The Medal Of Honor franchise has a rich history in the FPS genre.  It has created one of the most memorable opening scenes ever, travelled into many theatres of war during the second world war and its original creators developed the Call Of Duty franchise.

For a few years, this franchise has been sleeping only to be awoken into the modern theatre of war and something we see on the news everyday.  The rejuvinated Medal Of Honor title, released on Friday in the U.K., follows the stories of Tier 1 operators and S.E.A.L. teams in covert operations that have been based on real missions in Afghanistan.  To try and make this game as faithful to the stories themselves, Danger Close, EA’s developer for the campaign, have worked closely with real life Tier 1 operatives to try and be as accurate as possible.

The campaign itself is moving in places, intense in others and will throw up a few scenes reminiscent of the jaw dropping Frontlines opening sequence all those years ago.  Although the campaign starts out slow, it soon builds up momentum as you play these stories out through the eyes of different characters.  Playing the game through different characters does come with good and bad though.  The fact that the game opens up a variety of combat scenerios, each with their own vibe is a good thing.  From escape and evasion missions to stealth and sniping missions, reminiscent of Ghillies In The Mist from Modern Warfare, to full on battles, the variety of the missions keeps the campaign fresh.

The problem with having this much variety is that the narrative itself can become fragmented and perhaps doesn’t tug on the heart strings as much as it should.   A few other problems have occurred with the campaign side of things and although they do not detract too much from the experience do need to be mentioned.  In certain places, where the action really hots up, there can be some frame rate drops that are quite heavy.  It doesn’t happen too much, thank goodness, but it is something that is noticeable in certain places.  The other problem is with A.I. that doesn’t react the way it should do on occasion.  This is a double edged sword because although you want more of a challenge in certain situations, the thrill of driving a knife into an enemy that is stuck feels so rewarding.   Having said that, there is plenty there to keep you interested throughout and will immerse you into the heart of what these guys have to go through in real life to keep our country safe.

As an added addition to the campaign mode is a Tier 1 mode that will keep you interested long after you have completed the campaign on the hardest difficulty.  Tier 1 mode is essentially a timed run through each of the twelve missions in the campaign.  Each of the missions you will play against the clock with the clock freezing for head shots, chained head shots, melee kills etc.  The idea is to complete each mission in the quickest time with global leaderboards to see how you have done at the end.  It works well, really well and if you need to wind down from a heavy session of multiplayer then you will need to look no further than here.

As you must be aware by now, an fps game is only as good as its multiplayer in terms of longevity.  DICE, of Battlefield fame, have taken up the challenge for this part of the game and have seemed to have found some middle ground between Call Of Duty’s run and gun antics and Battlefield’s strategy, team based options.  The results of which give a very accessible, run and gun online mechanic coupled with some of Battlefield’s balanced level design and minor cover degradation.

Medal OF Honor looks like your standard fare shooter at first but when you look into the way it has all come together you will start to see that it has taken the best from both extremes of the genre and put them all together in a well crafted online experience.  From the weapon loadouts and unlocks that will feel familiar to Battlefield fans to the kill streak system from Call Of Duty it has something for both sides of the camp to appreciate.  I was very wary at first that DICE had even considered putting a kill streak system in given how disgusted I was with MW2 in that sense (not that DICE would care what I thought!) but I have to admit that it works very well indeed.  This system is not about racking up your kills for quick UAV’s etc but chaining together the points, which takes a lot longer to achieve than you think, to get your offensive or defensive strikes going and therefore keeps the balance of the game intact.

The gametypes themselves will also appeal to both sides of the fence with your standard run and gun death matches available to more strategic affairs with MOH’s variations of King Of The Hill, Domination etc all with hardcore modes for those that want a more challenging game.  The biggest draw here is DICE’s version of its excellent Rush game type from the Battlefield series.  Based on the story in the campaign, players will have to use team work and strategies to complete certain objectives on the map of their choice.  Although this will not appeal to all, the time taken to gain the upper hand is both rewarding and satisfying upon completion, win or lose.  It is certainly a gametype that you will need to squad up for though and perhaps best played with friends for maximum effect.

Overall, Danger Close and DICE have delivered a solid game that is worthy of the Medal Of Honor franchise tag.  Putting the little quibbles aside the campaign itself will give you some WOW moments and I would say has served the originators of the stories told well.  It is a fitting tribute to the war we see today and the secret battles that go on behind the scenes, something that the news will never report.  The online element of the game is definitely the star of the show and caters for all tastes in the war FPS genre.  They say that fortune favours the brave and this rings true with Medal Of Honor.  Medal Of Honor has taken massive leaps in the right direction but with a little more creativity could have been a real COD beater.  Saying that, buying Medal Of Honor is money well spent and will definitely add an extra big gun to your arsenal.