Medal of Honor: Warfighter – review
PC, PS3, Xbox 360; £39.99; 18+; EA
Medal of Honor: Warfighter is EA's second attempt to carve out its own slice of Activision's mighty Call of Duty franchise. In this it is not alone. 2007's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been one of the most influential games of recent times, to the extent that "contemporary military FPS" is now gaming's most bloated subgenre.
Warfighter is an underwhelming addition.
The game's developer, Danger Close, believes its game is a tribute to the military, specifically America's military. What is offensive about
Medal of Honor's posturing in this direction, and it is posturing, is that despite the constant killing, this game is not about war and it is not even about the military. Quite apart from its in-game trivialisation of death, like the red and white headshot icons that pop up after especially juicy shots, Medal of Honor now inhabits a fictional universe where you play a character called Preacher hunting down a terrorist called the Cleric. This is a comic book world.
The multiplayer, at least, shows
Medal of Honor getting serious. The online structure here, heavily inspired by Criterion's superb Autolog system, effortlessly outpaces that of Call of Duty and its anaemic Elite. The homepage quickly tracks the types of game you like playing, putting them front-and-centre, while a separate social hub (urgh) tracks friends and clans.
That is not to say it's abysmally terrible, though the critical reception thus far could be politely described as a shoeing.
Warfighter is a decent enough game in the COD mould, as these things go, and reproduces its atmosphere and knack for explosive theatrics almost to the beat. The differences, such as they are, come down to minor gunplay tweaks – you can lean out of cover, for example, and slide into it.
But in terms of corridor-shooting a bunch of foreigners, you've played Warfighter many times before. The game hops between two special forces operatives who are piecing together an awful plot by shooting loads of terrorists and occasionally driving vehicles very fast.
It's a short campaign, clocking in at under five hours, and tries to make up for this by having something explode in slow-motion every 15 minutes. It's also incredibly keen on Call of Duty's "Breach" mechanic, where you smash through a door in slow-motion and headshot multiple balaclava-wearing goons, to the extent that you're continually unlocking different (though functionally identical) breach tools.
The problem with
Warfighter is that it doesn't have many fresh ideas, and the ones it does are bad. One level, unbelievably, consists of watching a cutscene, then headshotting one dude and watching another cutscene. You don't move an inch. Mounted gun sections, remote-controlled drones, sniping missions, night-vision shootouts, you've done this all before. A Bourne-channeling escape sequence in a beat-up car shows that Warfighter can also ape other media, but as with everything else, the execution is strictly B-list.
The multiplayer, at least, shows Medal of Honor getting serious. The online structure here, heavily inspired by Criterion's superb Autolog system, effortlessly outpaces that of Call of Duty and its anaemic Elite. The homepage quickly tracks the types of game you like playing, putting them front-and-centre, while a separate social hub (urgh) tracks friends and clans.
The biggest problem with Warfighter online is the bland game itself. The obvious competition is COD and EA's own Battlefield, both of which have a more distinctive identity: the former an arcade-style environment for lone gunners, the latter a much weightier and more team-focussed shooter.
Yet, it is marketed as an alternative to Call of Duty, specifically as the 'authentic' alternative. This can be seen from the ex-Tier 1 operatives used as consultants and wheeled out at press events, to the line "inspired by actual events" that appears at the start of most missions, and even to the ridiculous (and withdrawn) pre-order bonus of a Tomahawk. An actual Tomahawk.
The game's developer, Danger Close, believes its game is a tribute to the military, specifically America's military. What is offensive about Medal of Honor's posturing in this direction, and it is posturing, is that despite the constant killing, this game is not about war and it is not even about the military. Quite apart from its in-game trivialisation of death, like the red and white headshot icons that pop up after especially juicy shots, Medal of Honor now inhabits a fictional universe where you play a character called Preacher hunting down a terrorist called the Cleric. This is a comic book world.
That's the problem. Medal of Honor, let us remember, has heritage. This is a series created way back in the late 90s under the direction of no less than Steven Spielberg himself, with the explicit aim of humanising conflict. 2012's Medal of Honor now has the subtitle Warfighter, and is set in a literally black-and-white world with a B-list script. If that's what you want to make, fine and dandy. But dressing this up in the way that Warfighter's developer and publisher do, as a tribute to the armed forces and the sacrifices of war, seems a kind of huckster's valorisation.
When I look at Medal of Honor now, and its commercial partners that produce things like the Tac-300 McMillen Tactical Rifle, I see a game created under the belief that being authentic is the best way to siphon off Activision's sales. And yet with that belief, the one thing its creators never thought to change was the game itself, how it works and what that communicates to players. It can't even manage a tonal shift from COD. That's the repugnant thing about Warfighter. It's a rebranding exercise, veiled by the sanctity of America's brave forces.
War games can do dumb, and I'm OK with that. But dressing dumb up in the cloak of authenticity seems a dangerous line to cross. When you pretend to be saying something about ongoing real-world wars, but present a conflict of extremes with all the substance of air, the thought that anyone might take Warfighter seriously becomes a very queasy one. What it comes down to is an assumption that its audience is there to be fooled, and doesn't care anyway. That's what Warfighter feels like – a piece of propaganda.
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