Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond (2020) was set to be the storied franchise’s first big push into virtual reality when it launched in late 2020, offering up some of its characteristic WWII combat missions alongside what hoped to be a robust online multiplayer. Now, less than three years since launch, EA’s Respawn Entertainment say they’re pulling the plug on multiplayer.
Arguably the best part of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond was its online multiplayer, but that’s going to change before year’s end. The developers quietly posted this message on the game’s Quest page, appended above its original description:
“Multiplayer will be unavailable starting on December 1, 2023.”
The studio hasn’t provided any reasoning beyond the short message, although it’s fairly clear why the developers don’t want to pay for server space anymore. The well-funded and much hyped Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond suffered a pretty rocky launch, and never managed to gain the sort of sustained support either the developer Respawn Entertainment or Meta’s in-house publisher Oculus Studios were aiming for.
Originally released on the Oculus PC platform and SteamVR headsets back in December 2020, EA’s Respawn Entertainment was hoping to make a splash with its first VR-exclusive entry into the franchise, having worked on the WWII shooter for three years before launch. At $60 on PC VR when it first released, requiring a massive 180GB to install, expectations were set for what promised to be a true ‘AAA’ VR shooter. Alas, the game suffered from a host of issues at launch, which ranged from usability to gameplay polish, essentially rendering it a costly flop.
Still, Respawn and Meta (then Facebook) pushed through the game’s middling launch on PC VR by slimming down the game to fit on Quest 2, offering up its eight-hour campaign and online multiplayer to a wider audience a year after it launched on Rift and Steam. In an effort to win back good will, the studio even reduced the price to $40 and slimmed down the file size on Quest to fit on the headset’s 64GB variant.
That said, you probably still won’t see a lot of love for Medal of Honor: Above andBeyond—certainly not on the scale of the now dearly departed Echo VR, Meta’s own VR sports game which was shuttered earlier this month. Medal of Honor VR’s last update was in late 2021, basically showing the studio abandoned the game long before it decided to shut down servers just short of its three-year anniversary since launch.
While this isn’t the first MoH title to see the axe, it is the youngest among the group. EA deprecated online support for a number of MoH titles in February 2023, including Medal of Honor (2010), Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2012) and Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007)—all of which benefitted from wide support across PC, Xbox and PS consoles throughout their tenure.
The fact that Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond runs on Quest 2 at all is a miracle, but it doesn’t change the core issues at the heart of an otherwise decent shooter. Read on for our Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond Oculus Quest review!
When we first reviewed Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond on PC VR headsets in 2020, we said this:
“If you’re eager to dive into a VR version of WWII with exciting set piece moments, authentic historical footage, and an addictively fun online multiplayer mode, then you should come away satisfied. But if you were looking for an immersive narrative wrapped up in a cutting-edge evolution of VR game design with expert pacing — don’t hold your breath.”
There was a lot of hype behind what would be one of Oculus Studios’ final blockbuster PC VR releases, especially in the wake of other hits like Half-Life: Alyx and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. And Above and Beyond certainly delivered on some fronts. The game had good — if not especially advanced — weapon handling, cinematic moments you wouldn’t find in many other VR games and a wealth of content between its campaign and multiplayer offerings. But it was also held back by sluggish pacing that constantly interrupted the player and simplistic level design that often focused on bite-sized missions that were over before you knew it. Moving to Quest doesn’t do much to absolve the game’s campaign of those issues.
Campaign
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond Oculus Quest 2 Review- The Facts
What is it?: A standalone version of last year’s blockbuster PC VR shooter, taking players on missions across the globe during WW2, with multiplayer to boot Platforms: Oculus Quest 2, PC VR Release Date: Out Now Price: $39.99
I was still struck but just how slow the game’s opening in particular is, in which you’re thrown into endless cutscene after cutscene, with just a few minutes of gameplay interspersing another lengthy group dialogue section. Some of these moments do offer interesting snippets of VR storytelling, but they’re also strangely placed and, even though the game promises 10+ hours of action, it’s significantly padded with these moments.
