The First Jump is Frustrating
I started playing Medal of Honor: Airborne when I finished Halo 3 to get it out of the way. Then I can go back to Halo 3 multiplayer and prepare for the rest of the holiday release onslaught. I delight with the thought.
But man, Airborne is frustrating. I really don't know why the franchise hasn't become the dominating force it used to be. Take controls for example (I'm playing on the 360 by the way) -- instead of using the standard set by Halo, they completely rewrote the conrol scheme.
Instead of pushing the right stick, you must hold the left trigger to zoom in. In a game where you are using iron sites constantly, having to hold an additional button is lame. Another thing that really chafes me is that you have to switch to grenades before throwing them. Again, Halo let you heave them with a simple pull of the left trigger. Grenades are a ton of fun and every game should emphasize them more. They are also really effective in tight spots -- essentially a knee jerk reaction to bad guys. When you have to switch to use them, and essentially take painful use of planning and forethought, the fun of grenades is greatly lessened.
Most glaring of all is the archaic health system. Halo 2, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Call of Duty 2 -- all of these games have proven that you can make a challenging game that is more fun without health packs. Ultimately, what do the designers want you to achieve? They want you to live through the current firefight, take a breath and move on to the next. With R6 and Halo you just recharge and go back in. With Airborne you must constantly monitor your health, fight cautiously (not fun) and then search for health packs. The game has nothing to do with health packs -- it has everything to do with fighting Nazis and liberating Europe.
I'm on the second mission and the game is already fairly frustrating and difficult. I once read a Valve designer who said something like "AI should be hard or challenging for the player. They are there to die gloriously." They are there to provide and awesome experience and the perception of a challenge. Half Life does this really well -- you get close to dying constantly but rarely actually die. The player gets the tension and adrenaline, but not the frustration of a restart and playing the level over.
One thing that I really like about EA, or something I liked about EA in the past, is that they seem to really focus on hitting the casual gamers -- people who don't stay up until 4 AM playing multiplayer, but merely an hour here and there in their spare time. These folks don't want to get pummeled by Nazis, but instead do the pummeling. EA should make Medal of Honor a really great, run and gun romp through Europe with tons of explosions, climbing cliffs under fire and jumping out of airplanes. Halo 3, Rainbow Six, Crysis, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock -- these games all have the hardcore gamers covered. We should make a fun, casual experience for the other guys. Co-op, reduced difficulty, better controls, more explosions -- this is what it needs.
I'll keep playing and offer more thoughts later. Perhaps.
(posted by grant at 10/02/2007)
