2015 is a household name when it comes to war shooters. Their Medal of Honor series is world renowned for its intricate scripted sequences, attention to detail, and who could forget those missions filled to the brim with action. So what game could possibly follow the perfect World War II shooter? One about the next major American war, of course! 2015 is currently in the final stages of melting their famous game play with a healthy dose of dense jungles and close squad-based combat to create the perfect depiction of the Vietnam War branded under the intriguing label: Men of Valor.
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| Marines in a rice paddy |
Men of Valor follows Dean Sheppard, a young African-American, who arrives in Vietnam just as America announces their formal commitment to combat and stays with him until the battle for Hue at the climax of the Tet Offensive in 1969. In total the game will take about twenty hours to finish. In those twenty hours, you’ll follow Dean through many of the main battles of the war. The game makes certain to showcase all of the diverse battlefields on which the war was really fought - dense jungles, orchards, rice paddies, and abandoned rubber plantations.
The battles of World War II were fought with a tremendous amount of people, vehicles, and supplies. Even with extreme downsizing, the feel of a real World War II battle just could not be reached in a computer game. In contrast, the Vietnam War was fought mainly by small squads. This enables 2015 to attain even more realism then they could have in Medal of Honor. 2015 has done their homework on how squads meshed together, you'll be interacting with your squad like real Marines did and not how some game programmer envisions how they did.
If you've ever talked to a Vietnam veteran, you can sense the amount of camaraderie and respect they have for the other soldiers in their unit. 2015 has devoted a large part of the game's development to try and bring about this type of camaraderie between you and your computer controlled team members. Each squad mate has their own unique voice and behavior; they aren't just clones that feel impersonal. By the end of the game, 2015 hopes that you'll be treating your squad mates like an old buddy and planning your squad's reunion as you watch the ending credits go by. While they are extremely capable Marines, you will still need to issue general orders to your squad. This is done through an easy to use orders menu which enables you to change how your squad acts based on the situation. This lets you decide how a mission gets accomplished, and not the bots.
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| I'd like that to go, please. |
The enemy in Men of Valor are controlled by two different systems to present you with the most fun and realistic game possible. The first system relies heavily on scripting. It handles how the enemy acts before combat; things like unit formation and map movement. The next system kicks in once you encounter an enemy. It is an open-ended combat system which lets the AI react with some brains; this system is the one that would decide which weapon the enemy should use. Both of these systems are based on the strict military doctrine that was drilled into the soldiers by the North Vietnamese. The skill of the enemy is also based on where they came from; you won't see a rag-tag group of guerrillas fighting like the highly trained North Vietnamese.