such as the AK47 Assault Rifle (Foot Soldier)  , AKS74u Carbine (RPG Soldier) and SVD Battle Rifle (Marksman).

Being chosen as the US Army’s newest recruit and keeping to my ‘shoot first ask questions later’ roots, which I discovered in Modern Warfare 2, I mainly played as the character with the most firepower, the Spec Ops. Like a pre-heated oven, the Spec Ops really packs the heat, a little too much actually. We’re not talking ‘molten lava’ here, but the Spec Ops’ firepower, to me, felt to outweigh that of the other classes as not only does he carry around a rocket launcher, he also gets the use of grenades, and let’s not forget that machine gun, which is packing one serious bullet fuelled punch.

Image via the Official Medal Of Honor website

Now equipped as a Special Ops soldier, I was in it to win it and was ready to test out all of the kick-ass modes that the developer-I-would-trust-to-make-just-about-anything AKA DICE had in store for us lucky beta testers. The beta allows you to play ‘Team Assault’ which is just another name for Team Deathmatch. Just like Team Deathmatch in any other multiplayer mode, the 2 teams were fighting against each other, the only way to win being to ‘kill as many enemies as possible’. From what I’ve seen, EA and DICE haven’t brought anything relatively new to the table in that respect, besides a new name for a classic multiplayer mode. There’s nothing wrong with this actually, if it worked when DICE made Battlefield Bad Company 2’s multiplayer then it will definitely work in Medal Of Honor and believe me when I say that you want as much of DICE’s talent to be present in the game as possible!

In the beta, one map is available for us to run around in, ‘Kabul City Ruins’ is its name and it shows a miniscule percentage of the damage that the conflict has caused on the country. This city is literally demolished, each and every building is decrepit and there are holes and gaps in the scenery at every turn. A nice touch, I have to say. It really makes a difference to the startling and picturesque browns (sarcasm) that are present in every FPS you’ve ever played. It’s an added bonus that DICE have brought their beautiful scenery destruction physics with them from Battlefield, as if the people of Afghanistan’s homes hadn’t been annihilated enough, we get to shoot the buildings to rubble some more.

Image via the Official Medal Of Honor website

The fact that the multiplayer is a little unoriginal annoys me a bit, as I’d hoped DICE would use their incredible game-making experience to improve the mode and bring a much-needed dose of originality to the game, which is arguably what the game lacks as it’s surrounded by a mass of generic, run-of-the-mill FPS’. What I can say though is that Medal of Honor’s multiplayer mode both takes the best features of Battlefield’s playground of online warfare and improves on it. The physics of your soldier will remind of your sprinting sessions in BFBC2, trying to escape from the enemy because the way that the MOH soldiers move is very much the same. DICE’s touch of paint can also be seen and is a welcome addition to the game. They’ve clearly brought their experience from their other games and used it in Medal of Honor with the graphics being impeccable as always (Battlefield – the snow! Mirror’s Edge – everything!) and it instantly makes the game oh so beautiful!

MOH’s lack of originality is the only thing that makes me question the final game’s ability to deliver a truly great multiplayer experience but with a few months away until the game’s release in October, both EA and DICE will have plenty of time to take the amazing game they’ve created and make it incredible.

Thanks to the guys at Mad Gear Solid ( @MadGearSolid on Twitter) for giving me this code. Please go and check their amazing blog out!