Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2016)

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun is an upcoming first-person shooter video game and the fifteenth installment in the Medal of Honor series. Developed by Canadian video game developer Danger Ice Ahead (for the single-player component), and DICE Los Angeles (on the multiplayer component), and published by Electronic Arts, Rising Sun is a reboot of the 2003 video game of the same name and will be released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on November 23, 2016 in North America, November 25, in Europe, and on November 26 in Japan.

Gameplay
Rising Sun features the gameplay elements of Medal of Honor (2010), and Battlefield 4; the game's heads-up display (HUD) is Medal of Honor (2010) 's, composed of two compact rectangles. New feature have been added; The lower left-hand corner features a mini-map and compass for navigation; the lower right includes a compact ammo counter and health meter, very similar to Battlefield 4 's. The mini-map, as well as the main game screen, shows symbols marking three kinds of entities: green for allies, white for squadmates, and red for enemies.

Players can use dual-scoped weapons, including weapons with different firing modes (e.g. single shots, automatic fire). They can "spot" targets—marking their positions to the player's squad—in the single player campaign (a first in the Medal of Honor franchise) as well as in will have more survival capabilities, such as countering melee attacks from the front while standing or crouching, shooting with their sidearm while swimming, and diving underwater to avoid enemy detection.

Single Player
The single-player campaign was developed by Danger Ice Ahead (a Canadian studio within EA Canada). It has several differences from the main Multiplayer component. For the most part, the player must traverse mini-sandbox-style levels, in some cases using vehicles, like tanks and boats, to traverse the environment. As the player characters; Wrecker, Carol, Ramirez, Rips, and Black, the player can use two Campaign-only functions: the Engage command and the tactical visor. The Engage command directs Wrecker, Carol, Ramirez, Rips and Black's squadmates, and occasionally other friendly units, to attack any hostiles in character's line of sight. The tactical binocular is similar to a laser-designator, in the sense that it that allows the player to identify friendly and enemy units, weapon stashes, explosives, and objectives in the field. By identifying enemies, the player can make them visible without using the visor, making them easier to mark for their teammates.

Multiplayer
Rising Sun 's multiplayer was developed by DICE LA. The setting is in the year 2021. It bares a striking resemblance to Battlefield 4; The head's up display looks the same, but is presented in three different colors; green, red, and white. The multiplayer contains 3 factions, 2 of which are joint forces; Canada & U.S., and Russia & China against the Black Shadow Revelation Front and up to 64 players on PS4, and Xbox One. Players can customize their multiplayer character as either a man or woman. Also players can change their character's skin color.

Battlefield 's "Commander Mode", last seen in Battlefield 4, is featured as a "guest mode" in which one player is given an RTS-like view of the entire map and the ability to give orders to teammates. Also, the Commander can observe the battle through the eyes of the players on the battlefield, deploying vehicle and weapon drops to "keep the war machine going", and order in missile strikes and such on hostile targets (as long as at least one friendly player can see the target).

The multiplayer features see players take on one of five roles: Medic, Semi, Mechanic, Scout, and Blade. The Medic class focuses on assault rifles and healing teammates. The Semi class focuses on light machine guns and supplying ammunition to teammates. The Mechanic class focuses on supporting and destroying vehicles. The Scout class focuses on sniping and spotting enemies. The Blade class focuses on Bows and Aerrows.

