As the genre of real-war based games has evolved, developers have realised the need to use different aspects of the conflicts in order to better place their products. The choices have ranged from changing timelines (Iron Storm), to sacrificing realism for hectic non-stop action (Call of Duty). The most recent, and probably most interesting and exciting trend, is the combination of action with realism. Games such as Medal of Honor: Rising Sun may have referenced historical battles (Pearl Harbor) but have used these events merely to provide a basic background for the game.
The recently delayed Shellshock Nam '67 however, has introduced a new concept, that of the shift from a heroic and flawless main character to a more human protagonist, one who is prone to mistakes and whose priority is to survive the conflict whatever the cost.
Gearbox has, so far, been known mainly for its uncanny ability to help publishers and developers with ports of their titles. Half-Life, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, James Bond, Counter-Strike and Halo are just some of the games they have worked on. It was therefore necessary for the company to utilize its considerable skills and experience in order to help create a franchise title. In order to do this in the best possible way, Gearbox has gone to extreme lengths as far as resources and time, have been concerned.
Extensive Research
Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford provides a short list in order to give a sense of the immensity of the task and the dedication of the developers to providing an authentic experience.
Here’s a list of things that members of the development team have done for research. This is a partial list and I’m a bit worried about talking about all of it because a lot of people and organizations have helped us and taught us because they believed in our sense of obligation to deal with the subject matter as authentically as we can, not because we did this research for marketability reasons:
-Sorties to Normandy, France to walk the battlefields, map them out, gather photo source, etc. Of course, our military advisor had to go during the same time of year as the invasion – on and around June 6. He spent a week there with a gentleman who is regarded by historians as the leading authority on the 101st Airborne during WW2.
-Lots of time at the National Archives in Washington DC. Anyone who’s done any research there knows the magnitude of this. They have a surprising number of large metal crates full of photos and maps and reports. On one visit, Brian located the actual crusty, old After Action Reports type written by S.L.A. Marshall in 1944 that he used to document the paratrooper’s pivotal role in the D-Day invasion. We’ve digitized the documents and are considering how to get them published (S.L.A. Marshall is a reference in just about every serious book about the invasion and I highly recommend his excellent book, Night Drop).
-Examination and cataloguing of thousands of US Army Signal Corps photos and veteran’s photos.
-Study of aerial reconnaissance photographs and military maps – the same exact sources the soldiers used to memorize the battlefields and plan their strategies and tactics for each objective.
-Working with a military expert, a historian, an airborne ranger and war history author that provided us with months of master’s degree level courses in military tactics and war history.
-A field training exercise managed by an active duty US Army Colonel that was designed to teach our development team combat tactics, formations, leadership and combat. We dug foxholes, marched to cadence, rehearsed battle drills, hand signals and formation calls and engaged in simulated combat of some of the battles from the game.
-Visits to the following museums: National D-Day Museum and National WW2 Museum in New Orleans (excellent museum and is worth a visit for anyone interested in the subject matter); Lots of time at the Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen with Dr. Atwater as a host – Dr. Atwater is amazing and he really cares about the importance of what he’s doing – He helped us digitize weapons that civilians normally would not have access to; Visits to several of the Museums in Normandy, France – The history there is awe inspiring; A visit to the Patton Museum at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Definitely worth a visit; There’s a museum at the military base in Ft. Hood, TX where pretty much every tank I’ve ever heard of is parked in the fields – we climbed all over these things taking photographs and examining every square inch; The Smithsonian Institute, of course. There are great public displays in the Smithsonian American History Museum; A bunch of other places that I’m not able to go into detail on.
-Amongst us, we’ve read more than 500 books on the subject of paratroopers, D-Day, US Army infantry tactics, weapons, uniforms and vehicles, the German forces, their tactics and equipment and many other subjects related to war. I’ve personally read at least 100 books on the subject over the last three years and am now starting to feel a real command over the information and the subject matter. I bet I could teach a master’s degree on the subject… Short list of recommended reading: "Currahee!" by Donald Burgett, "Citizen Soldier" and "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose, "Voice of D-Day" by Gerald Astor and "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan.
-Extensive use of eyewitness accounts, personal and transcript interviews with veterans (even my Grandfather, Wid Fansler, a WW2 veteran who served in the US Army Signal Corps. He’s interesting because he signed up in 1939 - most signed up or were recruited after Pearl Harbor. He retired with a rank of Lt. Col.)
-A bunch of us went to a CALFEX (Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise) and witnessed and recorded what the spectacles of warfare look and sound like. I was in NY in 1986 during the 4th of July celebration of the centennial of the Statue of Liberty (probably the most intense fireworks display of all time – including the recent millennium craziness) – that was NOTHING compared to what it’s like to watch a tank blow up another tank.
We’ve gone out to the gun ranges a bunch of times to fire the weapons and Foley the sounds. Anyone who’s ever fired an M1 Garand (or any sighted rifle for that matter) knows why the blurry iron sights up close feels correct and why the sounds in Brothers in Arms feel so natural. Also, anyone who’s fired an M1 Garand and a German K-98 back to back knows the advantages the standard US rifle team had over the standard German rifle team. Of course, then we have to think about the German MG-42 – the German infantry squad tactics were centered around the machine gun…
Are you still reading this list? Think about this if you’ve read this far – Each item on this list represents 100’s of man-hours of effort towards the authenticity of Brothers in Arms… The crazy thing is that I can say with sincerity that game or no game, the experience I’ve had with this material was very much worth my time and is worth the study by anyone who chooses to dive into the material.
A Tale of Brothers