All of this makes for a campaign that’s difficult to really settle into. You’re either itching to get a cutscene out of the way and get back into the fight, or left wishing that last level had stretched out just a bit longer – the constant stopping and starting really disrupts the flow. You can now skip cutscenes but you’re going to remove a lot of the game’s context and you’ll still spend time hopping between loading screens. It’s more of a foundational issue than something that can simply be solved just by ignoring the story.
Having said all of that, it’s also true that you won’t find many other shooter campaigns on Quest with this much scope and variety. Medal of Honor’s campaign takes you around the world with missions that try to offer something new, be it vehicle segments, sniping missions or otherwise, and you definitely get a much more rounded feeling of it being a ‘full’ game comparable to something on consoles. In that respect it’s very much a bar raiser, but here’s hoping to next game to match its production can also raise the stakes when it comes to gameplay, too.
Multiplayer
Still, you might remember our review last year was significantly more positive about the game’s multiplayer segment and, again, that’s all intact here. Above and Beyond offers clean, accessible multiplayer modes that are incredibly easy to hop right into, with five game types across levels retooled from the campaign. Here the game’s flow picks up considerably, with arena-style, fast-fire matches. You’ll find health and grenade pick ups around the map and can pick from pretty much any weapon up-front. Modes are mostly standard except for Mad Bomber, which utilizes VR by having players hide bombs where they can and try to blow others up with them as they search for the opponents’ explosives too.
It’s a brilliantly frantic mode that really shows Respawn thinking outside the box in a way other areas of the game are lacking. And, more generally speaking, the lack of fuss around the multiplayer — easy quick match options etc — makes it a great draw for first-time competitive VR play.
The trouble is this offering is very light, with no reward systems to keep players coming back. Granted there’s a heavy demand for campaign-driven, single-player content in VR, but it certainly feels like Above and Beyond would have been a better sell as a multiplayer-first shooter. With a progression system and promise of post-launch support to come, this could have been the perfect AAA competitive shooter for those that don’t want the tactical difficulties of Onward but also don’t fancy the Fortnite-inspired action of Population: One. But given it’s likely we won’t see any new post-launch content for the game whereas VR’s other shooters are all refreshed pretty much around the clock, the multiplayer doesn’t fully make up for the campaign’s misfires.
Performance
You can find more details in our graphics comparison, but Oculus Studios has pulled off an incredible job not only getting the game onto Quest 2 but, in some levels at least, largely keeping a lot of the detail intact. Yes, character models look a little strange with degraded assets and the usual suite of effects — smoke plumes, fragments of broken glass, swaying trees and dynamic lighting — have all been removed, but the cost isn’t quite as heavy as you might expect. You have to take it on a level-by-level basis, of course, as some of the outside areas are drastically scaled back in terms of foliage etc, but it’s a really impressive effort all the same.
To add to that, it’s nothing short of incredible that some of the game’s more intense sequences remain intact here. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see moments like the explosive ski chase scene in Norway or flight sections missing, but it’s to the team’s credit that this really is the full game beaten down onto Quest.
Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond Oculus Quest Review: Final Impressions
On a technical front, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is one of Quest’s most impressive games, bringing a cinematic, blockbuster campaign to standalone VR with differences that often aren’t as drastic as you’d expect. And some post-launch patches have also introduced welcome options like the ability to skip the many, many cutscenes in the campaign. But, even then, the pacing with the short levels remains a big issue in a shooter that otherwise feels a step behind the competition, including even recent ports like Resident Evil 4 VR. That said the game still succeeds in the multiplayer arena and you won’t find many games as polished as this on the platform. Medal of Honor sets a bar for performance on Quest 2, but there are a lot of other games that simply play better.
