Things I learned about id Software games from playing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

[Patrol1985]

Being a fan of the Wolfenstein series I decided to try something I had never tried before - "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" (by Electonic Arts).

I've just finished the game and it left me angry, but also more appreciative of id Software games. The main problem I had with the game is that in 99% of situations I didn't know why I died. I don't mean the cause of death, I mean I couldn't understand "what I did wrong". Deaths are really random - a random artillery strike here, a sniper headshot there, a bomber dropping a bomb, a stationary machine gun hidden behind some obstacle etc.

I soon got into a habit of quick saving every 5 steps, because you never know when a random explosion might occur. Nothing was indicating those, you just "had to know" they would happen. And that's how I beat the game and its two expansions - by dying, learning (eventually) where the danger was coming from, reloading and taking care of this danger preemptively because I already knew it was there. It often encompassed sending random shots to bushes hoping I would hit a soldier hiding behind it (the soldier would never go out so I could see him - they just stayed there and shot me).

What I really appreciate about id games now is that they ALWAYS made sure that:

1) I know what the cause of danger is.
2) I can easily learn what skill I have to use or hone to get through this danger.

That's REALLY important for a good game design and even some of the hardest moments in id games (for instance time-trial races in RAGE on the highest difficulty) didn't leave me wondering "what the hell should I practice to beat this?"

It's a pity because MoH:AA has fantastic atmosphere and a really cool level design, but they may have gone a little too far with the whole "war realism" theme. Because that's essentially what war is about - you can die any single moment without any warning. That's why it's so scary. However, as a video game, which is supposed to entertain you, it doesn't work.

I felt like I was playing "I wanna be the guy - FPS version". You have to learn a given level by heart in order to get through its obstacles.

Long story short: I'm staying by Wolfenstein when it comes to WWII. I prefer my games to be less realistic, but enjoyable.

[Belial]

I had the same problems with Hidden & Dangerous (an awesome game BTW).

[Avoozl]

I loved that game and its expansions, I could never understand why people preferred CoD over it though, I felt MoH:AA was a much better WWII game.

[Captain Red]

I used to have that opinion that Allied Assault was better then Call of Duty to until I went back and played Allied Assault. Man, that game aged badly.

[geo]

I own the game and haven't played it yet.

Daikatana had the problem of killing me without knowing what killed me in the first 2 levels. Now I know its the turrets, but it never zooms on the turrets. It always finds some obscure enemy to zoom in.

Thankfully modern games have a radial damage bar to show you where someone is attacking you. I guess in real life you'd know you're hit on the left side.

[Patrol1985]

Avoozl said:

I loved that game and its expansions, I could never understand why people preferred CoD over it though, I felt it was a much better WWII game.

The atmosphere is fantastic. You can really feel that war is all around you and the Omaha Beach level is perhaps the epitome of this experience. But it's the gameplay I'm not really fond of and unfortunately it ruined a significant portion of this experience for me.

geo said:

Thankfully modern games have a radial damage bar to show you where someone is attacking you. I guess in real life you'd know you're hit on the left side.

MoH:AA has this radial damage indicator as well, but it doesn't help you much as most shots come from some hidden locations. Some levels take place in heavy rain and fog which obscure vision (but only yours - AI can shoot perfectly through it), enemies wear camo uniforms and a ridiculously big amount of fights take place among bushes where you can't see anything past a 5 meter radius in the direction you're usually interested in.

The only thing which can expose enemies is their muzzle flash. So the majority of fights for me looked like this:

1. Walk along a street
2. Get killed by a sniper, quickly take a look at directional indicator
3. Load game and look in the proper direction, if nothing can be seen (usual occurrence), take a step forward, get shot and try to notice the muzzle flash (sometimes it took me as many as 5 tries)
4. Load game and shoot in the direction of the muzzle flash, often through fog or other conditions which obscure vision (rain, foliage).
5. Save game
6. Rinse and repeat.

Not really my idea of "fun" with video games...

[redlid]

1) I know what the cause of danger is.
2) I can easily learn what skill I have to use or hone to get through this danger.

[/B]

That doesn't apply for the majority of custom megawads like hell revealed I and II, Requiem etc. You need to know secrets to make your life way easier and lot of nasty surprises on every level.

[Patrol1985]

redlid said:

That doesn't apply for the majority of custom megawads like hell revealed I and II, Requiem etc. You need to know secrets to make your life way easier and lot of nasty surprises on every level.

