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Medal of Honor: Airborne

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Medal of Honor: Airborne
Developer(s)EALA
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Producer(s)Patrick Gilmore
Designer(s)Rex Dickson
Composer(s)Michael Giacchino
EngineUnreal Engine 3
Platform(s)PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
ReleasePC & Xbox 360:
NA September 4, 2007 (2007-09-04)
EU September 7, 2007 (2007-09-07)
ASIA September 5, 2007
AUS September 6, 2007 (2007-09-06)
PlayStation 3:
NA November 19, 2007
EU November, 2007
ASIA TBA, 2007
AUS TBA, 2007
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Medal of Honor: Airborne is a World War II first-person shooter computer game that is the 11th installment of the critically acclaimed Medal of Honor series. It was developed by EA Los Angeles and has been released on the PC and Xbox 360 in September 2007,[1] and for the PlayStation 3 in November 2007.[2] The game takes place in the European theater of World War II, and is the first in the series to focus on paratrooper activities.

In the single-player mode, the player takes on the role of PFC Boyd Travers, a paratrooper in the US 82nd Airborne Division.[3] Missions include various insertions into Italy, northern France, the Netherlands and Germany, each one beginning with a jump behind enemy lines, and success requiring completion of given objectives. Airborne also features a multiplayer mode available for online play, where users have the choice of fighting for the Allies and parachuting down to the battlefield, or fighting for the Axis and starting on the ground, defending the position from enemy paratroopers.

The game uses a heavily-modified Unreal 3 engine.[4] Airborne employs a nonlinear gameplay style whereby the player can start the game anywhere in the map by directing where they land, as opposed to previous linear FPS games where the start point and direction is already laid out.

Story

In Airborne, the player assumes the role of Private First Class Boyd Travers, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, and later the 17th Airborne Division, of the United States Army during World War II.[3] Travers's insertion is into major engagements in Italy, northern France, the Netherlands and Germany.

File:MOHA plane.png
Each mission begins with a jump from a C-47 plane

The game begins in 1943 with a drop into a small walled village as part of Operation Husky, the costly Allied invasion of Sicily, followed by Operation Avalanche, the invasion of mainland Italy, where Travers is inserted into an operation near the Greek ruins of Paestum, which was used by the Axis as a staging area to counterattack the advancing Allies from the beaches of Salerno. The 82nd Airborne is then airdropped into France during the morning hours of June 6, 1944 as part of Operation Overlord, in which Travers is part of the paratrooper force dropped inland the night before the Normandy beach invasion to clear the infantry's path into France. The player is able to see the Utah Beach landings while in the air.[5] Boyd Travers then drops into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden, General Montgomery's failed plan to secure routes through Holland enabling a push into Germany. Largely featured is the partly destroyed city of Nijmegen and the attempt to secure the bridge over the Waal River for the Allies.[5] The game's finale takes place during Operation Varsity, which sees Travers parachuting alongside 30,000 soldiers into Germany in the single largest military airdrop in history. A limited training mission is available at the beginning of the game, which takes place in Tunisia, during Operation Torch.[6]

Originally, the player was to have a second role as pathfinder Eddie La Point, resulting in a jump into each mission twice as the two different characters, and having different objectives.[4] The pathfinders dropped around an hour before the bulk of the airborne force, and had the job of marking the drop zone, setting up the Eureka transponding device guiding the C-47 pilots, and finding any areas of opportunity in the vicinity. As development of the game progressed, it became evident that splitting up the missions wasn’t working, and the decision was made to merge some of the pathfinder objectives into the current missions, and use the single character of Boyd Travers.[7]