Multiplayer modes

 * Conquest – The aim in Conquest is to capture a neutral flag or enemy flags and hold them. Once captured, flags serve as spawn points for both infantry and vehicles. Teams must hold flags and kill members of the opposing team to reduce the enemy ticket count. Once a team ticket count has been reduced to zero, the other team wins.
 * Team Deathmatch – Team Deathmatch is played in an enclosed arena usually surrounded by an 'out of bounds' area. The goal of the game mode is to acquire the amount of kills to match the score limit and thus win the game, the score limit is set by the server and can range from 50 points to well over 500. Team Deathmatch typically contains no vehicles and is thus an entirely infantry based gametype. There are no weapon restrictions, unless imposed by the server. The game mode consists of two sides with a minimum of four players per side on all platforms; consoles have the usual 24-player limit, while PC players can join servers with up to 64 players.
 * Combat Mission – The game mode pits the Away team as the attackers and the Home team as the defenders. The attackers are tasked with blowing up three consecutive PETN caches without running out of tickets, while the defenders are tasked with defending the caches and reducing the attackers' tickets down to zero. The attackers are given 75 tickets to blow up an objective.
 * Domination – The aim in Domination is to capture a neutral flag or enemy flags and hold them. Teams must hold flags and kill members of the opposing team to reduce the enemy ticket count. Once a team ticket count has been reduced to zero, the other team wins. Unlike Conquest, players cannot choose to spawn at flags. They are limited to spawning on their squad members, a squad member's Radio Beacon, or a dynamic deployment location. Also, no vehicles are available. The capture radius of control points is much smaller, and conquering control points takes far less time. All maps include three flags.
 * Capture The Flag – The objective of the game is to capture the opposing team's flag while defending one's own. This can be done by getting in to where the flag is located in the enemy base, taking it, and returning it to the player's base alive. This task is usually much easier said than done, as the opposing team's base is usually heavily defended and players are alerted once a flag is taken from its base, causing the team whose flag was stolen to frantically try to get it back at any cost. Unlike Conquest, Capture the Flag has infinite tickets for each team, but it has a time limit of 15 minutes (or more depending on the server settings), allowing players to score points by capturing flags within that time period. Flags can be held while on any vehicle as well, regardless if it is piloted on land, sea or air. It also does not matter whether the flag-carrier is on the driver or passenger seat of the vehicle as well. This allows for much faster delivering of flags to other bases due to the large nature of the maps playable in the game mode.
 * Carrier Assault –
 * Phase 1: Players start out at their respective carriers where they must then capture missile launchers scattered throughout a map. There are a total of three flags in the small variant and five flags in the large variant, similar to Conquest small and Conquest large. Once captured, the launchers will periodically damage the opposing team's carrier. The missiles hitting the enemy carrier deal 1 percent (1 hit point) of the starting health and the launchers shoots in intervals of 15 seconds. Once a carrier has sustained 50% damage, a message "PREPARE FOR BOARDING" will appear. In around half a minute, its hull will be blown open allowing for the opportunity to board it and destroy it. This will also reset its health bar to the second phase and highlight M-COM A. Alternatively, players may choose not to board the opposing carrier as the missile launchers will still periodically damage it until it is destroyed.
 * Phase 2: After the hull of a carrier has been blown open, players may board either by driving a boat or flying a helicopter to the carrier and climbing aboard, or by paradropping onto it from spawn points above. Once on board, players must then destroy two M-COM stations situated on opposite ends of the carrier. The inside of the carriers consists of a maze of corridors similar to those of the USS Valkyrie in the campaign. The first M-COM is found in the hangar bay of the carrier. Aside from numerous objects that provide cover in the hangar, there is also a walkway that provides an overview of the hangar. Once the first M-COM is destroyed, the doors to the engine room of the carrier where the second M-COM is found will open up soon after. After both M-COMs have been destroyed, the round will end with the losing team's carrier exploding in the background.

Characters and setting
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun takes place in the year 2010 during the Christmas holiday season. The player takes control of SpongeBob SquarePants' cousin SpongeRob "Wrecker" SquarePants in a U.S. special operations squad call signed "Fry-cook". For the remainder, the player alternates between the roles of a Delta Force sniper codenamed "Rips", Staff Sergeant Traci Carol of the 10th Mountain Division, U.S. Army Ranger Second Specialist Meowth Ramirez of the 75th Ranger Regiment, Black of Task Force 60, as well as Boeing AH-64 Apache gunner Corporal Jennifer "Jet" Whitey of the 101st Aviation Regiment and Corporal Zack Wilson, an M1 Abrams tank operator.

Non playable characters accompany the player:


 * Wrecker – SpongeBob “Father” SquarePants, Patrick “Red” Star, & Sandy “Blue” Cheeks.


 * Black – Fox, Eugene “10 Cents” Krabs, Squidward “Tunes” Tentacles, & Spoon.


 * Thumper – Bambi, Milo, Oliver, & Betsy.


 * Rips – Dusty, Rusty, Rolls, Panther, Vegas, Tiger & Angeles.


 * SSgt. Carol – Lt Cpt. John Masters, PSC. Richard Pens, Lan Cpl. Goodsmith.


 * Sec Spc. Meowth Ramirez – Sgt. Jim Patterson, Cpl. Hernandez, Tech Sgt. Raichu, & PFC. Randy Jobs.


