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The new Medal of Honor is not such a high-quality game,
so that it is interesting to play for the first time, and not so deep that it is
it was interesting to replay in Tier 1 mode. The unusual setting and appearance of the bearded special forces
offset by the desire of the developers to create a harmless attraction, topicality
in which no more than in the landing in Normandy from Medal of Honor 2.
The only thing that MoH has left is multiplayer (which was made by a completely different company
and on another engine). But he in Medal of Honor is also by no means original; in fact, Modern Warfare 2 is third
distillation stage. So it turns out that the value in this game is about one modest
multiplayer addon for Bad Company 2.
This is also a good result,
but compared to Call of Duty, Medal of Honor looks like a warm-up performance by the emo ensemble “Origami”
before the Linkin Park concert: young men with funny hairstyles, of course, are very nice, but
the scale is incomparable. This is not enough to revive a series that died out three years ago.
Bearded warriors
We spend most of our time in the shoes of the Preacher,
trying to quit a dangerous profession and save a marriage bursting at the seams. Possibly
the authors tried to make the shooter more humane, to show the drama of the defender
fatherland and its moral doubts, but all the suffering of the Preacher ends
banalities like “Who, if not me?”
► Under heavy fire during the assault on the Somali pirates’ hideout. Sometimes surprising visuals are one of Warfighter’s rare virtues. But EA DICE could work wonders with this engine, and Danger Close just turned out well in places.
The campaign flies before your eyes in five hours, and the light
moments in it can be counted on one hand: a secret mission by car in Dubai,
which ends with a trip on the oncoming lane of the autobahn during sandy
storms, a couple of episodes with control of an unmanned robot and missions in a drowning place on
eyes of the city Isabella.
Not enough for a “popcorn” action movie, especially since
exciting episodes are interspersed not only with shooting, but also with extremely strange ones
«director’s discoveries.» For example, in a mission about freeing a hostage you will have to
watch the video for a long time, then crawl a few meters on your stomach, do
a single shot and another three minutes of CG video to watch. Where’s the game?
► During the crazy boat chase in the story, someone might get seasick. The camera shakes and skids a lot when turning!
But for some reason there are a lot of patriotic speeches with a military style
serious faces. As if the game was made for the coolest American
patriots who are served by praising the United States and criticizing the Arab world
the only balm for the soul. The dialogue is so inspiring
speeches that one gets the feeling that the developers of the “Medal of Honor” script
agreed with experts from Langley.
► There are a lot of Arab terrorists in the game even without respawn. They are poorly armed, shoot crookedly, and don’t care about hygiene. But in the role of the enemy of “peacekeeping America” they are much more appropriate than the evil Russians in the waters of the Hudson.
Marine Against Terrorism 2
The technical part is the only thing,
what the authors succeeded in, and even then
thanks to our Swedish colleagues from DICE.
The basis for the sequel was the engine
Frostbite 2 performing well in Battlefield
3, so on modern PCs,
where there is enough memory and CPU
power, Warfighter looks
Great.
Insanity per square centimeter
there was also more script, although in
This Danger Close is far from its competitors.
If first developers,
constrained by the “Afghan” theme,
kept fantasy bird short
chain, then in 2020 it broke,
fluffed psilocybin paints
tail, flashed thick
silver fur and flew away, dropping
scales.
Juggling fighters’ call signs and
events, the authors drag us around
different corners of the globe. And in order
no matter what people thought, next to
names of locations often
they put up a note: “Based on
real events.» Like, «you finger
twist at the temple, but something similar
it really was.”
The plot is more banal, it seems,
nowhere. Valiant US warriors are looking for
another osamubinladen,
distracted by saving ships from
Somali pirates and family
dramas. Dialogues are escalating
the situation is in the hands of ideologists
jihad hit terrible
abbreviation PETN! «Global
threat!» — press releases were scary and
game promotional materials.
Actually, PETN (Russian version
– heating element) – not a designation
deadly virus and no brand
nuclear missiles. Substance
pentaerythritol tetranitrate
synthesized in 1891, and in 1912
the German army began its massive
release on the threshold of the First World War.