Gameplay

The main gameplay element of Airborne is the jump. At the start of each mission, the player begins in a C-47 along with fellow soldiers preparing to drop. The team then jumps out of the plane and parachutes down to the ground, marking the beginning of the mission.[4] During the drop the player is able to freely control where in the field of battle they land; pre-determined drop zones are marked with a green flare, where the player will find their allies and supplies, however they can also choose to land elsewhere, which affects the way the game is played. For example, the player could land near the enemy stronghold and come up against heavy opposing firepower, or land on the rooftops with a sniper rifle and choose a stealthy approach to the mission. This free-roaming experience based on unlimited choice of landing spots offers infinite ways of gameplay, ensuring no two matches are alike.[4] Additionally, unlike previous scripted first-person shooters, the missions in Airborne have no specific start or end point. As the player can land anywhere in the map, beginning the mission where they choose, they can complete the given objectives in any order they wish.[4] The rate at which players become ready for battle depends on their skill at hitting the ground; a poor landing results in notification of a "botched landing", with the player having to spare a few seconds to regain composure. Players can also instantly kill an enemy soldier if they land on them.[8]

File:MOHA drop.png
Players can choose where in the map they land by steering their parachute

Airborne uses a health regeneration system similar to one used in Pariah where the health status bar is split into four quarters. If a whole quarter of health is lost, a health pack is needed to replenish it, although if the quarter is not entirely lost it will slowly refill if the player finds cover and rests for a few seconds.[7] The game also has an unlimited sprinting ability where the player can speed up, however they will not be able to shoot while sprinting. Like other more recent FPS games, Airborne makes use of iron sights, where the player can improve their accuracy by looking down the sights of the weapon. The game's crosshair is dynamic where it will grow larger while the player is running, indicating that firing is less accurate while on the move.[8]

The Airborne development team originally planned for drivable vehicles to be available, and EA went as far as signing a deal with Jeep to use their vehicles in game. However it was felt that they didn't fit well into the design of the game, and that their inclusion would detract resources from other priority game elements, most notably the main focus of the drop.[7]

Weapons

A wide range of weapons is available in Airborne. Players can choose from allied weapons including the M1 Garand rifle, Springfield M1903A4 sniper rifle, Thompson submachine gun, M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, M12 Combat Shotgun, M1911 pistol, Mk 2 hand grenade, and German weapons such as the Karabiner 98k rifle, Gewehr 43 sniper rifle, MP40 submachine gun, Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle, Mauser C96 pistol, Panzerschreck, and Stielhandgranate.[9] Grenades can be kicked away, and if one explodes too close, the player experiences blurred vision and shellshock.[7]

Airborne uses a weapon upgrade system, whereby the player is awarded with add-ons to their selected weapon as they become proficient with it. The player receives commendations for special achievements in the field of battle, such as a "Marksman" award for gaining a large number of kills, and a "Sniper" award for proficiency with a sniper rifle,[10] and with them come the weapon upgrades.[11] This feature is based on the idea that not every weapon in World War II was the same as every other one, soldiers had a wide variety of field modifications and upgrades that they could apply to them. Each weapon in the game has three upgrades, for example, the Thompson SMG can have a forward pistol grip added which stabilizes the weapon, then a Cutts compensator can be put on which ejects the muzzle gas upwards, largely eliminating muzzle rise, and finally a larger magazine is available bringing the amount of bullets per clip from 30 to 50.[11][12] A notification appears each time a headshot is performed, the player gains a number of kills in rapid succession, or performs a melee kill, all of which earns the player reward points.[7]

In multiplayer mode, players have the ability of a second primary weapon, picked up from a dead teammate or enemy player.[8]

Multiplayer

Airborne features a multiplayer mode for online play. Users can play as either the Allies or the Axis on six multiplayer maps, three of which have been adapted from the single player aspect of the game: Operation Husky, Operation Avalanche, and Operation Neptune. The remaining three maps are all adaptations of multiplayer maps from a previous Medal of Honor title, Allied Assault. While the basic design and layout of the maps are the same, they have been extended to make them larger, and new routes or points of access have been made to further balance the two teams. These maps are Destroyed Village, Remagen and The Hunt.[9]

