Medal Of Honor Preview

19 May 2010 at 11:43:54 by Andy Alderson

As we're shown the recent trailer, in which a US soldier leaves a poignant and dishonestly reassuring answer phone message for his wife, it becomes clear that EA is trying to do something a little different with Medal of Honor. You couldn't imagine said message sitting comfortably amid the global conspiracies and Bruckheimer overtones of Modern Warfare 2 or the OTT wise-assery of Bad Company 2. No, Medal of Honor is attempting to carve its own niche in the world of AAA shooters.

EA's Greg Goodrich tells us the game is built around the core tenets of “authenticity and respect” and, throughout the single player demo we see today, he reiterates the close relationship the development team has fostered with its military advisers. Medal of Honor is about “telling their story” and, having already been shown the elite Tier One Operators in a prior demo, today is all about the Rangers. If the Tier One guys are the “scalpel”, the Rangers are the “sledgehammer.” Today's mission follows a squad of Rangers as they attempt to clear a section of the Shahikot Valley of a particularly troublesome machine gun nest that has a habit of knocking helicopters out of the sky.

The player takes control of Specialist Dante Adams and is tasked with providing covering fire for his squad in outdoor sections, while using his trusty shotgun to clear the numerous huts that stand between the Rangers and the machine gun nest. As they advance forward, Goodrich chooses not to narrate over the gameplay demonstration in a wise move which allows us to feel the full effect of Medal of Honor. And it's some effect. While we've all been cooing over the pretty visuals since the first screens emerged, what hasn't been so widely-reported is the excellent sound design. As Adams and his Rangers battle their way through the small - but very hostile - village the sound adds a huge degree of atmosphere to proceedings. Gunfire echoes in the hills, grenades explode with a concussive thud and, most impressively, the Ranger team chatters convincingly throughout. There are no wisecracks or one-liners here, the team simply talk like professionals getting a job done. That's not to say they're lacking character, however, and once they've fought themselves to within a couple of hundred feet of the machine gun nest and marked it with smoke, their reaction to the ensuing air-strike is fantastic.

The visceral, bombastic explosion sees earth and debris raining down from above as our team members react with a combination of child-like excitement and relief. That, some might say, was danger close. There's something definitely likeable about this team of Rangers and, speaking with Goodrich after the presentation, he tells us that the same guys will be alongside you throughout the Ranger missions. Intriguingly, he also lets slip that there was one member of the team who was omitted for the purposes of the demo. “He'll be coming soon and we'll be talking about him quite a bit in the future,” we're told.

After heading further into the mountains, picking off stragglers our team is instructed to head to the designated landing zone and secure it for evacuation. “Intel fucked us on this one,” says a squad-mate as the Rangers encounter heavier resistance than expected and, once they make it to the LZ, they spot a number of huts to be secured. Stacking up outside the nearest hut, we prepare to breach when suddenly a mobile phone ringtone pierces the silence, an explosion sounds and our screen goes black. I immediately think of that answer-phone message.

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