Above and Beyond is a game bathed in nostalgia for where the franchise came from while also implementing VR interaction in both thoughtful and visceral ways throughout.
With Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, Respawn Entertainment took the reigns of the series to not only move it forward with entry into the VR space, but return it back to the dramatic World War 2 setting where it all began. The franchise faded into obscurity as nearly everything that came after failed to capture the same lightning. Games that followed would continue to up the ante on what the franchise could do with arguably the climax being Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. My grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor, so perhaps this just resonates a little more with me than it will for you, but I suppose my initial impression of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond can be summarized as such: come for the high-production World War II first-person shooter VR experience, stay for the vital interviews with some of the Second Great War’s last surviving heroes.Back in 1999, Medal of Honor set the stage on the PS1 for dramatic military shooters. This is admittedly one of the strangest first looks I’ve ever had at a game in that I’m more excited for a non-game part of the package than anything else. I hope they find their way online in some fashion so that as many people can see them as possible. I don’t mean this as a criticism of the game, but instead as an incredible compliment to what Respawn is doing with the filmed real-life veteran interviews. I get what Hirschmann and his team are going for – they want to add historical context for what you’re doing in the game – but with Above and Beyond intentionally leaning more “game-y”, it’s a bit of a disconnect to then watch a very moving real-life tale. To the point that, as an initial impression, it greatly overshadowed the video game, which you have to play in order to unlock each of the veterans’ stories. “It was an emotionally powerful moment, even just in the clip I was shown. The two met for the first time and each shared his perspective on that day. It was the first time he’d told his story, and not only that, Respawn and their film production crew introduced the veteran to a Frenchman, also in his late-80’s or 90’s at this point, who lived on the farm where the American crashed and witnessed it as a teenager. the day after) returned to the field where he was shot down by the Germans. I saw a clip of one of these, in which a veteran serviceman who flew a glider into Normandy on D-Day +1 (i.e. The studio tracked down a number of surviving WWII veterans – all of which are in their 90’s today – and didn’t just interview them about their military service, but they went so far as to fly them back to Europe and to the exact place where their most memorable war moment took place.
But where it might’ve been a photograph scanned into a bonus menu in the old games, here Respawn has laudably gone much, much farther. As was a tradition in the early Medal of Honor games, Above and Beyond includes real-world unlockable WWII content. And that’s what makes Above and Beyond’s live-action documentary-style B-side such a confusing complement. Game director Peter Hirschmann (who, in a heck of a full-circle career moment, worked on the original Medal of Honor back in the late ‘90s) emphasized that Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is meant to be a fun video game first, rather than a simulation or direct historical recreation. YES NOThe missions are inspired by World War II events, but they’re not direct recreations of them.
And it is pretty neat that you can pull the pin out of a grenade with your teeth by raising the held grenade to your mouth. Some weapons can be held with two hands, upping their accuracy. In the former, you’re taught the basics, albeit in VR. I played a training level and a couple of missions.
The new Medal of Honor takes place over three Acts made up of many missions each, and the Respawn team says the campaign lasts 10-12 hours – a lot by VR standards. Its release date, for now, is the very vague “2020.”
But what you probably wouldn’t have imagined is that it’s a VR game that’s exclusive to Oculus Rift (it is, in fact, published by Oculus Studios). Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is a World War II first-person shooter, as you’d expect. Respawn Entertainment, makers of Apex Legends, Titanfall, and the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, is turning its attention to one of new-ish parent company EA’s veteran (but dormant) properties. Medal of Honor is back in a way you probably didn’t expect.