I want to cry!
Seriously, I feel like drinking until I can drink no more and forgive the fact that the new Medal of Honor is nothing... NOTHING like the older games; unless I jump off a bridge and never have to hear about it ever again.
Don't take me wrong, I said it before and I'll say it again: I am a huge fan of the Medal of Honor franchise, more than I have ever been one of Call of Duty. I always loved the historical accuracy and the detail put into the games. I adored every single piece of music because it was different than any other games. I applaud Steven Spielberg for convincing the creators of MOH to arrange their soundtracks as symphonic music in the same style as movie soundtracks, and it created a much more dramatic effect that is much more "long-lasting" and rememberable.
MOH Pacific Assault had a strong personal touch to the characters and their relationship, and the 2010 MOH has the same thing, which is good, but throughout the campaign the player switches between multiple characters, so that bond that is created between the player and the character isn't strong enough.
Comparisons between this MOH and MW is, unfortunately, inevitable, but talking about the campaign labeled as "short", I felt like the newest MOH lasts longer than MW1/2 (even if, technically, it might not be). COD games have always been more fast pasted than MOH which relied on accuracy and challenge delivered to players through any and all mission(s). The gameplay of both MW1 and MW2 seem just kind of rushed through, and when I had finally settled, ready to enjoy the game, it was over. Sure, MW2 had its share of surprises compared to the previous game, but in my opinion it was just too overblown with drama. The newest MOH does not have this, for which I am very glad.
My deepest disappointment is the soundtrack. Where was Christopher Lennertz in all this? Where was Michael Giacchino? There is not a single remnant of the old classics such as the original MOH theme, Arnhem Knights, most of the Airborne soundtrack. Instead the people in charge gave the job to Ramin Djawadi who butchered the excitement of playing this game up until the very end, where at least SOME of music is salvaged from this pure blasphemy I had to listen to. And even then, it's just not as strong as the music in the previous games.
The fact that there is no proper tutorial for this game ruins much of the experience, as I needed much more time to get used to the way the control work. During that process, I died, and I died A LOT! Also, the sound in general somehow just doesn't feel right. As far as the single player campaign go, I see absolutely no reason to play it again (at least not soon). No rewards, achievements, MEDALS (for crying out loud); in this light, Airborne was epic... Bigger clips, less recoil and other upgrades for my favorite weapons and those I mostly used in the game; besides, to achieve all the medals I had to (AND wanted to) replay the game a couple more times to get them, which was awesome, and I felt truly fulfilled by accomplishing it all. The newest MOH has NONE of it
If you're still reading this, you must think that I'm just trashing the game. But the fact is that the game really IS good, regardless of being my personal great disappointment. I understand that, perhaps, the creators of MOH wanted to keep their competition with COD going, that's just fine, but why Afganistan again?! I was surprised to hear the name Al-Qaeda and Talibans, and still don't know what to think of it. On the upside, I feel like I have more freedom over my character than during any part of MW games; sure, that means that I died tons of times in the stupidest ways, but even with the annoying music in the background, generally weird sounding guns, being blinded by blur when zooming through a scope to a very long distance, funny looking animations of sprinting, and at times even bad coordination between orders given to my character and what I'm actually supposed to do, the newest MOH game is IMHO at least somewhat enjoyable.
