Medal of Honor (the game) Controversy

[Jarnhamar]

Review from a non-gamer.

Likeliness of Afghanistan on the first mission was awesome . I have pictures that look exactly like the streets you're driving down in the game. The vehicles, buildings people look very realistic- even down to the goat Herder walking across the road with his goats when your driving by and giving you a dumb look.
As well the airfields, hangers aircraft skeletons look very real.  I was impressed by the effort they put into making it look like Afghanistan, if you've been there you'll defiantly recognize things IMO.

Got annoyed with reading TIER 1 in the manual. The whole TIER 1 gets over used. Makes you feel like saying yes we get it the game is about special forces STUF and move on.

Stupid AI
Enemies (and friendlies) would stand in a room and basically wait for you to enter, 1 to 2 second pause then they start moving around and shooting eachother. Gives it a staged feel.  Sometimes they run into walls or shoot into walls for no apparent reason.
SOME of the AI actions is pretty neat. How they duck and cover or even hold an AK over their head while behind cover and 'spray and pray'.

Jumping kind of sucks. You can barely jump over a popcan. You get hung up on a lot of things.

Movement isn't very fluid. I found I was always bumping into things and getting stuck. Your buddies can jump up and over walls but you need to go against the wall hit a button and get them to give you a hand up.

Environment isn't very reactive.

Grenades seem more like firecrackers.

Controller has the same set up as MW2 which was good (and what I didn't like about bad company 2) but should allow fully customable controls. Still I'm glad the set up I'm comfortable with was available.

Having something set up pre mission where you can pick what weapons you're taking would have been fun. Makes single player missions more customizable. That said it's nice to play the game and not find random weapons all over the play

 

[HavokFour]

Stupid AI
Enemies (and friendlies) would stand in a room and basically wait for you to enter, 1 to 2 second pause then they start moving around and shooting eachother. Gives it a staged feel.  Sometimes they run into walls or shoot into walls for no apparent reason.
SOME of the AI actions is pretty neat. How they duck and cover or even hold an AK over their head while behind cover and 'spray and pray'.

I have never known a MoH game to have decent AI. It's unfortunate that all these years later and they still can't get it right. 'Spray and pray' AI action is a MoH relic.

Check.

Jumping kind of sucks. You can barely jump over a popcan. You get hung up on a lot of things.

Check.

Movement isn't very fluid. I found I was always bumping into things and getting stuck. Your buddies can jump up and over walls but you need to go against the wall hit a button and get them to give you a hand up.

Check.

Environment isn't very reactive.

Check.

Grenades seem more like firecrackers.

Check.

Controller has the same set up as MW2 which was good (and what I didn't like about bad company 2) but should allow fully customable controls. Still I'm glad the set up I'm comfortable with was available.

Something new.

Having something set up pre mission where you can pick what weapons you're taking would have been fun. Makes single player missions more customizable. That said it's nice to play the game and not find random weapons all over the play

Strange they didn't include it. I had loads of fun with customizable weapons in MoH: Airborne.

All in all sounds like run of the mill MoH game (and MW2 carbon copy by the looks of multiplayer), but with prettier visuals.

 

[PuckChaser]

I noticed the grenade and bumping into objects bit with the Beta. The jumping and grenade physics are probably to remove some of the unfun portions of multiplayer with grenade spam and bunny hopping.

 

[Jarnhamar]

What's grenade spam?

I've only tried the single player campaign.

I'm finding it VERY linear if that's the right word. You're basically lead around like a rabbit following a carrot.  You come up to a locked gate. You can go backwards, to the right is a door you can't kick in (You can only kick in doors they want you too). To the front is a gate you can't unlock shoot or blow up, to the left is an open room. You go in the room and theres a window. You can't jump through the window. Theres a guard in the tower, once you shoot him your buddy comes back and opens the gate, you are then allowed to move forward until the next "random" situation where you have to do exactly what the game developers want you too. 
You're riding a 4 wheeler and you have to follow the guy infront, no straying. You stop at a designated point, break out a .50 cal thats strapped across your quad. take a couple shots into a village. oh la la over firing a 50, then back on the quad and move on. They have the random cool ninja take down that you get to watch your NPC partners do but you're just a bystander.

I was surprised at the lack of freedom of movement you have when your playing the game. There is a very narrow lane and you gotta stay in it. Not impressive at all. 

