Medal of Honor 2010 Beta Multiplayer First Impression Mini-Review

I came home to find an e-mail saying that I was accepted into the Beta of Medal of Honor. I must say, it was a pleasant surprise. So after many many hours of non-stop playing, I have come to a few conclusions, so I decided a mini "First Impression" review was in order.

Medal of Honor 2010 is made by the same people who make the incredible Battlefield Bad Company 2, DICE. So I must admit I had high expectations for this game. I am pleased to say, it really did not disappoint.

MoH is not Bad Company 2, it was not intended to be, and I am glad they did not try and make it like BC2. MoH is a lot more like Modern Warfare 2, only 100X better, especially since MW2 sucks so bad. In a nut shell, everything Modern Warfare got wrong, Medal of Honor got right. This game blows Mw2 out of the water in just about every respect.

Medal of Honor is a pretty fast paced game on maps that are the perfect size and it easily fulfills the needs of any hardcore FPS gamer. The gameplay feels very smooth and the game has a low learning curve if your already an FPS player.

How does it run?

On my system, this game runs like a dream, averaging 100+ FPS stable at all times, easy. On all high/max settings, 1600x900. 100% frame lag free from what I could tell.

Hit registration seems OK, for a beta. There are times when you get killed "around a corner", but that's a pretty common problem in many FPS games, even BC2. So I really can't hold that against it. You also have to take into account other players latency issues and such. I have dumped multiple rounds into someones face, blood flying, only to have them make it through unharmed and knife me.

The Toys!

The weapons are quite powerful and accurate once you get them mastered. You can unlock different weapons, sights, barrels, and ammunition types for your 3 classes. Assault, Spec Ops, and Sniper. In the beta you seem to be very limited on how much you can unlock.

You get kill streak bonus's you can call upon such as a Mortar Strike, UAV, or Air Strike. Similar to MW2 in availability only, they are not even close to MW2 in how they work, you can't spam the map with them and they do not wipe everyone out. It's 100X more balanced than MW2 could ever dream. Like I said, it's like they learned a lot from MW2's failures.

The one thing I have noticed in the beta is explosive weapons seem to be pretty weak. Had Grenades, the noob tube, RPG's, Rockets, all of them. I am not sure if this is how they are supposed to be or its a bug, to me, it feels like a bug. In order to score a kill with these weapons, you pretty much have to either hit your enemy directly, right at their feet, or hope they have low HP.

The Sniper Rifles in the beta are beastly. You can pretty much run and gun like as assault class as they are configured at the moment. Very easy to use for any nub with any sort of FPS experience. They feel very overpowered, but they are still quite fun, I am sure they will change by the time the game goes retail.

On the flip side of the coin, your assault rifles can easily be used to snipe as well, it almost feels like there is no bullet drop or randomization at all. Then again, most of the battles are in semi-close quarters. It makes the battle feel quite, even, no matter what weapons you use.

The shotguns are a blast as well. Devastating up close and still pretty mean at moderate range. I am able to clear out an entire building of 3 or 4 enemies with relative ease in most cases if I rush in with a shotty and they don't all see me at once. haha

How does it look?

From a graphic standpoint, the game looks great, again it's better than MW2. The environments are not as reactive like in Bad Company 2, but they are more reactive than in MW2. It's easy to see what can and cant be destroyed.

The Vehicles and mounted weapons!

There are gun emplacements in some locations as well as small Bradly style vehicles on some maps, though not many. Such as objective based maps, where you have to capture a set of bases and push the enemy team back. There are no vehicles on the team deathmatch maps.

The Maps and Modes






In the beta, there seem to be 2 maps, each with a different mode, available to play. Both seem very well designed and are quite fun. 24 players per server.

The first map is Helmand Valley and the game mode is "Combat Mission". The idea here is to either take a set of objectives or defend them, depending on what side your on. If your the attackers, you have to try and push the enemy back at take each objective, until you have driven them back to the final one and taken it. If your a defender, it's pretty simple, stop them and tick away the attackers lives to win.

The second, and my favorite so far, is Kabul City Ruins and the mode is Team Assault (aka Team Deathmatch). Pretty much the same as any other Team Deathmatch, kill more of them, score more points than they do, and win. I like the spawn setup in this mode, its not set so one team can just camp one side of the map, your spawn location changes depending on what section of the map your team is in control of at that moment in time. It does well in keeping the action flowing.

The Negative. =(

Hacks already!?!? My god these sad loosers sure don't waste any time. Sadly I ran into a two already. One player by the name of "phooka" was blatantly using a "wall hack" (sometimes known as "chams") to see where everyone was and a wonderful little no-spread hack as well. I had to go look it up to make sure these hacks even existed when I seen them the first time. You can imagine my dismay when I found a few sites looking for people to test their hacks in beta. Makes you want to smack the crap out of them idiots does it not? Oh well, haha.

