Medal of Honor Warfighter: A rebirth for the franchise?

     The Medal of Honor series has been around since 1999 when it debuted on the Playstation. Since then there are more than a dozen games in the franchise. The latest game is Medal of Honor Warfighter, and is a sequel to the 2010 game. Medal of Honor Warfighter was developed solely by Danger Close and uses the famous Frostbite 2 game engine. We all know the military first person shooter market is crowded and all games seem to be in the shadow of Call of Duty. Many people (myself included) were excited for this game in hopes that it would breathe some life into the series. So the real question is...does it?

     The story of Warfighter is one of emotion and intensity. At least that's what the developers want to convey. They do a pretty good job at showing you that war is not all guns blazing and high explosions. You get a sense of how soldiers are put in extremely dangerous situations and how those situations affect not only the soldiers, but their families. You play as Tier 1 Operator "Preacher". After returning home from duty you are forced to cope with the pain your family has indured from you being away for so long. As he tries to repair the damage done to his family he is thrown back into duty, as he must fight terrorists and try to save his family and everyone he loves. There is tons of action, car chases, explosions, and shootouts. In the end it's a solid story that brings both action and emotion to the forefront.

     
     Graphically the game looks really good. If you are not playing on a high end PC, the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will have a 1.7 GB HD texture pack to download. Of course this is optional but if you have the space on your hard drive please do yourself a favor and download it. It really does make a difference. There are a few times when environmental textures look a little muddy and character models look a little off, but it's nothing terrible. More often you are treated to highly detailed textures, weapons, environments, sounds, and some awesome lighting effects. Also, thanks to the Frostbite 2 Engine the environments themselves will be able to be chipped away by bullets and blown apart from grenades or rockets. This of course just adds to the action and realism. One thing I liked is that the weapons all sound good, solid, and seem to have a certain "heft" to them.

     Now what would a first person shooter be without multiplayer? Medal of Honor Warfighter has got you covered in this area. You'll be able to play as six different class types that are: assault, demolition, sniper, point man, spec ops, and heavy gunner. Naturally each class has different weapons, killstreak rewards, and skills. You will be able to rank up each class to unlock new weapons, skills, and attachments/skins for your weapons. The weapon attachment system is something pretty cool in this game. You'll be able to change the barrel, optics, clip, and other parts of the gun. Also, I always enjoy being able to add different camouflage or colors to my weapons and there are plenty to unlock.

     
     With each of the six classes you'll be able to choose from Tier 1 Operators from all over the world. One thing I really like in the multiplayer is the buddy or fire team system. Basically this splits your entire team into small two man sub-teams. With your buddy you will be able to spawn next to them and even give each other ammo and health boosts. You can also earn bonus points while sticking near your buddy. This really gives the multiplayer a team based feel to it. You will want to stick with your fire team buddy and help each other out. There are standard modes like team deathmatch, capture the flag, conquest, and others.

     
     So right now it sounds like everything is great with Medal of Honor Warfighter right? Wrong. There are a few things that chip away at the great things about it. Like many others have mentioned, the multiplayer lobby system is kind of a mess. It takes time to figure out where everything is, but once you do figure out how to maneuver things it gets a little better. Another complaint I have is with the level design in some of the multiplayer maps. The maps contain various locations and are cool, but there are areas where the paths seem to get bogged down with objects you can't get around. So there are times where you get stuck or run into an object you can't jump over and end up getting taken down. Also, unless I'm completely missing it, there isn't a description of the different abilities or killstreaks you can use.

     
     Another complaint I have is with the hit detection in multiplayer. There are times when it seems you are barely hitting an enemy and they are taken out. Other times you have to unload almost an entire clip to take an enemy out. This happens with far, mid-range, and close combat. This also works in favor of the enemy player. I have been taken out from someone using an assault rifle way across the map and they only hit me two times. Spawn locations aren't the best and can end up leaving you with spawn camper moments at times. Hopefully the developers will release a patch to fix these things.

     
     In the end Medal of Honor Warfighter is a decent shooter with some flaws that keep it from reaching its full potential. Some reviewers have completely trashed this game and even called it one of the worst games they've played. I completely disagree with that. I enjoyed the campaign and even with my complaints I enjoyed the multiplayer. I really like the fire team system and how it creates the team based feel. The graphics in game and in the cutscenes look really good. The lighting effects, environment details, and destructive environments work really well and add intensity to the game. In order for the online community to continue the developers will have to continue to update the game with patches and dlc. Medal of Honor Warfighter is not for everyone. It is worth it to try though. I wasn't extremely blown away by the game, but I also wasn't extremely disappointed with it. It left me somewhere in the middle.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Written by: Alter Ego 83