Medal of Honor Single-Player

Gunfighter 11 takes a hit and loses her main gun. 06 suggests we RTB. 11 says it would be a shame to RTB without hitting those targets at The Whale, another part of Shahikot packing lots of heat, and in any case she's not quite bingo. "Why don't we try hunter killer?" Wilco.

Later, as 06 and 11 limp home after smashing The Whale ("we nearly melted the barrel"), they come under fire and this time neither of them has a main gun. But it's okay, because the enemy triggerman's head suddenly explodes. "That wasn't me," 06 notes. "Whoever it was, they saved our asses."

Somewhere in the hills, 1050 metres away, the man from the Medal of Honor box with the beard of all beards is spotting for your next character, Deuce, who has just registered a perfect headshot. Beard man, otherwise known as Dusty, says well done, then continues to spot enemies on the opposite side of the valley.

Where the Rangers were cautious but direct, and roaring with adrenaline, and the Apaches were distant and abstract, as though they were watching the war from another room, the Tier One Operators are cold and laid back. Wind six metres east. Hit that guy first. Even when their claymore mines - deployed to provide early warnings at their perimeter - start going off, they're in no rush. They have three claymores - they have time for another shot.

Dusty and Deuce might as well be in another war; they're certainly in another class. Dusty gently reminds Deuce to avoid cliff edges so he's not silhouetted as they crawl along tiny mountainside pathways scoping out their visitors. There are shades of Bad Company 2 as Dusty suggests they draw them out, then divvies up targets with Deuce. They're all dead before they know what hit them.

Dusty phones home and says that he didn't hear the guys speaking Pashto, he heard Chechen, so they're going to rifle through the bodies. Yep, these guys are from somewhere else, and they're packing top of the range kit. "What do you suggest?" asks HQ. Dusty suggests we go kill more of them and see what's what.

But it's not gung-ho. This isn't the video nasty some were worrying about - not yet anyway. We left "Hua" back with the Rangers. Dusty just wants to know what's going on. The Rangers are fighting a war, the Apaches are playing a videogame, but the Tier Ones are just working.

Videogames should be mature enough to tell stories in modern conflicts. The big worry about Medal of Honor was that, having made that case, it wouldn't be able to do so responsibly. It's less of a worry once you've played a stretch of the campaign, although the proof will be in the full thing.

As Dusty and Deuce clamber on, off to see what's next, I'm reminded of something Greg Goodrich said before we started playing: "Our intent is to honour the soldier and do so from their point of view." The contrast between these individuals is already striking.

As for the game built around these characters, the action in Shahikot may be linear and scripted, but it's also varied, interesting and coherent. It's not Call of Duty. We'll find out next month whether that ends up as a compliment.