For more on how we arrived at this rating, read our review guidelines. What did you make of our Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond Oculus Quest Review? Let us know in the comments below!
We’re back with another side-by-side graphics comparison. This time it’s for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond on Oculus Quest 2 and PC.
Surrounding its launch in late 2020, Oculus Studios said it would look into porting PC VR juggernaut, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond to Oculus Quest, but couldn’t make any promises that it would actually end up happening. And it was clear to see why; though the game itself was somewhat flawed, Above And Beyond was a powerhouse in terms of performance, with issues even on the latest top-end graphics cards. In truth, we doubted it could ever really happen.
But, hey, here we are.
Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond Graphics Comparison: Quest 2 Vs PC VR
Launched on November 15th, Above and Beyond is a full-on port of the original PC VR game, and the third full Oculus Quest 2 exclusive (as in, you can’t play it on Quest 1). That means you get the game’s full original campaign with multiple hours of gameplay, and the multiplayer modes, too. Above is our first look at the first 30 minutes of the campaign, which takes you through the tutorials, a handful of missions and a heck of a lot of cutscenes. This is a surprisingly story-heavy game with lots of moments of standing around talking to the game’s cast, which gives us a lot of opportunities to inspect character models and environments between the action.
Generally speaking, then, this is a very impressive conversion, with some levels even looking remarkably close to the PC original (considering the obvious constraints of the hardware). But the crucial point to get across with this port is that the difference in quality between the two versions really varies by the level. The opening prologue in Tunisia makes some heavy concessions, for example, removing smoke effects and background detail but all in an effort to retain some of the more impressive sequences like a plane flying past. Character models have also degraded but are still pretty impressive for Quest.
We’ve found the biggest differences in areas with vegetation and other big details. After three or four sequences that match up relatively well, it’s very surprising to suddenly launch into one woodland mission and see all of the bushes and shrubs that mask your presence in the PC VR version totally missing from this one. And that makes a significant impact to the gameplay, too, as enemies are easier to spot. But, moving further into the campaign, later levels like the Norway section still run very well.
Some of the more consistent issues involve the resolution making characters and objects blurry at a distance. Of course, these downgrades do mean the game actually runs pretty well on Quest at least. In my time with the game I’ve noticed some occasional moments of stutter and one crash — all of which happened when I was also screen recording — but, compared to the PC VR experience even with a 3070 Ti, that’s actually a much more favorable turnout.
All-in-all this is a really impressive port, then. The core game, however, still has its issues. Pacing remains a problem, even with skippable cutscenes, as level length is often short and keeps you from becoming fully immersed. But if you’re looking for a blockbuster experience with cinematic moments then Above and Beyond really is one of your best bets on Quest right now. We just hope that setting the bar for the performance like this means we’ll see games that run this well and play even better later down the line.
And that’s our Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond graphics comparison. What did you make of the game? Let us know in the comments below!
Winter is rapidly creeping in meaning it’s a perfect time to cosily sit inside and enjoy some virtual reality (VR) gaming. And there’s going to be no shortage of that in the coming week with some major titles arriving across Oculus Quest 2, PlayStation VR and PC VR headsets, so let’s dive right in.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond – Respawn Entertainment
The first of the two big VR videogames on their way, Respawn Entertainment’s Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is coming to Oculus Quest 2 – and only Quest 2. A huge game when it comes to storage coming in at a whopping 45GB, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond takes players across European battlefields with land, sea and air missions. A multiplayer mode consists of 12-player maps and five game modes including Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Mad Bomber, Domination, and Blast Radius, whilst all the live-action documentaries Respawn Entertainment filmed are also included.
Released over the summer for Oculus Quest and PC VR headsets, PlayStation VR owners will soon be able to test their shooting and dodging skills in this colourful roguelite. Coming from the team behind the Pixel Ripped series, YUKI is an action figure you control directly with your hands, sweeping him through the minefield of neon death, collecting upgrades and trying not to die. If that happens you can purchase various upgrades to make the next run a bit easier (hopefully).
