In the realm of first-person shooters, it's pretty clear at this point that present day is the new World War II. Between Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the latest games in two of the biggest genre franchises around , current-day settings for online shooting contests are dominating in terms of sales and player numbers. This trend continues with Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor, a reboot of the long-running franchise set in Afghanistan where American soldiers tangle with insurgent forces. The single-player portion of the game is being built at EA Los Angeles, but the multiplayer is being constructed by DICE, the same studio that created the Battlefield series and delivered Bad Company 2 earlier this year.
Maybe that's why it's not surprising that Medal of Honor's multiplayer mode, which is currently playable in beta form, feels so familiar. Think of it as a sort of mix between Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2, and you might have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the multiplayer's general layout. While much is similar about the structure and progression to other games already out, the moment-to-moment gameplay manages to have its own flow and feel.
That's because getting killed in Medal of Honor is an easy thing. A quick burst of fire from an assault will put down pretty much anyone. It's a routine occurrence to be shot without having any idea what happened , only to see on the post-death kill screen that you were taken out by sniper fire or an abrupt and unexpected shotgun blast. There's still a little bit of room for survival – if you can manage to find cover after absorbing a single bullet the blood effects that ring the screen will gradually fade – but in general if you're in the open, you won't live long.
Given that there isn't much time to react once you're under fire, positioning and spatial awareness is of chief importance. Of the two maps included in this beta, the Helmand Valley map is the larger one, set in a dusty, sun-bleached mountainous region. It features a Combat Mission mode where the American forces must move sequentially through a series of checkpoints as Insurgents dig in and defend. Respawning across the map changes depending on which checkpoint is currently being contested, meaning the conflict in the 12 vs. 12 contest is always concentrated in a small area where nearly any exposed body part could be punctured by sniper fire.
This is not capture point-based gameplay like Battlefield's Conquest mode, so teams don't battle back and forth as map ownership swaps hands. Instead, the Americans are always on offense, and after capturing or blasting apart an objective, the lines of battle are permanently moved forward for the duration of the round.To ensure the hectic pace of battle never dies down, respawn timers are extremely fast – only a few seconds – which gives you enough time to pick one of the three character classes and get right back out into the fight. While the Insurgents will always spawn at the battle lines, the Americans can opt to spawn in the middle of the fight or back at home base, where you can hop in a light tank to help your team advance.
Though there are tanks, the focus here isn't on vehicle combat. It's instead just an aid for what's otherwise a multiplayer mode that seems to emphasize marksmanship and quick reflexes. Hiding behind rocky outcroppings and behind the dusty walls of low-lying structures you'll need to scan the countryside for movement while keeping an eye out for snipers who may be doing the same thing. Another good method of locating enemies is to keep an eye out for muzzle flashes, which can often give away their positions. Parts of the map do have a limited amount of destructibility, so if you want, it's possible to mow down trees to clear more lines of sight on a map that's packed with debris, hills, and structures that make it easy to pop behind cover should bullets start to chip away at the terrain in your vicinity.
What the game really seems to get right is the chaotic presentation of the combat. Every bullet you fire into rock and wood has a detailed impact effect, sending clouds of dust and chips spewing into the air. It's not as dramatic when it's just you shooting. But when your entire squad is lobbing grenades, firing rockets, and calling down mortar strikes on an enemy tank that's chewing into your ranks with high caliber machine gun fire while the rest of the opposing forces support it with rifles, it adds an extra jolt of realism and excitement to the gameplay. I'm playing it on a powerful PC right now, and the game looks great, with landscapes that look cluttered, lived-in and authentic, sharp weapon models and believable effects. Its gunplay also has a satisfying feel, favoring those who can skillfully aim and burst fire instead of spray. The weapons have a sense of weight and proper recoil that feels like it makes sense, even to someone who's never dealt with a real machine gun before.
The second map, Kabul City Ruins, is being played as a team deathmatch map right now. The only rule is to kill the other team faster than it kills you, yet the action stays entertaining because of how cluttered the streets are with cover and how many windows and two storey structures overlook the streets, meaning there's always a spot to hide and another way to flank a pesky sniper who's skillfully patrolling a rooftop area. Or you could just shoot a rifle grenade up there.
That leads into the types of options you get for class loadouts. The Medal of Honor beta offers three different class types: rifleman, special ops, and sniper. As should be very familiar to Battlefield veterans since the days of Battlefield 2 as well as Modern Warfare diehards, there's a persistent unlock system that awards you bonus equipment and weaponry as you make kills in matches. For example, a Rifleman will start out with a basic assault rifle, but will soon unlock an extra magazine, red dot scope, a light machine gun, hollow point ammunition, and more as you make kills. The game also tracks your stats and hands out awards and medals for specific achievements, which is always a welcome addition.
Players who prefer a more specialized method of combat could opt for the Special Ops class, which eventually unlocks a shotgun, or the Sniper class, that can get access to powerful bolt-action rifles and high powered scopes. On the battlefield each class gets their equipped primary weapon, a pistol, and an explosive weapon type, including gun-mounted grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and remotely detonated devices. There's also the option for a close-up knife kill if the situation demands it, and of course a trusty grenade for clearing out entrenched enemy positions.
Killstreaks, called scorechains here, are also in place, letting you pick between calling in an unmanned aerial vehicle to patrol the sky and reveal enemy positions on radar or specifying a spot on a map to drop a mortar strike after successfully achieving a string of consecutive kills without dying. Again, there are plenty of elements that make Medal of Honor's online feel like other games, but the core gameplay and rich graphical style could be enough to make it stand out in the shooter crowd. I know I'm looking forward to playing more, as well as checking out more of the maps. The game's set for an October 12th ship date in North America for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms.