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Medal of Honor is the newest installment to the Medal of Honor franchise. Currently, it’s in a closed beta stage, allowing its developers to clean up the online play as best they can. DICE – popular developer of Battlefield: Bad Company and its sequel, BFBC2 – has taken the lead in developing the game, which is easily noticeable by gameplay very characteristic to the Battlefield titles. On June 21, the beta was released for the PS3 and PC. Unfortunately for Xbox users, the beta has been delayed due to Microsoft not updating their network. That being said, PS3 and PC users appear to have the upper hand in familiarizing themselves with the game.

The game is set in Afghanistan, during the Afghanistan War in 2001. In the beta, we are introduced to two fronts of the war: the coalition and the insurgents. This match of “good guys” vs. “bad guys” is all-too-typical in modern gaming, so thankfully, this is an easily understandable mechanic of the game. Like its predecessors, multiplayer will place you on either side of the battle. Depending on which army you’re enlisted in, you will receive a different weapons loadout (we’ll talk more about this later on) and a different character.

[multipage=First Impression]


After the long wait for the beta to download onto my PS3, I immediately hopped into the action. Obviously, since campaign has not been included in the beta, it requires you to sign in to PSN before starting the beta. Once I did that, I was greeted by a familiar looking menu design; typical of Dice, its developer. The menu seems simplistic enough, and hopefully when the actual game is released it will stay simple. The first menu option, and arguably the most important, is the “Play” menu. With this, you can either create your own game fit to your liking, join a game with friends (making a party), or just play an already active game. Seeing as the game is in its beta stages, I didn’t bother with party play or making my own game; I simply jumped right into the action.

The next screen takes you to three choices. You can play any game (which will randomly select either one of the two gametypes), Team Assault, or Combat Mission. I selected Team Assault as I wasn’t in the mood to figure out the mechanics of an objective gametype. After the server found me a game, I was put into a match on “Helmand Valley” – a rocky environment that does not disappoint its name. The spawn interface is just the same as BFBC and BFBC2, as are many other parts of the game. I selected the sniper class and got going with my little red dot sight.

<center><img src="https://img694.imageshack.us/img694/2001/aiming.png" height="314" width="615"></ br>
Picking off what? The air? You suck, Jesse!</center>

I managed to pick off a few players, although I died quite a bit. The game’s “skill” level system is a bit confusing to someone who’s never cared for Battlefield. As you use a class, you gain skill points for that class. After you gain enough and reach a certain level, you can use it to customize your kit more. For example, with the sniper class, you begin with a red dot sight. After you get enough kills with it, you can change it to a different scope. You can also increase your amount of ammunition. This mechanic is difficult to get used to, although after a while, the level up system becomes easy enough to play with. It’s unfortunate that snipers don’t begin with a regular scope, though…

As the game is only in its beta stage, the game doesn’t run as well as it should. In many instances, freezing and lag is an issue (especially on the Insurgents side, although this is expected to be fixed). Grenades are absolutely useless, although I’m confident DICE has plans to increase their efficiency later on. Fortunately, the game is still playable, so I was able to figure it out well enough within the first few games. On the surface, it’s slightly complicated, although after a few games it’s easy enough to get into the swing of things… providing you don’t live under a rock.

So, despite the lag and all, the beta receives a good response as my first impression, and I look forward to purchasing it.
[multipage=Part I - The Maps]


Part I: The Maps

Helmand Valley is a very rocky and mountainous terrain that fosters numerous forts and bunkers to assist players in taking cover. Not only do the man-made obstructions help players make their way through the map without getting absolutely wrecked, natural barriers make a significant impact on the flow of the game as well. I prefer to play this map with an automatic gun, as the hillsides are difficult to navigate up with a sniper rifle. However, if you unlock a long-range scope (which… I have yet to do), it certainly provides perfect sniping conditions.



Kabul City Ruins wins the award of my favorite map. It is an urban environment, cluttered with plazas and buildings and construction, making it a very interesting place to navigate through. However, these buildings also provide players with quite a bit of stealth, so turning corners and entering courtyards is an eerie task. This map can be played with a sniper or an automatic, it doesn’t really matter. It supports a very good mix of combat: close quarters is easily doable, as well as camping in a building with a sniper rifle. Excellent map.


[multipage=Part II - The Gametypes]


Part II: The Gametypes

Team Assault is just what the name promises. Team Assault is a straight up team deathmatch between two teams. Both sides must compete against each other, simply racking up kills, to reach a specific amount of points to win the game.

