Patrick Liu
While on a quick trip to show off Medal of Honor’s Multiplayer to Ireland, I had a chance to sit down with its Producer Patrick Liu from Dice. here’s what he had to say concerning Medal of Honor’s Game modes, harking back to the old school and truely balanced gameplay.
Culchie: Was the community feedback from the Beta what you were expected or did it take things in a different direction?
Patrick Liu: Most of the stuff was expected, the cry for more recoil thing was not so much, at first we wanted to make a game that was more accessible but obviously people wanted something more of a hardcore game and we’re fine with that! We love that and we did that!
Culchie: You’ve mentioned how your basic deathmatch mode, Team Assult harks back to old school level design, what aspects do you think have been lost now that maps have become more objective based?
Patrick Liu: Its a lot of different aspects but the flow of the map, you know, the pacing and balance between the different teams. Where they spawn, how they spawn and when they spawn. And the whole vertical gameplay, just looking at some of the stuff we have, the vertical gameplay has been lost in many ways, maybe you have a tower or a ledge that you can grab onto but its not like your navigating complex geometry in a virtual space. Map knowledge, knowing your map, anticipating where your enemies are going to be, you know, being able to shoot a few shoots around a corner where your enemies going to pop up, stuff like that.
Culchie: Being based around games that are 4/5 minutes long is Object Raid is there more of a demand for games that can be quickly played?
Patrick Liu: With the game modes we want to make sure there is something for everyone in terms of how quick it is to get into it, how quick it is to get out of it, how much it plays on skill or how tactical it is. I would say that Object Raid is one end of the scale while Combat Mission is on the other.
Culchie: Speaking of Combat Mission, in terms of telling a story where one team has to win and the other has to loose how do you find a balance in that?
Patrick Liu: I think if you look at other games with asymmetric game modes I think its somethings people accept that you have to be the opposing force. We have story telling for both teams, there’s voice over, what they’re telling each other, there’s a context to what they’re referring to.ts very specific, go take that helicopter to the left of the hill or whatever, so its not generic voice over. There’s the whole environment, whats happening and there’s actually different end scenes for the map depending on who wins, hold off the attackers and you get your own cut scene.
Culchie: Moving on to Hard Core Mode do you think there’s more of a call these days for a less is more approach, taking away the HUD ext?
Patrick Liu: I think so! I think that myself and I think we are seeing a lot of other games going in the other direction still but I’m an old school gamer myself and I prefer the old ways. (Laughs)
Culchie: Last Question, with a lot of games these days being similer in tone and style what makes Medal of Honor different from Bang Bang Shooty Shooty 7?
Patrick Liu: That’s a good way of putting it… That’s another thing I’ve mentioned, going back to be more old school and more scaled back, really to have truly balanced weapons, that no one weapon is over powered while more importantly no weapon is underpowered either. Everything matters, everyone is on the same playing field, its you and your skill and your gun that matters, its not the gear that you have unlocked, of course the variety in the game modes. We are very confident in our studio that we have awesome multiplayer games.
