Medal of Honor: Warfighter

pro

The first hour intrigued me. By the end of the first mission and through good and interesting cut scenes Warfighter had given me the impression that this was a more grounded and personal story. I felt ready to invest time and emotion into what could possibly be a new and smart point of view to all the war stories out there.

pro

The vehicle missions were the definite highlight co-developed by Black Box studios of Need for Speed fame. A car chase through a crowded market place felt real and intense as crates and debris crashed towards the windshield. The weight, handling and sound of the vehicles were at times so good it could easily have merited its very own game. These sections are spread evenly over the course of the game and feature cars and boats.

pro

As usual the Frostbite engine delivers, although it feels a bit modest in Warfighter. Things get broken, splintered, crushed and it all sounds good while it's happening.

pro

Leaning mechanic. Anything that makes a firefight less boring than it usual is these days is a good thing.

con

... but the story quickly dips into mediocreville. Not a single mission stands out and they are all bland, boring or both. While the 2 minute mission is a fun idea, it along with everything else drowns in a lack of context and it all just doesn't make any sense. An attachment to Stump and Preacher is never established, and it never becomes clear why I'm doing what where. Of course it's cool to travel all around the world, just give me a proper reason why first. That thin red line to carry you through the story is washed out and muddled.

con

For some reason they added breach mechanics that you can level up by doing head shots during each breach. The irony of this is that each new breach method you unlock is slower and less practical than the previous one. You start out by simply kicking in the door to repeatedly hammering at the doorknob with an ax until it falls off. I'm sure no one on the other side heard that. You might call this nitpicking, but take into consideration that every single mission is filled to the brim with these breaches.

con

The AI is horrible. Enemies will never hide, flank or do anything remotely intelligent, and your own team will idly watch as some of them walk up to you and start shooting you in the face. As is the case in a lot of these type of games, the enemies will only see and shoot you, rendering the rest of your squad useless seeing that they can't really hit anything.

con

I really liked some of the cut scenes, but some of them travel so deep into uncanny valley they became a pain to watch.