Currently there are three gamemodes in Airborne. The first is "airborne teammatch" where the Axis must defend against the Allies who are dropping in from the sky. The second is "regular teammatch", in which the Allies spawn on the ground instead of jumping from a C-47. In both teammatch modes, the side that gains the most kills after a specified time or frag limit wins. The third gametype is an objective-based mode where players must capture three neutral flags, similar to the main gamemode of Battlefield 2. The middle flag requires two soldiers to be near it, in order to capture it.[13] The winning team is the one who manages to control the most flags the longest, after a set period of time. There has been some criticism in the MOH community for the lack of a classic non-respawning "objective" gametype, of which many clans and competitive ladders of Allied Assault are based around.[14] While EA has not commented specifically on this gametype, it has been said that all concerns within the community are noticed and those issues will be dealt with as of the game's release or with a patch.[15]

Registration of an EA account is required in order to play online.[16] Server admins will have the ability to set their servers as ranked or unranked, however at release only unranked will be available.[17] The maximum number of players per server is 12 for the Xbox 360 and for PC listen servers, for dedicated servers the number is expected to be much higher, however has not yet been determined.[18] More maps and gametypes have been slated for addition via downloadable content, although a date is unknown.[18]

Anti-cheat

In an attempt to curb cheating in the multiplayer mode of the game, EA has stated that Punkbuster will be included with Airborne on release, and that they were investigating providing hooks for DMW as well.[9]

Technical

Development

Development of Airborne started in late 2004[19] when the game designers wanted a new game that would "really revolutionize the Medal of Honor scene".[20] The idea of a paratrooper-based gameplay came up and as such a free-roaming environment was needed, which became the key focus of the game. Each mission starts with a jump and the developers wanted to make the experience as nonlinear as possible, with no starting points and as such the scenario unfolding in a different way each time, as opposed to previous World War II FPS games where there is a set starting and end point.[11]

The development team had their own historical advisor, who is a leading expert on the Airborne forces and weapons of World War II, ensuring historical accuracy and authenticity.[11] Each audio sound in the game was recorded from hundreds of real WWII-era artifacts, including real weapons, tanks, items, and one of the last remaining airworthy C-47s in the world.[21] The audio element of Airborne is immensly detailed, even going as far as recording two sets of sounds of boots stepping across different surfaces, one for American boots and another for German boots.[22]

Allies about to advance on an Italian position in Operation Husky

Airborne was developed in close consultation with the Medal of Honor community, via forums and summits.[23] Certain community leaders who run Airborne fan-sites were invited to a multiplayer preview summit in July 2007, and many problems were identified that would hamper the game's popularity within the MOH community, the most important ones being lack of a dedicated server and issues with mouse lag and low frame rate. As a result of the summit, the most critical issues were able to be fixed in time for the game's release, and the other issues in time for the first patch. [9]

A single-player demo was released on August 23, 2007, featuring Operation Husky, and is available for Internet download.[24]

Game engine

Main article: Unreal engine

Airborne uses a heavily modified Unreal 3 engine. The game's core development was started with EA's acquired Renderware engine, but it made the switch to the Unreal 3 engine in early 2006 which delayed the game by over a year.[25] The engine was specifically designed for DirectX 9 and 10 PCs, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, and supports many rendering techniques utilized within the advanced graphics capabilities of Airborne, including HDRR, per-pixel lighting and dynamic shadows.

