Men of Valor Q&A

A few weeks ago, Sierra revealed that the creators of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault were working on a Vietnam-era first-person action game that will be released for Xbox and PC sometime in 2004. Men of Valor: Vietnam promises to have the same sort of intense, scripted sequences that made Allied Assault's single-player missions so memorable, but there's lots that's new in Men of Valor, including AI squadmates that will back you up in the middle of fierce jungle firefights. The campaign will also be fully playable in a cooperative multiplayer mode, and, the Xbox version will feature full Xbox Live support for both co-op and competitive play.

We recently spoke with John Whitmore, 2015's director of development, to get all the details on the game.

GameSpot: What's it like to switch gears from the Medal of Honor WWII setting and do a historical Vietnam game?

John Whitmore: 2015 developed some expertise in handling first-person gameplay in a historical setting during the production of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. WWII is an exciting era, but the company felt that it was best to stake out some new territory for the next game while still providing fans with the kind of experience they expect from 2015. At the time, Vietnam had not been visited by computer games with the level of technology that is currently possible, and we felt that the more-modern weapons, darker tone, and resonant atmosphere of the Vietnam War were perfect elements for our next title.

GS: What part of the Vietnam War will the game cover? Will there be any historical battle locations?

JW: The game begins at the start of major American ground force commitments in 1965 and continues through the Tet Offensive of 1968. We did a ton of research before designing the levels, and every single mission in the game is based on an actual historical encounter.

GS: Describe the player's role in the single-player campaign. What will the player's rank and unit be?

JW: The player begins as a private in the USMC, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines. For purposes of gameplay and story, he moves around a bit between units to participate in all the major action of the period. As he survives battles, he is promoted and given additional responsibilities. Overall, the player is portrayed as an ordinary guy who is called upon to do his duty in difficult circumstances. As he plays the game, he will find himself committing acts of selfless bravery, protecting his comrades and accomplishing the objectives he is assigned to, but he's no superhero. His main motivation is to see to it that he and his friends make it through their tour alive.

GS: How do you plan to balance the potentially serious tone of the Vietnam setting with the gameplay? How would you compare the pacing and style of the gameplay with that of Allied Assault?

JW: We are very respectful of the conflict and are treating the game with great seriousness. War can be exciting and compelling when portrayed on the computer screen, but in actuality it is bloody, terrifying, and insane. We are aiming to create an impression of the confusion and intensity that result from a sudden firefight that includes clever and aggressive enemy AIs, friendly AIs that are genuinely concerned about their own safety, and plenty of scripted events that depict how suddenly plans can go wrong when confronted by enemy action. Overall, the game as it is developing right now is very action-packed and a bit more intense than Allied Assault, but the AI is more flexible and doesn't kill the player deterministically. Cover and concealment are more important in the jungle than they were in Allied Assault, and firing wildly out in the open will definitely not lead to success. I think you'll see a definite advance in the authenticity of the combat experience and a more player-friendly ramping of difficulty than in Allied Assault.

Mud and Foxholes

GS: There's still quite a bit of controversy surrounding the Vietnam War. How are you dealing with that?

JW: 2015 believes that games should make the player feel heroic, noble, and powerful. Portrayals of Vietnam in other media have tended to focus more on the foolishness, cowardice, or criminality shown by a few of the soldiers during the conflict, but Men of Valor: Vietnam intends to focus on the incredible bravery, heroism, and self-sacrifice shown by most of the soldiers who served their country during the war. There's no doubt that the war itself remains controversial, and it's quite reasonable to doubt now if it even should have been undertaken by us, but I think America is mature enough at this point to recognize and celebrate the valor of those who fought in Vietnam, regardless of individual assessments of its necessity.

A lot of the story in the game is conveyed via personal letters that the player writes and receives while in Vietnam. Often the player will hear how certain aspects of the war are being portrayed back home, and will see how they conflict with his understanding of how the war is progressing. Period music and chatter between veteran comrades and newly arrived recruits will also highlight the tension and ambivalence of the populace during the war.

GS: Infantry combat in Vietnam depended a lot on squad tactics. Will the player give commands to AI squadmates or follow a superior's orders?

JW: Squadmates are a crucial part of the game, and we are aiming to make them the most humanlike AIs yet seen in a first-person shooter. We think that the player will quickly form an emotional attachment to them, and really care if they survive the mission. The sense of camaraderie under fire is one of the main themes of Men of Valor.

The player will usually be in command of his squad, and he will be able to issue orders during gameplay with a very simple interface. He will be able to give his comrades general orders or issue fairly specific orders to individual squadmates. The squadmates are smart enough not to require the player's attention, but their effectiveness can be greatly increased if the player commands them well. Often, the player will find that intelligent tactical use of his squadmates will make an objective much easier to accomplish.

GS: Will there be there any controllable vehicles or a way to call in air support?

