When I saw a demo of the single-player campaign from EA’s upcoming Medal of Honor reboot last week, it instantly brought back memories of some of the early entries in the franchise, such as Allied Assault and Frontline. Those games were typically characterized by a player character who was a one-man army; he turned the tide of World War II seemingly by himself, and it didn’t usually feel realistic.
So I asked Greg Goodrich, the executive producer of Medal of Honor, if the development team at EA Los Angeles is de-emphasizing the player’s contributions in the new game, and instead putting the gamer’s experience in the context of the greater war effort. Here’s what he told me:
Yeah, a little bit of both, I think. People playing the game [...] want to feel like they make a difference, right? And it comes down to our squadmates — it comes down to [the player] feeling like they’re just part of the ride, or [that] they’re really affecting this story. [...] And in our narrative, absolutely, the player characters make a difference, and they’re a part of that.
That being said, there’s a whole lot of stuff going on and things happening around you that, at times, you feel, “Wow, I have no control over what’s happening,” in a story sense (not physically in a game sense). But in a story sense, that’s how warfare is, right? It’s like, all this stuff is going on, but besides all that: I’m going home, my buddy’s going home, and we’re going to get through this. And so that’s the narrative that we’re telling, and hopefully, that’ll come across.
Certainly, there’s a balance between feeling like you’re part of something bigger than yourself, versus going solo on a Rambo-style rampage. And it sounds like there’s more of a team aspect to Medal of Honor than we might have guessed. For further details on how this will play out, stay tuned for my full preview of Medal of Honor, coming up in a few hours.
