One Hour With: Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor is the new big title from Electronic Arts, a reboot of a franchise which once competed with Call of Duty and has ambitions of reclaiming the first person shooter crown from Treyarch, Infinity Ward and Activision.

Here are a few observations taken from my first hour with the game:

13:00. At least the intro is minimalist and doesn't take use complex data and schematics to explain battle plans, like in Modern Warfare 2.

13:05. Context is sadly lacking in the initial introduction, with the attack on the World Trade Center never mentioned and the Pentagon getting just one passing mention before the player is thrown into the battle.

I understand that the moment is still painful for many but players need to know why they are thrown in the fight.

13:16. I don't like that I get the weird nickaname, Rabbit, when all the other guys sound cool and capable: Mother, Preacher and Vodoo.

13:29. The weapons seem solid and the gunplay is nice in these first few minutes even if at times it feels like that M4 is a bit too big for the character's field of view, like he has tunnel vision or something.

13:41. Danger Close, the creators of the single player campaign, should really have tried to make the bit with the bomb wearing Tariq look alike playable.

The cinematic element is nice and all but it feels it takes agency away from the player in one of the coolest moments of this first hour.

13:46. I really, really like the Dragunov sniper rifle since way back in my Jagged Alliance 2 days, when I used it to pop enemies from across the map.

13:54. It seems that there are two kinds of doors in the Medal of Honor world, those that I can open up by judicious use of my right foot and those who need manual action from my squad mater.

Why can't all doors be created equal?