JW: The player will ride in a number of vehicles and man their associated weapons during combat. M113 armored personnel carriers, UH-1 helicopters, jeeps, and even motorcycles are featured. In co-op and multiplayer, drivable vehicles should be great fun.

Air and artillery support were key aspects of combat in Vietnam, and we will represent them fully. The player will be able to call in strikes on strongly fortified positions or on dense jungle areas he would rather not have to fight through. Mortars, heavy artillery, and of course napalm will be included.

GS: Tell us about the game's graphics. Have you modified the Unreal engine in any particular ways?

JW: The major graphical challenge we faced at the start of the project was coming up with efficient ways to build dense natural environments. Jungles are difficult to represent in a game--they require a lot of objects and tons of polygons, and they can be very hard to light. We spent the first few months refining techniques and approaches to our jungle environments, and we're still not finished, but I think we have managed raise the bar in terms of believable and graphically interesting jungles.

We've been forced to do a lot to the underlying technology to make it display vegetation well, and to get it to run well on the Xbox. Some alterations are obvious--pixel and vertex shaders, bump maps, and the like. Others we're keeping secret for the time being. 2015's previous experience in working with licensed technology has come in handy, allowing us to quickly pinpoint the many deficiencies in the underlying technology.

GS: Are there particular visual effects or locations that you think are especially impressive?

JW: Some of the blasted and bombed-out areas in the game are particularly cool, I think. It's one thing to examine the jungles of Vietnam today and try to replicate their look, but it's quite another to develop an accurate look for the Vietnam of 1965, which had experienced decades of continuous war. Moving through an area that has just been hit by an artillery strike--with cratered mud, blasted trees, and burned vegetation--is pretty spooky.

Blood and Jungles

GS: Some were disappointed that Allied Assault didn't show blood on fallen soldiers. What's your approach for blood and gore graphics in the new game? Will you be using the Unreal engine's rag-doll animations?

JW: Characters bleed when wounded in Men of Valor. We didn't believe that we could portray a properly dark and edgy tone for the Vietnam War if the characters didn't have realistic responses to wounds. We're not loading up on the gore for the sake of shock value, but enemies will bleed realistically when shot and will display the kinds of pain reactions you would expect.

We felt this was even more important for the friendlies. We want the squadmates to feel like real people, and when you see your buddy get hit by a stray bullet, topple over and clutch his wound, and then painfully stumble off to cover, you can't help but feel some empathy.

Unreal supports the Karma physics system for its rag-doll stuff, but we found it far too slow to use in a game of our scope. That's another thing we're modifying for Men of Valor.

GS: The initial screenshots show the sort of jungle environments you'd expect from the Vietnam setting. Will there be a variety of terrain types and locations in the game? Will there be any urban scenarios?

JW: One of things that surprised us a bit during our research phase was just how many different environments the war was fought in. Popular depictions of the war focus on rice paddies, hamlets of reed huts, and dense, towering jungles. Of course, you'll find all this in Men of Valor, but with quite a bit more as well. The sandy coastal plains around Chu Lai are very different from the elephant-grass-covered clearings of the Iron Triangle, which are in turn very distinct from the blasted red clay of the hills around Khe Sanh. Even the jungles themselves are very diverse--the size and density of the vegetation west of Da Nang is very different from what you find in the mountains along the Laotian border.

The game includes several missions from the Tet Offensive centered on the imperial capital of Hue, which was some of the most brutal house-to-house fighting ever faced by the Marines. The urban environments are a great change of pace from jungle fighting, and the player will need to apply his skills in new ways to survive in city combat.

GS: Tell us about the multiplayer plans for the game. How will the cooperative mode work? What other modes do you have planned?

JW: The focus of our multiplayer efforts is a series of objective-based maps depicting actual actions of the war. Each side will have historical objectives, and players will get to fight out some of the most intense encounters of the conflict face-to-face. Also included will be several other game types, from free-form deathmatch-style games to more-structured capture-the-flag-style scenarios. Of course, players will be able to choose either Communist or Allied sides and use the weapons and equipment native to them. The player will also be able to play the entire single-player campaign with a friend cooperatively, and all the multiplayer game modes are planned to be playable over Xbox Live.

GS: Are the PC and Xbox versions being developed simultaneously?

JW: Not really. The PC and the Xbox are very different platforms, with different capabilities and requirements. We wanted to make sure that we had enough time after the Xbox version to adjust the assets, rebalance the gameplay, and incorporate PC-specific features so the game is a first-rate title on both platforms. We believe that simultaneous development is a huge handicap that usually results in a substandard product. Teams that manage to pull it off should be congratulated.

GS: How long have you been working on the game? How far along is it?

JW: We've been working on the title for about nine months. It's coming along very well, with about a third of the levels completed with their first gameplay and scripting pass.

GS: Is there anything else you'd like to say about Men of Valor?

JW: We're really excited by the amount of public interest we have seen in the title so far and are having a good time developing it. Our team has an incredible chemistry and a real commitment to excellence, and I think that will lead to a stellar product.

GS: Thanks for your time, John.