Vehicle Combat

Lore & Background

In the campaign narratives of the Medal of Honor series, vehicle combat sequences place the player inside the world of armored warfare as it was experienced by the soldiers the games dramatize. A tank crew advances through a hedgerow or a dusty road, a jeep convoy threads a narrow valley, or a helicopter gunner sweeps a valley floor—each vignette is a compressed, high-intensity slice of a larger battle the player has been fighting on foot.

The design philosophy behind these segments is rooted in the franchise's emphasis on historical authenticity and cinematic pacing. The vehicles are not toys to be explored at will; they are tools the player wields for a few minutes, then sets aside. The turret ring, the periscope, the rumble of the engine—these sensory details ground the player in the physical reality of operating a war machine, a contrast to the handheld rifle work that fills the rest of each mission.

Across the titles from 2010 onward, the vehicle segments have grown in variety. The 2010 reboot introduced a notable tank-driving passage that let the player feel the weight and speed of a heavy vehicle on the battlefield. Warfighter expanded the concept with helicopter gunner sequences that added a vertical dimension to the combat. Above and Beyond continued the pattern with jeep and other vehicle passages, keeping the mechanic as a recognizable beat in the campaign's rhythm.

In Their Own Story

The diesel coughs to life and the turret ring groans under your palms. Through the narrow periscope slit, the road ahead is a corridor of churned mud and shattered hedgerow, and the muzzle flash of a German 88 somewhere to the left paints the sky orange for a heartbeat. You twist the drive control. The tank lurches forward, the whole hull shuddering, and the world outside the slit compresses into a thin ribbon of grey-green. A flash of tracer stitches the air to your right. You swing the turret—slow, deliberate, the gears grinding—and line the crosshair on the muzzle flash. One round. The shell kicks the barrel back and the ground under the tracks shudders. The road is clear for another two hundred metres. You ease the throttle and let the diesel idle, listening to the tick of cooling metal and the distant, muffled crackle of a firefight you can't see. Then the radio crackles, a barked order, and you're moving again, the world narrowing to that thin slit of light and the smell of hot oil.

Reader's Guide

Vehicle Combat is a scripted gameplay segment in Medal of Honor's single-player campaigns, most prominently featured in Medal of Honor (2010), Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2013), and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond (2020), all developed by EA Los Angeles.

In practice, the player is placed in the driver's seat or gunner position of a tank, jeep, or helicopter for a linear stretch of a mission. You steer the vehicle along a defined path, manage speed, and aim the main gun or machine gun at enemy positions, vehicles, and structures that appear in your line of fire. The controls are simplified compared to a dedicated vehicle sim: a left stick or analog input for steering, a trigger for firing, and a secondary input for speed or turret rotation. The sequence ends when you reach a set point, at which point you dismount and resume on-foot combat.

What distinguishes this from vehicle gameplay in other FPS titles is the brevity and scripting. In games like Call of Duty or Battlefield, vehicles are often a persistent, open-world element you can hop in and out of freely. In Medal of Honor, the vehicle is a set piece: a few minutes of armored, mobile firepower that serves as a tonal and mechanical contrast to the infantry sequences that bookend it. The design intent is cinematic pacing—giving the player a moment of scale and kinetic energy before returning them to the intimate, close-quarters gunplay the franchise is built on.

The player experience is one of controlled power. The tank feels heavy and deliberate; the helicopter feels fast and exposed. You are not exploring; you are executing a short, violent passage through the battlefield, and the satisfaction comes from the contrast with the foot-soldier segments that follow.

Did You Know?

• The vehicle combat segments in Medal of Honor are always scripted and linear; the player never freely roams a vehicle across an open map the way they might in a Battlefield title.
• The 2010 Medal of Honor reboot, developed by EA Los Angeles, included a tank-driving sequence that let the player feel the weight and momentum of a heavy armored vehicle on a battlefield road.
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2013) expanded the vehicle concept to include a helicopter gunner perspective, adding a vertical, airborne dimension to the franchise's vehicle combat.
• In Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond (2020), the player operates a jeep in a driving segment, continuing the franchise's tradition of brief, scripted vehicle interludes within the infantry campaign.