Speaking with… Greg Goodrich, Executive Producer on Medal of Honor
Our very own Tom Wallis got the chance to sit down with Greg Goodrich, Executive Producer on Medal of Honor, for a few words on his take of the controversy surrounding the upcoming Medal of Honour title and grill him on the reboot of the popular franchise…
OK so, tell us a bit about what we’ve just been shown.
Yeah so, in the last 6 to 8 months, we’ve been talking about the Tier 1 Operator, the surgical precision instrument of the U.S arsenal: their sort of “scalpel”, and we’ve have also talked about the Sledgehammer, the US Army Ranger side of our story in this new Medal of Honor. At Gamescom we’re showing a whole other side; the Apache Attack Helicopter Squadron, that you’re able to play and assume the role of an Apache Gunner named Hawk, in the front seat of an attack helicopter, supporting the guys on the ground, and working with them to eliminate threats in the Sheikh Valley of Afghanistan. They also represent the Sledgehammer side of our narrative, and it’s been great, people love it, we have had hands on behind closed doors.
You mentioned earlier the importance of being authentic, can you talk a bit about how you’ve managed to stay authentic?
Absolutely. As you know, we’ve talked a lot about our consultants and the guys we’ve been working with, we’ve been working closely with the U.S Military, as well as the Tier 1 Operators, but we have also spent time with the actual gun fighter Apache squadron down in California. They let us come out and record their the audio of their aircraft while they hovered on the tarmac, we took photos and really spent a lot of time with the pilots, getting into their mind and what they think about, and the types of training they go through, and the dialogue in the mission that we showed here at Gamescom was actually written by the pilots. So when we strive for authenticity, everything you see, hear and experience in that level is as real as we could possibly make it because we walk so closely with those pilots.
Working hand in hand with actual Apache pilots helps give the game a more authentic feel
On the topic of authenticity, it’s been mentioned that Medal of Honor is a work of “Historical Fiction”, can you elaborate on that?
Well, all of our characters and storylines are inspired by real people and actual events, but it is a fictional story in the sense that the narrative is told though the lens of fictional characters, but they’re in a historical event, much like a film like Saving Private Ryan, but we tell it authentically. It’s always about telling the soldier’s story; honouring the soldier and really talking about the brotherhood and the camaraderie that the soldiers experience in these sorts of conflicts. That’s what we’re focusing on and the war is a backdrop to that, but it is historical fiction.
You mentioned Saving Private Ryan, have you taken a lot of influence from films and other media to draw into the game?
Actually our biggest influence comes from the guys, the consultants and the operators that we have met and listening to their stories. Looking at their photographs, and the footage they have filmed and the constant feedback process with them has been very strong. But we do take things from the films that we love or TV series like Band of Brothers, Black Hawk Down, the look and feel, the type of mood and tone you want to set for a game, you pull from all sorts of experiences and part of that is film.
The game feels quite cinematic, will there ever be a chance of a Medal of Honor movie?
Gee I don’t know, I’m not a movie maker but if someone wanted to make the movie, I think it would make a good movie; again, because it’s a character story. There’s great moments of high action and intense combat, but there’s also moments of humour, and the human side of things: the guys, what they do and how they keep each other in check, and the banter that goes back and forth. It’s a good story, that tells of the journey that these guys go through.
You talk a lot about the game being character driven, in the promo pictures for Medal of Honor have featured a character called Dusty, and a lot of people have been asking; are you Dusty?
Hahaha, no I’m clearly not, I’m not that manly, no. Dusty is Dusty, and he is great. We actually started growing these beards because we were going to Afghanistan to visit the troops in the spring, but unfortunately for one reason or another the trip got canceled. But we were having fun growing them so we kept them, then the Marketing Director, Craig Owens, came up with the idea of having a beard-a-thon. So now we are being paid and sponsored to grow our beards every week. We go out and people give us money every week to not shave our beards, and then on October 12th in North America when the game ships, if we still have our beards, all that money which we have raised will be matched by EA and given to the Navy Seal Warrior Fund (sealfund.org). It’s a very great charitable organization that gives back to the families of U.S Navy Seals who have been injured in combat. It’s a lot of fun and my wife keeps saying “When are you going to shave you beard and get rid of that thing?” and I keep saying you know, “honey it’s for charity, I’m doing it for a good cause”.
It's official, Gregg Goodrich is not the man on all of the Medal of Honor promotional materials!
Of all the characters in the game, do you have a favourite?
Oh goodness, yes I do. Probably Dusty because he is so closely based on one of our operators, he’s a great character, he’s got a great southern accent. Voodoo is another one of my favourites just because he is the pitbull of the group. He’s always chomping on the bit, pulling on the leash, wanting to go and he’s got a good sense of humor. But he gets “his” from the other guys as well. There is a wonderful moment late in the game where “Mother”, the team leader of AFO Neptune, gives Voodoo his final ribbing because he’s been dishing it out the whole time and it’s really funny. Actually the first time I experienced it in game I couldn’t help but laugh out load, it was really REALLY cool.
Has there been a lot of backlash due to the current use of the warzones?
Recently there has been a bit of talk about that, but I think for the most part, once people see what we’re doing and understand what we’re doing, and understand what Medal of Honor is about, they will see it’s about the guys, the soldiers; who they are, and what they are going through right now. Then I think people will step back and say “oh this is not a game about war or politics, this is not a game about anything other than the guys on the ground and what they’re going through”. The war is a backdrop and I think once people understand that, they get it. But the first initial reaction people have is “why are you doing this? There’s too much insensitivity”, but for example Saving Private Ryan was not a story about World War 2, it was a story about that group of characters and their mission to save that individual and everything else is a backdrop. So our story is similar in that respect. I don’t want to give too much away but initially when you begin the game there is a certain goal, a certain objective and a certain reason why they are there. But then something happens, an event happens that changes everything, everyone who’s involved in the storyline gets wrapped up in a common goal and it becomes the soul focus of everybody on the ground and it’s very different from why they originally went there. But like I said, it’s just about honouring those guys, supporting that community of individuals and then bringing them home.
