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Gameplay
The gameplay in Warfighter is your standard FPS fare; the levels are linear in design, moving from one set piece to another. I however do not have a problem with this; in real warfare it is rare that you ever take massive detours like you might in a sandbox game. The set pieces are well worth it though, ranging from straight out action shootouts to driving and foot chase sequences. Wreaking havoc with the bot equipped with 40mm grenades and a machine gun is also quite satisfying.
Speaking of weaponry, the guns in Warfighter have a very realistic feel to them. You can’t just run and gun and hope for the best in this game, aimed shots to an enemy’s head are much more useful than firing a whole magazine from the hip. Recoil plays a big factor with a lot of the weapons, so careful use of your weapons is essential to survival.
The one drawback I found was that the AI would sometimes act incredibly stupid, standing out in the open for me to kill without attempting to take cover, though this happened a scant handful of times that I noticed, so it didn’t kill the experience for me.
Graphics
Using the Frostbite 2 engine, you would expect the game to look pretty, however it looks better than I expected. Nice smoke and particle effects litter the battlefield and the destruction of cover is a nice touch. Lighting works well with shadows casting on walls and doors when you walk past lights. Character models are detailed both in game and in cut scenes, which are nicely animated. Deaths of enemy soldiers are also nicely animated when you score a headshot, with a satisfying snapping back of the head and blood splatter on the surface behind them. Detail on the weaponry is also good; it’s not something that you notice too much in the heat of battle, but one of the little things that you appreciate the dev team taking time to put in.
Sound
I am playing Warfighter on a 7.2 channel surround sound system, which I can tell you, pumped up loud sounds absolutely brilliant. Explosions echo around the room and gunshots zip and crack as they break apart cover and pass by your head. It gives a real immersion into the fight. I also liked the roar of the engine in the car chase scenes, trying to escape from enemy drivers, the changes in gears are clearly audible, kudos to the Need for Speed team for their efforts here.
Controls/Interface
Medal of Honor Warfighter uses your usual FPS control scheme, L1 and R1, aim down the sights and fire respectively, while R2 throws a grenade and R3 is your melee attack, however you can customize your control to how you like it through the options menu. The characters in the game control well, with that weighty feeling similar to the controls in Battlefield 3, which isn’t surprising considering the engine the game is running on. I found the interface to be a pretty simple affair, somewhat more confusing in the multiplayer component which I will touch on later, but nowhere near as confusing as some made it out to be in the beta. The HUD doesn’t clutter the screen which is a good thing, usually only coming into my field of vision after a reload.
Story/Presentation
The story of Medal of Honor Warfighter follows the branching paths of Preacher and Stump as they track down an enemy known as The Cleric who is planning terrorist attacks around the globe using a deadly explosive known as PETN. I found the story to have a good mix of action and heartfelt moments as it tries to balance the necessity of being a videogame with the attempt at showcasing the lives and relationships of Tier 1 operators and their families. As the game progresses I grew to like the characters and through cut scenes understand their relationships, especially between Preacher and Mother, who are friends outside the job. As the game builds to its climax you hope everyone will make it through alright. The somewhat happy ending was bittersweet in the fact that our main character gets something he desired most throughout the game but not without losing things along the way.
Multiplayer
Here is the real meat of the game and test of its longevity. First of all, I love the fact that I can finally play as the Australian SASR. I have waited a long time for them to be included in a game and it is great to see. I have been playing through the multiplayer quite hard since I got the game and I found it to be immersive and fun. With well-designed maps that cater to different play styles. You can try and be a lone wolf and play for kills if you like, however it is smarter to stay with your teammate in your fire team, you can resupply and heal each other as well as spawn on each other when you die. It is a clever system that works well in its execution.
As I said above, you can’t really spray and pray in this game, aiming down the sights will always win out over shooting from the hip, so aim those shots and you will be better off online. My only worry about the multiplayer in Warfighter is how long it will hold an audience. At the moment there are only a small amount of maps, though I am sure that will change when more DLC is released in the future. Also, there is no means to hold private matches, with platoon matchmaking (where parties formed entirely from platoon members are matched against each other) the closest thing to proper clan wars. There were also a small number of bugs, with players sometimes spawning outside the map for an insta-death, or inexplicably getting caught on scenery, but these were relatively rare events.
As far as game types go there is your standard fare with Team Deathmatch and Home Run (Capture the Flag) as well as 'Hotspot' a game type similar to Battlefield 3’s Rush mode. In this mode 1 bombsite will randomly be chosen out of 5 and the attacking team must plant a bomb and destroy the site while the defending team must stop them. It is a fun game type, with lots of fast and frantic gameplay as each team tries to achieve their objective. In my games there were times when a plant and disarm would take place 5 or 6 times in a 4 minute period, with people running around everywhere and explosives going off all around me, it makes for a heart pumping few minutes. The other two modes are 'Sector Control', where teams fight over the control of three flags, similar to BF's conquest, and Combat Mission, where teams either attack or defend three consecutive bomb sites, similar to BF3's rush mode.
The multiplayer interface is somewhat more confusing than the single player portion, as customizing your soldier is more difficult than it needs to be. There were times when I was trying to play as the SASR and would accidently change to another countries soldier when I wanted to change what class of SASR I was playing. However once I learnt my way around the interface it does become second nature, it just needs a bit of a streamline.
Overall
I must say that in the end I am pleasantly surprised with Medal of Honor Warfighter, as the 2010 disappointment of the reboot, and the grumblings of the community after the Warfighter beta, I was expecting the worst out of this game, but it has surpassed my expectations in a big way, with a fun and frantic multiplayer portion and a strong, emotional single player component, Warfighter is a winner.
Author: OC-138
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, and very much agree about the great improvement to the franchise - it's been a long time since I enjoyed an online FPS as much as this - this has grabbed me as much as KZ3 did early (BF3 was solid, but design and technical limitations meant it never quite got to the 'top tier' for me).
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Batty, on 27 October 2012 - 05:25 AM, said:
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