The currently controversial Medal of Honor shooter hits shelves in October and JOE went along to developer EA’s pre-launch event to work the thumbs.
In the basement of a derelict London townhouse representatives from EA Sports scurry around dimly-lit corridors, adding the finishing touches to set the scene for a presentation of their long-awaited franchise reboot, Medal of Honor, to the Irish and UK press.
The experience is impressive from the get-go as the EA team go to great lengths to transform the venue with a shoot ‘em up vibe; bricks strewn about the place, a torture den and gas drums dotted about to coast your drinks on.
After a brief introduction from EA Sports’ Peter O’Reilly on the two demoed missions of the game, we were all ready to be thrust into a digitised Afghanistan some hands-on game time.
I’m not exactly a gaming virgin but in all honesty it’s been a considerable length of time since I played shooters or anything along the likes. Thus, to say that Medal of Honor’s visuals and audio were considerably impressive is pretty close to an understatement.
Set in the Shahikot Mountains in Afghanistan we were treated to two separate missions; Scalpel and Apache. In the Scalpel mission the player portrays a ground soldier trudging along the rugged Afghani terrain as part of the ‘Tier 1 Operators’, the US Special Forces whose exploits EA have drawn heavily on.
Goat-herding gunplay
The scene opens with a couple of goats grazing in a field and zooms back to show our fellow operator strangling an insurgent from behind. It is still unclear as to whether the term ‘insurgent’, ‘Afghan rebels’ or reference to the Taliban is used in the game. From what we saw there was no reference to the Taliban either in the single-player or the multi-player option, despite the controversy surrounding the group’s inclusion has drawn so far.
The Scalpel mission was, for me, a difficult level to adapt to and seemingly I wasn’t the only one as more experienced gamers than I found the also found the going pretty tough throughout. Tough, but rewarding all the same
The second mission, Apache, was a little more easygoing and I was both delighted and relieved to see the ‘Mission Complete’ screen. Here you take to the skies to attack a Taliban village hide-out and attempt to blow crater-sized holes into the side of the mountains where the bad guys are trying to assemble missiles.
The attack on the village is intense and accuracy is essential to get the job done alongside just one other chopper. Overall, both levels we sampled were astounding. The audio from your compatriots is frequent and necessary to complete your objectives, and it’s obvious that the developers worked closely with real ‘Tier 1 Operators’.
“The attention to detail with the talk-over make it feel as real an experience you can get is right there. It’s all about telling those soldiers stories. That’s exactly what this game does. In that level, one of the Apaches takes damage after the mission and it decides to lead the way after completion,†Peter O’Reilly told us.
From thereafter we were left in darkness from EA as regards further missions and multiplayer details. Clearly, the developers wish to keep as many surprises up their sleeves as possible – and why not?
With the current controversy working overtime to help publicise the deafening hype of Medal of Honor there must surely be a lull as we head towards launch day on October 15. I for one will wait in anticipation and undergo a conversion from sports-related gamer back to the good old days of trigger-happy targetman.
Medal of Honor is released for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on 15 October. JOE recently covered the hysteria surrounding the game’s multiplayer component here.
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