AI awareness

Because of the non-linear gameplay style of Airborne, the developers had to build an entirely new artificial intelligence system to deal with the many ways the player can interact with or approach the computer-controlled allied and enemy soldiers (NPCs), and for them to react to the situation accordingly.[26] With "Affordance A.I.", the characters have an awareness of enemy approach patterns, and also features of the terrain and urban infrastructure that provide a tactical advantage, such as cover, high ground and open doorways. This allows AI characters to take intelligent combat actions based on their surroundings, as opposed to the scripted movements of previous linear FPS games.[26]

Another break from FPS conventions is that Airborne does not respawn an infinite number of enemies, allowing the player to clear out and hold a position to stop enemies from appearing. However this can also work as a disadvantage, as failure to keep hold of an area due to limited backup or idleness can give enemy soldiers a chance to reclaim their previous position, nullifying the progress the player has made.[4]

Airborne uses two systems to guide the physical and emotional reactions of the AI characters to what is happening around them. "E-cap" (emotion capture) is used to create more human-like emotions on the characters' faces by blending textures to give the appearance of facial expressions, wrinkles and tension.[11] A "procedural awareness system" gives every character an emotional state such as defensive, nervous, hysterical, etc,[11] and also an awareness of their surroundings and other NPCs, for example an AI soldier that started to move forward would jump back for cover if an ally next to them was shot.[27]

Demo

The demo of the game takes place after the tutorial in North Africa and during the Allied invasion of Sicily, Operation Husky. The level is titled Operation Infinite Mischief after a quote by Benjamin Franklin, which is shown at the start of the level.

The player character, Boyd Travers, controlling only the ability of looking, starts in a C-47 transport plane that suffers AA shots from both the Axis defenders of Sicily and from the Western Allied naval forces commencing the invasion of the Italian island. The shots kill the Commanding Officer, mortally wound another Paratrooper, and heavily damages the plane, which forces the able paratroopers to jump. Fortunately, the Airborne stick was over it's intended target: the Italian village of Adanti.

The player assumes control of movement after the shots cripple the C-47, and if forced to move to the door and jump (or get pushed) out of the plane. From there, the player can control where Travers lands, which alters the series of events. After landing, the player is tasked with destroying four AA guns that are based in Adanti.

Unlike most WWII games (especially those in Europe), the Germans are not the main threat in the demo. Instead, the player faces Benito Mussolini's Blackshirt militia. At this point, the player engages in a series of running battles to fight towards the AA guns, opposed by the Blackshirts and aided by his fellow Paratroopers. In these battles, the player can "upgrade" the weapons he uses by killing a number militiamen he encounters with a certain weapon, at which point it receives an upgrade that improves it's performance, with each weapon being capable of being upgraded up to three times.

After a series of bloody fights that eventually wipe the Blackshirt garrison out and the demolition of all three AA guns, Travers receives orders to reinforce a pinned-down unit on the outskirts of town.

When he reaches the area, a cutscene plays, showing the Americans pinned down by a German machine gun emplacement (the only German seen in the demo), the Sergeant warns the player that "Unlike the Eye-Ties," the Germans are dangerous. At the end of the warning, the demo ends.

Release and distribution

Airborne was first announced on May 8, 2006. The release date for all three gaming platforms was originally announced as August 28, 2007,[3] however the PlayStation 3 release was pushed back in July 2007 three months later to November, without any explanation from EA.[28] Later in the month the PC and Xbox 360 versions were also delayed, this time however by only a week to September 4, 2007, with the reason stated as "more time for modifications and improvements".[1]

Expansions and modifications

Patches

The developers have stated that a patch will be available either on or shortly after the game's release. If problems that were brought up during the multiplayer community summit were not fixed in time for the release, EA has said that they will be as of the first patch.[9]

Third-party mods

Airborne is expected to become a heavily modded and customized game, as EA has expressed a desire to make the game extremely mod-friendly.[29] The Unreal 3 engine is known for being easy to adapt, and after community dissatisfaction at the lack of support for Pacific Assault, the developers are looking to enable users of the game to create a wide variety of mods to suit their needs. An SDK/MDK will be released with the game, available as a download from EA's website. Additionally, tools will be provided to help export/import objects in various 3D editing programs.[30]

Soundtrack

Main article: Medal of Honor: Airborne (soundtrack)

