As the glorious Halo: Reach has reignited even the most jaded players passion for first-person shooters, every new blaster appearing in its wake will have to work harder than ever to make the grade. But when ploughing through the hotly-tipped Medal Of Honor, those reinvigorated by the splendour of Halo will soon remember why they were growing tired of gung-ho machismo in the first place.
The problem with Medal Of Honor is its insistence on realism. As the entire game is set in an authentic digital Afghanistan where troops closely modelled on real soldiers do battle with real enemies using real weapons, awkward moments where you hit invisible barriers or cant kick down a door until your comrades finished speaking ruin the sense of immersion, and occasional glitches youd normally forgive such as graphics pinging in and out of existence become acutely jarring. Dumbass Taliban fighters that predictably bob their heads in and out of cover also shatter any sense of realism; and with a plot thats built around clichéd set-pieces that would be more at home in a Hollywood action blockbuster, Medal Of Honor drops the ball when trying to deliver an authentic imitation of real-life combat.
In multiplayer the game fares better, with a careful balancing of styles that requires the trigger-dexterity of Modern Combat 2, but with more opportunities to use cover as in the delirious Bad Company 2. But even though the game has flashes of brilliance including the convincing chatter of your comrades when playing solo, intense shootouts in later sorties and some dazzling landscapes Medal Of Honor is still a huge disappointment and offers nothing that you havent played a hundred times before.