Text/Echo
I vaguely remember that it was a sweltering afternoon, and after another round of being killed by passers-by, I finally decided to quit the CS1.5 LAN hosted by my brother and have fun for more than an hour.
At that time, I was a mengxin who needed the help of my brother in the LAN room, and I was usually instigated by a comparison, for fear of ordering something strange and "playing badly"; but that day, somehow, I ghostly learned the appearance of the elder brother and double-clicked to open a dark green icon, and after an operation, I actually successfully walked into the battlefield of World War II, parachuted into the enemy, broke through alone, destroyed the German army, blew up the artillery, and then...
After my brother returned to his hometown, I said goodbye to the Internet café completely, and gradually forgot about those scenes; then I had my own computer, and I rushed to the "Computer City" to go to the "genuine game" of ten yuan and three pieces, so the "Medal of Honor" in my heart officially became the appearance of "Medal of Honor: Divine Soldier Descending".
Of course, this is all an afterthought, at that time, I actually couldn't tell whether I was experiencing "Medal of Honor: United Raid" or one of its materials, or other World War II games, but I simply felt that this game was too different from the CS I was familiar with, and it was quite interesting; and after experiencing most of the PC-side works in this series, I can now justifiably prove that I was not talking nonsense without insight, because compared with other mainstream first-person shooters, The Medal of Honor series is indeed a little different.
A legend of fearless heroes
Perhaps a little different from the impression of the old buddies, the first work of the Medal of Honor series was not the "Medal of Honor: Joint Raid", which later became one of the standard features of Internet cafes, but the "Medal of Honor" born in 1999. This is a World War II-themed first-person shooter produced by Spielberg-led DreamWorks and released by The American Electronic Arts, tailored for Sony PC and only landed on the PS1 platform at that time, so I think it was normal that my poor brother like me had never touched or even heard of this work.
Before I continue to recall, I think it is necessary to state that the production team mentioned earlier is the thunderous DreamWorks in the film and television industry and the famous Steven Spielberg. Legend has it that in 1997, the big director was shocked to see his son running "007 GoldenEye" with N64, thinking that the new gadget that integrated interactivity into the movie had a better sense of substitution, and it must be promising in the future; and it coincided with the fact that the big director was directing the movie "Saving Private Ryan", so he rightfully came up with the game plan of "007 GoldenEye" with the background of World War II, and easily persuaded DreamWorks to set up his own game department, which led to the "World War II game trend" that happened to lead the trend of World War II games later. Medal of Honor"
From this, it is not difficult to see that such a work may have been a "master play ticket" work with no shackles, and indeed directly invited a heavyweight like Dale Dye as the military adviser of the game, and even more than 250 polygons were arranged for the enemy's model at that time, and the only problem may be that as a World War II game, the story flow of this Medal of Honor seems to be too "007".
In this Medal of Glory, the player plays the role of the fictional U.S. Strategic Intelligence Agency (OSS) agent Jimmy Patterson, who goes deep behind enemy lines to destroy almost all Nazi black technology, from V2 rockets to U-boats, with one hundred enemies, and can also retreat, and by the way, bring back ally pilots and stolen artwork...
Well, it's really tacky, but such a rough personal hero legend is really the mainstream aesthetic of Hollywood, anyway, enough to convince the major game mainstream media at that time to blow up the "Medal of Glory"; at the same time, the game itself also early in the platinum hall for DreamWorks to bring a windfall, enough to persuade the rich DreamWorks to play another vote, in 2000 for the players to bring the PS game "Medal of Honor: Underground Resistance".
As the name suggests, this time we will incarnate as Manon, a member of the French underground resistance organization, to carry out a series of resistance activities, and after being recruited by OSS, we will go to North Africa and Europe to defeat the Nazis' earth-shattering plots again and again, and finally return to Paris as a liberator, successfully revenge for his brother Jacques...
It seems to be another personal hero epic, but not exactly, after all, this time the heroine Manon has a clear realistic prototype Hélène Deschamps Adams, the game story has to be restrained in legend; at the same time, because the main creators hope to express the more delicate and complex thoughts of women in the war through the game this time, the game rhythm is no longer as refreshing and direct as the previous work, and its overall experience is more thought-provoking, but it also seems to destroy the interest of many players and the media. In the end, it regrettably became the most polarized one of the most polarized works in the series.