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Combat Mission is an objective-based gametype in which Coalition forces must capture five consecutive objectives while the Insurgents attempt to stop them. Once the Coalition manages to capture all five objectives, they win. However, if the Insurgents manage to hold them off, their side will win.

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[multipage=Part III - Equipment Customization]


Part III: Equipment Customization

Yes, yes, yes. Medal of Honor does include a customization menu for sorting out three preset classes the way that you want to. You can either change this in-game by pressing triangle (PS3) on the spawn interface, or you can change it at the main menu. Either way, the game saves your preference and will use it the next time you choose the class.

The game gives you three classes to start out with. The rifleman class, the special ops class, and the sniper class. Each of the classes can be customized with different attachments and guns after you obtain a necessary amount of kills. The names are consistent, however, depending on which team you’re on, that determines what weapon layout you will use.

<center><img src="https://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu251/newfieland/SnapShot.jpg?t=1277501664" height="480" width="640">
Credits go to Newfie's terrible capture card.</center>

Below is a chart of the class and the weapon it uses by default depending on what team you're on:


[multipage=Part IV - Weapons and Attachments]


Part IV: Weapons and Attachments
A full list of weapons can be seen here:

Shotguns
TOZ-194
870M Combat Shotgun

Assault Rifles
AK-47
M16
M4

Machine Guns
RPK
PKM
M249
M60
MG36

Sub-Machine Guns
MP7A1
AKS-74U

Explosives
RPG
IED

Sniper Rifles
SVD
M21

Pistols
M57

Other Weapons
Knife
M224
Smoke grenade
Hand grenade
RGL

A full list of attachments can be seen here:

Red Dot Sight
2x Scopes
4x Scopes
High Powered Ammo
Combat Scope
Laser Sight
Silencers
[multipage=Part V - Pros vs. Cons]


Part V: Pros vs. Cons

Pros:

• There seems to be a balance in weapons at the moment. No one has found a “God” gun.
  
• Stable… for a beta. Despite the freezing, the servers appear to be doing their job. PC users should also note that their will be servers dedicated to gameplay. Woohoo! No P2P!
  
• The maps are sweet. So far, I haven’t found a flaw in the way the maps are laid out.
  
• The developers listen to their community! As seen on the [url=]Official Forums[/url] for the beta, developers are making adjustments accordingly and are interacting with their community.
  
• Clan support is included. You can do parties and clan tags.
  

Cons:

• Secondary weapons? More like secondary weapon. The beta offers one secondary – a handgun.
  
• Grenades, rockets, RPGs, etc. are utterly useless. I could do more damage with a rock.
  
• I know it’s only a beta, but I really don’t like my PS3 to freeze just because I’m an Insurgent.
  
• The spawn system is absolutely horrendous. If I spawn on my teammate as he’s getting killed, I die. And that typically happens. Ew.
  

[multipage=Gameplay Video]
This is not my video, although it's certainly a good show of what this game has to offer.


[multipage=Conclusion]


All in all, I can’t fault the game much. It looks promising, and its developers seem to be on the ball. They released a patch on the PS3 today (6/25) to sort out some of the issues, and it seems to me like they’ll be on the ball like this during the game as well – i.e. balancing weapons, fixing glitches, etc. I’m glad to see that they’re willing to maintain their game as well as listen to their community for feedback. Not only does the multiplayer look promising, the campaign trailer looks very interesting as well. I’d recommend getting it. I know I will.
[multipage=Sources]
Sources Used:

    

Gameplay Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13YmeaL8jo

Weapons List: [url=https://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/542732.page]Source[/url]

Images: [url=https://www.medalofhonor.com/betainfo]Source[/url]

Other images: Newfieland

amazing review

I appreciate it. Are you guys planning on getting it?

Great Review!!! And I Definitely am planning to get this game.

Great review. I might get it, but probably not as soon as it comes out.

I played the beta and it was really bad, but if they fix all the bugs and glitches it could be better than mw2 and bf2

Man, this will be awesome.... hope its better than mw2( what is this cr*p)

at the moment the beta is driving me insane i try joining any of the gametypes and its puts me on helmand bay on my own WTF!! the last 2 days it has done this i think my skill level is to high to join with random noobs lol

I'm hoping this game will be good. Looks pretty cool in some gameplay videos I watched.