You really cant hold this against the game, its only in beta, and hacks are a fact of online life. Not to mention, I have only see 2 people outright using hacks in the 15+ hours I played so far. That's not bad at all.

Player lag or server? That is the question the preoccupies my mind. Normally, I would place the blame on kids and people who play a game thinking they have a good enough internet connection or PC to play it, even though they don't. In this case, I am not so sure, it is a beta after all. It could just be that. Though expect people to tank entire clips and to drop dead out of the blue every so often. Nothing new to online FPS. Not to mention I have ran across "SA" players in the beta, playing on the North American servers. That's never a good sign and even worse for "lag". heh

Before you happen to guess what kinda of connection I am on, its 30Mbps down and 15Mbps up, with an average latency from 40-60 from New York, to Dallas, to Los Angeles. 30's to Chicago and St.Louis. So yeah, its not me. lol

Conclusions.

What I like about the game is the fact it fills a niche that MW2 was not able to do. I love my Bad Company 2 and I still prefer that style of game over that of Medal of Honor, but I have to say, MoH easily fulfills my fast paced, non-battlefield style, gaming desires I get from time to time. Enough so that I will be picking this game up that's for sure.

The beta is wonderful, and I am having a lot of fun in it. One major plus, in-game chat is disabled in beta! If only it could stay disabled. lol

Anyway, I easily rate this game a 8 out of 10. The only reason it don't get a higher score is the fact it is still in it's beta stage at the moment. A lot can change from now until the game goes retail. Also, I still like Battlefield style games better.

On a side note, I am going to brag a little. Now, I am pretty damn good at just about any FPS I play, enough to hold my own against anyone and finish on top in many cases. I have discovered my main reason for playing MoH Beta at the moment. I will drop anyone, anywhere, anytime, with the shotguns. >:)

They are all I have been using for the past 3 days, in a nut shell, I dominate. I even dominate others using the shotguns. So if you happen across my path, watch out, no matter how good you think you are...chances are...I will still dominate you. haha

OK, done bragging and having fun now. To some video! :P

Here is a small video of me running around a team deathmatch map, exploring. This was the first time I played on this map and mode. What is now my favorite. It will give you an idea of what the gameplay is like. There is nothing special about the video, its not edited in any way, just raw footage. Rendered in 720P.

This video is the same map, different class and weapons. Having fun with those shotguns. Still raw gameplay but I cut out all the running around and focused on the action more. Still all filmed in one single match. I also rendered it in 1080P this time around.

Both videos recorded with Fraps. Half Size. At 60FPS.

Medal of Honor 2010 Review

Having played in both the closed and open beta for the new Medal of Honor, I really wanted to wait to do a review of the final product until after I had a chance to really play it and see if I came to any different conclusions. I also wanted to be able to really get to know the single player campaign as well. I think I am at the point now where I can give my honest opinions on Medal of Honor and that my impressions are as set as they can be. So lets get right down to it shall we?

Both of the beta's for Medal of Honor were great fun. So needless to say I, as well as many others, were really looking forward to the games retail release. So much so that many people, myself included, pre-ordered the Limited Edition.

When the game finally hit the shelves, it was met with a flood of mixed reviews, in almost complete contrast to the beta's. People came out of the woodwork to complain about how the weapons were too accurate and powerful, how the sniper class was so ungodly overpowered, how every match was nothing but a camp fest, or how spawn camping was ruining the game.

What did I think? I was wondering what in the hell was wrong with these people. I never once thought any of the things these people were bitching about on the forums. I was just in the game, playing, and having one hell of a good time. Yet they rants and complaints just kept rolling in. In time however, I started to notice a pattern in the complaints, and came to a few conclusions as to why.

Now don't get me wrong, the game has it's flaws, and there is work to be done that is for sure. However the out of control over-exaggerations of some of the games features and mechanics were just laughable to me.

1. The assault weapons recoil and spread. People were complaining that they were all too accurate and too powerful and thus they should all be "nerfed". It was far too easy to kill at range with these weapons. Never once did they stop to think that if all the weapons were this powerful, that it meant the game was balanced, and that you needed to adjust your gameplay tactics in order to compensate for this fact. No, instead, people continued to try and "run & gun" and got mowed down time and time again. They did not stop to think that Medal of Honor did not play like Modern Warfare 2, that you actually had to think outside of the box!

