
	Platform Xbox Genre Shooter Publisher VU Games Developer 2015 ESRB M (Mature) Released October 2004

- Strong story with accurate history - Charismatic characters - Places you in the middle of the action better than any other Vietnam game

- Someone tell me where the AI went? - On par with the Medal of Honor games – back in 2000 - Lackluster missions and tedious tasks - Relies heavily on “run and shoot” tactics

Review: Medal of Honor - Frontline (XB) Review: TRON 2.0 - Killer App (XB) Review: GoldenEye - Rogue Agent (XB) Review: Halo 2 (XB)
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Men of Valor

Score: 6.8 / 10

After conquering the World War II scene four years ago, developer 2015 went hard to work to try and bring the Vietnam era alive using some of their unique talents. Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault gave 2015 instant renown. Soon after, 2015’s core team broke apart leaving the team without most of their lead designers. With a new team and new attitude, Men of Valor was made to show that the core group still has the same magic of bringing past wars to life. Whilst Men of Valor is by no means on the same level as the Medal of Honor series, it still is an above average action title.

Men of Valor’s strengths lie mostly in its presentation and cinematic gameplay. As soon as you jump into the game you’ll notice the similarities to the Medal of Honor series in character animation, story telling, and gameplay.

The game starts the player off as Dean Shepard, a marine who gets thrown into the war unexpectedly. The opening sequences of Men of Valor are eerily

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reminiscent of the Medal of Honor series, delivering long conversations and history lessons before the mission. The game quickly jumps into action, following a series of training missions and in-game cinematics, but it isn’t long after the action begins that you want it to end.

Men of Valor may have hit the spot artistically and graphically, but technically the game

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missed the target. The most apparent of which are the AI gaffes. Jumping into battle your allies will run forth and just start shooting with great skill, which isn’t a problem at first, leaving you with few targets to pick off during each battle. On the other side, the enemy AI uses one tactic and one tactic alone in nearly every battle in the game: camouflage. During the game you will shoot at shrubbery covered enemies who don’t know how to shoot and almost always stand directly behind a tree, which makes them easy to spot because you’ll know where to look, or stand in the middle of the battlefield for an easy kill.

The other weakness of Men of Valor is its striking resemblance to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Aside from the jungle setting, different tunes, and massive cursing – the game plays and feels just like Medal of Honor. What 2015 didn’t do was add any more flavor to their already award-winning design and technology, they simply built off the old adage of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Although the system they use for Men of Valor will appeal to fans of first-person shooters, those who have experience titles such as Half-Life 2, Halo 2, and even Medal of Honor will find Men of Valor lacking in difficulty and overall polish.

The missions suffer the same lack of shine causing most of the game’s levels frustrating rather than enjoyable. The weakness of the enemy and team AI makes going through missions as hard as shooting cardboard targets, which is what most missions will have you do from start to end.

Men of Valor gives off a feeling of incompleteness and forces gamers toask “So this is what you’ve been doing all this time 2015?” Men of Valor does a great job delivering Vietnam history and delivering a believable story with plenty of atmosphere, but the bad outweighs the good by a long shot. Gamers should look towards Vietcong: Purple Haze for a better rendition of how the battles were fought during Vietnam, so if you’re looking for more than a flashy history lesson, take your time and money elsewhere.

- Eric Lahiji
(January 26, 2005)