Since this is the first sound review I am doing, I will do my best for this one... Again, this is my opinion on sound as a player and what engages me into a game and doesn't annoy me while playing a game. I will not be one who says "Come on, that doesn't sound like a real M16!!" I will be rating my sound review on close-to-real as possible.
Rating is as follows: 1 through 10
1 Being BAD, what were you thinking, horrible sound.
10 Being the Best sound element ever!
Ok, let's get Single Player out of the way first...
Music: Ramin Djawadi did an awesome job of getting the player into the setting and feeling of conflict through his soundtracks throughout the game. Specific levels that got me pumped up was during the "Gunfighters" mission where you fly an Apache helicopter and blow everything up to kingdom come. When the goosebumps rose and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, I knew that the music certainly did its job. This was also the case for the missions where the songs "Watch Your Corners" and "Final Extraction" were played. Music for this game (SP) gets a 9.
Ambient: The ambient in this game was rather quiet, but that is not a bad thing since the dialog is usually being done by Comms (more on that in the dialog portion) and ambient is, and should be, quieter. The overall sound design on the ambiance of the game was very good. Basic, close-to-real and at good volumes. Not overpowering at all. I am giving this one a 7.
Dialog: The character's dialog was done very well. Script was good but as with most video game story lines, not a lot of people will really follow this but since I am a film guy at heart, I like a good story. With that said, the story should be sold in a way that it doesn't seem like someone standing behind a mic just reading lines. They should put full emotion and feeling into the role which I feel they did a very good job on this one. As far as the sound, the developers were very clever in ways to give depth and distance to the dialog. For instance, when you are talking to your squad mates and they are far away, it clearly sounds like radio chatter, but as soon as your squad mate comes closer to your proximity, you can not only hear the radio chatter, but you can also hear their voice as well. That we really cool. Distance is always an issue for me in games. What I mean by this is if someone in the game is speaking and they are at a distance, there should be noticeable echo and cover noise like ambient, etc. This should also follow the surround sound functions if I am looking directly at them or away from them. (left ear, right ear sounds). All in all, the dialog was done very well in this game and the developers did a great job with the dialog sound. Giving dialog an 8 rating.
Vehicles: This one is pretty easy as you will either screw up vehicle sound or you get it right. It goes along with the surround sound as well so if you are driving in a vehicle, the sounds that occur in the vehicle and outside the vehicle should be apparent and you hear them clearly. I don't expect developers to put a lot of effort into this unless of course the game is heavily dependant on vehicles interactions. For MOH, vehicle sound was done very well and the authenticity of the sounds were pretty dead on. The only thing I wish I could have noticed was the creaking noises that vehicles make when driving over non-flat surfaces. (I will play the first mission again when the radio is off to see if I can hear it. As far as air vehicles, I rate them to what I have heard in film/movies as that is what we can all relate to. But overall, thumbs up on this one. Rating of 7.
Weapons: I have shot many weapons in my life and I will tell you right now that real life weapons and video game weapons WILL ALWAYS SOUND DIFFERENT!!! Video game weapons need to "sound" realistic and keep the player engaged with that strong, cool CHUGGA CHUGGA sound that a game weapon will make when shooting. So I will give my sound review on a close-to-real sound that I can. In Medal of Honor, the developers again were very clever in that when you are firing a weapon and it gets close to empty, there is a distinct sound that is made to let you know you are close to the end of your magazine/belt. That is nice once you get used to it so you don't have to look down at your ammo count and keep your eyes on the bad guy at all times and reload at the right moment unless of course you are firing a LMG and then you are screwed either way. hahaha... ok.. since I am doing overall sound, I will not go into each weapons on this discussion but I will think about doing blogs on each weapon for a game later. Overall, Medal of Honor did a great job with weapon sound. Thumbs up guys! Weapons get a 9!
Overall Sound: Medal of Honor developers (Danger Close/DICE) did a phenomenal job in taking the time to produce high quality sound for both the speaker users and headset users. The music was right in line with each mission and kept me engaged and produced the proper feeling for conflict and or excitement that I would get watching a really good war movie. The dialog, ambient, vehicles and weapons also got high marks as they all worked well with each other and were very close to realistic as possible for a FPS that aims to be as real as possible. It is just too bad that the game didn't do as well as I thought it would. It is unfortunate that the gaming industry is so tough on games these days because this game overall did extremely well and as far as my sound review goes for this title, Great job!!! Overall Sound rating gets a 9!
MEDAL OF HONOR overall review: 9
That is all for now, Raptor Claw 141 out.
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