Medal Of Honor Beta Impressions

Posted by Rhettspect On July - 26 - 2010

Ever wanted to play Modern Warfare 2 with Battlefield Bad Company 2 controls?

Me neither. But that’s very much how the Medal Of Honor beta for Xbox 360 feels. It’s made by DICE, the team responsible for Bad Company 2, using the same engine no less.

But in place of the Battlefield series’ more methodical, strategic feel, here they are very obviously gunning for the twitchy, fast-paced style of Call of Duty. The maps are fairly small and the combat is frequent and intense.Since the game is so clearly targeting the core audience of the current shooter king, lets compare them… 

Unfortunately, Medal Of Honor lags behind Call of Duty in several respects. First of all, the graphics just aren’t up to par. Player models have a strange, plastic look to them, and gun models look far more cartoon-y.

There is a levelling system here (one of the core features that make these games so addictive), but it’s all a little bit “meh”, at least in the beta.

But by far my biggest problem with Medal of Honor are the controls. The janky, screen-shaking effect is back in full swing when you run. (Speaking of running, if you do, you’ll appear on the enemies radar. Way to promote camping!) In fact, the whole mechanic of aiming down your sights and targeting enemies doesn’t feel smooth at all, it feels lethargic.This wasn’t as much of a problem in the slower-paced Bad Company series, but in a twitch shooter, it just doesn’t work.

Despite all of this, the beta didn’t give me the impression that Medal of Honor was a bad multi-player game. It seemed like a decent one. Perhaps, if you are completely burnt out on Call of Duty, you’ll find something to like here. Certainly, you won’t be bothered by a constant barrage of killstreaks in the sky in Medal of Honor, and that will please some people. Also, if you are a person who would enjoy a grittier, less arcade feel, then perhaps the comparative lack of polish here could be a plus.

However, to me it seems that for all it’s flaws, Modern Warfare 2 still reigns supreme. Every new “Call of Duty Killer” that comes out just seems to drive that point home further. With Medal of Honor’s multi-player, DICE are trying to compete with a full strength espresso by serving up an instant coffee. It might give you a small caffeine hit, but it won’t really satisfy.

Reviewed by:

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Add to favorites
  • email
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • FriendFeed
  • Tumblr
  • Posterous

2 Comments

  1. Stu says:

    That running/shooting/radar mechanism is used in RDR too. It doesn’t promote camping, but it does make you think twice about running around. I kinda like it. It’s an attempt at realism. I think the idea is you make more noise running (and shooting too obviously).

    I would have tried the MOH beta on XBL, but the stupid site broke somehow and now I have a redeemed, but somehow invalid Xbox code tied to my EA account. Suffice to say I no longer care about MOH. If they can’t even get the beta code site working properly, I hate to think how quality the game is going to be.

  2. Alphapocalypse says:

    First it plays ok, Second the lag isn’t as noticable as BFBC2 but that could just be the low user load on the server.

    I tried to up my sensitivity on the look stick and it wouldnt change which was frustrating. On most games I crank the sensitivity up to full (unless I am sniping alot in which case I tweak it back a notch). Being made to run, well walk around with the turning speed of a mobility scooter with a flat battery pissed me off.

    The plastic army men make it way to easy to spot people at any distance, which is a good way to stop camping, infact its right up there with the ‘no way to go prone’ issue.

    The guns are rubbish and I am sure that it randoms the ammount of damage each bullet does because I notice a lot of inconsistency in the number of bullets it would take to kill, and I am pretty sure they were fresh enemies cause I was picking off snipers with my assault rifle.

    Wheres the beta test of hard core mode not all of us are radar using wussies and prefer to hunt our prey by sight and sound.

    For god sake give use another map or two, I just find it hard to get an idea of the game, particularly Team Death, when there is only one wide open map. Oh but wait Dice only ever give you 5 MP maps on full release so they can look like good guys when they give you the first couple DLC’s for free. Smaller maps isnt going to help either BFBC2 could get away with only a couple maps, I guess, cause they are so big.

    Mates who have leveled all the way up have pointed out numurous glitches including things like Red dots loosing their transparency layer, guns without sounds and a reload glitch if you drop a reasonable distance.

    TBH The beta looks like a VERY rushed job, with little though put into it other than lets try and make COD in the frostbite engine. The graphics are poor quality and already look dated, kinda like halfway between COD 3 and COD 4.

    I hope the Single player is better, I’m pretty sure it will be on account of it using a proper game engine (Unreal Engine). I know why EA use the frostbite engine, its already hooking people into their corporate machine and it can tout a couple extra players more than other more popular shooters. The Unreal engine works so well for Gears, why go and tear a rift between Story and the MP.

    I guess since I started with compliment so I should finish with one and in spite of everything that is not doing it for me, in spite of the sub XBLA quality of this beta (BF1943 looked better) and in spite of my distaste of having to Dedicated server based gaming on my console I actually kinda enjoyed it, a little.

    I am currently taking a break from MW2 though on account of being a little tired of it. Time for another map pack Activision

TrackBacks / PingBacks

Leave a Reply

Sponsors

About Me

There is something about me..

Twitter

    Photos

    Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Ms Marvel 4Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Ms Marvel 3Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Ms Marvel 1Zombieland Posterbrothers posterFrom Paris With Love PosterDaybreakers PosterItalian Inglourious Basterds Poster9 - Second PosterWinged Creatures PosterTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen New International PosterI Come With The Rain Japanese Poster