2. The sniper class. With a forum full of kids complaining about how they are so overpowered, that the bolt action rifles were a one hit kill, that the class was ruining the game. Again, we have players not even making an effort to try and out think their attackers, they just run around in the open and wonder why they get sniped down over and over. Not even attempting to use the environment or smoke to cover their movements. Not paying attention to what's going on in the environment. Not being observant enough to realize that if 2 of your team mates just got sniped in that one position, NOT TO GO THAT WAY. Yet it was somehow the games fault that they were dying over and over and falling prey to the fact they were not thinking outside the box yet again. Getting frustrated and making even more mistakes. Now with the new patch, the bolt action snipers have had their damage reduced, yet I still bet these Modern Warfare 2 fanboy clones will still complain.

3. Spawn points. I admit, this can be a problem if you or your team are not that good, you can be pushed back into a singular spawn on many maps and then pounded out of existence over and over. The solution, don't let yourself get pushed back into that situation, not that hard really. If you do end up there, for the love of Pete, USE SMOKE GRENADES, work as a TEAM, hit the ground running. It's not hard, stop trying to camp in your spawn and move out, sure you will die a few times in a row but who cares? It's a video game, there are no consequences, just do it and turn the tables. I can not even being to count the number of times my team and I have joined a match to find ourselves on the loosing team in this situation and have pushed out of it and tuned the game around for a win.

Now I know there are more complaints, but I am not going to get into them, they are all basically the same thing over and over again. Too many so called "gamers" who lack the ability to think outside of the CoD box they live in. Medal of Honor does not play well with CoD, so these fanboys come to the conclusion, it must be the games fault. God forbid they are asked to actually learn something new. So lets move on shall we?

Single Player Campaign

If I had to describe it one word, I would probably choose "epic", all be it short.

I greatly enjoyed the single player campaign though I do agree with most people that it was too short. I really wish it was longer and was disappointed when it came to an end. All I can say is, thank goodness for Tier 1 Mode.

I enjoyed the story, thought it was pretty well told, and it flowed well enough to keep it interesting.

The dialog was good too in my opinion. I am not sure why some reviews said it was hard to understand or make out at times, perhaps they are just on crappy sound hardware, I had no problems making out what was being said, crystal clear, at any point in the game.

The music in game was, for lack of a better word, epic as well. It really added depth to the situations you encounter and really enhanced the experience in my opinion.

The sounds were great and also made you feel like you right in the action.

The graphics are nothing ground breaking, but I think the game looked great on my system, running it all on high and in HD of course. Though I am a big fan of the Unreal Engine 3, I found myself wishing the Frostbite Engine was being used at certain times in the game, mainly for its more "realistic" physics and destruction. All in all though, the game looked great.

The gameplay itself was easy, perhaps too easy, but still enjoyable. I think the game is best enjoyed on the hard setting just because that's the only real way it's going to present a challenge to someone who is adept at FPS games. If you just want to get through it to experience the story, then easy or medium will do just fine for that.

Having played through the single player 3 times at the time of this review. I have ran into some "bugs" in the system and can break up the flow of the game, but are far from "game breaking".

At one point on my first play though, in the fight through the hanger, the AI got stuck and would not advance to the trigger point to open the door and continue on. I solved this by just shooting him once and that got him moving.

Another time on the 3rd play through, pulling up to one of the checkpoints on the ATV, Dusty is supposed to dismount after you both stop, he never got off the ATV so I was unable to continue. I just had to reload the last checkpoint, not a big deal since that was only about 60 seconds prior to that point.

There were a couple others as well, but none of them really effected how I felt about the game, they were just "Oh crap, now what do I do" moments. heh

Tire 1 Mode is simply wonderful. It gives the campaign missions some good replay value if you are feeling competitive and want to see if you can top the leaderboards on the various stats available.

So in a nut shell, I think the single player was a great, all be it short, experience. Add Tier 1 Mode to that and you have a reason to play it a few times, master it, and then see if you can move up the leaderboards.

The Multiplayer

I like the multiplayer quite a bit. Fast, fun, and not like most other games out there from a gameplay standpoint in my opinion.

Graphics and sounds are great, love the Frostbite Engine, love the environments. Running the game at all max settings, in HD, and still push out very high stable frame rates around 100-110 no matter the map, number of player, or situation.

Though when I get in a competitive mood I play at play at "competitive" settings that a buddy of mine got me to try. I am an all max all the time kinda gamer when it comes to my graphic settings. He got me to try low details with max AA and max resolution and I have to admit, I was impressed at how much easier some aspects of the game become.

This is a trick used by professional gamers from time to time. These settings will remove some environmental aspects of the game, such as grass, bushes, and tree branches, making it far easier to see targets at range. Medal of Honor is no different and the game still looks amazing at these settings, I was impressed, as you can see in the video I made below. Also, at these "competitive" settings, the game hovers between 150 and 175 frames at all times. No real noticeable difference between 100-110 and 150-175 to be honest, but still nice to have those extra frames.

