Men of Valor Review

Originally published 2004-11-18 by Henley.

Publisher: Vivendi Universal Developer: 2015 October 26th, 2004 Rated “M” for Mature

Minimum System Requirements DirectX® 9.0c-compliant 64 MB 3D video card with hardware T&L and pixel shader support, Microsoft® Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP operating system, 1.3 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD® Athlon™ processor or equivalent, 256 MB RAM , 500 MB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files, DirectX® 9.0c (included), DirectX®-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones, 4X CD-ROM drive, Microsoft®-compatible mouse, keyboard, Broadband/LAN, DSL or faster Internet connection for online play.

Recommended System Specs Microsoft® Windows® XP, ATI® Radeon™ 9600 or NVIDIA® GeForce 5700 DirectX® 9.0c compliant 128 MB 3D video card with hardware T&L and pixel shader support or equivalent, 2.8 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD® Athlon™ or faster processor, 512 MB RAM or more, 24X or faster CD-ROM drive, For Dedicated Multiplayer Server: Broadband connection for 12 player maximum, T1 connection for 24 player maximum.

Lately a lot of different war games have come out. Call of Duty and its Expansion, Battlefield Vietnam, Men of Valor, and the one just around the corner (Medal of Honor Pacific Assault), and you will notice that every one of them has a different feel to it. Take Call Of Duty for example, you always have troops behind you and you will never know everyone’s name, that gives you a feeling that your part of a larger force not a small squad.

But Men of Valor (MOV) is possibly the most different of them all, never in a war game has racism been an issue “I figured if I team up with you colored folk I wont get a bullet in my hide” is one of the few comments you hear in the game and its most noticeable at the start.

First Impressions

MOV begins with an extremely good looking intro video, it shows a squad of men casually walking down a path in Vietnam when there is a crack under the leaders boot, he looks down to find he’s stepped on a bobby trap, and he goes boom. After that great lead in, I was greeted with a fairly plain main menu. The first thing I do when I get a new game is I rush into the options menu; Video menu has all of the features you would expect, but is nothing out of the ordinary; Audio however is lacking some of the more advanced options. Finally, the single player menu is something that needs a touchup as well, because it was very confusing for me at first.

Controls and Game Play

I have been playing Call of Duty for a while now and I can safely say that they have done it right, and in comparison MOV sadly doesn’t quite cut it. For example, no matter what button you set crouch or prone to, it will always get on your nerves, as you can’t just hit jump to get back on your feet (believe me you will notice that). Instead, you have to press crouch again to stand up, or prone again to get back on your feet. Seriously it just doesn’t work. Strafing has also been disabled while you are looking down the gun sights. This has been replaced with a lean movement, which works ok, but it can get annoying from time to time. The most annoying control (or lack of) is the lack of a quick save. Since the game has been split into missions that you can access at a later time, someone over at VU Games decided that it was not needed, they were wrong. Missions go for a long time, and save places are too far apart. This requires you to redo a mission over and over again until you get it right, which no one likes. If you need a break and your halfway through a mission, don’t quit or you will need to start from the beginning again.

One of the first things I have noticed in playing this game is that you have to stop and bandage your self every time you get shot. It was working at the start, it worked very well at the start, but it gets on your nerves as the game continues. Running along during your mission and boom you get shot. You bandage it. You continue running and your shot again. You again have to stop and bandage it or risk losing heaps of health. I just ended up running through most parts of the mission holding down the bandage button. I scream at the thought of it. Also your health and ammo both go down quickly during a firefight, and you always find your self searching the dead enemies for supplies. However, they never carry your ammo, their guns suck, and their bodies disappear quickly so that most of the time you never find that health pack your so badly needing.

Graphics and Audio

The graphics is the part of the game where you will be most impressed as they are stunning, especially the fire which is a big part of any war game. Explosions are over the top (just how I like ‘em). Characters in the game look great, as do the guns. Animations are fantastic, but the breaks to the cut scenes that are within the missions can get annoying. If you’re not in the right place the scene won’t start, and if you’re to far off you get pulled in automatically and that looks…… well retarded. Apart from that, the graphics kick ass, and it is only the small things that need to be touched up although it is the small things that annoy you the most sometimes.

Never in my gaming history have I heard so much swearing from people on your team, and though I enjoy a little bit of swearing here and there, its almost like 24/7. I won’t repeat any of the stuff said in the game, mainly because I am not allowed to. On the positive side, the other audio bits rock. Explosions are big and loud (perfect for surround sound), and the music suits the mood perfectly. Overall I think the sound is one of the better aspects of this game.

Verdict

Annoying controls, stupid game play and a lot of unwanted features makes this game feel anything like a war game instead it feels more like a company’s idea to make a quick buck. If you want a decent war game try Call of Duty and its expansion United Offence they got just about everything right, but if your looking for a decent game from the Vietnam war time try Vietcong, its old but it the best one to date. Maybe MOV will fix most of these problems in a Patch in the near future, we can only hope.

Score (Out of Ten):

Game Play: 4/10 Graphics: 6/10 Audio: 8/10 Features: 4/10

Overall: 4/10

Pass: Too Many Problems with controls and features makes the game more annoying than fun.