Another game that caught a lot of attention for it’s use of realistic themes is Modern Warfare 2. Now there’s obviously a lot of comparisons being draw between Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, how do you try to disassociate from them?
Well if people want to compare us to Call of Duty, thank you, they are very good games and our competitors are very VERY good at what they do, and I am a fan of that series, I play that series, so obviously comparisons can be made but we are different in that we focus on authenticity and plausibility; telling the soldier’s story in an authentic way, and that means that the game’s tone is a little bit different and that’s what we offer, something different.
Danger Close want to stand alone in the FPS genre by providing a more authentic shooter experience
Getting back to what we’ve seen today, you showed off the Apache Gun mission, how prominent are vehicles going to be in the game?
In single player we have shown the Apache, we have also shown the ATV in trailers but we’ve not shown the whole mission yet, but we’ve shown some of the gameplay in trailers we’ve put out. The Apache is a rail shooter, but on the ATV you do actually get to drive, but for the most part vehicles in our game are just a way to get to objectives, whether you’re riding on them or driving. After all this is a FPS first and foremost, the majority of our game is you and your gun, and your squadmates doing their thing. we are focusing on the core shooter gameplay.
Apache won't be the only vehicle featured in the game...
Are you allowed to talk about how many hours of gameplay there will be in the game?
There’s been a lot of talk about that recently, I think Craig must of said something about it, I hate being quoted on hours of gameplay because no matter what you say, somebody else could end up finishing the game quicker, or take longer. I’ve seen 8-10 hours being posted but i don’t like to quote on hours because you’re never right. But the great thing about having 2 teams, one focused entirely on single player and the other on multiplayer is you have the opportunity to build a fully fleshed out single player experience because you don’t have to worry about the multiplayer and vice-versa, but what we strive for is that every minute in the game is a good minute and not really worry about some arbitrary clock, but it’s a good length game and it feels right. It feels like I have taken a journey and experienced a great game.
How many classes and weapons will be in the final version of the game?
Oh goodness, well we haven’t announced that yet but we have shown two modes in multiplayer. We’ve shown Combat Mission which is the team/objective based multiplayer as well as the Assault map in the Cobble City ruins, which is more of a straight up deathmatch. We are also showing a new map at Gamescom in the mountain region of Afghanistan, it’s a deathmatch map and people are having a lot of fun, but there’s much more to come, including more modes, more maps but we haven’t announced those yet.
What motivated the decision to split up into two teams and use two different development teams to work on singleplayer and multiplayer?
The decision was made so that we could ensure the Medal of Honor fan got the best of both worlds, you have two teams focusing on what they do best and what they are passionate about we felt we could deliver a better game, it wasn’t the most economical way to do it, but it shows that EA is committed to the product and they care about the product.
The folks that brought you Battlefield Bad Company 2 are working on the multiplayer side of the game
Are you using two different engines?
Yes.
Did you have any problems with that in terms of compatibility?
Well singleplayer is on the Unreal engine and multiplayer is on the Frostbite engine, but we made the decision early on to accept and embrace the differences and not worry about making them look or sound the same, we didn’t want to fool the game into thinking we were trying to pawn them off as the same game when they are clearly not, we just concentrated on making a great game. It’s like chocolate and peanut butter, two great taste that go together.
On the topic of multiplayer, you recently ran a open beta for the games multiplayer, How well did the beta test go and what was the feedback like?
The feedback was really good, in the beta we went through some rough patches especially with the launch on the Xbox, it came out a bit later than the others, but that’s the wonderful thing about betas, broken things are found quite frequently and that’s good, that’s what you want, we want the things that go wrong to be exposed so we can improve upon the product and ship a well polished, finely oiled machine when it’s time to ship the actual game. But like I said, we got a lot of really great feedback and I think here at Gamescom people can really see the improvements which are largely based on the feedback we got back from the beta.
When game finally comes out, the PS3 is getting an exclusive edition of the game, are there any plans for the Xbox 360 or P.C?
There will be a limited addition of the game available or all 3 platforms, it includes an exclusive invite to the Battlefield 3 beta, but as far as our big exclusive edition for the PS3 that comes with Medal of Honor: Frontline, that’s only for the PS3, and that was a game that was launched on the Playstation platform, prior to that the first Medal of Honor was on the Playstation, so we’ve taken that product and we have improved the resolution of the graphics it and done lots of pretty cool things with it for the Playstation community. But we’re doing some other things, some other limited editions and depending on where you pre-order or who you pre-order from, there’s going to be some other things coming down the line as well, but those are the ones we’ve talked about so far.
No Tier 1 editions for 360 or P.C i'm afraid
Will the final game come with a “VIP club” style bonus, like we’ve seen in Battlefield Bad Company 2?
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know what they have planned, there’s so many different editions right now. That would be a question for our Marketing Director, Craig but truthfully I don’t know.
And finally are there any plans to expand the new Medal of Honor franchise beyond this game? Will there be sequels to this etc?
I hope so, if EA allows us to and if the gamers love the game then we’ll certainly keep making them so long as they keep wanting them. It’s been a really cool experience to be able to re-boot the franchise and take it out of World War 2 into modern times and we will see how it goes. Hopefully people will respond well and if they do; then we will keep making em as long as they keep wanting them.
Mr Greg Goodrich, thank you for your time..
Thank you
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