Medal of Honor - Multiplayer Beta Impressions Preview

Frequent TVG readers will already know that we're fully onboard with how EA is revamping its Medal of Honor series. Our first two previews of EA LA's single-player campaign for the title (which can be found here and here) certainly left a lasting impression on us, although EA DICE's multiplayer component for the game had been kept tightly under wraps until a beta emerged last month which we've been going hands on with since it launched on June 21st (for PS3 and PC at least - the Xbox 360 beta is still mired in delays).

It should come as no big surprise that EA has wheeled out its most revered multiplayer FPS studio for Medal of Honor. This is, after all, a concerted effort by the publisher to muscle-in on Activision's pot of Modern Warfare gold. The question now is whether DICE can recreate its past successes in multiplayer design while also adding something new to its tried and tested formula. Battlefield: Medal of Honor would seem a bit overly stayed for our liking and, on first sights, the beta looks like precisely that. Delve a little bit deeper though and it becomes clear that this is Battlefield with a slightly different mission statement.

Medic and Engineer soldier classes have been ditched, leaving only 'Rifleman', 'Special Ops', and 'Sniper'. All of them are fairly self-explanatory really: Riflemen carry a rifle with a grenade launcher attachment as their secondary weapon, Special Ops also carry a rifle with a rocket launcher as their secondary option, while Snipers obviously have a sniper rifle but also carry incendiary explosives or mines (depending on their side - Marines or Insurgents). In addition, the beta's maps also seem to serve up a slightly different tack to what we've gotten used to in Bad Company 2 over the last few months.

For a start, the two maps present in the beta (Helmand Valley and Kabul City Ruins) are noticeably smaller and less open compared to DICE's more typical Battlefield designs. We're reluctant to draw this parallel but Medal of Honor's tighter and more constrained beta maps actually appear to have more in common with Modern Warfare 2 than Bad Company 2, and the similarities don't end there either. Kills and headshots in the game are accompanied by XP scores that get branded across the screen in bright colours, although the beta stops short of those "Gadoosh!" sound effects that ensue whenever you level-up in Modern Warfare 2.

Killstreak awards have also been implemented to a degree. Small airstrikes can be directed in the beta using binoculars (once you've ratcheted off some consecutive kills), although that's the limit of it at the moment as far as we've experienced. However, with all of these similarities to Infinity Ward's über-shooter, we've got to ask why some of the game's more appealing features haven't also been grafted onto MoH's multiplayer at this stage. The beta's lack of killcams and perks is certainly noticeable (particularly as both are already in Bad Company 2) but at least there's ample weapon customisation and unlocks on-hand to make the levelling-up process less tedious.

DICE has applied its usual level of gun fetish pandering to the customisation, allowing players to upgrade weapons across their rail slots (for sights and scopes etc.), barrel slots (e.g. suppressors), and base slots (i.e. extra clips and different types of ammo). This is pretty much the only carrot that's dangled in front of you to encourage XP harvesting though, so we did get the feeling that perks of some kind will be needed in the final game if it's going to maximise on its potential long-term appeal. Also, given the vast scope and scale of destruction in Bad Company 2, it was a little disappointing to see DICE's use of its Frostbite engine take a step backwards in the MoH beta . Yes, there are crates that splinter into bits and trees that can be felled, but there are also some bizarre inconsistencies and the buildings/walls are often immune to destruction in both of the beta's maps. It's a little bit too much like the original Bad Company for our liking.

In terms of modes, MoH's beta holds two: Team Assault and Mission. The former is as it sounds; a team-based deathmatch mode for 12 vs. 12 matches. This plays out on the Kabul City Ruins map. Mission, on the other hand, is a little more complex. It's essentially a variant of Bad Company's Rush mode that progresses through concurrent sections of map as various objectives are achieved (e.g. setting charges on a road block) by the attacking Marines team, while the defending Insurgents team has to stop these objectives from being executed. Team Assault has received the lion's share of users on the beta so far, while Mission has become something of a barren wasteland where you'll often have trouble joining a match.

Perhaps one reason for Mission's lack of popularity is that, despite its similarities to Rush, the Helmand Valley map holds decidedly less firepower than a lot of the Rush maps in Bad Company 2. One tank is available at the very start of the map, while airstrikes have to be called in to complete some of the mode's final objectives. These airstrikes are entirely automated though, which means that the tank is pretty much the only interactive vehicle in the beta (i.e. there are no additional helicopters or quad-bikes etc.). In fact, the tanks are pretty much your lot for vehicles across the whole beta as the Kabul City Ruins map for Team Assault has no vehicles in it at all. Hopefully there will be more in the final game because copious vehicle use is another of DICE's hallmarks that has added so much to the Battlefield series over the years.

One final thing to consider is that it really is difficult to tell which side is which between the Insurgents and Marines, particularly at a distance (the white cursor arrow over your fellow squad-mates never seems to catch the eye enough during critical moments). This is either an oversight by DICE, or it's a comment on the present day conflict in Afghanistan (perhaps the studio is trying to show us why there are so many instances of so-called 'friendly fire' over there). As a result, often the quickest and most reliable way to get a sniff of the enemy before they've clocked you is to look for their muzzle flashes on the mini-map.

The Medal of Honor beta is a bit confused as far as we're concerned. On the one hand it strongly imitates Modern Warfare's multiplayer, but on the other hand it bizarrely omits some of the best features from Infinity Ward's shooter such as perks and killcams. What's more is that, with this imitation, DICE appears to have forgotten where it came from in the first place, which is plainly evident in the lack of vehicles and sprawling maps. On top of all this there isn't really much of an original offering here to keep the experience fresh, so we're beginning to get slightly worried about what's going to appear in the full package when the game launches later this year. That said, there's still plenty of dev time to add features and there will be more than just a couple of maps and modes in the full game, so we're not going to downgrade our anticipation levels for Medal of Honor just yet.