- Xbox ››
- Action ››
- Men of Valor
Men of Valor
- September 10, 2004 16:53 PM PST
- Email this!
A platoon of first-person shooters set in Vietnam is emerging from the bush, but Men of Valor takes point, leading the way for the rest of the grunts.
As the developer of one of the landmarks in the Medal of Honor series, Allied Assault, 2015 has earned a place in the spotlight as it crafts its console debut, Men of Valor for the Xbox. But after the Vietnam-based game was delayed from February to October, will it still deliver the crackling tension and razor-sharp warfare that its pedigree would lead you to expect? Scouting the terrain in this first-ever hands-on preview provides some reliable intel on how battle-ready Men of Valor will be when showtime comes.
Out of the Bush?in a Body Bag!
When you think about combat in Vietnam, the immediate mental picture is a jungle slog fraught with terrifying ambushes. Men of Valor?s preview version viscerally captures that with sleekly implemented foliage?not only can you use vegetation for cover, but the Viet Cong employs it better than you, providing heart-stopping moments where you?re suddenly attacked by an enemy you can?t see. This style of gameplay will be the core of the game?s appeal?a fresh kind of battle where you have to take cover, peer ahead, then rush to the next spot as your squad moves around you. As in Call of Duty, the missions flow more organically, too?they?re more about immersing you in a situation than routing you from Point A to B. It?s certainly not revolutionary gameplay, especially because Valor won?t provide you with a limitless environment?at times, it?s distressingly easy to find the invisible-wall boundaries. But it does excel at creating the illusion of open space, and between that and the chance to deploy the tactics of this war, Valor should provide an original, exciting experience. Superb multiplayer support builds in plenty of depth, too. Players can tackle missions cooperatively via split-screen or over Xbox Live, while deathmatches, objective-based campaigns, capture the flag, and more provide plenty of other firepower (2015 is still finalizing the number of players it will support).
Valor also bravely tackles the racial issues and other hot buttons of this war. African-American soldiers?including Dean Shepard, the main character whom you play as?discuss the crap they have to put up with at the hands of white soldiers in very colorful language. Later, a hot-headed squad mate, angered by the loss of a friend, argues that innocent villagers should be slaughtered, a crime that your lieutenant emphatically squelches. Valor never descends into the horror and madness of such situations, but it doesn?t shy away from exploring them in a thoughtful, frank manner, and it?s downright cool to see a video game tackling that kind of subject matter with intelligence and maturity.
Tag ?Em and Bag ?Em
Valor packs plenty of variety for its hump across the troubled Vietnam landscape. The game?s missions are set from 1965?1968 in Da Nang, the Iron Triangle, Khe Sanh, and during the Tet Offensive. Along with tropical forests, you?ll traverse rice paddies and city streets, stalk the Viet Cong in hamlets, man chopper-mounted turrets, crawl through tunnel systems, and even pop smoke to call in artillery strikes or napalm. Lethal period weapons like the M-79 grenade launcher are a blast to use in a firefight, and the VC fights back with tough-to-spot traps and ambushes.
An innovative system for handling health injects another tactical element into the fray. When you?re first injured, you start bleeding. If you take cover and bandage your wound (by holding the B button), you?re momentarily out of the fight, but you often can heal a good amount of the damage. Similarly, searching corpses takes some time, so you have to decide whether you need ammo or a medkit enough to be briefly exposed while you rummage. That?s good, smart game design, and Valor?s controls also employ well-tuned methods for precise aiming, leaning, and crouching that let you smoothly use cover.
A Grunt Can Take Anything
Visually, Valor?s lush vegetation is the star as you can slip between foliage without encountering the usual blocky pixels. The graphics aren?t in the same league as those of heavyweights like The Chronicles of Riddick, but they should be very solid. Hopefully, 2015 will have time to tune up the currently jerky, spastic animations and the less-polished non-jungle environments. The A.I. was also still clearly a work-in-progress, and it wasn?t yet possible to gauge how this crucial element will perform under fire. Don?t be stunned, though, if Valor slips a bit past October?quality is better than punctuality.
The ingredients are all in place for one hell of a war game. As long as the right tweaks to the graphics and A.I. are implemented, Valor should be one of the fall?s more absorbing firefights.