It’s really very dangerous, no
worse than RDX, whose name has been around for a long time
“went to the people.”
On the other hand, how many
shooter fans understand
organic chemistry? Same thing.
Not a year without special forces
Two years ago, Danger Close studio donated a second one
life of the Medal of Honor series, relaunching it in a modern setting, and
then this dish was to the taste only of those who were really tired of Call
of Duty. The second part, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, has started
further — it borrowed the Frostbite 2 graphics engine from Battlefield
3, left the cast of the characters from the year before last “Medal” and acquired a script
about the fight against Arab terrorism, which will be dragged through by a detachment of elite
special forces through Yemen, Dubai, Somalia, Pakistan and Sarajevo.
The connection with the previous Medal of Honor has not gone away:
our memorable Voodoo warriors, the Preacher and Mother never hung their rifles on the wall,
and the bearded operative Dusty, who lost his leg in the last part, became a military man
group consultant. However, towards the end this super soldier (the prototype for him
served as a famous bearded mercenary nicknamed Cowboy, he will still return to the battlefield and set the heat there.
► We remember the Voodoo operative for his familiar “bro” address. They say that before joining the special forces he was a Rastafarian. Judging by his unregulated appearance, it is difficult to say anything for sure.
The plot is inspired by real combat operations, but only one
the mission is based on actual events — the capture of the captain
ships by Somali pirates and the subsequent destruction of filibusters. In the rest
In some cases, the player will have to guess the nature of the source himself. So,
for example, clearing the headquarters of an arms baron and a mufti in one person is very
similar to a similar incident with Osama bin Laden, but the developers, of course,
they will never admit it.
Call of Duty took over not only the story of fighting
Muslim terrorism — the gameplay of Warfighter is like two peas in a pod
for the latest games in the series, only on the engine from Battlefield 3. Destructibility, however,
there is no trace of it, and externally the game is noticeably behind — Danger Close failed
wisely use the technology they inherited, and large-scale scenes are not
wondered. There are very few of them, and the production leaves much to be desired, so
the newfangled engine is, in fact, not used at all.
► The sentries in the Warfighter story campaign are not particularly sensitive. This one, for example, from the starting mission, guards an unnecessary area and will never turn around, even if you jump or do push-ups seventy times behind him!
Action films from Activision mixed pathos, absurdity and chases
almost in ideal proportions, and this forced the players not to look away
stare at the screen. But pathos is clearly in the magic formula of Medal of Honor: Warfighter
it was too much, the absurdity was not enough, and due to a glitch in the recipe, the production as a whole was not
wants to work correctly — local propaganda of almighty America
presented with a sour expression and without the slightest hint of imagination. Just sad
takes an advertisement for “Steel” cigarettes with the leader of nations on the cover; «cranberry» —
at least it’s fun.
Online
Warfighter’s multiplayer mode is doing well
better. In fact, this is a separate story, a kind of game within a game. Alexey Makarenkov
once aptly dubbed Medal of Honor multiplayer “re-Contra with elements
sub-Battlefield.» The sequel, released two years later, is basically not much
changed.
► The Preacher is one of the saddest and most pensive protagonists in the history of war shooters. Anticipating the future of the game?
There are six different classes to choose from: sniper,
attack aircraft, demolition man, machine gunner, special forces and gunner. Everyone has their own chip:
for example, a heat sensor that highlights enemies behind obstacles. Each class
is useful in some way and uses his characteristic weapons and grenades. As you recruit
experience gives you access to bonus class options — of course, from
better quality weapons.
Loading the player.
► Multiplayer combat in all its deadly glory.
Network modes are not original (which is not
them bad). Let us only mention the “Combat Mission”, which develops the idea
the popular Rush mode from Battlefield. One of the teams needs to blow up
bomb three objects, the second — interfere. Any of the three objects can be attacked
or defend at any time. But. this was already in the past Medal of Honor, but
is there anything new?
The only multiplayer debutant is “Hot Spot”.
A mining location is randomly determined on the map, and one team
must defend this area for a certain time, and the other —
destroy the defenders and mine the facility. The winner is determined based on the results
five rounds.
