MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER

The FPS war shooter has been under a great deal of pressure as of late and as you probably know Call of Duty and Battlefield are the two mighty juggernauts that are leading the pack. Then there's games like Medal of Honor, which have been published by a lot of developers since its initial release in 1999. Now while EA owns both Battlefield and MOH they are still predominantly putting their money towards the Battlefield franchise, and I would too, it's been around for less time so logically it's a fresher and newer take on the genre. It is also a funny thing to note that Studio Dice own the rights to both Battlefield and MOH currently. However EA are still determined to keep the franchise alive and so comes MOH Warfighter, an almost duplicate clone to COD and Battlefield. But we all have to remember, MOH came first, Battlefield was first released in 2002 and COD didn't see the light of day until 2003, so when you think about it they're all clones of MOH...the plot thickens! Now if we're going to be completely honest a lot of these war shooter games are little samey and repetative, that's not to say they're boring but if you've played one you've played most of them. Unfortunatly MOH is a dying breed and I feel it will soon become extinct, as games like Spec Ops have come along and truly defined the genre with exceptionally in depth gameplay and narrative. But hey, the game is fun, fast paced and a worth a good look so let's delve into this remarkable franchise and see just how far they've come.

The first MOH game I ever played was Frontline back in 2002 on the Playstation 2, it was based during the Second World War and was the first and best war shooter I think I'd ever played up until I laid my hands on Spec Ops: The Line. One thing I only realized recently was that Steven Speilberg was the story creator for some of the early MOH games and this makes a lot of sense. The atmosphere was there, the story was good and overall the experience was very real. Now jump ahead to 2012 with Warfighter and now we're faced with a MOH game in the current day. Naturally it was inevitable that MOH would have to stop replaying various scenes from WWII and jump to the present day, both COD and Battlefield did it with ease so why not try too. Now Frontline and Rising Sun were both very memorable games for me, Frontline more so. The first time I stormed Normandy was truly an epic experience. These days a lot of things in war shooters seems a little under whelming, it's hard to make gameplay and set points really stand out in a genre that's a little stale. MOH Warfighter is a fun game if you give it a chance, it is what it is, an FPS where you battle enemies through a plethora of locales and eventually uncovering a big plot usually involving nuclear weapons, world domination or both. Graphics and gameplay are realistic and smooth while providing a little variety in the levels. It's a sound game with little faults and it's only negative being that it's part of a genre that's difficult to compete in.

Warfighter's whole pacing and atmosphere is very well designed at times with intense gunfights, sniper battles and stealth elements. The opening prologue for me was great as it set the tone perfectly for what I was about to play. When I pick a game like this, this is exactly what I want and it delivered. FPS's have had it hard as of late because many people feel it's hard to develop story and characters off a game where you spend 90% shooting things, and that's true to an extent but again take a look at Spec Ops; it's definitely doable. So cut the FPS genre some slack a little ok!? Again much like COD, the game switches perspective from various protagonists which helps to add variety. The only thing that's really going to kill the MOH series is sales as there are little at this point. I feel as EA's secondary franchise it's only inevitable that they'll funnel the money in Battlefield and put MOH out to pasture, that is unless they can come up with something new fresh. To be completely honest, i'd be perfectly happy to play an HD remake of Frontline or Rising Sun as it would be a brake from the modern monotonous shooter. Warfighter is worth a chance, I wanted to take a break from all the action-adventure and sit down to a epic FPS shooter and that's what I got. Give MOH a chance just one more time as it is a lot of fun, which in the end is all I out of some games, fun!

Genre: FSP
Platforms: PC, PS3 & 360
Score: 8.6 / 10