Medal of Honor Pacific Assault E3 2004 Hands-On Impressions

The fight for Guadalcanal was incredibly fierce, a fact more than amply illustrated by the Pacific Assault demo mission that's playable at EA's E3 booth. The lengthy battle for control of the island started out at a new Japanese airfield discovered by a US plane, and while the US Marines quickly took Henderson Airfield, the Japanese soon counterattacked. Putting you in the shoes of US Marine Tommy Conlin, the mission--one of 40 similarly sized levels in the game--focuses on that devastating attack, which has enemy infantry storming your base as Zeros zoom overhead.

Pacific Assault is a technical leap past the previous Medal of Honor games, in terms of both its graphics and the technology used to drive its dynamic gameplay. The squad AI plays a huge part in the game, as squadmates make use of cover and seem to adjust to the tide of battle. And once we got to the airfield itself--where US planes are trying to take off--we got a good look at the dogfight above, which was all dynamic and affected by your actions, like manning a gun emplacement.

Since the battle is quite chaotic, looking around for the icon that designates friendlies also happens to be a way to find your bearings. You'll have lots of motivation to protect your squad, since they provide not only covering fire but also your main source of health. In a turn of realism, you no longer find health power-ups, but instead get healed by the squad medic (or, to a lesser extent, by your own bandages). The shock of getting hit--whether it be by enemy fire, bayonets, or the occasional samurai sword--is visually rendered with slow-motion blurs, and losing all health grays the world out, as you literally reach the verge of death. If your body isn't right in the crossfire and you've kept the medic alive, you even may be revived as you see him leaning over you with a syringe. Though we found that while the revival process takes many long seconds and you can't rely on this too much, the feature might remove some of the need for frequent quick-saving and reloading.

The pace of the mission and the push to save squadmates' lives is frantic, but EA says there will be plenty of variety over the course of the whole game. Other missions will have jeeps and tanks to jump in, and you can choose to either drive or take the gunner's position. Another mission takes place in a US bomber mission, where you can switch between five gunner positions. As for guns, you can only carry four out of the nine weapons at a time, so there will be some opportunity to pick and choose what best fits the situation.

Medal of Honor Pacific Assault is on schedule for release late this year.