Medal of Honor review

Set during the Afghanistan conflict, Medal of Honor focuses on a group of "Tier 1" operatives. They are an elite band of soldiers who play a small, but significant role in the overriding war. Although you do get the opportunity to play as a US Ranger, thrust into front line combat, most of your time will be spent behind enemy lines. Your objectives will be taking out key targets, marking vehicles for aerial strikes, and providing long range sniper support for friendly troops. With little story to speak of, the action moves quickly from war-torn buildings, snow-covered mountains, and enemy caves, with the emphasis on stealth and survival.
 
Medal of Honor is played through the eyes of three soldiers: "Rabbit" and "Deuce" are members of Tier 1, and Dante Adams is a US Ranger. Each has their own unique role in the war, and as a result there is a great variety to the game, with their paths intertwining as the story progresses. Rabbit's missions usually involve close combat assaults, Deuce is a sniper who employs stealth techniques, and Dante is a front line solider, taking part in full scale attacks. Although Medal of Honor won't win many awards for originality, each mission is superbly handled, and the campaign will have you gripped from start to finish. The mission objectives are indeed familiar, especially if you've played Modern Warfare 2, or Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but Medal of Honor does an excellent job of keeping them fresh. Particular highlights include providing long-range sniper support for under-fire allies, protecting an under-siege airfield by calling in a variety of air strikes, and being a gunner on an Apache Longbow helicopter.
 
Medal of Honor is one of the best-looking FPSs seen on the PS3. Not only are the environment and surroundings a thing of beauty, but the whole game has a clean and crisp feel. The screen is clutter free due to the dynamic HUD, that only appears if needed. Although this can lead to confusion surrounding the location of your objectives and team mates at times, it does mean that you seem more of the action onscreen. There are some fantastic set pieces, that draw you into the action, including defending a house whilst it's being slowly reduced to the ground by RPG fire, and riding in an under-fire Chinook helicopter as it crash lands.
 
The campaign compels you to keep playing, but unfortunately it ends far too quickly. The ten missions will take around 5-6 hours to complete on normal difficulty, and you can't help feeling short-changed. Whilst you can argue that the emphasis has been placed on the multiplayer modes, each has been developed by a different studio (Danger Close have been charged with the single player, and DICE have taken care of the multiplayer), both seemingly having decent resources. Due to its brevity, the single player campaign feels little more than a tutorial to the multiplayer. Indeed, there are three classes available in multiplayer, and each of the three playable characters conveniently fits into one of those classes. You get to play with a variety of weapons while playing through the campaign, and during the few hours that it'll take to complete it, you will get familiar with the controls and mechanics in preparation for playing online.
 
The game does handle exceptionally well, however, and the controls and weight are close to perfection. There's no option to fully customise the controls, but one of the four defaults should suit most players. The game features a Peak and Lean system, allowing you to use cover to your advantage, and although the ability to slide toward objects is useful when finding cover, it can sometimes be inaccurate, leaving you exposed to enemy fire whilst you recover. It's just such a shame that the campaign ends so soon, and while there's a "Tier 1" game mode available to single players, this is only playable online. It's a good addition, if the EA servers are working, and you can get online to play, but Gamestyle feel there is little need to make this mode online only. You have to clear previous played campaign missions within a certain time, getting extensions for headshots and melee kills. The only reason to be online is to add your scores to leader boards, or leave messages to your friends to show how far you've made it before dying.
 
It seems strange then, that if the emphasis is apparently on the multiplayer side of the game, that it is ultimately quite lean. With only three fixed classes available, there is little in the way of customisation. You can't create your own class, and those that exist have fixed secondary weapons and grenades. There are only two or three different primary weapons for each class, and although additional weapons can be added by DLC, Medal of Honor multiplayer certainly lacks the depth of customisation available in Modern Warfare 2. There’s also a lack of game modes, with only 5 different modes to play.
 
Its simplicity is also its charm, however, and the actual content offered by the multiplayer side of Medal of Honor is excellent. Having preset classes has its benefits, and whilst there's a lack of variety in the weapons available, the ones present are perfectly adequate. The maps are well-designed, with a good variety and balance. Although sparse, the game modes are varied, and there is ample incentive to level-up and unlock attachments for your weapons. The Combat mode is where Gamestyle spends most of their time, and has obviously been inspired by DICE's own Bad Company 2. The game is played across five areas, and teams have to either defend or attack an objective before the time runs out. It leads to lengthy games, and players have to work together to ensure they progress through the maps.
 
Medal of Honor has its own killstreak system, in the form of Support Actions. By chaining point scoring actions together (such as kills or captures), you build up points. After every 50 points you are rewarded with a Support Action, which is either defensive or offensive. You can choose which one to activate, depending on your situation and the game's objective. At 50 points, for example, you can either opt for a UAV to fly over, revealing enemy positions, or a mortar strike, to take out key targets. Using these at the right time can help rack up more points, and the more points you get, the better the support actions. If you die, your chain resets, although you do get to keep the actions you've already unlocked. It's a good system that works well, and makes for a more dynamic battle.

Medal of Honor is a game that is clearly divided into two parts. With the emphasis on the online multiplayer, the single campaign is disappointingly short, but nevertheless one of the most enthralling that Gamestyle has played. The PS3 version certainly looks to be better value for money, and the inclusion of the remastered Medal of Honor: Frontline is a great bonus (even if the novelty is sadly short-lived). The multiplayer is excellent, but in trying to find a balance between the sheer fun of Modern Warfare 2, and the realism of Bad Company 2, it falls just short on both counts.  In the fight for this year's FPS crown, Medal of Honor has landed a few early punches, but not the knock-out blow.