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Medal of Honor: Airborne Hands-on First Impressions

At Assembly Summer '07, Electronic Arts demonstrated a playable beta version of Medal of Honor: Airborne - visitors and press were allowed to try their hand at this early version, to examine some of the new gameplay features. So I joined the masses, had a blast and queried Tuomo Leino (EA Finland representative) about some of the scenarios shown.

Leino warned beforehand that the game might crash and burn, but it seemed stable enough to us and it's worth noting that the demo was run on a laptop for which the code drop hadn't been optimised for yet. The MoH team has modeled six real WWII Allied paratroop operations into six multipart missions, and tried to make them realistic: since the US Airborne took 80% losses in their daring behind the line drops, you'll find yourself facing tough odds against a devious enemy AI. The missions are non-linear, and you pick your your drop zone at the beginning, so there should be less frustration from running the same path and getting gunned down again and again.

New features in Airborne, compared to previous Medal of Honor games, are weapon upgrades as prizes for skilful gaming, a new cover-taking mechanism and a headshot indicator. While we wouldn't consider the latter a huge leap forward, the EA rep told us that he finds having a Nazi helmet symbol pop up with every headshot hugely entertaining (if not potentially offensive - socially aware Ed).

If you inflict enough cranial bullet wounds or display skills with consecutive kills, the game awards you with weapon upgrades like a pistol grip or high-capacity drum magazine for your Thompson sub-machine gun (still keeping it realistic, I see - historically accurate Ed). You can pick up German weapons from fallen enemies this time - Leino prefers the Mauser carbine as the best all-around weapon in the game.

So, do I choose a gun... or a gun?

Get ready for the action to start.

Even though Leino kept telling us the AI is barely half finished in the beta, we saw some nice movement and reactions from the enemies. The opposing Italian Blackshirt troops in the first mission were cannon fodder, but regular German troops guarding AA nests and especially their officer were much tougher to dispatch. You have to plan your advance and think outside the most obvious routes to be successful, and you should keep an eye on what your fellow paras are doing to set up flanking manoeuvres - these really seemed to confuse and panic the enemy.

The game now supports leaning sideways and peeking over objects to take shots from cover without exposing yourself - a good strategy if you want to be in the surviving 20%. Going prone isn't implemented, but you can now sprint while crouched.

MoH: Airborne tries to add replay value by unlocking special skill drop spots when you see them on the ground. On a second attempt or subsequent replay, you can choose to drop to the spot and experience the mission in a new way. Leino demonstrated this by dropping into a sniper tower and taking out a pesky sniper - but he was also stuck in the middle of enemies, and had to fight his way out.

Better soldiers get better gear (if only that was really the case).

This isn't the best time to be checking your watch, soldier!

Although not yet implemented in the beta, you can kick enemy soldiers before hitting the ground, apparently a favorite move for the developers. Parachuting isn't easy in MoH: Airborne, as Leino botched all of his 15 or so drops. Even after a lethal-looking landing, though, the player character Travers dusted himself off and kept fightin'.

The pictures we took looked pretty primitive at 1024x768 resolution, minimum details and textures, but good map and graphics design shone through the crude beta exterior. System requirements aren't set, but since it ran well on a laptop, with min settings, it should be good for PCs up to several years old. The final system requirements should be out when a public demo is published, but when that is we don't know.

The game should also be identical on all three platforms, PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, with the difference that enemies may be a bit slower on the consoles to compensate for a gamepad's inaccuracy compared to a mouse. The PC version will, of course, have a selection of graphics settings and higher-quality textures. Release date is set for September for the PC and Xbox 360 versions, followed by the PS3 port in November.

Our "first impressions" preview continues with a gallery of images of the beta...

Page 1: Introduction and GameplayPage 2: Gallery of beta screenshots

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