Despite how much I despised the last go I had at the closed Medal of Honor Beta on PSN [jump to my June MoH closed Beta post], I decided to give it another shot with the open beta currently running on Steam. The only reason I went in for seconds was because of some live streaming footage I saw on Justin.tv of the game where I had noticed some vast improvements in a lot of the key problem areas. Could it be that EA is actually using this Beta to fix things and not just as a marketing ploy as so many publishers are doing these days? Keep in mind, this is the trend most developers follow. The Beta is almost always the spitting image of what you get on release day, thus my absolute disgust with what I had initially played. I’m very happy to say that even from closed to open Beta MoH has made leaps and bounds. Either that, or it just seemed better on my PC then on the PS3.
Before I start the process of removing my foot from my mouth, allow me to give you a descriptive play by play of my first jump back into the multiplayer action. Ready?
“Spawn! Die! Spawn! Run, die! Spawn! Duck, die! Spa/Die! Spawn! Change weapo-DIE! Exit game!”
Wow, that was fun! I think MoH suffers from too many players on such narrow terrains. At this point though, that is about all the game suffers from. This of course can be remedied by the ability to chose 6 on 6 team games, let’s hope they include this toggle in the final product. I found myself backing out and going into the “find server” mode and looking for games that only had 6-8 players in them. Once I loaded into a game like this, the fun started to pour in.
Let’s talk improvement.
The in game menus are vastly improved, it’s much easier to navigate, make class changes and way more esthetically pleasing over all. The character models have been penciled in finely, the details are a sight to behold. The levels themselves are amazing looking. The closest thing I have seen to photo realism to date. Battle chatter is nothing short of awesome, the OPFOR especially. The voices are very authentic sounding (based off what I have heard in recent war documentaries), nothing sounds over acted or forced. Once I was in a smaller team game I could actually make out what the US military was saying. They voice things that are happening on the field as you progress through objectives. I was rushing in to plant a bomb on one of the control points when my character automatically blurted out that what I was doing to command, then command responded with an acknowledgement. It was pretty cool to say the least. Hit detection has been dialed in, weapon models have been ramped up, snow even collects on your weapon and clothing as you move about one of the icy maps. Most importantly, the absolute Battlefield Bad Company clone feeling is gone. Is it still similar? Yes.
[video by: TheGodlikeTube] (Randomly selected video, not me playing.)
I will more than likely trade in my copy of Halo: Reach and pick up MoH on release day. This will be a great way to pass the time between now and Call of Duty: Black Ops. However, I won’t be picking this up for the MP portion of the game. I’m looking forward to the single player campaign on this one. I found myself wishing I was able to access it in the Beta. I could honestly care less about playing yet another military FPS. COD is my brand of choice for MP, but I’m always up for a great story and that is something that Medal of Honor has always provided. I loved the older editions of the series, why not see what this new edition has to offer?
I have a friend who is an actual T1 operator as a member of DEVGRU. Since the announcement of this title and the inclusion of T1 military input into the development of the game, I have been anxious to see a glimpse of what he may be seeing on a day to day bases (as arcade a version it may be). I don’t pretend to think it is anything actually like what he does, but it will be interesting to compare the two and see just how authentic a rendition they’ve gotten it.
If for no other reason, I want to pick it up because military officials have decided to ban it from being sold on any bases due to the enemy being appropriately titled and portrayed as the Taliban. This day in age, that’s just ridiculous! In America we have this little thing called freedom, who is any military official to say what is and isn’t appropriate for anyone else? We can assume the roll of German, Vietcong and Russian military and shoot Americans in crap tons of games, why is this one any different? To be fair, I’m speaking from the point of view that has no bearing on the matter though. If I was actually there and saw friends die at the hands of the Taliban, then came home to watch people play a game were you assume the roll of the same entity and are awarded points for killing an American likeness, maybe I would have an issue as well. Still doesn’t change the fact that this is America and you have the freedom to do things like that here.
Anyway, I’ll be back mid-October with my review on this installment of Medal of Honor. Watch this space!
