Medal of Honor: Warfighter Multiplayer: Stay Alive, Get Home

When your life matters in multiplayer, you play shooters more carefully. Counter-Strike and SOCOM scare players into using useful tactics by taking away respawns, and Medal of Honor: Warfighter is one of too-few adversarial games to borrow the idea. The new Home Run multiplayer mode takes away second chances, making for quick and quiet Capture the Flag matches that start tense and inevitably explode. Only the sneaky, patient, and careful will make it out alive.

Home Run gives defenders two flags to protect from the attacking team. Don't worry: Camping isn't a viable tactic. On the map I played, attackers concealed in buildings had a great view of the flags' exposed outdoor areas. You're better off hunting your enemies than role-playing the military equivalent of a goaltender if you're keeping the flags safe, especially because there are so many spots to jump unaware foes. The map was small but dense, packed with flanking routes and high-ground vantage points, and within just a minute (or two if everyone's playing extra cautious) it was all over. Whether that was because we'd all been killed or because I'd evaded my enemy despite the flag strapped to my back depends on which of the 10 rapid-fire rounds we're talking about.

Conceptually, Home Run is a really just a simple modification of existing gameplay modes. It's hardly inventive, but the removal of respawns led to some of excellent fun. Each match is a battle of wits that ramps up into a frenzy as fighters contend for flag control.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter won me over with Home Run and its strong combat mechanics. When last I played Medal of Honor, its guns didn't feel terribly lethal. Now, armored opponents and weaker weapons lead to less-lethal damage, but otherwise Warfighter feels much stronger than I remember. In a game mode about high-pressure panic, quick take-downs are essential to the tension and satisfaction of multiplayer combat.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com