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| ► The game changes its appearance like a chameleon. In the first frame there is a settlement in the tropics, as if taken from Far Cry 3, in the second — a typical Mogadishu from some Modern Warfare. | |
The authors were in such a hurry to deliver the project on time and overtake the main one
competitor, who forgot to save Warfighter from a whole bunch of problems: in
PC versions lose textures, characters sometimes pass through walls, for many
players in the same places the picture freezes, and because of
Connected to the online service Punkbuster, there are frequent disconnections with the server. On
On consoles the situation is better, the version there was licked more carefully, but
bug reports no, no, and they will flash on the network.
Pleased
Upset
- stealth mission while driving a car;
- the presence of Russia in the list of countries participating in the multiplayer;
- shootouts with Wahhabis in pitch darkness.
- a banal story about evil Arabs;
- a lot of bugs;
- propaganda nature of the game.
Interface and control
editorial achievement
Don’t jump without a leg
Rescue a one-legged paratrooper whose parachute did not open.
The game Medal of Honor: Warfighter is not just a shooting gallery, but a whole guide to the sights and beauties of the unknown Middle East and third world countries. Mountains in Karachi? Easily. Pakistani forest near Chitral? Walk, breathe the air, kill unpleasant people. Soviet ice skating rink in Sarajevo? Here are the tickets for the visit, and don’t worry about the blood on the walls, we’ll clean everything up ourselves later! And Isabella in the Philippines, going under the water before our eyes, sometimes reminds us of past exploits in the sinking city of BioShock.
From the very first frames it is clear where the script is leading and to whom it prophesies what. Which of the heroes will be sacrificed, who will return from retirement, who will accomplish an exemplary feat. The conflict between the Preacher and his own wife Lena is of some interest, but this storyline will soon be strangled with cold hands, letting the audience understand that “be patient, wife, to fight or help a soldier is the duty of every American!” We don’t believe in drama!
Site rating
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Despite the rush (or maybe because of it), Warfighter came out at the wrong time and found itself between a rock and a hard place — the role of the first is played by the upcoming Black Ops 2, and the second serves as a reinforced concrete springboard in the form of Battlefield 3. The project with There is simply nowhere to go with the trivial single player mode and typical multiplayer.
Simple task
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As in Bad Company 2, the grenade launcher quickly becomes the main tool for clearing the map. But it’s not in the single! |
At heart, MoH is not a full-blown military man
a simulator, but an arcade with a harsh minimum of scenery, participants and special effects. All,
what was required from the developers was to correctly arrange scripts and respawn points
Taliban so that the player can rush through the level and have fun
from beautiful explosions. And in Danger Close with this simple task for some reason
failed.
At some levels, in search of the desired script point, you have to run through all the nooks and crannies (and this is the right one
death for playing on an outdated engine with primitive textures), on others something
fails in the mission structure — and your Apache is sent over and over again to hunt for the invisible
mortar crew.
Some of this can be fixed with patches. but, friends, we are
We’re not talking about a budget European shooter, but about the flagship project of Electronic Arts!
Remember the last time you saw a mainstream game in which to complete
would a frozen mission require restarting the level from the first checkpoint?
New MoH — not too beautiful and suffering
due to numerous bugs, the game is in a dull setting. We can only hope for some stunning ones,
all justifying findings in the gameplay. But they are not here either!
All the best game moments are borrowed — you can easily recognize the Cliffhanger level (only snowmobiles in MoH were changed to all-terrain vehicles) and the Afghan aviation cemetery,
shamelessly stolen from Modern Warfare 2. And if the characters of Bad Company 2 could afford to mock MW2
from the height of a wonderful, original single-player campaign, then MoH is a game of the wrong flight and scope to be forgiven
similar “friendly” allusions to the work of Infinity Ward.