Supported platform(s): PlayStation VR
Launch date: 16th November
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall – Carbon Studio
Time for the second major release in the coming week, Carbon Studios’ Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall. An official tie-in with Games Workshop’s Warhammer franchise, in this adventure you take on the role of the mighty Lord-Arcanum, tasked with defeating the Nighthaunt forces. Armed with devastating melee weapons and spells, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall looks to be a physically energetic experience throughout.
For those PC VR players after something a little more chilled, there’s Jetpack Vacation by indie team Tourism Infinity. Literally having jetpacks for hands, you’ll be able to fly, dive, and shoot your way through a collection of mini-games set in a tropical paradise. Mini-games include playing football in the Jetpack Stadium, testing those shooting skills in Target Practice, and exploring the island to find what secrets it contains.
While it might look like a rhythm-action videogame initially, Sucker Punch VR most certainly isn’t. In fact, it’s more akin to Pong in VR, where you have to punch and parry cubes flying at you, returning them to your opponent, hopefully causing them to miss so you can score points. Supporting solo and multiplayer (PvP) modes, you can level up and unlock new gloves, each having its own special abilities to mix up the gameplay and give you an edge.
The news arrived today via the Oculus Blog, confirming that Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be arriving on 15th November 2021. It’ll retail for $39.99 USD (slightly cheaper than the PC edition) and support cross-buy with the Oculus Rift if you already own that version. Unfortunately, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond for Oculus Quest 2 won’t support cross-play.
On the plus side, this version will still feature all the other content found on the PC version, such as the 10-hour campaign, all the live-action documentaries Respawn Entertainment filmed, and the multiplayer of course. The latter consists of 12-player maps and five game modes including Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Mad Bomber, Domination, and Blast Radius.
When it comes to the campaign Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond takes you across European battlefields with land, sea and air missions. You step into the shoes of an OSS officer during World War II, working with the French Resistance to sabotage Nazi plans. Levels task you with infiltrating a U-boat to blow it up, running across the beaches of Normandy and scuppering enemy aircraft attacks.
With all of that content Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond takes up a whopping 45GB of storage space, so if you own the 64GB Oculus Quest 2 you might need to clear a bit of space. The shooter is also the second VR title on the platform to only support Quest 2 – the other being last month’s Resident Evil 4 – with original Quest owners missing out.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyondarrives on Monday, 15th November for Oculus Quest 2, retailing for $39.99 USD. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the WWII shooter, reporting back with any further updates.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, first launched on PC VR headsets last year, is coming to Quest 2 next week. Cross-buy is confirmed, meaning players that bought the game on Oculus PC will own the Quest 2 version as well.
Oculus today announced that Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond has November 15th release date on Quest 2. The release includes the full content of the PC VR version of the game, including the campaign, multiplayer mode, and the live-action WWII documentary series that was produced in conjunction with the game. The game will launch with a reduced priced of $40 (compared to the $60 PC VR version).
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will support Quest 2 but not the original Quest. Oculus has confirmed cross-buy with the Oculus PC version, so if you already owned the game there you’ll be able to play on Quest 2 for free. Unfortunately cross-play multiplayer is not supported.
Along with the announcement of the Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond release date next week, we also got a clearer look at the Quest 2 version of the game thanks to new screenshots:
'Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond' Quest 2 Screenshots
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Image courtesy Oculus
Image courtesy Oculus
Image courtesy Oculus
Image courtesy Oculus
Image courtesy Oculus
Be sure to make room on your Quest 2 though, especially if you have the smallest 64GB model—Oculus has confirmed that Medal of Honor Above and Beyond will take up about 45GB of space on Quest 2.