Maybe multilayer will redeem it but if you like single player campaign stuff I'd recommend renting the game before buying it.

 

[opp550]

What's grenade spam?

In the multiplayer section of video games (most commonly first-person shooters), grenade spam is the act of throwing random grenades in the hopes of getting a random kill.

Although the above definition is more common, sometimes in singleplayer campaigns, to make the difficulty harder, the developers just have the AI throw hundreds of grenades at the player (Call of Duty: World at War comes to mind).

In either case, this is often seen "noobish", and is frowned upon by many members of the gaming community.

Check out these videos for more information

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ipvqdEcb0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Qpui1hYBw

 

[MikeL]

I'm liking Medal of Honor so far, the storyline is good to.  Some of the uniforms and equipment aren't didnt exist during the timeline, but some details.  The game looks really good, lot of detail in the maps and the character models, like the CCT/TACP having a KDU out on his kit and a DAGR, etc.  Lot of CAS being called in this game too, love dropping 2000lb bombs and calling in strafing runs on Taliban, and the occasional Chechen patrol.

Just finished the game, was pretty short, but I liked it, and the ending was well done.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I just finished it too, the game was VERY short. Probably the shortest game I've ever played.

All in all I was really unimpressed. I'm not sure if it's because I had really high expectations because of their PR campaign.  It was way too "hold your hand, do exactly what we want" for me.    Invisible walls, enemies who won't die, worst AI I've ever seen. Yea I could go on but I won't.

I don't think I'll be bothered to replay it and my experience with the single player campaign has me totally uninterested in even trying multiplayer-I think I'll donate it to the JRs mess.

 

[EpicBeardedMan]

COD: Black Ops should be a lot better. MOH got poor reviews and subsequently I cancelled my pre-order.

 

[MikeL]

It was way too "hold your hand, do exactly what we want" for me. 

Yea, I felt that way to, but a lot of FPS games are like that, minus ArmA/Flashpoint

Invisible walls, enemies who won't die, worst AI I've ever seen. Yea I could go on but I won't.

Didnt notice the invisible walls, but yea the enemies who take a lot of shots and won't die got anoying, didnt notice it to much to piss me off though.  Only issue I had with the AI was them running in front of me while I'm firing.

I don't think I'll be bothered to replay it and my experience with the single player campaign has me totally uninterested in even trying multiplayer

MP is decent, I haven't played it to much, but it's enertaining, nothing really different from any other FPS though.

 

[a.schamb]

COD: Black Ops should be a lot better. MOH got poor reviews and subsequently I cancelled my pre-order.

After looking at the reviews and talking to people who got the game, I'm going with Black Ops too.

 

[Jarnhamar]

After playing this I think the makers of Medal of Honor 2010 were actually the ones who started the controversy over using Taliban in the milti-player in order to try and get more sales.

 

[PuckChaser]

I'm playing through the Single Player campaign now, and its by far the best FPS single player I've ever played. Yes, there are bugs and tweaks that definitely need to be made, but at least its not the 3 hour abomination that Modern Warfare 2 had.

 

[Hammer Sandwich]

I purchased MOH on Saturday for the 360 for $80. (When the Hell did games get so pricey?).

I am Lovin' it!

Campaign:

-Action is great, I really got the "feeling of urgency" walking down a goat path, getting ambushed, and having to haul a$$ to cover, (but I do sit about 4 ft away from a 42" TV, with the surround cranked waaaaay up).

-Environments seem well done, (dust & haze in day, dark as a well digger's bum at night). The way your cover can disintegrate under fire is a nice touch, IMO. Some of the graphics seemed a little “2005”, though.

-I really like the way the weapons are setup. For example, if you try to go cyclic with the SAW, you'll miss more than a one-legged drunk at the urinal of a rocking ship. The IR lasers when you have NV on are always nifty, and I found it helped me tell friend from foe in smoke or dust. Grenades are nice and powerful, if you chuck one in a BG’s hidey hole, you’re likely to see bits of him all over the place.

-The lack of a prominent HUD, and no mini-map with red “badguy triangles” in the SP really lends to the “authenticity” of the game. I really liked how unless you see muzzle flash, you don’t know where the rounds are coming from.

