Men of Valor E3 2004 Preshow Impressions

Lately, there've been a number of first-person shooters based on the Vietnam War. But Men of Valor, the upcoming shooter from 2015 (the acclaimed developer of Medal of Honor Allied Assault) promises to be the grittiest and most visceral one yet. No "T" ratings here. This one's headed straight for "M" territory, and it's not for the faint of heart. We recently got a chance to see a 20-minute sequence of unedited gameplay footage at a recent Vivendi Universal pre-E3 event and also took the opportunity to play the game's work-in-progress multiplayer modes. We came away convinced that Men of Valor is definitely on track to distinguish itself from all the other military-themed shooters out there. This one looks like it'll offer a decidedly less-sanitary depiction of war than most other such shooters.

Men of Valor will reportedly feature at least 20 solid hours of gameplay, so we merely got to see a fraction of it. However, 20 minutes of gameplay is enough to give you a good impression. Though it still looked relatively unpolished, due to artificial intelligence, scripting issues, and some other rough edges, Men of Valor did already look solid, for the most part. We specifically got to see some nonstop action sequences set in three separate, consecutive maps. These sequences took place not in the lush jungles typically associated with the Vietnam War but in dry, heavily bombarded, hilly terrain...which is perfect for choke points and deadly full-on assaults. Operation Starlight was the first major combat of the Vietnam War. Water-landing craft and helicopters supported by naval fire, air support, and artillery were deployed against the Vietcong enemy, resulting in two weeks of brutal fighting and 10 VC casualties for every downed ally. It was not a pretty picture, but it's a fittingly chaotic and dangerous one for a first-person shooter.

The core gameplay of Men of Valor looks to be reminiscent of other war-themed shooters. You can only carry a limited amount of weapons; you can only search enemy bodies for ammo and health power-ups (which come in the form of water canteens, like in the Medal of Honor games); and you must fire your weapons in short, controlled bursts to stand a better chance of hitting your mark. Enemies can and will attack from all directions, and while you'll, fortunately, have some friendly troops to back you up, you'll ultimately have to fend for yourself and perform a lot of the heroics personally.

In the single-player campaign, you'll play as one soldier from a squad, and you'll be charged with helping your comrades through many bloody, seemingly hopeless battles. The missions are heavily scripted and look intense, and 2015 insists that there will not just be one or two such set pieces, but the whole game will play at a fever pitch. You'll see your friends sometimes fall to enemy fire, resulting in considerable drama rather than the sort of dismissive behavior typical of squad-based shooters. And in between missions, you'll get to hear the correspondence between the main character, an inner-city African-American, and his troubled family. It's a strange, stark juxtaposition of harrowing action and sentiment, and from what we saw of it, the technique works.

Men of Valor does not hesitate to portray the chaos of battle and presents lots of authentic graphical and audio effects, including a lot of foul language on behalf of the friendly GIs. At first, the cussing is rather jarring, since it's uncommon in other first-person shooters. Over time, though, we found the dialogue in Men of Valor to be quite convincing. It is rather shocking, though. If you've ever felt like war-themed shooters, like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor Allied Assault, were a bit too tame, you will probably find Men of Valor to be a refreshing change of pace.

The single-player demo we saw of Men of Valor was rather more impressive than the multiplayer portion that we actually got to try. There will be both deathmatch and objective-based multiplayer modes in the game, and we had a brief stint with each of them. The action was pretty predictable in both multiplayer modes, and both were still in need of tuning. The multiplayer seems like it could be quite interesting in the end, though, what with seven different selectable character classes per side. However, what we played of the multiplayer indicated that there's much work left to be done.

There's still a good amount of time left for Men of Valor to gain that layer of polish that distinguishes the best action games. The game is slated to ship in October for the Xbox, and a PC version will eventually follow suit, apparently with improved multiplayer options and additional content. Men of Valor may still need more time in the oven, but we're already confident that it'll be a game that military buffs will definitely want to look out for.