MEDAL OF HONOR
This will be part of a series of reviews concerning video games, video game consoles, movies and TV shows. Try to imagine me as a kinder, gentler version of the Angry Video Game Nerd -with apologies to James Rolfe.
When the movie Saving Private Ryan hit the big screen in 1998, it paved the way for First Person Shooter games involving World War Two for the Playstation and Playstation 2 consoles.
Electronic Arts came out with Medal of Honor for the Playstation. The video game was actually created by Steven Spielberg, the same man who made the movie Saving Private Ryan. Captain Dale Dye, United States Marine Corp (retired) was the military technical adviser for the movie. He also provided technical advice in the making of the video game. The reason was that he wanted to apply as much authenticity to detail into the game.
The video game pits the player as an allied agent operating deep inside enemy occupied territory in Europe. The bad guys are the Nazis. You pretty much operate like a lone wolf and take on the Nazis by yourself. Aside from the weapons on you, you also make use of the weapons that you “liberated” from the Nazis you killed along the way. Three of my favorites are where you sneak up from behind and double-tap (shoot a handgun with a silencer) at a Nazi in the back of the head, sniping at the Nazis with a headshot, and cutting scores of them down with a machine gun. You could almost be like Rambo.
Medal of Honor was revolutionary, compared to 8-bit and 16-bit video games. The video game was a full-blown production. Actors were actually employed to do voice-overs, just like in a cartoon show. The sound-effects were actually recordings of authentic firearms at the rifle range. Instead of electronic music, a full-blown music soundtrack that is just like a TV show or movie. This is what launched the career of composer Michael Giacchino. This probably explains why the cost of making video games has reached the 10 million dollar level, which led to the $70 price tag per video game.
Despite this, there was still compromise and goofs. Medal of Honor was no exception. Among the compromise was what was known as the cheat mode. This is where you are on invincible mode: despite being shot at by the Nazis, you are bullet-proof a’la Terminator style. Actual surviving World War Two veterans would frown at this. Not going on cheat mode is more realistic. The video game had freely copied ideas from war movie (Where Eagles Dare is one good example that comes to mind).
Since its debut, Medal of Honor was a big success and had paved the way for the sequel Medal of Honor: Underground, where you play a female operative (no relation to Lara Croft) in the French underground and you are fighting the Germans, almost by yourself. By that time, the Playstation 2 would make its debut.
Following the debut of the Playstation 2, a new Medal of Honor video game would debut and be titled Medal of Honor Frontline. Arguably the best feature was the first two levels involving D-Day. The first level was literally ripped out of the D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan. It was literally like being in the movie -minus Tom Hanks. In the second level is where you do close-quarter combat with the Germans inside a bunker. The third level finds you doing street-to-street fighting with the 101st against the Germans, just like in the movie. The rest of the game play levels are like the original Playstation games. Medal of Honor Frontline would be followed by Medal of Honor Rising Sun.
Medal of Honor Rising Sun takes place in the Pacific. The first two levels take place during the attack at Pearl Harbor. This is more authentic than that ridiculous movie with Ben Affleck. The third level takes place in the Philippines (Bataan and Corregidor). The only goof is that the American soldier (you, the player) is using an M1 Garand. In the real war, American troops in the Philippines on December 1941 were mostly armed with Springfield 1903 bolt-action rifles. M1 Garands were not available then. The video game is more combat than espionage like the first Medal of Honor game. The video game freely copied ideas from such war movies as Too Late the Hero, Bridge on the River Kwai, and Attack Force Z. Since then, more video game sequels followed to continue the now established Medal of Honor franchise.
What Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts may not have been aware of was that the Medal of Honor franchise has become a blue-print for video games from other companies. The most notable are Call of Duty (Activision) and Brothers in Arms (Ubisoft).
Sample video game clips:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5F78A219E9965B34
Sample video game clips:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=65F4907EA6449B4D
Sample video game clips:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=00E126D6E9D06D64
Sample video game clips:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CE3FD04F3A3FBCF1
