Medal Of Honor: Warfighter

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Medal Of Honor: Warfighter

Preview

Fun to play, silly name notwithstanding

(War)Fighting Silly Titles


When I was asked to write this preview I knew the hardest part would be writing the introduction. I feel I need to get something off my chest. Warfighter is a silly title. To me it sounds like something a five year old would say before he learned the word “soldier.” At least it aptly sums up what this game is about. You are a fighter, and you are going to fight a war. Moving on.

Spins on the Basics


The game is a standard, modern day, first person shooter and it covers all the bases. There’s an ammo counter in the bottom right, your grenade supply is limited, the plot is linear and there is at least one stealth section. Except in this stealth section, you get to drive a robot. They have shown a section of the game where you take control of a drone and have to sneak through some tunnels. Later the drone joins the front line and attempts to hold the line in an all-out shoot out. Bullets fly and adrenaline surges before the demo comes to a crashing halt.

There’s a door breach system in there too. Pressing a button next to a door brings up a menu where you can choose one of several different methods of breaking down a door. You can choose to shotgun it, kick it, whack it with a crowbar, etc. The list is fairly extensive for such a simple task. Then you choose the kind of grenade you are going to throw in before you charge into a slow motion shooting gallery. Enemies jump up, turn to face you in a dazed stupor and die in a hail of bullets.

Eye See Candy


The game takes its cues from several other games when it comes to storytelling. The player will hop between different characters, seeing the war unfold through their eyes. And war is beautiful. Those of you who played the first game might remember the game could look ropey in places. This time around they’ve tightened everything up, paying attention to the details, and the world looks stunning.

A running joke in the industry is that the only palette games use in dry environments is brown, black and muzzle-flash. Warfighter looks to change that, taking the player to the Philippines, the Somalian coast and Bosnia. There sounds like there will be an obligatory trip to Pakistan as well. It appears Danger Close Games have really made the Frostbite 2 engine sing for them.

Two-Player Multiplayer


The original Medal of Honour stirred up significant controversy when players had to play as the Taliban in the multiplayer mode. Perhaps in an attempt to steer clear of this oversight, a lot of emphasis has been placed on the fact that you will play as a member of the Special Forces. In multiplayer, players will have access to several soldier classes and compete as two-man Fire Teams. As a Fire Team you will get significant bonuses when fighting as a team. With six classes and thousands of fire team combinations this game seems to bring tactics to a series that is currently lacking in that department. When you look at how many games offer just the standard deathmatch, it’s refreshing to see new life being breathed to the genre.

Each class comes from a different country and seems to specialise in a different area of combat. We only ever see SAS soldiers carrying heavy machine guns, and the GROM totting assault weapons. The American OGM – a CIA branch – look to be lightly armoured scouts while SFOD-D (Delta Force) are pictured in heavy armour. Bear in mind though, that two classes, the SEAL sniper and the SAS Spec Ops operative, are only available via pre-order.

Lot of Fun


Warfighter be available on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Wii U on the October 23rd in North America, with an EU release two days later. England will receive the game on October 26th. Warfighter looks like it’s going to be another modern day military shooter which is a lot of fun to play, silly name notwithstanding.