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Not quite the dethroning EA was hoping for.

It's been a little while since anyone was particularly excited about a new Medal Of Honor game coming out, and that fact hasn't been lost on publisher Electronic Arts. Needless to say, the long running war FPS series has needed a serious boost in the arm, and EA is hoping that this title is the one to do it, going back to calling the game just Medal Of Honor, and allowing the series to change venues from World War II and jump into modern times. Obviously it's following the heels of what Infinity Ward did with Call of Duty, but can Medal Of Honor capture that same magic simply by changing timeframes? Well, I'll admit to the new MOH being a pretty solid shooter, but it's certainly not done much more than copy what made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare such a welcome change of pace for FPS titles.

Hell, I'd venture to say that I enjoyed Battlefield: Bad Company 2 much more than I've enjoyed anything coming out of Medal Of Honor. I think the single player campaign in MOH is pretty good, but starts off extremely slow and actually a bit boring, it's not until you start to reach the Ranger based section of the campaign that things really kick into high gear, and since the game is pretty short, that's roughly around the halfway point. I do enjoy a great campaign in FPS titles, and while I know most of our readers are probably anticipating the multiplayer portion of things, the single player campaign is always the first thing I check out. In Medal Of Honor it doesn't do much more than copy what made Modern Warfare work so well, and while the modern day real world setting is interesting, there's nothing innovative about the game's shooting mechanics or level design. It's very much a by-the-numbers experience, and while we endured a number of World War II related games before deciding that timeline had become a bit stale from a gameplay perspective, unless developers begin to innovate with the modern setting, we'll be reaching that point for current day shooters soon enough.

Multiplayer fares a little bit better, but this is pretty much where I feel like Battlefield Bad Company 2 did a much better job, and is still the better product. If you own BC2 and you're thinking about picking up MOH in hopes of having a new multiplayer game to focus on, I'd say you're better off sticking with BC2 at the moment. It's not that MOH doesn't offer up a decent variety of modes, which it does, but the gameplay feels derivative of what BC2 did, but without the variety in weapons, map layout, and that whole environment destruction angle that Bad Company 2 has going for it. Medal Of Honor does provided an often hectic, and tough multiplayer experience next to what Modern Warfare 2 has to offer, I don't think they're entirely comparable, so it's worth checking out if you've grown a little tired with MW2 overall.

For modes in Multiplayer, you have your basic Team Deathmatch mode, dubbed Team Assault here featuring 12 vs. 12 maps for players to duke it out in. This comes with all the bells and whistles you'd probably expect in a modern shooter, including a variation on Modern Warfare's often copied perk system, done here by assigning points to each kill you get and then allowing you to trigger things like a UAV or Mortar Strike if you've gained enough points. There's also a mode called Combat Mission, that has you either defending or assaulting certain points on a map, and feels a bit more like a normal DICE developed mode, and I actually found that a lot of fun to play. The last two modes available are Objective Raid, which features OPFOR forces (formerly the Taliban side of things) and Coalition Forces, wherein OPFOR is trying to destroy two objectives within a time limit and the Coalition is working to defend them. It's a little like a more focused version of the Combat Mission game type. Finally, there's Sector Control, which is a defend the flag type of game where you earn points based on the locations you currently control, and try to outscore your opponent.

And to be honest, multiplayer is a lot of fun, and even though I wish it offered up something that Bad Company 2 didn't already cover, I do think it's worth checking out for people that aren't already fans of what DICE has done before. It certainly offers a neat alternative to what the Modern Warfare games have going for them, but I'd hardly say that Medal Of Honor is the better product. However, combining the multiplayer with the single player experience for a total product, Medal Of Honor is definitely lacking overall. I'd like to see some serious polish and thought put into what the single player portion of the game has to offer for the next round, and hope that EA can deliver on a product that's going to appeal to players that enjoy playing their FPS games by themselves as much as they do with others next time.