It doesn't matter, it's a big deal not to play ~ Anyway, DreamWorks' main business has never been a game, so it is better to give the IP to EA, who has been cooperating; but at that time, EA was not interested in the "artistic expression of the game", so they launched the "Medal of Honor: Joint Assault" in 2002 finally on the PC, and with Ranger Captain and OSS agent Mike Powell as the protagonist, continue to cross the German-French border to complete the infiltration and sabotage work;
Also in the same year that "United Assault" was released, the PS2, NGC and XBOX games "Medal of Honor: Frontline" also showed the magnificent Normandy landings after the reboot of Jimmy Patterson's OSS legend, but due to the difficulty of the game, unreasonable save points and other trivial problems, and finally failed to continue the agent's legendary reputation that year. Maybe these problems have really seriously affected the game experience, or maybe it's just that everyone has become more and more critical of the European battlefield of World War II under the repeated bombardment of Battlefield and Call of Duty. In any case, EA needs to make some changes while ensuring the quality of the series of games, and as a derivative of this change, the OSS era of the Medal of Honor series has finally come to an end quietly.
Warrior's battlefield epic
Although I personally believe that the next phase of the Medal of Honor begins with the more controversial Rising Sun, strictly speaking, the attempts to "civilianize" the series should begin with the two expansion packs of Joint Assault, Vanguard And The Siege: the former focuses on Jack Barnes, an airborne soldier of the 501st Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, and presents from his perspective the exciting grand scenes of the Normandy airborne landing, the Battle of the Prominent Troops, and the Division berlin; the latter follows in the footsteps of Second Army soldier John Baker and crosses over" Casserline Pass", parachuted into Sicily, broke through the "Gustav Line" and killed all the way into Rome.
It is not difficult to find that the two critically acclaimed expansion packs still focus on the stories of the European battlefields of World War II, but thanks to the rapid development of the game's hardware functions, they can no longer stick to the special operations of the small family, but present us with the grandeur of the war itself in a more ornamental way, and completely conquer the players and critics at that time.
However, although EA was quite wise to make the "attack on Pearl Harbor" a big scene that opened the curtain on "The Rising Sun", they seemed to think that such an innovation seemed to be far from enough, so this time our protagonist Marine Corporal Joseph Griffin became a disgraced Pearl Harbor survivor, and the mission after a long time seemed more real and trivial, although the final story was still full of ups and downs, but it was also as somewhat high and low as the critics said. Its reputation is even far less than that of the little brother of the same year, and the medal of honor: infiltrator, which is quite mediocre in all aspects.
But what's wrong with pursuing innovation? Taking a step back, even if it is not to promote the prosperity of the industry, in case the bet is right, it is entirely possible to sell well ~ So although "Infiltrator" is mediocre in all aspects from today's point of view, at that time it was also a breakthrough to add a first-person conversion, and a rather lazy survival mode;
In 2004's "Blood Battle Pacific", Marine Corps second class Thomas Conlin was shot to the ground in the Pearl Harbor tragedy presented by the new engine at the beginning, and then the flashback of his dying in the rain of bullets and bullets brought everyone back to the brotherhood between several brothers from the beginning, which also paved the way for the game's main squad combat and the new "squad member command system";
The following year' "Blood Battle Europe" temporarily returned to the theme of "OSS Agents Behind Enemy Lines", but while it expanded the squad operations, it also began to add some secondary targets to the linear process to enhance the freedom of the game, that is, the invincible and non-ammunition-consuming adrenaline accumulation and bullet time system made people feel very dramatic;
This attempt at "delinearization" was well continued in 2007, two quite similar films, Vanguard and Divine Soldiers. Taking "Divine Soldier Heavenly Descent", which I am more familiar with personally, as an example, the various levels of the game are several large scenes that are relatively independent of each other, and the protagonist who is a member of the 82nd Airborne Division will be dynamically airdropped to a random relatively safe position in the target scenes such as "Husky Action", "Avalanche Operation", "Market Garden Operation", etc., and after landing, freely complete the scene such as ring-breaking radio, destroy anti-aircraft artillery, assist the trapped sniper squad, assemble the M18 recoilless cannon to destroy the enemy armored units, and then continue to advance the story. Complete the main quest for the entire scene; of course, players themselves can also control the direction of landing on the treetops of the tower or the church attic during the parachute to get achievement rewards, or follow the footsteps of some unlucky paratroopers into the enemy trenches to enjoy the thrill of landing in boxes.
