During my hands on time with the Medal of Honor Warfighter singleplayer, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of game I was playing. I went in expecting to be a macho American soldier destroying everything in my path. I was surprised with with what actually takes Medal of Honor Warfighter, to the next level.
Medal of Honor has always been about the story, and in Warfighter that is still very true. The story has been written personally by ex special-ops soldiers who were deployed over six years ago. It is sure to bring a dark and epic story to the game that gamers will enjoy. Sitting down to play Warfighter, I was treated to two levels, “Shore Leave” and “Hot Pursuit”.
You may remember, “Shore Leave” from this year’s E3. In this level you are assaulting a heavily-armed camp of pirates in Somalia. While playing this level, I was amazed at how fluid the gameplay is. Running on Frostbite 2, it plays great. The guns have a kick to them, but enemies take a realistic amount of bullets before they drop. Speaking of dropping, so do the bullets over distance. It varies your gameplay and makes you think of when and where to shoot. If you put some extra thought in, you will be rewarded with a nice headshot.
“Shore Leave” was packed with action. After breaching and clearing many rooms, I manned a remote control buggy that had a grenade launcher and a machine gun built in. After the Al-Shabaab pirates damaged my buggy, I was once again on foot with my group of soldiers (that actually shoot and kill enemies, good friendly AI! Hooray!). During the level, I took aim with a sniper rifle to help cover a helicopter and other units on the ground. Much like the sniping section in Medal of Honor, it was a blast, and figuring out where to aim on a target far, far away and hitting him with a headshot, felt very rewarding.
The second level I played, “Hot Pursuit” was an intense car chase through the streets of Karachi in Pakistan. Instead of firing out the window or manning a turret atop the vehicle, you actually drive through the flooded streets. This level took skill to master, as you chase your target through crowded main streets, quiet alleys and busy marketplaces. I can see this level serving as a rest from the shooting action, as it took some time to finally catch up to the target. The level of detail in this level was great. First off, you are driving on the right hand side of the vehicle! I don’t know why, but I love when video games do this. When you slow down or speed up, your character changes gears, it’s a small addition but it adds to the atmosphere. Also, during the chase, we sped through a busy marketplace that was full of chicken coops, it’s fair to say a lot of those chickens are no longer with us.
Much like Medal of Honor, Warfighter’s sound design is amazing! The gun sound effects are loud, violent and immersive. The voice acting is great with many characters yelling and instructing the player in gravelly tones. The soundtrack is also great with ethnic drums beating in the background to get the blood pumping.
We were told at the start by a developer from Danger Close, that we were going to see new additions to the Medal of Honor franchise. While we did see many new features for the franchise, I didn’t see much in the way of additions to the genre. The sniping and driving sections were great, but I’ve done this in a lot of shooters. The difference I found is the level of polish and detail. When you breach into a room, everything turns into slow motion. Where have we seen that before? But before you breach you can select what tools you want to use. Hatchet to break the lock off? Crowbar? Or just kick the door down? (you can also unlock more methods of breaching by getting headshots) It’s small additions like this that make the game shine.
Medal of Honor Warfighter isn’t your average shooter, it takes pride in its singleplayer. It has a dark storyline that players will thoroughly enjoy. Warfighter looks and sounds amazing and features a deep multiplayer that could be played for years if players support it. Medal of Honor Warfighter is definitely my most anticipated shooter of 2012.