The weapons are fun, though I wish there were a bit more to choose from. Then again, the game is not even a month old, so that may change at some point, who knows.

Recoil and spread, a hot topic, one that I have mixed feelings on. On one hand, I know the game have almost non existent recoil, bullet drop, and spread. On the other hand, it's that way for all the weapons in the game, so to me that qualifies as "balanced". I know this topic is being addressed by EA and changes will be getting made to the game, but I could really care less if it ever changes, and if it does, how much it changes. I think most people have issues because they lack the ability to "adapt" or learn the games quirks, a problem I do not share. So either way, I will adapt, and continue enjoying the game.

Assault and Spec Ops. My two favorite classes. In both the closed and open beta, I played the Sniper first, however I am not going to touch the Sniper class until I have the other two at level 15. Why? Well, I have to agree with most everyone else, it really is far too easy. Also, to be honest, you can snipe with just about any other class as well at the moment, so I will take the versatility of the Assault and Spec Ops over the Sniper at this point.

Snipers, what a touchy subject. EA has already said that a "nerf" is in the works for this class. Personally, they don't really bother me, sure I get sniped a lot, but I also get just as many kills on them as they get on me on most all cases. Often more. Really ticks them off when you flank and get that melee kill or snipe them back with a pistol. Most of the snipers in Medal of Honor camp quite hard and make themselves easy targets if you know what you are doing. Where as when I snipe, as will see in the video below, I am more of a "combat" sniper and even though I may stick to a section of map, I am more aggressive than most of the other snipers I run across. Either way, I think people just need to stop bitching and start learning how to play.

Spawn points is a big topic I see as well. I really don't have much of an issue on this subject. I am fine with it how it is. So I really don't care if it ever changes. Don't want to get spawn camped? Here is an idea, don't let yourself or your team get pushed back into that situation. If I get spawn camped at some point, I get out, and I return the favor in kind. So to me, this is more of a player and team skill issue than a game issue. Though I will admit, an easy fix for this would be a short spawn protection timer, I think that would make a lot of people happy I think. Though like I said, I am happy with it either way.

Latency, hit detection, lag. I am mixed on this one. There are times that it's easy to see there are some issues in this department. Such as shooting at and hitting someone, multiple times in the head, and they do not die and are sometimes able to take you out before them or at the same time. Especially when all you can see is their head, you get the hit indication over and over, yet they don't die of a headshot. Or the classic dropping dead around a corner. Or my favorite, a melee to the back of the skull, you get the blood, you get the hit, they turn and kill you, then drop dead, or worse yet, they survive. Cant help but laugh when that happens.

Leveling, scoring, and unlocks. All In all, I think they are all fine, I do wish there were more unlocks, perhaps more will be added later. Leveling is pretty easy. I do not pretend to fully understand the scoring system, but hey, all I really care about it making sure my team wins. Though I do like keeping my "skill level" above 2000, no idea why, but it's not like I try to do that. I just play and let happen what will happen. It just turns out for the better most of the time. lol

Hacks, glitches, and so on. Not an issue at all. I do know there are some spots in a few maps that I know about that you can "glitch" and are next to impossible to kill yet you are able to get kills. Thank goodness they do not seem to be very well known and the ones I seen being used I have already reported. I have not seen all that many hacks in use either. I have ran across a few, but nothing like in the open beta, they are quite rare. I have also seen PunkBuster actually doing its job, so that is also a plus. I think many of the hack accusations at the moment stem from the way the game plays and that so many people are just used to it. Or they just suck at it.

So I do really enjoy multiplayer, quite a bit actually, even though I fully understand it has issues. You know what, you report them, then you live with it until they are fixed. I don't see the need to sit here and cry over it. There are ways to adapt and alter your gameplay style to negate many of the issues people have, all you have to do is try. If you cant manage it, well, I really do not know what to say. Who knows, maybe it will get addressed at some point, and you will be able to do better.

Now to the video. This is a single match, played on one of my favorite maps, to show the sniper class to a friend of mine. You will notice I do not camp one location, and I do not ever spawn camp the enemy, or call strikes directly into their spawn. I may call in strikes around the spawn, such as into a well known camping spot near the spawn, or directly in front of it, but never in it directly. I do not find shooing fish in a barrel fun at all, its far more enjoyable if my enemy is actually a threat.



Closing

Medal of Honor. I think it is a good game with the potential to be a great game. I do not at all regret my pre-order or purchase. I for one have to give kudos to EA for a good game and I hope the franchise advances!