Emarian

The Germans called America's airborne paratroops "the devil in baggy pants" during World War II, and for good reason. These elite soldiers dropped behind enemy lines and, armed primarily with light weapons, wreaked havoc against German units, thus satisfying Benjamin Franklin's prophetic vision more than 150 years prior of "men descending from the clouds" to cause "infinite mischief" upon the enemy. And the paratrooper experience is precisely what EA is looking to capture in its new Medal of Honor: Airborne, a World War II shooter that looks to redefine the genre, busting it out of its rigid narrative and making it a lot more free-form. We earned some virtual jump wings ourselves recently, as we finally got a chance to check out the game, both on the Xbox 360 and the PC (a PlayStation 3 version is also coming).

Airborne represents a major change if you're used to any of the previous Medal of Honor games or the competing Call of Duty series. That's because those games are highly linear in nature. Everything that you see is carefully scripted, and the designers know where you're going to be at all times, because there's only one way to play through the game. Thus, after you've played through a level the first time, you know what to expect the second, like a group of German soldiers always run across the street at a certain point or a Panzer tank always appears when you reach another point. Airborne ditches that formula completely, because you have control over how, and where, you enter a level, thanks to the fact that you're parachuting from the sky above. All that diligent scripting seen in other games is useless in Airborne, because the player has complete freedom of movement in the level, and thus the ability to make the battle unfold in countless different ways.

We played through two of the earliest levels: Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, and Operation Avalanche, the invasion of Italy. Airborne will chronicle the entire breadth of airborne operations during the war, including Operation Overlord (D-Day), Operation Market Garden (the failed airborne attempt to seize a pathway to Germany's industrial heartland), and Operation Varsity (the airborne drop on Germany itself). Anyways, back to Operation Husky, the mission plays out as a night drop into an old Sicilian town that has an encircling wall from the medieval days of warfare. You can pretty much land anywhere in town, and there are benefits or downsides to almost every location. Land on the wall, and you can use it and the rooftops of buildings to quickly get to almost any point in town; land in the streets, and you're closer to the action.

Parachuting is going to take some practice, as you have to use both analog sticks on the controller to try and steer your way to the ground. It's not easy, as there are a number of things to keep in mind, like your momentum, the speed of your descent (you can "flare" the parachute to slow you down a bit), and how much swinging around you're doing. Land in the wrong spot, like in the middle of an enemy compound, and your life will be spectacularly exciting, but also very brief. While you can land anywhere, the safest landing zones are those marked with green smoke, because they'll receive a continual stream of reinforcements that can help you. But if you land on a rooftop, you suddenly have elevation on the enemy, which makes it easy to snipe away at them with a rifle. And there are five "skill drops" on each map, indicated by a white parachute draped near them. These represent the ultimate risk/reward, and if you can land in one, you'll not only get an achievement, but also have a cushy start spot, like the bell tower of a church. The downside is that if you miss the skill drop by even just a little, you'll probably find yourself in the middle of a hornet's nest of angry Axis troops.

Once you land, you have to go through a decision-making process that's not unlike those used by real-world paratroopers. First, you have to orient yourself and figure out where you are in relation to the enemy and your objectives. Then, you have to figure out a course of action based on the situation and the conditions. You no longer can rely on your reflexes and ability to memorize a level's scripted events; now, you have to think, even if it's just a little bit. It's a refreshing change of pace from most games, which require little analytical thinking at all.

It doesn't take long after you land to get into combat, and that is shaping up very nicely. Sure, it's World War II infantry combat, but it's well done. The enemy soldiers are pretty good, and they move around and use cover effectively. That was one of the primary challenges for the developers, because getting rid of the scripting meant rewriting the artificial intelligence to adapt to unpredictable situations. The behaviors we saw were sharp, as soldiers leapt over walls and through windows for cover or to get away from a grenade, and soldiers were pretty aggressive about trying to get around to your side where they can flank you. They can also be pretty good about tossing grenades at you, and your eyes will go wide when you see a German grenade land at your feet. Either get out of its blast radius ASAP, or, even better, kick it back toward the enemy.

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