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The equipment in MoH is mostly broken. “At least we got further than the Russians!” — the American Ranger sighs at the sight of the skeleton of a Soviet tank. |
Finally, the game turned out to be TOO EASY. It’s hard to demand sophisticated tactics from an attraction
maneuvers, but at Normal level in MoH you can only be killed in one
case: if you stand at full height in an open place. If you are even a little
move around (there is no system for using cover in the game, but you can do it quite cleverly
roll up to enemies on their ass), the Taliban frozen in firing positions are lost
and are unable to provide even formal resistance.
In addition to the regular single player, MoH has a special Tier 1 mode, in which the game is played against time,
There are no checkpoints and you cannot beg for ammunition from your partners. This is idiotic
The behavior of enemies becomes clear — otherwise Tier 1 would simply be impossible to play. But was it worth it for one
special mode to sacrifice the entire single-player campaign?
Ridges of Madness
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The Taliban, about whose inclusion in the game there was so much noise, are called Opposing Force in MoH multiplayer. The most ordinary masked terrorists, but you were afraid. |
If you buy Medal of Honor games (and military shooters in general) because of the multiplayer, then everything is higher and
The following does not apply to you. Feel free to take the new MoH — the multiplayer mode was made by EA DICE, it uses the Frostbite engine, there are eight professionally made ones
maps with destructible environments (not having anything to do with the single), and classes
Characters and weapon customization are no different from Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Plus Afghan
color, Kabul, Kandahar, homemade explosive devices and action films
in dusty robes.
Now we’ll talk about the single —
the same one with the help of which the authors were going to resurrect the one that had died out in 2007
Medal of Honor franchise, modernize
series and make it a major competitor to Call of Duty again. About the single, which has neither Kabul nor Kandahar, but a lot
dark caves and snow-capped mountains.
Single player mode MoH created by elite Los Angeles
division of Electronic Arts (with the beautiful military name Danger Close). In interviews, the developers expressed a desire to fully use
features of an unusual setting (after all, before ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead, we did not have a single shooter whose action unfolded entirely
in Afghanistan) and show the real working methods of the SEALs and the unit
«Delta».
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There is no normal cover system in the game (although computer opponents successfully shoot blindly), but there is rudimentary peeking around corners. |
The scenery in the game is really unusual. Arcade military attractions like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor are built on frequent changes of entertainment
backdrops — sometimes a beach, sometimes a desert, sometimes snow, and so on right up to near-Earth orbit.
Single-player levels of the new MoH are larger
would suit a serious military simulator: mountain village, desert, mountains.
With each
When the opportunity arises, the developers make Hollywood contrivances (warehouses explode
with ammunition, transport helicopters fall, not a single mission is complete without artillery,
aviation or aerial bombardment), but the natural and climatic conditions of Afghanistan
— an extremely unprofitable setting for a blockbuster.
Remember the ending of Bad Company 2: it all culminated in a shootout after a parachute jump from an exploding
airplane. In Medal of Honor, the last three missions take place in the same snowy conditions
mountains — they are dedicated to the misadventures of rangers and Navy SEALs who found themselves
cut off from their own and waiting in vain for helicopters from Kandahar.
This climax would have been fine in Operation Arrowhead, but it was still
military simulator, which is traditionally played with buttons fastened
and an extremely serious face. Medal of Honor seems to belong to a different category of games, so this ending
looks like a museum of aluminum chairs in the middle of Disneyland.
That is, according to
It’s at least ridiculous, and even downright offensive. Moreover, instead of Frostbite, the single uses a three-year-old Unreal Engine 3, which frankly cannot cope with processing the expanses of Afghanistan
(therefore, the large-scale battle “Rangers vs. Taliban” takes place under the cover of dusty
storms).
Danger close
The five-hour Medal of Honor campaign is a few unusual days in the life of Tier 1 special forces in Afghanistan. Unusual only because, as a result of unsuccessful actions by the command, several elite special forces soldiers are captured by the Taliban. Tens and hundreds of militants, every now and then crawling out of the mountains, do not belong to the category of surprises — they are a daily routine.
As mentioned above, the developers paid special attention to the plot, so finding flaws in it seems to be a rather difficult task. As a rule, having received some task before the start of a mission, the fighters slowly move towards the goal and carry out the assignment with the support of another squad.
