Men of Valor E3 2004 Hands-On Impressions

The battle of Hue was definitely a brutal one. We know because we were killed several times trying to wage it today. And that's because we got some hands-on time with the Xbox version of Vivendi Universal Games and 2015’s upcoming Vietnam-based first-person shooter, Men of Valor.

2015 developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Men of Valor is every bit as chaotic and intense an experience as Medal of Honor was. And it’s a game that rewards patience and good tactics. 2015’s John Whitmore once told us that the key is to identify cover and maneuver to it, and he’s not kidding about that. In the gutted and cluttered streets of Hue, we were carved up by Vietcong machine gunners hiding in the windows of nearby buildings.

The best defense against them is the M79 grenade launcher; a high-explosive grenade through the window will usually shut them up. But as it is in war, it's the enemy you don't see that gets you, and we unfortunately couldn't hear the warnings of our computer-controlled teammates over the roar of the show floor.

To be fair, 2015 dropped us in a level normally found midway through the game, so we did not have the luxury of learning the nuances of the game. So the level was nowhere near as difficult as the infamous sniper town level was in Medal of Honor. It’s just that we were inexperienced with the game.

When you’re behind cover, you can lean out to shoot at the Vietcong, or you can take the time to hit the B button to heal up. The way the health system works in Men of Valor is that if you take hits, you’ll start to bleed to death, and your health meter will drop. If you find cover, you can bandage yourself up and stop the bleeding, though your health meter will be lower than before. Not to worry, though, because you can restore your health capacity by recovering canteens and medical kits from bodies of the dead.

2015 then let us play on a jungle level found near the start of the game. Your squad is on patrol in the jungle when you encounter Vietcong coming down the path in the other direction. A running firefight ensues, and you’ll slowly advance against the enemy. At your disposal is your trusty M14 rifle and a slew of fragmentation grenades. Booby traps litter the trail, so you’ll need to keep an eye open for wires, but you can disable the traps if you see them in time.

The control scheme was easy to pick up; after all, it’s patterned after the controls used for Halo. The main difference is that the left trigger is used for what’s called "precision mode"; it zooms in a bit depending on the weapon you’re using, and the targeting reticle shrinks in size, thus making it easier to hit your target. The only bad part about it is that you can’t really move while you’re in precision mode.

Men of Valor is one of the latest Vietnam-based games to head our way, but from what we experienced, it’ll definitely be one of the most intense ones as well. The game will ship for the PC, Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 later this year.