Medal of Honor Breakthrough: exclusive interview

An expansion pack means more of the same right? Well, perhaps that was the case with EA's last expansion for Medal of Honor, the Spearhead addition. But EA is at pains to reassure us that for this latest sojourn into WWII, the developers have been striving to come up with something very different.

Lead Designer Edward Moore is on hand to put us straight about exactly what to expect from the Breakthrough pack...

Interview by Stuart Bishop

First off, what's the plot/storyline, who will we be playing and what are that character's aims and objectives?

Moore: In Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Breakthrough, you take the role of an American Sergeant, John Baker. The story takes you on a series of combat and espionage missions in the North African/Mediterranean Theatre of World War II.

How long have you actually been working on the expansion? It seems to be on a pretty tight time schedule?

Moore: TKO Software has been working very hard for us on the expansion since about February. EALA provided additional design and engineering advisement and support on a continuing basis throughout the development of the game.

While it was a tight and ambitious schedule, we've hit all of our major goals and have created a product to be proud of that lives up to the Medal of Honor name.

It's been mentioned that the Allied Assault expansion will be based around North Africa campaigns partly and Italian campaigns from World War II. Could we get more details on which particular battles will be represented?

Moore: The main battles we are touching upon include the Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, the invasion of Sicily (aka Operation Husky), and the assaults upon the cities of Monte Cassino. We also have some sabotage/stealth oriented takes on events like the Anzio and Gela Beach Landings.

Spearhead was criticised for being too short, and in some cases being too much like Allied Assault (i.e., simply more of the same). Are you looking to address these issues with this new expansion and, if so, could we get specifics on how you're going about doing this?

Moore: My main focus during the development of Breakthrough was to instill upon the team at TKO the need for Breakthrough to improve on Spearhead's shortcomings, specifically in terms of length and challenge of the single-player expansion.

I feel we accomplished this by focusing on crafting tactical and engaging firefights, by increasing the density of AIs within our levels, and also by more carefully balancing ammunition and weapon allotments to elicit different gameplay styles.

For example, a player with a BAR and tons of ammo will play through a given scene quite differently than someone with just a pistol and a sniper rifle and only a few rounds to spare. Of course, the big picture to keep in mind is to make sure that it's fun and challenging but not exceedingly frustrating.

It's a difficult balance to hit, but I think our fans will be pleased and satisfied with the exciting and tension-filled experience we've created for them this time around.

What updates are you making to the game engine, if any, and how will this impact both the expansion's visual style and the gameplay?

Moore: TKO has been working diligently to create new particle effects, textures, character models, and vehicles to bring the player into some of the new locales we are exploring, such as devastated Italian cities, as well as more rural, pastoral settings, like the countrysides and farmlands of Sicily.

Are you making alterations to NPC AI? If so, could we get specific details on your plans in this area?

Moore: Providing the player with a more deadly and intelligent AI to combat has been a huge part of our overall goal of providing a more challenging and satisfying single-player campaign with Breakthrough.

I think that you'll find that our AIs are more crafty and aware of their environments, the player, and each other, and will definitely respond to player actions in a more dynamic and emergent fashion than before.

Spearhead introduced new weapons and also new nation forces. Presumably you plan to do the same with the new expansion, especially because of the new campaign setting. What can we expect to see in these areas?

Moore: You'll see a new set of weapons for Italian forces, including the Baretta Pistol, the Carcano Bolt Rifle, the Moschetto Sub Machine Gun, and the Breda Heavy Machine Gun.

The Italian weapons are all very cool-sounding and are a lot of fun to use. I also think our fans will get a kick out some of the new British weapons we've implemented, including the Lee-Enfield Sniper Rifle, the Vickers-Berthier Heavy Machine Gun, the PIAT anti-tank weapon, plus the Delisle Silenced Rifle.

We've also implemented some new mountable artillery for the player to take over, such as the Modello and the Bohler, as well as a new minesweeper device.

What additions are you making to Allied Assault multiplayer?

Moore: There's a ton of changes to talk about on the multiplayer side of the game. The big new addition with this expansion is the Liberation mode, a fun new twist to traditional team deathmatch in that when you die, instead of respawning, you are disarmed and captured in an enemy jail area.

Remaining teammates must infiltrate the enemy base and hit a switch that will release the prisoners and rearm them. The tables are turned and now a slew of enemies will be unleashed in the area that was previously held by your team.

All of the new Italian and British weapons from the single-player campaign, plus the minesweeper class, will be available in all multiplayer game modes. The ability to lay, detect, and defuse mines in multiplayer will add a new dynamic to both the new and old maps. Voting options have been expanded to streamline weapon class restrictions in multiplayer, we've carefully rebalanced all of the multiplayer weapons for both regular and realism modes, and we've created some new Tug-of-War maps for good measure.

I'd also like to note that Breakthrough features all of the multiplayer maps, weapons, skins, modes, and other content included in Spearhead and subsequent patches.

So if you haven't checked out Spearhead yet, Breakthrough provides an exceptional value with a longer, more satisfying single-player campaign, and a ton of multiplayer content to play with once you've completed the single player missions.

We've had D-Day beach landings in Allied Assault and D-Day Airborne drops in Spearhead - what's the intense event in this second expansion?

Moore: The Battle of Kasserine Pass certainly starts things off with a bang by throwing you smack dab in the middle of an intense tank battle between Patton's and Rommel's forces.

However, I think players will discover many exciting, cinematic moments throughout the entire campaign, including one of my personal favourites, the climactic finale of the Battle of Monte Battaglia.

What other significant differences can we expect to see between this new expansion and Spearhead, other than what you've mentioned already?

Moore: When designing Breakthrough, the teams at TKO and EALA wanted to reach for the level of quality achieved in the original Allied Assault, and I think we've achieved that goal on a variety of fronts. We have a more continuously running soundtrack featuring some pieces of music from the console MOH games that may be new to our PC fans - we think this creates more atmosphere and increases the cinematic feel of the on-screen action.

You'll see a return of some elements that were overlooked in Spearhead, such as spotlights and stealth missions in single player as well as a new ability to get in and out of tanks at will. For multiplayer, Breakthrough features a much-requested return of new Objective mode maps, something our fans have been clamouring for since the original Allied Assault.

All told, there's a lot of fun and exciting gameplay to be found in Breakthrough, and both the TKO and EALA teams hope our fans enjoy this new part of the Medal of Honor franchise.