All the in-game musical scores and tracks on the Medal of Honor: Airborne soundtrack were composed by the award-winning Michael Giacchino, who also composed scores for some of the previous Medal of Honor games, including the main theme for the whole series.[31] The Airborne soundtrack has been said to be based on the Medal of Honor themes of the past, but "brings a dark uncertainty that communicates the ominous journey of the first US Airborne combat troops".[32]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "MOH: Airborne Release Date Pushed Back" (htm). Planet Medal of Honor (2007-08-02).
  2. ^ "Medal of Honor: Airborne Game Profile" (htm). IGN (2007-08-07).
  3. ^ a b c "MoH Airborne Announced!" (htm). EA Games (2006-05-08).
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Medal of Honor: Airborne First Look" (htm). GameSpot (2006-10-28).
  5. ^ a b "Medal of Honor: Airborne Interview" (htm). IGN (2007-05-16).
  6. ^ "Airborne Airdrops: Ask JPaq #6" (htm). EA Games (2007-04-06).
  7. ^ a b c d e "MOH: Airborne Complete Hands-On Preview" (htm). Planet Medal of Honor (2007-06-01).
  8. ^ a b c "Developer Walkthrough Part 1" (flash video). Gametrailers.com (2007-08-02).
  9. ^ a b c d e "Medal Of Honor Airborne - Multiplayer Review" (htm). After-Hourz Gaming Network (2007-08-01).
  10. ^ "Nighttime Warfare Gameplay Trailer" (flash video). Gametrailers.com (2007-08-02).
  11. ^ a b c d e f "Patrick Gilmore interview by Gamereactor" (flash video). Gamereactor.tv (2007-05-16).
  12. ^ "Multiplayer Objective Airborne Gameplay Trailer" (flash video). Gametrailers.com (2007-08-02).
  13. ^ "Multiplayer Objective Airborne Gameplay" (flash video). Gametrailers.com (2007-08-02).
  14. ^ "EA Forums - objective/s&d ?????????" (htm). (2007-08-07).
  15. ^ "Regarding the concerns everyone has - Read this!" (htm). EA Games (2007-08-07).
  16. ^ "Airborne Multi-Player Summit Preview" (htm). Worm's World (2007-08-01).
  17. ^ "Total Airborne's Multiplayer Summit Reactions" (htm). Total Airborne (2007-08-01).
  18. ^ a b "Preview: Medal of Honor: Airborne" (htm). Gamepro (2007-08-06).
  19. ^ "Medal of Honor Airborne - but not on PC" (htm). Playfuls.com (2005-06-16).
  20. ^ "E3 2007 Battlefield Interview with Rex Dickson" (flash video). Gametrailers.com (2007-07-12).
  21. ^ "Airborne Airdrops: C-47 Audio Capture" (flash video). EA Games (2007-03-27).
  22. ^ "Airborne Airdrops: Interview with Paul Lackey" (htm). EA Games (2007-07-06).
  23. ^ "BlackHat's Official Airborne FAQ Thread" (htm). EA Games (2007-04-23).
  24. ^ "Medal of Honor Airborne Demo" (htm). EA Games (2007-08-15).
  25. ^ "Medal Of Honor, From Renderware To Unreal Engine" (htm). GameSetWatch (2006-11-25).
  26. ^ a b "Executive Producer Interview" (htm). Xbox.com (2007-07-20).
  27. ^ "Trailer Analysis - Part 4: Man down" (htm). FPS Game Forums (2007-04-26).
  28. ^ "PS3 MOH: Airborne grounded until November" (htm). GameSpot (2007-07-05).
  29. ^ "Airborne - The next big WWII FPS?" (htm). Gaming With Attitude (2007-07-07).
  30. ^ "Medal of Honor Airborne - Summit Two" (htm). Total Medal of Honor Airborne (2007-05-25).
  31. ^ "EA Announces Michael Giacchino as Lead Composer for MoHA" (htm). EA Games (2007-07-03).
  32. ^ "Medal of Honor Airborne Score Available Now!" (htm). EA Games (2007-07-31).
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