14 DAY TRIAL // We already saw a plethora of new games being unveiled at the Video Game Awards this year. The Force Unleashed 2 and Batman:Arkham Asylum 2 were some of the biggest names, but there were a lot of other titles that, while already hinted at and teased, weren't really presented in any way. One of such games is Medal of Honor, Electronic Art's upcoming resurrection of the popular WWII shooter. Just like Call of Duty did, the title has decided that it's time to leave the sandy beaches of Normandy and the muddy trenches, take a leap forward and land in the present.
The trailer revealed does indeed feature the box-art-teased bearded soldier as a leading man, but from here on out, the entire clip is an overwhelming deja-vu. Almost everything about it screams Modern Warfare, and not in a good way. While some differences are bound to exist, since it's more or less the same time period and it takes place in a very similar environment, the game just resembles Call of Duty Modern Warfare too much. If Infinity Ward is allowed to clone its MW and release Modern Warfare 2, since it's its own game, Electronic Arts should be more careful about it, especially since it announced a revitalization of the franchise.
The textures and models are very similar, the differences in animation are very slim and the events depicted are a little bit too alike. It's true that there is only so much you can do when you want to depict reality, and imagination is supposed to be highly restricted, but creativity shouldn't have been abandoned. Instead of a snowmobile, we have an ATV, instead of an AC-130 Specter Gunship thermo-optic bombing sequence, we have a thermo-optic bombing sequence that, while un-detailed, is most likely from the same airplane, and we even have a similar close-quarter, cinematic-gameplay knife-takedown. Still, the chair sequence at the end is indeed very cool, even if the chair would have flipped, not rolled out the room.
While all these elements have been around in games for some time now, the fact that it looks so much like like Modern Warfare 2 cannot be denied. If we were to take out the logos and leave nothing but the gameplay footage, this could have easily been passed as an MW2 DLC or expansion pack. On the other hand, this might not be such a bad thing. Infinity Ward screwed up its game in various aspects, and, if EA can do it better, then it should receive the credit it deserves, without the prejudice. But first, we have to play the game.
Here's the trailer to see for yourselves: