Medal Of Honor and beards

Read the first part of X360magazine.com’s Medal Of Honor Interview here

What kind of input did [the Tier One Operatives] have?

They’ve affected absolutely every part of this game, from story telling to op tempo, to mission types, to dialogue, gear, weapons, there are moments of seriousness and moments of levity, and that was also given to us by them. A lot of the stories are when things go absolutely wrong, they’re in the most extreme situations where humour sometimes gets them through it and keeps eachother in check. If I can get someone to laugh or bust my balls in an extreme situation, I know they’re right in the head. Or maybe they’re wrong in the head! But at least I know they’re communicating and we’re still going to get through this. We try to show some of that as well.

What’s their incentive for this?

Quite frankly their incentive has always been to honour their community. We approached them and it was a long process of convincing them to be involved, because these are silent professionals and the nature of their work is such that if anyone wants to shine a light on them, they walk. They would just rather you leave them alone and go about your merry way. Once we got them involved and showed them our intent and how we wanted to honour them and their community, they saw it as an opportunity to help portray their community in the proper light, to pay respect to their brothers that have come before them and will come after them. At the end of this game there is a dedication when the final scene goes black – we didn’t write that. No-one at EA wrote it, it was a promise we made to them that they could have this space to say whatever they wanted to, to their community.

You’ve got the Taliban side in multiplayer too…

This game is not about the enemy. This game is not about the Taliban. This game is not about Al Qaeda. This game is not about the Chechen. This game is not about the Afghan militia force. This game is not about the Afghan war. This game is about the brotherhood of warriors and individuals, telling their story from their point of view. Because we do things authentically, the enemies in multiplayer are the enemies that are represented by the enemies they are facing. In working with these guys it’s breaking through the stereotypes and what drives them… it’s more about love in this game than hate. It’s nothing to do with the hate that they have for the enemy in front of them but the love for the brother behind them.

There are four playable characters in our game: Two Tier One guys, a US Army Ranger and an Apache gunner. In single player we’re telling the story of those four individuals. That’s the story we wanted to tell, that’s the community of individuals we wanted to honour.

So… why beards.

Even now while the operators were in the country they grew beards. One, because they were out on their own and doing their thing, but it was also a way to garner respect from the individuals they were working with, the local individuals. It also provides a good way of blending in when you’re in indigenous clothing and such.

Read our single and multiplayer review of Medal Of Honor in issue 65 of X360 Magazine, on sale 3 November