ar-based video games have been overabundant in the last couple of years.  There are war games available for every system, and most historical wars like World War I and II have almost been completely beaten to death, as have the number of conflicts in the Middle East.  This year it seems that the Vietnam War is the number one war setting, and we’ve already seen the Battlefield franchise go there.  This year Vivendi Universal will be releasing Men of Valor for the Xbox and PC.  While some of you out there need another war title like a hole in your head, there are reasons to why we feel Men of Valor is one title to keep your eye on.

Men of Valor is currently being developed by 2015, who brought Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault to the PC, and is based on the Unreal engine.  You play as Dean Shepard, an African-American Marine who is stationed in Vietnam.  When starting out the game, historical footage and pictures much like you’d see on the History Channel set up the action, and then Dean reads the letters that he wrote home, which more or less brief you on your next mission, as well as give you an insight into Dean’s back story, as well as how he feels about the war.

The first mission we saw has Dean and his crew being transported on top of an APC near a village.  While the GIs talk back and forth, they come across bull that’s blocking the road.  After a bit of arguing with the villagers that are trying to help move the bull, one of the squad mates attempts to speed up the process and accidentally sets off a land mine, reducing him to a smear on the windshield.  Within moments the squad find themselves smack in the middle of sniper fire.  These types of scripted events, while very reminiscent of the Medal of Honor series, are well directed, and really portray the setting realistically.

The single-player element will have thirteen missions that will contain 65 maps.  When most people think of the Vietnam War, they instantly think that everything plays out in the jungle.  While Men of Valor will have plenty of thick jungles environments, you’ll also have missions that play out in cities, tunnels, villages, house to house/bungalow to bungalow, rice patties, and rivers. Vehicles will play a big part in combat, but perhaps not how you’d think.  You will be able to man stationary turrets, fire miniguns from a helicopter, as well as blast away from jeeps and rafts.  While you won’t be able to actually pilot any of these vehicles, this should mix up the gameplay elements a bit.

Controls are your average Xbox FPS control scheme, but one slight addition has been made.  By pressing the left trigger, you’ll be able to use precision aim.  What this does is pulls the butt of the rifle in tighter into your shoulder, which will allow you to get a better bead on your enemies.  Men of Valor will also incorporate site specific shooting, so where you shoot your enemy (or where you get shot) will reflect how much damage is caused.  Say you only got shot in the leg and the arm -­ that won’t kill you.  But, if you got shot in the chest, and then in the arm, that will kill you.  Plus, if you get hit in the arm, that will affect how accurately you can shoot, as well as taking bullet in the leg will affect how quick you can move.

Visually Men of Valor is decent.  While the environments, particle effects, and explosions are fantastic, the character models seem slightly drab. This version was pre-Alpha, and fortunately the team does have quite a bit of time to tweak the visuals.  For those playing this game in high definition, the Xbox version will support both widescreen and 480p.

You’ll play along side your squad, your commanding officer will dole out your squads orders, and you’ll hear quite a bit of battle chatter between squad members, and other NPCs in the game. There will be a hefty amount of conversation between you and your squad mates, and as can be imagined, war ain’t pretty, and neither is some of the dialogue.  Men of Valor is a mature rated title, and you’ll hear loads of trash talking, cursing, and the like throughout your battle. There were 250 lines of dialog recorded for the game, which should help the repetition factor that plagues some games that utilize voice acting.  The game will also feature eight licensed songs from the time period, featuring such artists as James Brown and Wilson Pickett.  Even though the build we witnessed was still early, the audio design is absolutely brilliant, and should really immerse the player into the game.  For those that have the additional technology, the Xbox version will also support Dolby Digital as well as DTS.

While the single player element in Men of Valor is fully loaded, 2015 didn’t skimp on the multiplayer features either.  Men of Valor will be Xbox Live enabled, and you’ll be able to play the entire single player campaign cooperatively with two people.  For the other multiplayer modes, they’re aiming to have up to 16 people be able to duke it out in the various modes, yet that still is to be determined. There will be a number of multiplayer modes, including your more traditional modes like deathmatch and team deathmatch.  There will also be two different capture the flag variants – search and destroy, and capture the documents.  Finally Men of Valor will have an objectives mode, where teams will battle on maps based on historical encounters that took place during the Vietnam war, and players will attempt to accomplish various mission objectives.  There will be 7 player classes for each side in multiplayer only, and these vary from the beefy heavy machine gunner, infantry, demolitions, and more.  There are also plans for downloadable content, yet what these features will be hasn’t been determined.  Whether or not Men of Valor will incorporate some of the upcoming new Xbox Live features is still being worked out with the team. 

The Xbox version of Men of Valor is surprisingly the lead version, but the PC version will have everything that the Xbox version has, including voice support and the ability to view the game at a higher resolutions.

Since the United States didn’t win the Vietnam War, making a game about this era is definitely a challenge, but I believe 2015 is on the right path.  With an engaging story, a deep single player and multiplayer experience, and interesting combat elements, Men of Valor could end up being a big hit for Vivendi Universal and 2015.

Men Of Valor will be released on the Xbox and PC this October.