IGTV Medal Of Honor Interview Page 2

26 Feb 2010 at 14:49:45 by

Greg Goodrich, executive producer of Medal of Honor

IncGamers: Tell us about Medal of Honor!

Greg: Goodrich: We've moved out of World War II. Medal of Honor has always been in that war; it's always been a World War II game, so with this reset of the franchise we've decided to move it into modern times. It's a new war, a new enemy, and a new warrior.

The Tier 1 Operator has really come into their own in this conflict and we're honoured to have had the access to the people we've had access to, and we're really focusing our character story, our narrative, on them and on the soldier, and the respect for the soldier, and honouring the soldier, and really going deep into that. It's about that. It's about small-unit tactics; it's about small-unit methods and procedures, but we also have big army. Big military, I should say, is also in the game. The two units – the two sides - the sledgehammer and the scalpel, cannot work independently of each other. They require each other and depend on each other, and we're showcasing both of those in Medal of Honor.

How did you get the support of the military and the Tier One Operators when developing this? Were you taken seriously, despite this project being a videogame?

It's a videogame but it's a very relevant medium, and the story we want to tell is a compelling story, and the way we reach our audience is in this medium. As far as getting access to the people and the groups that we've had access to, it's absolutely unprecedented. It started out at a very basic level – when you want to work with the military, you go to the public affairs office and you ask them for access, and you get access to a certain type of individual and group, and that moves on. But I think what they've seen is that we really do mean what we say in the sense of we want to honour the soldier and respect what they do, and we want to show that. As time went on – as I said, we've met with the regular footsoldier, we've met with pilots, we've met with an Apache squadron. As things went on, we gained more and more trust, and there was a moment where we got an introduction to an individual who talked about these units, these Tier 1 Operators, who made an introduction for us. They came out, and we just gained more and more trust, and the further we went, the more and more confident and relaxed they became with us, and they allowed us to really dive into their world.

But the cool thing about it is they've been very open and very honest, and this is also a place for them to make sure we're doing it right, and we're doing what we say and with the right intent and the right tone. Because with those guys, they have absolutely 100% editorial control, meaning that if we go anywhere or we do anything that cuts too close to home or reveals something that they don't want out there, we'll take it out. Furthermore, we've had things that we've wanted to do that we just naturally assumed we shouldn't do, and they're like, “No, go ahead.” It's out there and it's known, and they've said “By the way, you can do it this way,” and that sort of thing. It's helped both ways, and it's really refined and honed the product into something really special, I think. One of our competitive advantages, if you will, is having access to these guys and having access to this community that is, like I said, pretty unprecedented. But it's a heavy burden. If we mess that up, that goes away and we've lost it. I lose sleep at night, our designers lose sleep at night, our creative director... we all lose sleep at night because we all just want to make sure we get it right. We want to be absolutely, 100% positively sure that we do not do anything that betrays their trust and what they've been giving us so far.

Can we expect all sorts of different weapons and controllable vehicles and the like? What sort of hardware are going to get to play with?

It's a shooter, first and foremost – Medal of Honor has always been a first-person shooter, and that's what it will remain – but the things they do, and the type of equipment and weapon systems and vehicles that they're exposed to and that they have access to is pretty cool, and obviously we want to explore that. But also, since we do have big military in the game, you will see Apaches, and you will be behind the stick in an Apache. You'll be on ATV All-Terrain Vehicles. There's a lot of different infil and insertion methods that these guys use, and we're going to allow the player to insert that way into a mission in the game as well. There's a lot of really, really cool stuff in regards to vehicles, equipment, and hardware that we're exploring.

At this point we have our narrative and the story sort of dictates what equipment and hardware and weapons systems we'll be using, and so when we were first starting out and designing and working on our storyboard... I like to always say “You have to design 300% of the game to make sure you get 100% in the box.” So in that process of filtering it down and whittling it down into the 100%, we've naturally focused in on the tasty bits – the cool pieces of hardware and weapon systems. So there's a wide variety and we're pretty excited about what we've come up with.

When you play the big military, it's going to feel big military, because they have a certain look, a certain movement style, certain weapons systems. In the general military, they're issued equipment, and that's the equipment they used. At the Tier 1 level, they get to choose what they use. To us, it's been fascinating that every one of these guys that we've had in here all have different likes and dislikes. One guy will dress this way and use this system; another guy will do this; one guy will hold it this way or have a holster this way... and they're all different, because they're so highly specialised and they have their choice and what they're comfortable with, and what they become naturally accustomed to. It's been really, really cool, so we're getting the best of both worlds in the game.

So you've been dealing with more people than just the Tier 1 Operators?

We've met with all branches of the military. We've met with a wide variety of people. Men, women, airmen, seamen, army, infantry... we've met with so many people at every different level. We've had a general in here looking at our game and giving us feedback. So everyone has a different experience. We've naturally honed in and we've naturally focused on the Tier 1 Operator, but there still is a lot of the other personalities and characters and stories that come across, based on the access to the general military that we've had. Like I said, it's been impressive. I've never seen anything like it, to have this much access.

How's the multiplayer coming along, and how is it having a different team working on that? Is it difficult to put the two together?

The way that we're approaching this is that the team here in Los Angeles is focusing on single-player. The team in Sweden is focusing on the multiplayer. The great thing about that is that we get to focus on what we do best, they get to focus on what they do best. Naturally, there are going to be things that crossover and things so that we make sure they don't feel like two completely separate products, but as I like to say, it's like chocolate and peanut butter - two great tastes that go great together – so naturally we're going to focus on the things that we love and the things that we're good at. Developers sometimes tend to do that anyway, and then the other half of the product becomes a second thought. If it's a great single-player team, that experience will be great, and multiplayer will be an afterthought. They still do it, but it's not as good. It happens the other way, too. Some teams are just really strong in multiplayer and single-player becomes an afterthought. The great thing about this is we get to concentrate on one thing here in Los Angeles, they get to concentrate on another in Sweden, and we put those two together and hopefully get a whole lot of good stuff in one box. As far as persistence goes, and how the two products come together and what's shared between them, we're not quite ready to talk about yet. But naturally, there will be things that are crossed over between the two sides of the coin here, and we're really, really excited.

Can we expect to say plenty of old Medal of Honor features making reappearances, or is the fact that this is a reboot going to get rid of a lot of these things?

Nowadays there are certain things that a first-person shooter player expects, and we want to make sure that we're doing something that they're accustomed to, and what we like and what our fans like. There are also things that the Medal of Honor player expects; things that have been in this franchise since its infancy. Peek and lean is something that has always been in Medal of Honour, and we'll keep that, so even though we're moving on into a new war, a new enemy, and a new warrior, there are certain things that will remain, independent of what the timeframe is and who the enemy is.

The Frostbite engine supports destructible terrain, and buildings, and environments. Can we expect these things?

In the multiplayer side, destructible terrain is what they do; it's what their technology does. In the single-player game, environments will be destroyed. [Grins] I'll say that. I won't confirm if you'll be destroying them or not, but again, this is a game about warfare. We're in a place that's very diverse and there's destruction that happens in our game.

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