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Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond was developed by Respawn Entertainment—the studio behind iconic games like Titanfall and Apex Legends—and was one of the most anticipated Oculus-funded titles to date. While we didn’t exactly love the game at launch, a handful of post-launch patches have smoothed over some of the rough spots and we expect those improvements to be included in the Quest 2 version of the game. With no tether and less friction to jump into the game on Quest 2 compared to PC VR, we hope to see the game’s multiplayer mode find a sustainable population.
Respawn Entertainment and Oculus are taking the PC VR game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond (2020) and slimming it down to fit on Oculus Quest 2 for launch later this year. Make sure to clear out plenty of space though, as the game is slated to take up a around “40-45GB,” the developer says.
Update (October 1st, 2021): Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is said to take up between 40-45GB, which is coming in fairly tight to the 64GB variant’s usable space of 50GB, the remainder of which is used for the OS and system apps.
If you already own Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond via the Oculus Store (re: not the Steam version), you can count on being able to play the game for free on Quest 2 when it launches, Oculus Studios Executive Producer Michael Doran confirmed on Reddit.
Doran further confirmed that it will be coming in a bit cheaper than its original $60 launch price on Rift/SteamVR, and will be priced at $40 when it launches on Quest 2 later this year. The original article announcing the exclusive Quest 2 port follows below:
Original Article (September 29th, 2021): Medal of Honor: Above & Beyond launched on the Oculus PC platform and SteamVR headsets back in December 2020, bringing the storied franchise to VR for the first time.
The Oculus Quest 2 version is said to include the full Medal of Honor: Above & Beyond single player campaign, multiplayer mode, and the living history of The Gallery, a set of live-action documentary shorts featuring WWII vets.
Image courtesy Respawn Entertainment
Out of the games partnered with Oculus Studios, Medal of Honor: Above & Beyond didn’t fare very well out of the gate, having initially garnered middling reviews for a Metacritic score of 67/100. A few months after launch, it still ranked among the worst-rated games when we stacked up the top 25 ‘big bet’ games supported by the company.
In our review [5/10], we noted that Medal of Honor featured a competent multiplayer mode, although its core gameplay pillars and polish were decidedly lacking. Polish to the PC VR version has improved to some degree with subsequent updates, garnering a ‘Mostly Positive’ recent rating on Steam, however the consensus from over 1,400 user reviews leaves it with an overall ‘Mixed’ user rating.
The launch of Medal of Honor exclusively on Quest 2 continues a slow trend of developers pulling back from supporting the original Quest headset, with Resident Evil 4 arriving in October as one of the most prominent Quest 2 exclusives to hit the Oculus Store.
We’re also hoping Respawn has reconsidered Medal of Honor’s $60 price tag. If not, that would make it one of the most expensive games on the platform, coming in at $20 more than the universally-acclaimed The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (2020).
What a week it has been for Oculus Quest 2 owners. Monday saw a release date confirmed for Resident Evil 4 and today EA and Respawn Entertainment have dropped a big surprise announcement. WW2 shooter Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be hitting the standalone headset at some point this year.
Previously only playable on a decent PC for headsets like Oculus Rift and Valve Index, you could utilise Oculus Link if you really wanted to play Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond on Quest. Soon that setup will no longer be required as they’ve managed to squeeze all that content onto the headset. That’s quite the achievement considering when the videogame launched you needed a minimum of 180GB space for the install, way too much for either the older or newer base models.
There’s no info regarding how much space Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will actually take up but it’ll include the full single-player campaign, multiplayer, and The Gallery with its collection of documentaries. So you may need to make some space just in case.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond’s campaign takes you across European battlefields over land, sea and in the air as you take on the role of an OSS officer during World War II. Working with the French Resistance to sabotage the Nazi’s, levels will see you infiltrate a U-boat to blow it up, finding yourself on the beaches of Normandy and taking down enemy aircraft.
Once all that’s done you can head to the multiplayer that’s split across five gameplay modes, and ten maps, all of which support 12 player matches involving both human and AI opponents. From classic modes like Team Deathmatch to Mad Bomber where you have to secretly plant explosives to score big points, there’s plenty of gameplay available.