Custom WADs are a different thing - I think it's generally assumed that they're meant for "hardcore" fans who are already accustomed to the game and want more challenge. They WANT to know those WADs inside-out and they WANT to use that knowledge to their advantage.

However, Medal of Honor was a commercial title, so I assume it was produced also with "casual fun" in mind. That's what sells your title. In my book, the game totally failed in this regard, and I'm not a newbie to the FPS genre. I dread to think what newbies must have gone through.

[doomgargoyle]

Does Multiplayer still work on MoH:AA?

[SuperflyJohnson]

Allied Assault's last room (escaping to the train in very Michael Bay-esque fashion) is stacked so heavily against the player it actually feels a lot like playing Daikatana during that part. The sniper town too. Fucking sniper town.

It's kind of cool to see the beginnings of the Call of Duty juggernaut in AA, before Infinity Ward was a thing.

[Vermil]

geo said:

Thankfully modern games have a radial damage bar to show you where someone is attacking you. I guess in real life you'd know you're hit on the left side.

Doom has a 'radial damage bar'; if you are hit by a bad guy you can't see, the status bar face turns left or right accordingly.

Of course, I get the impression that most people (including myself), use the full screen huds added by various source ports, which usually don't feature the face (I say usually because some ports, such as Doomsday, have the option to display the face on the full screen hud).

[Patrol1985]

doomgargoyle said:

Does Multiplayer still work on MoH:AA?

I didn't check it, but the credits contained information about MoH using "Gamespy technology", so I assume it doesn't as Gamespy got shut down in May this year.

SuperflyJohnson said:

Allied Assault's last room (escaping to the train in very Michael Bay-esque fashion) is stacked so heavily against the player it actually feels a lot like playing Daikatana during that part.

This last part is a good summary of the whole game and its flawed design - enemy bunker is collapsing behind you, with lots of explosions etc. so you have to constantly run forward, but as soon as you leave the bunker there is like 7 guys waiting for you, who can kill you in an instant... but you CAN'T stop and pick them one by one, because the explosions will get you!

I managed to beat this section by finding a "sweet spot", meaning a spot where I was still fairly well hidden within the bunker, but the explosions could no longer reach me so I actually had time to think and act. I'm still not sure if it was intended by the designers or if it was some kind of a bug (because, as usual, it took me 15+ quick loads to finally nail it).

[Chow Yun Thin]

Has anyone tried to make a damage compass with Doomguy's face instead of an arrow, have his usual injured expressions change as you turn around to face the attacker?

[Doomkid]

Patrol1985 said:

Medal of Honor was a commercial title, so I assume it was produced also with "casual fun" in mind. That's what sells your title. In my book, the game totally failed in this regard, and I'm not a newbie to the FPS genre. I dread to think what newbies must have gone through.

The 'I wanna be the guy' analogy seems pretty accurate. Truth be told, I've never really played MoH. My friend had it when we were younger and I would often watch, but it never seemed that fun and we would both notice glitches fairly often.

Vermil said:

Doom has a 'radial damage bar'; if you are hit by a bad guy you can't see, the status bar face turns left or right accordingly.

People have always said the bar is a disadvantage in DM, but knowing where you're being pelted from is generally far more useful that the extra screen space. I like knowing instantly where I'm being shot from, how much HP, Ammo and Armor I have.

I'd love to see a source port with the option to make the gray part of the stat bar invisible, without shrinking the numbers or removing the face.

[Vermil]

Doomkid said:

I'd love to see a source port with the option to make the gray part of the stat bar invisible, without shrinking the numbers or removing the face.

Doomsday has options to both display the face on it's full screen hud and to make the grey part of Doom's classic status bar hud transparent, leaving just it's numbers.

[Waffenak]

That french sniper village left me scarred for life but king tiger level after that nightmare was awesome

[Doomkid]

Vermil said:

Doomsday has options to both display the face on it's full screen hud and to make the grey part of Doom's classic status bar hud transparent, leaving just it's numbers.

Thanks for telling me, that's excellent!

[40oz]

I remember in medal of honor frontline for ps2, getting killed by a guy I shot, who fell to the ground, squirmed a bit, then got back up and shot me to death. I could never tell if I killed someone or they were just acting out a very theatrical pain animation.

[redlid]

Doomkid said:

Thanks for telling me, that's excellent!

Yeah and there's option to make status bar so small that it doesn't disturb anymore.

[Waffenak]

First two medal of honors for ps1 were hilarious. For example if you threw a grenade to a dog it would carry the grenade to its owner