| Written by KnightRobby, on 12-07-2007 19:23 |
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 It's no surprise why Medal of Honor: Airborne is receiving such a high anticipation level from both casual and World-War II gamers. The graphic engine is sharper than ever with the gameplay designed around a "sandbox" feel, where battle lines are never the same twice and there is no scripted AI behavior. But does this make the game any different, from say, Call of Duty 2? Absolutely.
"The world war II FPS genre has gotten kinda' stale. Some people chose to completely abandon the genre. We chose to take the formula and change it," says Rex Dickson, Lead Designer of Medal of Honor Airborne. "With the Airborne concept, we wanted the player to start anywhere. And that meant not starting at a definitive point."
With this in mind, before each mission you begin in US transports and are able to drop from them, literally gliding yourself anywhere on huge maps. This is where Medal of Honor: Airborne differs, in that it offers a load of replay value. Achievement nuts will love this because you'll have the opportunity to try to stick some pretty tough landings, and thus, getting some good ol' fashion achievement points for your efforts.
 One striking feature is your equipment, in that you choose what you load out with. Whether it be your Springfield rifle, M1 Garand, or your Thompson, the entire feel of the game changes depending on the weapon of choice. Making sure you choose the right loadout at the beginning of the missions. Coupling it with a proper dropzone is key to survival. You can't just drop in on Nazi's - you'll most likely get killed.
"It meant non-linear design. Let the player choose where to go, let the player choose their objectives in the order they choose," says Rex. "Give the player choice of weapons. The next thing that did for us is it meant we couldn't really script AI to work in [a] non=linear world."
So how to you solve such a dilemna? Well, we asked the same question, meaning that this game turned from linear to open-ended sandbox and anyone familiar with the Medal of Honor series will feel right at home. Medal of Honor: European Assault attempted to do this, but Airborne does it on such a larger (and of course, prettier) scale. The question still remained how they got the AI to work with the players movements and actions. "So we had to build a proceedual AI system, which in affect could read the environment, learn what cover was best in response to changes in the player's tactics."
 By doing this, battle lines form realistically and it becomes a war of inches. You'll actually see AI behavior - on both sides of the fence - move their lines back and forth depending on wins and losses. This allowed for battles never to repeat themselves in the same way, giving a load of replay value to the player, not to mention unepection "mohments," as Rex called them.
"So those three things together is what the heart of Airborne is: non-linear FPS design, sandbox gameplay, procedual AI system and a whole lot of player choice driven into everything," Rex mentioned.
You may be wondering what multiplayer details there are for Medal of Honor: Airborne. Well, expect some awesome features, but all Rex could tell us was that they are going to be releasing the multiplayer features very soon - basically in a huge blowout of sorts. We cannot wait to get our hands on this game come August and it sure won't disappoint.
- Written By Robert Thomas (KnightRobby
| Keywords : medal, of, honor, airborne, xbox, 360, screens, screenshots, medal of honor airborne screens, moha, clan, groups, clans, clan forums, ww2, wwii |
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