Medal of Honor – Don't Call Me Rabbit

Medal of Honor is the new first person shooter from developers Danger Close and DICE and publisher Electronic Arts, taking the player to the battlefields of Afghanistan and putting him in the dessert combat boots of a variety of characters that engage the Taliban after the events of September 11, 2001.

Let me show you about a number of call signs: Vegas, Deuce, Dusty, Rabbit, Mother, Panther, Preacher, Voodoo.

See if you can spot those that the new Medal of Honor assigns to the player controlled characters.

The rule of thumb is simple for the latest first person shooter offering from developers Danger Close and publisher Electronic Arts: choose the most that sounds less like it identifies a tough and skilled Special Forces operative.

The first Ranger whose body you inhabit is called Rabbit, which would be pretty cool if he was the captain of his high school football team and he was known for his speed.

When facing huge numbers of Taliban and Chechen fighters that protect some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world the call sign Rabbit fails to impress, especially when in the company of Mother, Voodoo and Preacher, all of them chosen to convey a sense of wisdom and coolness when threatened.

It gets marginally better when playing Deuce, although the name is also slang for something less than family friendly, but then your main partner is Dusty, a man that combines a sense of the Old West with a mighty beard to make the player feel even more like a beginner.

And this paternalistic tone permeates the entire Medal of Honor experience, with other characters talking down to the playable persona, calling him “son” when he needs some more ammo (where do they keep it all?) and making it pretty clear that the others are calling the shots and deciding how the missions will go.

It's not a bad idea to cast the player as the rookie and give him a fresh perspective on events but it's bad to always make him feel like that guy on the team who's left out of the important decisions and will never get the cool nickname.