Medal of Honor Impressions

by Charles Onyett - IGN.com | 13 May 2010 12:00
 
The best way to blow up a machine gun nest.
 
Setting a game in the theatre of modern war may not be particularly novel anymore, but for EA's long-running Medal of Honor franchise it's a first. Since the glory days of the original and Allied Assault the franchise has branched out from consoles to PCs to handheld systems. As with any brand, excessive iteration leads to exhaustion . Eventually the quality suffers, consumers lose interest, and the name is quietly packed up and sealed away in the vast halls of retired intellectual properties. So will EA Los Angeles and DICE's new game, the subtitle-less Medal of Honor, be able to re-energize the franchise? From what we've seen so far, it certainly looks to be a wild ride.
 
EA Los Angeles is concentrating on the single-player story mode, while Battlefield developer DICE is building the online component. Over the course of production the two studios have been in constant communication regarding development and testing, but there's no word yet on the multiplayer content or gameplay systems. I think we can all assume there will be guns that shoot bullets, but beyond that I've got nothing to report.
 

The good news about the single-player portion is that the content is all built. That means the team is spending the time between now and its Medal of Honor's October release date polishing the experience so it can, hopefully, be smooth and bug-free. From what was shown off in a recent single-player hands-off demo, what's in place is already impressive. Set in modern day Afghanistan, the game follows elite U.S. armed forces members as they tangle with hostiles far behind enemy lines. Perspective skips between multiple playable characters, and for this particular demo it was a squad of six Rangers. For your loadout, you can swap between shotgun and scoped assault rifle, and can also pick up and use the weapons of enemies. Should you run low on ammunition, you can call on a squadmate to replenish your reserves.
 
The mission begins in broad daylight as the Rangers advance on a hillside town. The terrain is detailed and realistically messy, with stone houses jutting up from the ground that look worn and dusty. Time spent admiring the scenery is cut short since as soon as the squad closes in on the town, hostiles jump from windows and doors and the fight is underway. The AI-controlled squad members scream and scatter. Taking up positions behind broken walls, pushing forward into the fray and pegging targets with bullets, your companions may not be under your control, but seem adept at clearing the area, as you might expect from what are meant to be trained soldiers.
 

Bullets whiz and whine from all directions, and should you take damage you'll find the game employs a familiar regenerative health system. To avoid getting pegged with bullets you can go prone to duck behind a piece of cover or post up next to an edge, lean out, and aim down the sights to cut down an attacker. Within the town setting there's a direct path forward, but also enough room on the sides of the combat zone to accommodate sneakier players who prefer a flanking maneuver to a bullish assault right down the middle. With squadmates serving as distractions, this allows you to move up behind unsuspecting enemies for a surprise headshot or close range knife thrust.
 
What's especially impressive about this sequence is the way everything moves and sounds. Enemies hop from windows and dart between positions with animations that convey a sense of realistic weight. The echoes of rifle fire reverberate off the surroundings. Squadmates bellow out enemy positions as more join the fray. Reload animations are detailed, weapon fire pops with power, and dust clouds kick up as cover positions are chipped away by large caliber rounds.
 
Pushing beyond the village the squad gathers around one particular house. The door is kicked in and a weapons warehouse is revealed. There's a brief in-game dialogue sequence between squad members as the next step is discussed. The voice acting here seems appropriately tense, the kind of professional cadence you'd expect from a soldier accustomed to these kinds of missions. Along with the visuals and sound, this kind of detail helps create a tone of authenticity, even as the onscreen action mimics a big budget action movie than a real combat mission.
 
The squad continues on and moves beyond the confines of the ammunition depot into a narrow ridge. The only possible avenue of progress is forward, and unfortunately there'sa machine gun nest sitting right at the end of the area. Airborne assistance is luckily at the Rangers' disposal, but in order to call in an airstrike, the target has to first be marked. Your squad pushes forward, hoarsely calling out threats along the way as the machine gun eats into nearby cover spots. Dust and rock explode as enemies swarm from the sides under the constant hail of machine gun fire. The only break in the guns' deafening drumming is when you pop up to fire a few cover shots, allowing your squad to move up a little further, ducking and sprinting their way between low rock walls.
 

Your shots rip holes in the canvas stretched over the machine gun nest and plink off its defenses, but it's not until your squad gets close enough and red smoke plumes into the sky that it's time to clear out. It was a rapid retreat across the terrain you just fought so hard to gain, but for good reason. A jet tears through the sky above and unloads an explosive directly into the side of the machine gun nest, instantly blanketing the scene in a thick dust. The sound of clinking stones could be heard seconds later as displaced and shattered rock returns to the ground. Even though the silt haze lessens, it still hangs in the air, and your squadmates cough and curse as they move to the valley beyond.
 
The next sequence takes place in a narrow valley as your squad moves between rocks and the burned out husks of tanks. The air is still and you can hear distant wildlife and aircraft, as well as the voices of advancing enemies that bounce across the valley walls and echo down to your position. Hostiles move in to high positions on the mountains around the valley, firing down on your squad, but eventually you push through. At the end of the valley the rock walls diverge, revealing a wide open plateau dotted with trees. In the middle sits a small house, which your squad moves up to. After a brief silence, a cell phone rings, the house explodes, and the demo ends.
 

I didn't get to actually play the game so I unfortunately can't really say how the controls feel. Even with such great visuals and sound, the whole game could be a bust if it doesn't handle well. With that in mind, in addition to finding out about how the story is told between missions and the entire multiplayer component, there's a lot left to learn about EA's Medal of Honor, but so far so good.
 
Supplied by IGN.com