-Sound design is PHENOMENAL. Explosions leave your ears ringing, and you go just a little bit deaf for a second. When firing your M4, (or M16, whatever), you can hear the buffer spring "sproing" noise, (don't know how else to describe it, but I love that sound). The sound effects are great when under fire, and a round whizzes close by. These and many other things in the sound design really made the game all the more enjoyable for me.

-The linear approach to gameplay doesn't bother me. If I want to wander around, I'll go buy Grand Theft Auto.

-Campaign is painfully short, as are all games now. But I feel the SP has replay value.

-Lots of “cringe-worthy” dialogue, lifted straight out of Generation Kill, Blackhawk down, etc…total Velveeta. I rolled my eyes so hard a couple of times; I almost lost my contacts into the back of my eye sockets.

-Squadmates are dumb as a burlap sack full of burnt toast. If there was to be a friendly fire penalty, I would never have finished the campaign. STAY OUT OF MY ARCS, DUMMIES!

Multiplayer:

-MOH IS NOT MW2…..There, I said it. You will last an average of 4 seconds per spawn if you try to run around like a crackhead with an empty pipe, and a wad of ten dollar bills.
The arcade feel of MW2 is absent. This pleases me.

-The camping, spawn killer snipers are out in force on this one. The generally open lines of sight do turn this into a snipe-a-thon, if you’re not careful. This can get frustrating, but is not a big deal to me. When you spawn, get out of the spawn point to cover ASAP, and go on your merry way.

-I like the fact that if you lone-wolf in MP, you’ll die most rikky-tik. Stay with your teammates, there’s strength in numbers. Playing with friends, (especially if you have friends who understand things like fire & movement, establishing arcs of fire, and cover fire), is something I’m really looking forward to.

-Again, sound design is pure gold.

In closing, I have the feeling I’m going to get some good hours out of this game, and am suffering no buyer’s remorse. This game is getting panned because it lacks the accessibility that games like MW2 provide. IMO, that level of accessibility leads to having to play with a bunch of racist-slur screeching 9 year olds. I don’t especially care for that.
MOH seems to hold more appeal for military-fetishist-fanboys like myself, than the aforementioned 9 year olds, and that’s why I think they’ve made a great game.


HS

 

[Northern Ranger]

Finished the single player got up to a decent level in the online portion but found it very annoying to play.  Put it up for sale hope to get some cash back for Black Ops

 

[a.schamb]

I purchased MOH on Saturday for the 360 for $80. (When the Hell did games get so pricey?).

I remember calling my cousin crazy when he bought a new James Bond game for $55.

 

[Hammer Sandwich]

I remember calling my cousin crazy when he bought a new James Bond game for $55.

No $hit, man.

I bought the damn console itself for $200.....and then each (new) game is $80...

That's probably why I have so few games, if I REALLY WANT to get a game, I'll get it.

If I don't, I'll give it a "meh".....I "meh" a lot.


Everything else is bargain bin, or hand-me downs.

I got a house, 2 cars, and a kid in private school. (not the awesome kind, like Pte school, the crappy kind).

When I save up for a game, I'm glad it's worth it, I think MOH was.

I just got off of another couple of hours of MP, I'm enjoying it more and more. The "gamer" sites say the learning curve is steep...and it is.

IMO, that's why it's so damn good. I've leveled enough to get the LMG, with  an RDS.

The MP game is still really difficult.....(my inside monologue is screaming, why?! you got an MG, with RDS?!...isn't this the easiest equation in history?!?!?").

Nope....still gotta aim, can't clear a room/space/shack with randomly spraying bullets.

I've really, really tried.

 

[HavokFour]

Enjoy it while it lasts, Christmas is coming and with it a flood of 12 year olds.  ;D

 

[midget-boyd91]

I just finished this game about fifteen minutes ago.... bought it yesterday, and didn't really sit at it for a long period of time.
Little bit confused as to whether this was supposed to take place in the (very) near future, or during the Operation Anaconda timeframe.

Anyhow, seeing how the NHL channel isn't working right now, I'm going to go play Blades of Steel for my NES. Yeah, I'm that cool.

 

[Hammer Sandwich]

Enjoy it while it lasts, Christmas is coming and with it a flood of 12 year olds.  ;D

And.....I've gone soft.

Thanks for ruining my MOH boner, Havok, you sonofabitch.......

 

[NazTheEternal]

What it comes down to is that its an arcade style game. I am quite positive that the developers had no intention of offending anybody that was present during the conflict.