With the "start anywhere" feature in Medal of Honor: Airborne, you no longer fade up from black or out of a cut scene at the start of a level. Nor do you run along a rail to the final objective; you choose where to begin your experience. Even more importantly, if you are curious about what might have happened had you started somewhere else in the operation, you can jump again and choose a new starting location…and again, and again, and again. Personally, I've played some of our levels hundreds of times and I still have a new experience every time. The development team had hoped for some replayability when we started down this road, but it has massively exceeded our expectations.

As with many features found in Medal of Honor Airborne, the airdrop experience and resulting "start anywhere" feature was inspired by the experience of real paratroopers. Airborne paratroopers in World War II were assigned drop zones (DZs) where their plane was directed to take them in order to jump. In our game, for the sake of gameplay, you have more choice as to where you drop into. Often during real paratrooper operations the Airborne were left scattered all over the place, sometimes a dozen miles away from the DZ or more!

Here's an example of "start anywhere" in application. Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, with its dense housing, provides several tactically advantageous landing positions for players to choose from. One place you can choose to land is the town hall roof. This landing spot is at the head of the beast; there is a lot of resistance here. You have very little time after hitting the ground to react and start engaging the Axis troops. Immediately, you have four troops in your sights. The good news is that you have one of your objectives, the antiaircraft gun, within grasp.