Promising to fill the gap left by the rather poor execution of Call of Duty 3, Electronic Arts has been prepping Medal of Honor: Vanguard from the ground up to take advantage of Wii. Slated for a launch alongside a PlayStation 2 version, the game extends the lauded World War II first-person shooting series with a new heroic adventure. While far from revolutionizing the genre with its straightforward battlefield action, Medal of Honor: Vanguard does much to cater to the innovative controls offered by the Wii Remote and nunchuk. Having spent hands-on time with the game at Electronic Arts’ event tonight, we’re confident Medal of Honor: Vanguard has the makings of a notable experience.
Medal of Honor: Vanguard puts you in the combat boots of Corporal Frank Keegan of the famous 82nd Airborne Division. You’ll control Keegan through the course of several key Allied campaigns including Operation Husky in Sicily to Operation Varsity airdropping inside of Germany. We had the chance to play one of the early missions of the game under Operation Husky, infiltrating a Sicilian city occupied by Nazi forces. The urban combat made for interesting tactical fire fights between our small squadron of Allied soldiers and rather unintelligent Nazi fighters. The artificial intelligence seemed middling at best, easily falling prey to gunfire from our rifle.
As with all of the titles shown at the event this evening, Medal of Honor: Vanguard promises full use of the Wii Remote and nunchuk motion-controls. Much like Call of Duty 3, you can move using the control stick and aim the camera with the Wii Remote; unfortunately, the ridiculous sensitivity of the camera made it extremely difficult to get a steady view of the level, let alone target enemies. Pressing A enables you to zoom with any weapon you have equipped, which thankfully slows down movement of the camera and improves targeting. The game allows for some leeway in precision, so shots taken within close proximity of an enemy will provide limited damage.
Weapons can be picked off of fallen enemies and equipped using the minus button. Switching between weapons is done by tapping left on the directional pad. Grenades can be thrown by holding down the B button and then hitting right on the directional pad. Of course, you won’t always want to run into a fight. Pressing the Z button enables you to reduce your stance to crouch or prone, whereas C raises your stance and lets you jump when fully erect. Combining varying stances with the ability to take cover behind objects in the environment will make it easier to stay alive through the course of the game.
Medal of Honor: Vanguard follows in the footsteps of previous titles in the series with decent visuals; however, issues with controlling the camera make it difficult to get a good view of it. The limitations of the hardware certainly stand out when playing the game, as the character models are lacking in detail, as are the muddy textures adorning buildings and objects. With a little more time left in the development process, here’s to hoping improvements can be made to at least bump up the presentation on Wii. While not necessarily groundbreaking Medal of Honor: Vanguard appears to be a promising title that just requires a few simple fixes. Tweaks to the camera sensitivity and boosting the quality of presentation could go a long way to winning the first-person genre war on Wii.
