MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER (PS3)
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Publisher: EA.
Developer: Danger Close Games. Released: November 2012. Genre: FPS. Other versions: X360; PC. Posted 19th February 2015. By Tom Clare © 2015 |
Medal of Honor’s rebirth as a modern shooter has inevitably fallen short of the standards the series reached around the turn of the millennium. Warfighter’s imitative nature is dispiriting; it’s a highly adept but thematically unambitious attempt to claim back some of the hordes of shoot ‘em up fans seemingly lost to periodic cycles of Call of Duty. In an era where FPSs have become a huge business, it made sense in purely commercial terms. However, with EA’s Battlefield series utilising the same engine and modern setting (and with presumably greater focus and resources), it’s hard to imagine how re-clothing a once-pioneering series as a competent copy-cat was ever going to work in the long run.
The allure of the 1999 PlayStation original (and a couple of its immediate successors) was that it provided impressively technical period-weaponry, amidst an atmospheric World War II setting. Everything from the bulky pistols, to the wayward machine guns and antiquated-yet-deadly Springfield sniper rifles felt satisfying to use, because though the player had to learn to work around their shortcomings, they were all deadly in the right hands. This would become an increasingly well-worn trope in the years that followed however, and though Warfighter purports to be the only shooter to feature “real operators and gear”, this only serves to make it play more like others shooters, not less.
Warfighter strikes a more serious tone than Modern Warfare, but its story-heavy nature weighs it down at times
To be clear though: Warfighter is a good quality shoot ‘em up. It’s among the best FPSs in terms of graphical clout, it runs and functions fine and what it attempts, it typically achieves. The problem is, it’s terminally, inescapably generic. The greyish surroundings, the barks of gung-ho soldiers and clipped military orders, the breaching of doors, clearing of rooms and rinse ‘n’ repeat nature of the gun battles leaves you with a feeling that you’ll have seen both vision and outcome many times before. There are times when it mimics Call of Duty so closely, that scenes start to feel interchangeable. There’s an interrogation sequence that sees you sat opposite an ally, increasingly agitated terrorists making threats, before you fashion an escape. So strikingly similar is it to a sequence in Black Ops, I genuinely had to go back and check which section belonged to which game.
Similarities ultimately run deeper of course, but though Warfighter inevitably goes in for a sprinkling of vehicle sections, it’s perhaps the one area where it endeavours something a little more elaborate than its contemporaries. There’s a breathless chase through a marvellously destructible Pakistan market town, followed later on in the game by a spot of cat-and-mouse as the player is task with hiding their car amidst a network of blind spots during an undercover escape, before braving a Need For Speed-esque dash through a sandstorm into oncoming traffic.
Similarities ultimately run deeper of course, but though Warfighter inevitably goes in for a sprinkling of vehicle sections, it’s perhaps the one area where it endeavours something a little more elaborate than its contemporaries. There’s a breathless chase through a marvellously destructible Pakistan market town, followed later on in the game by a spot of cat-and-mouse as the player is task with hiding their car amidst a network of blind spots during an undercover escape, before braving a Need For Speed-esque dash through a sandstorm into oncoming traffic.
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Frostbite 2 proves Warfighter’s biggest ally, ensuring that an otherwise-unmemorable campaign does play to a decent standard. As well as catering for rapid controls and a steady frame-rate, Danger Close has crafted a familiar though attractive sequence of levels. The Philippines mission is a visual highlight; a hostile environment with flooded streets and billowing debris makes for a lively locale as abandoned cars, smashed billboards and palm trees batter around in the wind and heavy rain. There’s a veritable labyrinth of grimy details, and the sensation that foes may be lurking in every shadow.
Warfighter delivers sharp contrasts of mood and pacing. The glaringly bright, arid middle-eastern settings tend to symbolise an all-guns-blazing freneticism. Elsewhere, the sombre, menacing darkness of the “Bump in the Night” mission, set aboard a ship, hides a glut of snipers about its floodlit exterior, and some considerably closer-quarters, claustrophobic skulking below deck.
Warfighter delivers sharp contrasts of mood and pacing. The glaringly bright, arid middle-eastern settings tend to symbolise an all-guns-blazing freneticism. Elsewhere, the sombre, menacing darkness of the “Bump in the Night” mission, set aboard a ship, hides a glut of snipers about its floodlit exterior, and some considerably closer-quarters, claustrophobic skulking below deck.
Like so many recent first-person shooters, Warfighter disappoints through its lack of a co-op campaign. Once again we’re left to lament such a peculiar design omission, especially given that it features a campaign where you’re accompanied almost all the way by a squad of computer-controlled allies. Over a period of several months of playtesting, competitive multiplayer was unworkable, never connecting to a server for a Quick Match, whilst specific occupied servers always claimed to require additional content. It’s a kick in the teeth for anyone who bought the game knowing that multiplayer is often the primary draw, and to find such circumstances occurring less than two years after the game’s original release is a shame.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s strict adherence to modern FPS conventions mean it’s easy to see who will get the most from the experience. Certainly, if shooters are your bag, it ticks most of the right boxes, and there’s a bunch of difficulties that help prolong things a little (though the Hardcore mode is a bad joke: you must start the whole game again if you die, which it shouldn’t take a genius to work out is really not a good idea in a game of this length). It’s slick, plays well and suffers from precious few visual discrepancies or bugs, but then, there’s also the very real possibility you’ll play it for a couple of weeks and not remember a single thing about it afterwards.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s strict adherence to modern FPS conventions mean it’s easy to see who will get the most from the experience. Certainly, if shooters are your bag, it ticks most of the right boxes, and there’s a bunch of difficulties that help prolong things a little (though the Hardcore mode is a bad joke: you must start the whole game again if you die, which it shouldn’t take a genius to work out is really not a good idea in a game of this length). It’s slick, plays well and suffers from precious few visual discrepancies or bugs, but then, there’s also the very real possibility you’ll play it for a couple of weeks and not remember a single thing about it afterwards.
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VERDICT
Visual: 7/10
Audio: 5/10 Gameplay: 6/10 Longevity: 5/10 OVERALL: 6/10 |