Flights of fancy

So a couple of weeks ago I picked the video game Medal of Honor: Warfighter. It’s a military based FPS (first person shooter). Not really my normal choice in games (nor am I in the target audience for this game either). I’m more of a wand, quarterstaff, magic gloves, broadsword, or the occasional phaser type of video game player. Basically fantasy RPGs. So I am sure my friends are asking “Then why did you buy it?” Well, 2 simple words: Scott Levy 🙂  I am the type of person who likes to support the work of people whose work I admire. And Scott did the voice of Stump, one of the characters in the game. Also, having never really played those types of games, and in the wake of all the violence that was being blamed on violent games and movies, I was curious to see just how they played. I’ve only made it through the 1st mission, Shore Leave. Don’t laugh. I know I’ve had  for almost 2 weeks, but like I said… not my forte 😉

So, I got the game on a Friday and began the install when I got home from work. After some difficulty with the install process (and I’m a computer tech!), it was loaded and ready to go. It starts off with what I would call two tutorial segments. Gets you familiar with the controls for the game. This, and probably all FPS games, really need a game controller to play and not the mouse/keyboard. My aiming, which is bad on a good day, was even worse with the mouse. So, I hooked up the controller and it improved… marginally 😀

The graphics on the game are incredible. Very, very detailed and realistic looking. The sighting and aiming with the rifles seems pretty real as well. I’ve fired a small caliber rifle a couple times before so I know how the scope doesn’t stay absolutely still. And the closer you zoom in on the target in the game the more your scope moves around. You have the option when you’re firing the sniper rifle at the end of the mission to have the character your playing as (in this case Stump) hold their breath. But even then it’s not perfectly still and he doesn’t hold his breath forever.

For the 1st mission, as I said above, you play as Stump, the character Scott voiced. He’s a rather gruff, unattractive fellow, who is probably excellent at his job when played by someone other than me 😀 You’re dropped off on the beach in Mogadishu, Somalia. The first task is to clear the beach of the enemy and get into the building. You can hide and peek out from behind crates and seawalls to pick off the bad guys so you and the rest of your team can get to the building. Sounds so easy… well I’m sure poor Stump thinks otherwise now that I’ve played him. Many tries. Many deaths. Much cursing (mine, not Stumps, LOL!).  The other difficulty for me was just finding where some of the targets were.  But eventually I did get the hang of the controls and aiming through the scope. Success was had and we made it off the beach and into the building! That was just the first hurdle. Quite often you’re required to breach a closed door. At first the only option you have is to kick it down. Once it’s down, a flashbang grenade is tossed in. It stuns and blinds the enemy giving you the upper hand at taking them out. If you get enough head shots (which I actually did once of twice out of sheer luck) after breaching the door, you unlock different types of breaches to use. Might be a little while before that happens for me.

So you continue on with Stump and the gang, clearing out the buildings and trying to help the other troops both on the ground and, near the end, in the air. At one point you get to drive a cool little bot through the building. Driving in a video game… also not one of my better skills. But the bot went pretty slow so handling it wasn’t hard. The bot did get destroyed at one point and I thought I had gotten another character killed but it’s actually part of the game that the little fellow sacrifices himself for the men.

The last task requires the use of the sniper rifle to pick off enemies with rifles and rocket propelled grenades. The zoom on this is very tight, like I said above, and floats a round a whole lot. Even holding your breath, it’s still not steady. So yes, poor Stump got an RPG’d a couple times too. Okay, more than a couple but I finally figured out the aiming in that just because the center of the cross hairs is on the target, doesn’t mean you will hit them. In fact, I found that they needed to be a little above the target’s head to score a hit. I was quite pleased when I got the satisfaction of watching the Buzzsaw take down the bad guys after I finished the mission.

The next mission starts out with driving a truck so that thing will take a beating 🙂

Overall, from just the first mission, I’m liking it. The graphics are just incredible, as I said before. Buildings and scenery make you feel almost like you’re watching it on TV and in some cases, almost like you’re there. Cut scenes are also fantastic. The character of Preacher is very realistic, from just the overall appearance to being able to see the emotion on his face. The voices are well done too. You can hear all the emotion and energy and panic as appropriate. My one suggestion for the game would be having the character’s name with the on screen dialog so it’s easier to tell who’s talking when you first start out.

Do I see how people can say these kinds of games and their realistic nature can cause people to go on murdering rampages? Maybe. But that discussion will be for my next blog which is also being prompted by Scott and an interview he did 3 or so weeks back. So, stay tuned 🙂