Medal of Honor Airborne

Levels progress in as linear a fashion as your entrance suggests - that is to say, they're completely freeform. Your objectives can be tackled in any order, and enemies will continue to reinforce those areas for as long as they're not completed, eliminating the older feel of simply having to clear the area and then running around vacuuming up health and ammo-packs before moving on unopposed. Indeed, AI is described as much less scripted than in past Medals of Honor. It's hard to discern exactly how clever it is in a few minutes of play during a crowded E3 showcase (not least given that it was opposite the Rock Band stage), but on one occasion I could swear a pack of Germans attempted to draw my troops into an alleyway. They also attempt to retake positions, we're told.

The other thing about your in-game objectives is that you might not be strong enough to capture them at the first time of asking. You may need to reconsider your pre-level weapon load-out (two main weapons and a side-arm), or simply focus on other objectives to accumulate reward points to upgrade your kit. Upgrades will do things like reduce the amount your SMG's barrel leaps up with each shot. Weapons in general seem to have benefited from more thought, too - the sniper rifle, for instance, now involves squeezing the trigger to stabilise your shot before pulling it the rest of the way to release the bolt. And you thought your digicam skills would go to waste.

Meanwhile, if you get shot (I do - I get shot all the time), you quickly learn that the health system is similar in some senses to Resistance: Fall of Man, with four bars that individually regenerate if they're only partially dented, but disappear completely if taken the whole way down - necessitating the acquisition of a good old-fashioned health-pack.

Interestingly for an E3 demo, the producers are happy to discuss other elements - that it's made up of campaigns like D-Day, an Italian rescue operation and a mass airdrop into Germany at the end, for instance. But most curious of their reveals is what happens in the final mission, Der Flakturm. Flakturme were concrete fortresses designed to stop the Allies gaining aerial control of certain cities, and, if you believe Wikipedia, were effective enough that the Russians didn't bother trying to attack them at all and simply beat the rest of the town up before sending an emissary round later to negotiate the occupants' surrender. Not that you'll be doing that in Airborne, mind. For a start, you're an American called Boyd Travers. And for a second (or maybe an 82nd - ho ho), you'll get to assault one instead, either landing on top of it or falling into the streets around and having to overcome masses of sniper fire on your approach.

In many senses the same, then, Medal of Honor is nonetheless refreshed by its Airborne evolution. With the full game due out in September, it won't be long until we know whether it's refreshing, too.