Interview from OXM UK. I guess lean is
definitely in.
Why did you decide to push Medal of Honor into present times?Well... why not? It's had a good run in World War II and when we looked at what we wanted to do, it was obvious this is where we wanted to be and the story picked the setting for us.
Medal of Honor is not a World War II franchise. We're not tied to any specific time frame.
So if the story led the design, just how important is the story to Medal of Honor?Well it was a fairly complex story. it started out a lot bigger. In development you have to start out with 300% just to get 100% in the box and that's just what we did.
You've already talked about the Tier 1 Ops and bringing them on board. What difference does having them make?It's a competitive advantage. We're doing a lot of things that will make gamers go 'wow' but it's definitely helped. They'll talk to us about the weapon systems that need changing, tactics, camouflage, things like that.
You've talked a lot about respect and honour when describing Medal of Honour. How much of that is in reaction to Modern Warfare 2's airport siege, especially as you've brought the Tier 1 guys on board?Modern Warfare 2 wasn't even out when we started development on the game.
When I use honour, respect, authenticity and words like that, I'm not even thinking about the other ames that are out there. Our focus is just on Medal of Honor. Those things have always been there. Those are the core tenets of the series.
Having been in the cooker at EA LA since last June, Medal of Honor wants to win back past glories and then some. Before the presentation kicks off, we're reminded that this series is about authenticity and respect for the soldier. But this time, it's not the historic figure of the previous games in the series. In the same way that Call of Duty jumped forward in time from World Wars to modern day, Medal of Honor has done the same, with a new and extremely contemporary setting and towns that are all too familiar from current news footage.
Re-awakeningIt's not just the settings that will breathe new life into the series. EA LA has also drafted in Tier 1 Ops soldiers to advise it. We'd never heard of them either, but we learn that Tier 1 Ops are the absolute cream of the crop special forces, the highest level of active operatives. Getting them on board was integral to Medal of Honor's development. "You can't just go and knock on their door and just say 'hey'" explains executive producer Greg Goodrich. "You have to meet someone at a certain level to gain their trust. Then they introduce you to somebody at the next level, then you gain their trust. And so on.. it's a long process".
"It helped with everything," Goodrich continues. "It wasn't even a sell. it was more: this is what we're doing and this is our product. It turned into 'let's meet next time you're around, let's do lunch or if you want to do mo-cap..' and over time we gained their trust. The barrier broke down when they saw one thing in the game that hit too close to home and we took it out immediately".
"I think they then realised we were actually going to listen to them," explains Richard Farrelly, senior creative director who is listening to Goodrich tell the story. "They didn't directly say 'take it out' but we saw it made them uncomfortable, so we took it out".
The 'one thing' in question, as Greg would later explain, is the death of one of the soldiers in a pivotal gameplay moment. As Greg later says, he's told by one of the Tier 1 Op guys that there's only four or five people in the world who have the right to tell that story and he's not one of them. So he took it out.
Welcome to combatWe're shown two big chunks - one is a trailer and the other is one of the developers playing through a different section. The trailer takes place in Shahikot Valley in Afghanistan and stitches together various bits of action as the men push through the sandy valleys and rubble huts, taking out enemies as they go. It's hard to judge the pacing from this but there's enough to pick up various clues. Scripted moments will return. Men will stack up outside doors before bursting through. You can lean around corners to fire. Most impressively, you'll get to pilot an attack chopper rather than just riding shotgun in one.
Next up is the gameplay demo. The level EA shows off takes place in the small town of Gardez, south-east of Kabul. You're being led by Voodoo through the streets at night, manning a turret gun on top of a jeep, as you're off to meet an informant. As you wind your way through the narrow streets, there's a sense that something is wrong. Cue panicked shouting about tangos - and then an RPG screams into the side of your keep. The panicked shouting turns into hoarse screaming which you can only just make out through the ringing of your ears, as you stagger back to your feet and use the upturned jeep wreckage for cover. Objective - secure courtyard. Now the fight is on.
Enemies dotted around the rooftops, the quick visual flash of bullets cutting through the air, background noise of angry shouting and a rat-tat-tat-tat competing for volume. It has the same basic structure as previous games in the series: it lays down the mess, the danger and the chaos and demands you pick a safe route through it. By clearing a few enemies off the rooftops and swinging around through a back-passage to the streets instead of across the courtyard, the level truly begins.
You then have to pick your way through a labyrinth of alley buildings and rubbish-strewn streets, as you eliminate the overwatch shooting down into the courtyard on your allies. Neat design touches abound: chunks of wall crumble down with every missed shot, the lights get taken out (which means switching to the green hum of night vision) and the demo ends with a neat scripted moment that seems like it will lead to even more peril for the player.