In addition, weapon upgrades and weapon accessory systems have also officially appeared in the series of games - but this is not the same as the level unlock accessories that everyone is more familiar with today, and its actual experience is closer, you carry the Thompson cheap version of the M1928 submachine gun all the way to kill, you will find that this treasure slowly loads itself into the front grip, the suppressor and the 50-round drum into a high-grade cargo, it is indeed a bit of a drama, but I have to admit that the fun of the game has been greatly improved.
Yes, I almost forgot there were two more Medals of Honor: Heroes. The former is a pure experiment only on the PSP, more like a collection of medallion missions with the gimmicks of the previous protagonist; the latter landing on the PSP and Wii is relatively more complete, but it is actually multiplayer,only a rather perfunctory main story, and there is no interesting detail of the inheritance of the series, which ultimately leads to the series being temporarily shelved.
From this, it is not difficult to see that the so-called innovation of the Medal of Honor at this stage is actually more like a headless fly running around, sometimes lucky, sometimes unlucky, most of the time can not take its essence to remove its dross, and smoothly integrate it into a work; and EA's all-platform high-frequency distribution strategy also determines that several production groups led by EA Los Angeles have almost no time to precipitate the advantages of each generation of works into series features, so when the "big scene" advantage brought by technological innovation is gradually dissolved by the times, The Medal of Honor series naturally gradually lost its direction, and it is not necessarily a bad thing to stop and wait for the writers to dry up their ideas and encourage them to lie dormant for a few years to play with the big tickets.
It's just that everyone didn't expect that this ticket seemed to be playing a little too much.
The bitterness of an ordinary soldier
Even without considering gimmicks like "The Medal of Honor Series Is Finally Out of World War II," Medal of Honor 2010 is a pretty special game.
First of all, we must admit that this work is an orthodox sequel that meets all the characteristics of the Medal of Honor: in the related campaign of DEVGRU agent "Rabbit", the player will perform a similar infiltration and sabotage mission in the battlefield behind enemy lines in Afghanistan with teammates such as "Mother", "Voodoo" and "Missionary";
And in the story of Ranger expert Dante Adams, the player will lead a typical U.S. army firepower team to play a role in a relatively frontal battlefield, knock out Taliban machine gun positions, secure the helicopter landing area, summon air support for friendly forces, search for missing special operators... Then it was found that the death of the "Hare" was inevitable, and he himself was strongly counterattacked by the Taliban, and the whole operation led to the entire three "Chinooks" being shot down by the enemy, as if it was a little worse than in Mogadishu.
From 1944 to 2010, from the liberators of Europe to the invaders of the Middle East, it is clear that even in the game, this group of confused soldiers has lost the spirit of the past, and has to trek hard in the war, only to protect themselves; and it seems that in order to fit this atmosphere, the production team has also changed the past fighting style of the Medal of Honor, making "Medal of Honor 2010" more professional and realistic - in other words, it lacks enough battlefield atmosphere, and the positive feedback of the shooting is not obvious.
This almost dooms Medal of Honor 2010 to be a polarized game again: if you are a mild military enthusiast, you must love this work to death, because it not only has professional and rich equipment and battlefield details, showing the suppression effect of machine gun strafing, but also the combat itself is moderately difficult, which just fills the gap between Call of Duty and Operation Flashpoint;
And if you're just an ordinary first-person shooter fan, or even a big fan of the Medal of Honor series, there's a good chance that the game is not low in difficulty or boring, and there's no reason to waste time in this real but boring story. However, judging by the hints of the end of Medal of Honor 2010, the general style of Medal of Honor: Warrior should have been finalized early on, so these players may have to continue to be disappointed in this sequel two years later.
However, from a technical point of view, "Medal of Honor: Warrior" is actually not bad, the Frost engine is powerful, the shooting car chase does not lose the standard, but there are indeed many small problems; and to the plot flow, although the story itself is still ups and downs, but the frequent cutscenes in the early stage of the game show more scenes that have nothing to do with the battlefield, is the soldiers' fragmented spiritual world and completely destroyed normal life, although its anti-war effect is outstanding, But it is also inevitable that it will completely destroy the narrative rhythm of the game, and it is actually more like the east effect of "Underground Organization" that year.
So this stop was another eight years.
In the late autumn of 2020, the medal of honor's orthodox sequel "Beyond the Peak" was officially released. The game itself became a more fashionable VR production, the production team changed from the previous EA Los Angeles to Respawn Entertainment, and the overall experience, thankfully, finally became the norm of people's normal cognition. As for whether this famous IP that has experienced ups and downs can be revived or even revived to another glory, let's wait and see...
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Pay attention to the "Broken Thought Workshop", spread the game culture, and make the game more than just a game.