Medal or Honor has received a mixed bag of press and reviews already, despite only just having been released in the UK today. You may remember some time back that certain armed forces officials said it should be banned from sale because it allowed gamers to play as Taliban soldiers in the multiplayer version of the game.
The Beta trial version of the game was also met with as much derision as it was praise, although most of the derogatory comments regarded the multiplayer with reviewers saying that the single player lived up to the hype of being a combination of Call of Duty and Battlefield titles.
Unfortunately, of course, that’s a massive tag to live up to. Call of Duty is the single biggest war game franchise there is on any platform and Battlefield has enjoyed excellent reviews thanks to its explosive gameplay. With Call of Duty: Black Ops only a month or so away, will people ignore Medal of Honor and instead wait for the release of the Black Ops title?
Medal of Honor does lack some of the features that Treyarch’s release will have. Black Ops will feature 3D gaming which will be a massive draw to those gadget lovers that have invested in 3D TVs or computers.
It also has an insanely popular multiplayer following with pretty much every release breaking new records when it goes online.
In all honesty, the number of pre-ordered copies of Black Ops hints strongly towards the fact that it won’t just be as popular as other Call of Duty titles but will surpass them all by becoming one of if not the biggest selling title of all time.
However, Medal of Honor does look worth playing and there is another month to wait before COD is released.
As a huge Modern Warfare fan, I have to say I am looking forward to Medal of Honor. Not only did Treyarch's World at War not live up to my expectations, but Modern Warfare 2 took what made Modern Warfare so popular and exploited it to the extent that, in my opinion, crossed the line into ridiculous land (i.e. it was mostly a prettier, reworked version of MW with very little that was truly new being added to gameplay).
Maybe I'm holding onto the whole "Back in my day…" type of opinion, but I just don't have any faith that Treyarch can make a game I will enjoy (but Zombies was fun). Again, I may be wrong, but I think the surge in popularity for the Call of Duty franchise will evaporate without something big from Black Ops.
At this point Call of Duty is like Halo – take any turd and slap the name on it and it will sell millions and get 90+ reviews!
That said, Medal of Honor was mediocre and deserves what it is getting …