 * Cpl. “Jet” White – Gun Fighter 1-0.


 * Cpl. Wilson – Anvil 1-3, & Anvil 1-4.

Other non-playable characters are Colonel P. Dalton; he commands all local assets, and is shown as a cautious and competent officer. He reports to his superior officer General C. West who works in an office in the United States, and codename Timmy.

Development
Just one month after the reboot of the franchise was released, EA CEO John Riccitiello stated that "Consumer feedback has been strong to suggest that we've got a franchise now, once again, that we could successfully and effectively sequel in the future." However, in 2012, Danger Close Games released Medal of Honor: Warfighter which got mixed to overwhelmingly negative reviews. Peter Moore, COO of EA revealed in their Q3 2013 earnings call that due to the game's "poor critical and commercial reception", the Medal of Honor series would be placed on hold. Richard Hilleman, chief creative officer at EA described Warfighter 's poor performance as "an execution problem" caused by a lack of quality leadership. Hilleman stated that while Medal of Honor could make a return, EA's focus would be on the Battlefield series.

Voice cast

 * Tom Kenny – Father
 * Bill Fagerbarkke – Red
 * Carolyn Lawrence – Blue
 * Clancy Brown – 10 Cents
 * Rodger Bumpass – Tunes
 * Troy Baker – Wrecker
 * Chris Fries – Dusty & Rusty
 * Kevin Kilner – Panther
 * Michael Filipowich – Vegas
 * Noam Jenkins – Tiger
 * Missy Peregrym – Traci Carol
 * Michael J. Fox – Meowth Ramirez
 * Eunka Okuma – Jennifer White
 * Eric Johnson – Angeles
 * Gunner Wright – Black
 * Wes Chatham – Thumper
 * Dee Bradley Baker – Dobbs & Wilson
 * Joe Cappelletti – Patterson
 * Daniel Betances – Hernandez
 * Yuri Lowenthal – Raichu

Music
Ramin Djawadi, who composed the score for the previous Medal of Honor instalments, returns, collaborating with Brian Tyler and Hans Zimmer. Linkin Park's "The Catalyst", and "Castle of Glass", Thirty Seconds to Mars' "Kings and Queens" and "Edge of the Earth", Prince's "The Song of the Heart", Kelly Clarkson's "Dark Side", and Gym Class Heroes' "The Fighter" ft. Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, were featured in the end credits of the game, and are slap featured on the soundtrack.

Extended Cut
An Extended Cut of the game was announced in April 2016. The Extended Cut features five auditional campaign missions and extended scenes. In May 2016, EA announced to all who pre-ordered Medal of Honor: Rising Sun: Extended Cut would receive access to the Battlefield 5 beta. The Battlefield 5 beta will not take place until Autumn 2017.

Downloadable Content
Rising Sun will have four downloadable contents (DLC) packs that will include new maps and additions to the gameplay.

Take Back The Light
On June 13, 2016, DICE Los Angeles unveiled Medal of Honor: Rising Sun: Take Back The Light. It was announced that it will be the first expansion pack to be released for Rising Sun and will first debut on the Xbox One. The expansion will feature the return of four fan-favorite maps from the Medal of Honor series.

Krusty Krab vs. Chum Bucket Unleashed
On May 12, 2016, DICE Los Angeles unveiled Medal of Honor: Rising Sun: Krusty Krab vs. Chum Bucket Unleashed on a Battlelog post and stated that it will include two new maps featured at The Krusty Krab and Chum Bucket restaurants, five new assignments, new vehicles, as well as the Carrier Assault gametype.

Battlefield Aftermath
On May 19, 2016, an exclusive two part DLC entitled Medal of Honor: Rising Sun: Battlefield Aftermath was announced on the Battlelog by Danger Ice Ahead. The DLCs feature six Battlefield fan favorite maps and weapons from the Battlefield series.

Dark Winter Operations
In July 2016, DICE LA announced the expansion pack Dark Winter Operations, a free DLC pack for all owners of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. The first map to be released was Zavod: Winter Graveyard shift, a snowy night time version of the Battlefield 4 map Zavod 311, it was released with the Summer 2017 Patch. Two other night maps were announced, a snowy night time version of the Medal of Honor: Warfighter maps Basilan Aftermath, and Darra Gun Market, these would be released at a later date and would only be available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.