honestgamer's Medal of Honor: Warfighter review

Jason, this is a well written review as always, but I find myself disagreeing with, well... nearly everything.

One of your complaints is the arbitrary 'jump around the globe' storytelling style, which I agree, has become quite tiresome on the whole. But this is something that literally every such game does, and some in more ridiculous fashion than demonstrated here.

You mention that the game’s inspiration is Modern Warfare 3; I would have thought that a more obvious inspiration was the preceding game in this same series. I see little inspiration from MW3 at all. In Warfighter, there’s nothing akin to the preposterous, cataclysmic scope of the goings-on in Infinity Ward’s title. We’re simply tasked with a handful of black ops missions to complete in the shadows. That’s nothing close to Russia blowing up all of Europe.

The complaint about the sniping level might have been the strangest one of all. I think the character who lies down beside you and spots for you actually tells you about adjusting your trajectory for drop off. The sequence begins with enemies who are in the foreground, and challenges you to shoot guys farther and farther away. The idea is that you have to become better at dropping shots as you get closer to finishing the mission. That things get tense and time sensitive toward the end is an improvement over samey sniper sequences in most games where enemies can be dispatched at our leisure since we’re safely camping.

Finally, you suggest that the characters are not memorable; I’d say that they are the most memorable group I’ve encountered in a long time in an FPS. They talk tough and joke around… I’m not sure if that was derision? Ghost of MW2 fame managed quite a following based on, well… how cool his balaclava is. I won’t pretend that Warfighter delves deep into the real lives of the operators; but that it delves at all is a step up from nearly every other such game. Do we know more about Roach? Or MacTavish?

I apologize for the confrontational style of this feedback; I’m wondering though, if you’re just tired of FPS games and found difficulty putting into words actual, valid criticisms to justify your current ennui.

The globe hopping didn't contribute to a cohesive whole. With the Modern Warfare games, there was a narrative that was easier to follow. The bits between missions gave context and it felt like it was headed somewhere. That wasn't the case in Warfighter.

With the sniping, it really was an issue in that scene. The men would shout out comments about where the shot went wrong--left, higher, right--but there was no "Make sure to adjust for bullet drop" and while most of my shots hit, the last few shots never did unless I shot above the guy's head. I was aiming directly at the men's heads or necks--so that at least the chest would register a hit and wound the guy if nothing else--and my shots were all totally missing. Then I aimed a little bit above the head and suddenly I was getting "grape shots" every time out the gate.

As far as memorable characters go, these characters just didn't click with me, and the issue is that they needed to because the game was written in such a way that character development was clearly an intended focus. You're right that the characters in Modern Warfare developed a fanbase they didn't entirely deserve, but that was because the games did so many other things right that players developed a natural interest in them. Warfighter didn't do enough things right to make that happen, and so the weak characters were an issue. I literally had difficulty remembering names beyond Preacher's name.

Finally, ennui may indeed be setting in, but I guess time will tell. I do plan to play Black Ops II and that will maybe tell me something on that count. I am hopeful that Battlefield 4 will be awesome, when it finally comes. Warfighter just didn't work as well as it should have, I felt, but I'll admit that I am abnormally sensitive to clunky design.

Honestly, the stories in MW2/3 and BO were all over the map. Convoluted and ridiculous. I won't speak anymore to your troubles with the sniper sequence; suffice to say that I didn't have the same troubles.

As far as the notion that the characters NEEDED to be strong due to the way 'the game was written' - I don't buy it. If Warfighter is more of the same, it can't also require more fleshed out characters than other games (though its characters are anyway).

I feel we are at a point where we expect less of the big name franchises, and shit on the little guys for not reinventing the wheel. After all, I can play the same game: I can't remember a single guy's name in MW3. Wait... Sandstorm?

I wouldn't likely have remarked on the forgettable characters, except that characters were one area where the developers actually made an effort to do something a little different. They didn't have to, but they did... and it didn't work (for me). If they hadn't made a point of including some of the scenes they did to try and flesh out the characters, I'm not sure I would have said anything about the characterization at all.

In any event, I'm hardly picking on the little guy. Danger Close is a large and capable team, as I alluded to in my review, with resources and the technology to make a game that rivals Call of Duty. That just didn't happen this time around--though it was clearly the intent--and I'm merely rating the game based on what appears to have been attempted (and what I personally felt failed). That's all we can really do as critics.

Edit: By the way, a belated "thanks for reading" goes out to you. I appreciate your feedback and your differing thoughts on the game, even though you don't agree with the conclusions I reached in my review.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is the 14th installment in a well-regarded, 13-year-old series. It was developed by a team that was founded almost two decades ago and overseen by the third-largest video game publisher in the world, who themselves confidently predicted that their rebooted franchise would outsell Call of Duty in a few years.

Little guys? Say what?

Low hanging fruit... yup, re units moved, everyone else is a little guy.