It’s been coming. Somebody was going to, as my Mum might say, “catch it within the neck”. After years of military shooters, albeit, mostly rather good ones, one game was going to be at the receiving end of the media backlash. i feel most expected it to be Call of Duty. With the series now annualised, it looked as though Treyarch’s Black Ops 2 could be the only, but low and behold, it went out and provided merely enough innovation, simply enough new ideas to maintain the vultures at bay……and then Warfighter arrived.

Not helped in anyway by what can only be described because the most generic title of all time, Warfighter, what with its ‘me too’ gameplay and rough edges provided the objective that the games media were looking for……..”FIRE!”.

You’ve probably seen the reviews by now; it’s currently rocking a slightly unhealthy 53% and 55% on Metacritic for the 360 and PS3 respectively – nothing wanting a disaster on the planet of massive budget triple-A gaming. To place this into perspective, this puts Warfighter within the same ballpark because the critically mauled, Aliens: Colonial Marines.

So, pretty bad then.

Well, no actually. Medal of Honor: Warfighter isn’t that bad. In truth; it’s actually pretty good. Yes, it has some rough edges and definitely doesn’t do anything especially new or exciting, but with games resembling Black Ops II (that is admittedly the more polished product) receiving consistently high scores, i locate it harsh (to claim the least) that Warfighter can be handed the type of critical battering usually reserved for the very worst that the industry has to supply – 50% may well be a good movie review, but for a videogame, a 50% might in addition get replaced with clone of a virtual turd.

The single player does follow the decision of Duty template to a tee, but it surely does so with a relative amount of skill on display and is unquestionably far superior to DICE’s horrifying attempt at imitation for Battlefield 3. Oh, and in fairness, that driving mission through Dubai was aces. Sure, the attempt at a more personal, ‘realistic’ story didn’t really suit the action on screen, what along with your character taking place nothing wanting a killing spree, but that’s an issue inherent to the industry and, at least, did offer up some very decent set-pieces and arguably definitely the right looking cut-scenes of the generation (just try and forget how creepy Preacher’s daughter looks)…..damn, that’s one weird looking kid.

The real draw though is the multiplayer. Again, at the surface, it’s more of the identical, but what’s this is very solid and with the inclusion of such cool little innovations as Fireteam spawning and a nationality driven class system, Danger Close have at the very least attempted to make Warfighter’s multiplayer standout from the ever growing crowd. My favourite thing about it though, and the explanation that I keep coming back to it truly is, the size. While i’m able to appreciate the grand nature of Battlefield’s combat and the immediacy of Call of Duty’s all conquering multiplayer offerings, there’s something in regards to the middle ground that Warfighter, like its predecessor, straddles so well. Not too big that it would occasionally feel empty but not too immediate that i’m constantly in fear of being shot at the back of the top, Warfighter’s multiplayer delivers immediate results with enough space for team tactics to actually blossom.

Now, i am not having a go at Battlefield or Call of Duty; they’re both superb at what they do, but personally, I simply prefer the balance provided by Warfighter and is the main reason that i’m genuinely sad to listen to that another release is not forthcoming.

It’s not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination and definitely had its fair proportion of bugs at launch, but equally, it’s nowhere near the travesty that some have suggested. Could it have done with a number of more months of polishing? Sure it is able to have. It doesn’t do quite enough to make it stick out from the group but that does not make it a nasty game.

One game was always going to receive the backlash and Warfighter was it. My condolences visit Danger Close.

1. Medal Of Honor: Warfighter – PS3 Review
2. Fight in your country in Medal of Honor: Warfighter
3. Call of Duty: MW3 multiplayer goes up a notch
4. It’s ok if my girlfriend is best than me at videogames…. so long as she isn’t.
5. Call of Duty multiplayer…..I just do not get it.
6. Battlefield 3 multiplayer may have 40 more players on PC
7. Battlefield 3 details emerge
8. Electronic Arts admit Medal of Honor disappointment
9. Medal of Honor Multiplayer Mode arrives on November 2nd.
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops single player trailer released