For those of you who have been waiting for a long time to get your hands on Medal of Honor: Warfighter, the time is now! That’s right, if you own an Xbox 360 and have a Gold Membership, you can participate in the Medal of Honor: Warfighter Open Beta, which is exclusively for Xbox only (Sorry PS3 and PC Owners). For the last few days, I have been playing the Beta constantly, and am going to give you guys an in-depth preview and my opinions of the Beta as well as some brief details about each system in the game including: Customization, Fire Team System, Battlelog Integration, Classes, Modes to use, and how you can get in on the action.
As a gamer, ask yourself, what is the most important thing when it comes to multiplayer? The simple answer to that is, GAMEPLAY! The gameplay in this game is amazing, very fluid, smooth and very similar to how Battlefield 3’s movement system works; except a lot smoother and not as clunky. The next crucial factor that determines how gameplay plays out is the button layout, sensitivity, and your choice for look inversion. The button layout has the usual basic options, however it does include Battlefield 3’s button layout. The sensitivity looks as though it can go higher than ten, maybe to fifteen. The rest of the options are pretty much standard fare for most FPS games today.
The next topic I want to touch on are the graphics, as they can make all the difference. If you don’t have decent lighting, shadowing, and mix of colors, it can make the game look bland. Well fortunately for us, we don’t need to worry about that because Medal of Honor: Warfighter uses the Frostbite 2 engine just as Battlefield 3 does. If you don’t have the correct look and feel to the game, then the fans aren’t going to want anything to do with it, right?
I am happy to announce that Medal of Honor: Warfighter has exceptional graphics. DICE has done an amazing job revising their engine each year and I hope to see it become better and better. Now, the reason I say lighting and shadowing are important in graphics, is because lighting can affect the way you view the world in the game. You can be walking around trying to find someone, finally spot someone, and not be able to see. This was the case in some instances in Battlefield 3 where people were blinded by light; it can be a little too much, so that is why it’s important to make an even balance of light in the maps. As for shadowing, the environments need to look as real as possible; you can’t have a tree in a map and not have a shadow if the sun is shining, that is just not right.
Now, I want to go in-depth with the new Fire Team System, and how it benefits team work, and team play. This is a game where going solo can get you killed. If you get a kill and your fire team buddy assists, you get a fire team bonus for helping out. There are also a few perks when you have a good fire team buddy. The first perk is the ability to see who killed your fire team buddy. The enemy will be marked in a red glow for a few seconds allowing you to grab that revenge kill.
Have you ever had the problem of not being able to discern your teammate for an enemy? Well that is about to change as well. With the new fire team system you and your fire team buddy can see each other no matter where you are in a map with a distinct green glow, which stays until you or your buddy dies.
The best part about the fire team buddy system is the “Buddy Spawn;” where when you die you have the option to spawn directly on your fire team buddies six, but you may want to be careful as spawning on your fire team buddy can cause you to get into some trouble, especially when an enemy is in the vicinity. The fire team system is by far the best “Buddy” system I’ve seen in any First Person Shooter and I recommend you guys take full advantage of it.
The next thing I wanted to cover is Battlelog integration with Medal of Honor: Warfighter. What they are doing with Battlelog for Medal of Honor: Warfighter is amazing. It’s pretty much the same basic stuff as Battlefield 3, except for the meta game, which allows you to compete against other nations for the number one spot (The U.S. is currently leading). When you finish a match you are allotted anywhere from 1-3 tokens depending on your score. These tokens can be put towards your nations contributions; I’m not sure if there will be prizes for the country that is in first place, but I think it would be amazing if there were. The coolest thing about Medal of Honor: Warfighter‘s Battlelog is it shows you how many nations you’ve unlocked as well as the classes for those nations. Hopefully more for Battlelog will be announced once the game ships, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Battelog also allows players to socially interact with eachother, as Battlefield 3 did, you can check eachothers stats and see how you measure up against one another.
The next thing I am extremely excited to touch on is the customization. The amount of customization in this game is amazing compared to that of MOH 2010, where you only had a few weapons and barely any customization options. Well I will hand it to Danger Close, they did an amazing job. You can tell that they did their homework and listened to the community. You’ll notice when you first hit the Multiplayer button on the home screen that the customization page is very detailed with what you can customize. You have multiple options such as: Select Weapon, Optics, Barrel Assembly, Muzzle, Receiver Group, Magazine Style, and Paint Job. Each one has an effect on your weapon.
Each class has specific weapons available to it; the spec ops class will have the choice of SMG’s and Assault Rifles, while other classes such as the Pointman will only have strictly Assault Rifle options, and the Demolition will have mostly shotguns. It is very customizable. The Optics are very promising as well; each weapon, such as the assault rifles, have various different optics for them including: the Trijicon SR502, the Aimpot Micro T-1 and many more. Weapons like the Sniper Rifle have scopes such as the U.S. Optics SN-3 5-25x T-PAL (Mildot Reticule) Scope. The Barrel Assembly is for increased or decreased range. The Muzzle is for stuff like a suppressor, or flash suppressor, which of course hides the flash from the barrel of your gun. The Receiver Group is the butt of your gun; there are numerous styles including: Extended, None at all, or even closed. The Magazine style allows you to fit your weapon with different types of ammo. Finally the Paint Job is self-explanatory, it’s the Camos, and this game has numerous to choose from.
The last system I want to touch on are the classes, these make or break your game depending on what style you prefer to play with; each class is unique and has perks to using it.
The first class is the Sniper, this is for the people who love to devastate from long ranges and cause major destruction from afar. The Sniper Class is fitted with a special ability called Recon Stance, which allows the player to extend a bipod and use it to be able to shoot at further distances more accurately. It also has the proximity mine, which is a special type of mine that extends out into 4 small explosive lines; once an enemy trips it, it’s all over.
The next class in the bunch is the Assaulter class, which is the backbone of any squad. This is for the people who like to cause maximum damage from short to medium range. The Assaulter class also affords the player with a .40mm Grenade Launcher that does ridiculous damage at short to long range (if you want to be a jerk about it). You also have access to the standard frag grenade.
Next comes the Demolitions Class. This class is for those who love to get in to all of the action and be the one who blows stuff up a lot, perfect for the gamer that always plays the objective. This class comes with the Ballistic Armor ability, which gives this class some extra help when you need it.
Then comes the Heavy Gunner Class. This class is for those who love to cause a lot of damage and get numerous kills at once. It is also for those who love to engage enemies at medium to long range. The player has access to the Support Stance, which is a bipod to allow for greater accuracy when firing at someone from a long distance.
The next class is the Pointman Class. This class is more fitting for those who love the front lines, fighting to push back the enemy team, as it was design for those who love to cause damage from short to medium range. The player who uses this class gets the High Powered Ammunition Ability, which gives your gun extra damage. The Pointman is also equipped with a flash bang.
And last but not least, the Spec Ops class. This class is the bread and butter of all the classes. It is for those who love to engage at short and long range, but also affords the player the Signal Scan. Signal Scan is basically a thermal vision to see people through walls and in rooms where danger can lurk anywhere.
All of these features have made me appreciate Medal of Honor: Warfighter a lot more, and have made the fans happy. I look forward to getting my hands on this game when it releases in just twelve more days. If you want to try the beta, hop onto your Xbox and go to your Game Market place. You can find the beta on the demos page, so just download it and you are good to go. I hope you enjoyed this little preview of Medal of Honor: Warfighter, I look forward to seeing you all on the battlefield!
Medal of Honor: Warfighter releases on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on October 23rd.
