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Medal Of Honor: Vanguard - Hands On Mini Preview
Jon Wilcox
09/03/2007
In preparation for the franchise's next-generation debut, EA sends out a vanguard on PlayStation2 and Wii...
As the wait for Medal of Honor's next-generation debut, Airborne, continues, Electronic Arts will be preparing the way with the upcoming release of Medal of Honor: Vanguard. Heading for PlayStation2 and Wii, Vanguard will be the fourth instalment to hit Sony's current-generation console, and once again throws players into some of the key theatres of World War II.
Despite being the first series to offer an immersive First-Person Shooter experience set during the war (Nazi zombies didn't make Wolfenstein 3D particularly eligible), the franchise has been increasingly over-shadowed by Activision's Call of Duty. So where and when in the war will gamers shipping off to? TVG was sent off on a reconnaissance mission to scout it all out...
Down to Earth
Following the exploits of Frank Keegan, a member of the untested and underestimated 82nd Airborne Division, Vanguard begins with an assault on Sicilian soil. Para-dropping from a shot down plane, players will get a taste of what the next-gen Airborne will offer later in the year, guiding Keegan to the beachhead under relentless enemy fire. Despite this free-falling introduction to the missions based on several of the key operations fought by the Airborne division during the latter part of the war, it's clear that this latest instalment will be all too familiar for Medal of Honor veterans.
Besides a brief aside to Operation Husky in the opening mission, Keegan will also be playing a part in elements of Operation Market Garden and Operation Neptune, culminating with a para-drop miles into Germany as part of Operation Varsity. Each of the missions then split down further into Band of Brothers-style evocatively named chapters, like "A Shallow Grave" or "Haunted", and then it's time to counter the Axis of Evil (1940s style).
The usual assortment of weapons, from the M1 Garand, to the Mk 42, and the heavy-duty Browning Automatic Rifle (also known as the BAR to its friends), of course feature as they have done throughout the franchise, but development team EALA has also thrown in an added extra: the ability to upgrade weapons. Coming in the form of Airborne Assault pouches dotted across the levels from Holland to Sicily, the upgrades will offer the likes of improved sights for the M1, or a larger ammo magazine in the Tommy-Gun sub-machinegun clones. Grenades and German stick grenades of course continue to 'throw' an extra bit of anti-personnel damage, though the inability to pick them up is something of an annoyance...perhaps this could be a hidden upgradeable ability too?
EA Los Angeles has also been working on creating a more realistic atmosphere of war, and it won't take long for players to see which other World War II franchise heavily inspired this aspect in Vanguard - need a clue? Well, another title for the game could have been Medal of Honor: Duty Calls...but somehow we reckon Activision would have raised an eyebrow or two. Adding a further layer to the immersion offered by the PC and Xbox 360 launch title, it's perhaps no surprise that other games like Vanguard will be offering their own adaptations of the function.
After following Keegan's route through Fortress Europe, players will also be able to take part in a Multiplayer mode, though without Network Play capabilities. Up to four-player split-screen gameplay will be on offer in the game, with four regular gametypes (Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, and Scavenger Hunt - which sounds exactly like CTF but with a canister instead) and six maps from varied locations such as Barns, Farms, Town Squares, and the Siegfried Line.
Now this is not the end...
Even with the release of PlayStation3 across Europe, it's likely that the franchise isn't quite finished on PS2, thanks mainly to a Sony rival: Nintendo's Wii. So it's with that in mind that the question has to be, why is Vanguard shaping up to be a lacklustre, and tired experience almost devoid of innovation?
From what this recon mission into the heart of Vanguard is suggesting, the Medal of Honor franchise on PlayStation2/Wii may not evolve much beyond what's already been done since the series began eight years ago. For instance, collecting medals throughout the missions has always been a key part of the series, something that Vanguard continues right from the first drop: land in right place and you'll be awarded your wings. Elsewhere, it seems that Vanguard may be setting players up for yet another experience of running, gunning, and blowing things up, without much diligence to the story, the environments, and a sense of immersion.
Vanguard is shaping up to be a somewhat bland experience, and because it's release is coming within a matter of weeks, it's sadly unlikely that much will be done about it.
There's little doubt that Vanguard is a stepping stone to what the next-generation's Airborne will offer later in 2007, with many of the key features already released for the title present here. There are one or two concerns over the game however, not least the apparently short length of the experience, and the fidelity to the actual events - for instance, the scale of Operation Market Garden doesn't seem to be particularly reproduced -let's hope that Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 owners will get an upgraded (or cultivated?) Market Garden in a few months time.
Stuck with PS2
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