At the moment Respawn Entertainment hasn’t confirmed a price or specific release date for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. There’s been no mention of the original Oculus Quest either, so it looks like it’ll be Quest 2 only. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the launch, reporting back with further updates.
When Respawn Entertainment and Oculus Studio created 2020’s Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond it wasn’t just a wall-to-wall WWII first-person shooter, the studios wanted to honour those that fought by helping to create several short documentaries. One of those was Colette, which has received an Oscar nomination. If you’ve not played the videogame, this week sees the arrival of Colette on Oculus TV so you don’t need to.
Directed by filmmaker Anthony Giacchino and producer Alice Doyard, Colette follows one of the last surviving members of the French resistance, 92-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine. “As a young girl, Colette Marin-Catherine fought the Nazis as a member of the French Resistance. Since 1945, she has refused to set foot in Germany. That changes when a history student named Lucie enters her life and encourages her to visit the concentration camp where the Nazis killed her brother,” explains the synopsis.
While Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond launched in later 2020, Colette originally premiered much earlier at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February of that year, winning Best Documentary Short in the process. The 24-minute film was acquired by the UK’s Guardian newspaper so you can see the film below via YouTube if you so wish.
Through the Oculus TV app its still in a 2D format, there’s no special 3D/stereoscopic version available, with the app supporting the Oculus Quest platform. You’ll need to ensure the app is updated to the latest version (v2.24) to find Colette in the listings.
It’s the first time a videogame company has received an Oscar nomination, with Colette joining four others in the Best Documentary Short Subject category. These are:
“A Concerto Is a Conversation,” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
“Do Not Split,” Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook
“Hunger Ward,” Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman
“A Love Song for Latasha,” Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan
The Oscar’s take place this Sunday, 25th April if you’re interested in watching. For all the latest VR updates, keep reading VRFocus.
South by Southwest (SXSW) has announced it’ll be hosting its annual gaming awards in March, revealing 43 nominees across 12 different categories. That includes a virtual reality (VR) category with some of the most prominent titles of the last 12 months in the running like Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx and Motive Studios’ Star Wars: Squadrons.
This year’s VR category features five nominees with few surprises. Half-Life: Alyx has been nominated in almost every VR award going whilst cross-platform Star Wars: Squadrons was a big hit towards the end of 2020. Also on the list are The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinnersone of the best zombie survival videogames in VR, and Down the Rabbit Hole, a little gem of a puzzle title from Cortopia Studios.
Possibly the most controversial on the list is Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond by Respawn Entertainment. The highly anticipated WWII shooter offers a single-player campaign, multiplayer and interviews with veterans, yet suffered from pacing, high specification requirements and other issues.
The 2021 SXSW Gaming Awards has partnered with IGN to produce the event, presented by Discord on Saturday, 20th March at 7:00pm CT, broadcast live on SXSW Online, ign.com, and on Twitch. Public voting is open now across the board with the winners decided by a weighted total between staff, advisory board input and public voting.
“Gaming is a key part of the creative ecosystem that makes up SXSW, and provides our community an opportunity to honour the achievements with the brightest minds in the field,” said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer for SXSW in a statement.
“We’ve learned so much from our communities on Discord over the last year. The power that games can have in bringing people together no matter where you are in the world inspires us.”said Tesa Aragones, Chief Marketing Officer at Discord. “Creating space for people to come together to share the things they love – music, games, and anything else that interests them – is core to our beliefs and we are proud to support the SXSW Gaming Awards as the presenting sponsor.”
The main SXSW Online event runs from 16th – 20th March 2020 featuring keynotes, conference sessions, Music Festival showcases, Film Festival screening and more. Don’t miss the Virtual Cinema area where you’ll be able to view works including 4 Feet High VR, Finding Pandora X, Namoo, and Paper Birds to name a few. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
