Category: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

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15 VR Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 2020

We loved 2019 for its bounty of VR games and emphasis on new hardware, but 2020 is looking to bring a host of big budget titles and polished indies alike that should not only keep us all happily strapped into the headset, but attract a steady flow of new users to VR in the process too.

Here, we take a look at our top anticipated VR titles coming to the full gamut of platforms out there, which includes SteamVR headsets (Rift, Vive, Windows MR, Valve Index, etc), Oculus Quest, and PSVR.

Note: PlayStation 5 is set to arrive for holiday season 2020, which ought to arrive with a bevy of new games for the backwards compatible PSVR. Sony hasn’t announced the second iteration of PSVR yet, so we’re hoping to learn more about awesome PSVR platform games soon.

Half-Life: Alyx

  • Platform: SteamVR headsets
  • Developer: Valve
  • Release date: March 2020

Studio description: Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s VR return to the Half-Life series. It’s the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity’s only chance for survival.

Iron Man VR

  • Platform: PSVR
  • Developer: Camouflaj
  • Release date: February 28th, 2020

Studio description: Don the PlayStation VR headset to suit up as the Armored Avenger in an original Iron Man adventure! Using two PlayStation Move motion controllers fire up Iron Man’s Repulsor Jets and blast into the skies with an arsenal of iconic Iron Man weapons at your fingertips. Face off against Iron Man’s greatest foes in high stakes, action-packed battles. Upgrade tech in Tony Stark’s garage to customize Iron Man’s sleek suit and awesome abilities.

After The Fall

  • Platform: SteamVR headsets, PSVR
  • Developer: Vertigo Games
  • Release date: 2020

Studio description: Explore the remains of a civilization ground to a halt in an alternate 1980s, craft a range of ranged and melee weapons, and wield devastating powers with real-life movements. Go solo or join up with players worldwide as you face relentless hordes and colossal bosses in a bid to take back the city.

Phantom: Covert Ops

  • Platform: Rift, Quest
  • Developer: nDreams
  • Release date: 2020

Studio description: Dispatched into hostile wetlands in your tactical kayak, utilise military weapons and equipment to evade and neutralise the enemy threat. Engage your targets lethally or infiltrate unnoticed from the shadows: it’s your mission to execute your way. Phantom: Covert Ops is stealth action redefined.

Lone Echo II

  • Platform: Rift
  • Developer: Ready at Dawn
  • Release date: Q1 2020

Studio description: Jack and Liv are back in Lone Echo II. Return to the rings of Saturn in this highly-anticipated sequel, to unravel the mysteries of Lone Echo and journey deeper into space – past the very boundaries of time itself.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

Studio description: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is an action-packed and incredibly immersive VR experience set in World War II, where you step into the boots of an agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in war torn Europe. A deep single-player campaign takes you through historic events on land, air, and sea, sabotaging Nazi bases, subverting enemy plans, aiding the French Resistance, and much, much more.

LOW-FI

  • Platform: SteamVR headsets
  • Developer: IRIS VR
  • Release date: late 2020

Studio description: You’re the sheriff of cityblock 303, a retro-futuristic cyberpunk slum where the only inhabitants of note are other “low-fi”. Humans too poor to jack into the platform, and rusting old robots that didn’t achieve the intelligence singularity. What you do with your time is up to you. Are you a good cop, hotshot?

Vertigo 2

  • Platform: SteamVR headsets
  • Developer: Zach Tsiakalis-Brown, Errol Bucy
  • Publisher: Zulubo Productions
  • Release date: 2020

Studio description: Vertigo 2 is a single-player VR adventure. Explore the depths of the vast Quantum Reactor as you descend to finish your journey home.

Sniper Elite VR

Studio description: A dedicated VR stealth-action experience from the makers of Battlezone and the BAFTA-nominated Sniper Elite 4, in partnership with Just Add Water. Fight for the Italian Resistance in a daring mission to rid World War 2 Sicily of the Nazi U-boat menace.

Solaris: Offworld Combat

Description: Solaris: Offworld Combat is a multiplayer team shooter developed by First Contact Entertainment, the studio behind Firewall Zero Hour (2018). The studio is still extremely tight-lipped, having only revealed the trailer above.

Firmament

  • Platform: SteamVR headsets, PSVR, PC, PS4
  • Developer: Cyan Worlds
  • Release date: July 2020

Studio description: Firmament is a resplendent fantastic steampunk journey — a monumental voyage through diverse and curious realms with the ever-present assistance of a helpful clockwork adjunct, and the deep and moving instruction and emotional chronicles of an ethereal mentor.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

  • Platform: SteamVR headsets, PSVR
  • Developer: Skydance Interactive
  • Release date: January 23rd, 2020

Studio description: Saints & Sinners is a game unlike any other in The Walking Dead universe. Every challenge you face and decision you make is driven by YOU. Fight the undead, scavenge through the flooded ruins of New Orleans, and face gut-wrenching choices for you and the other survivors. Live The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead Onslaught

  • Platform: SteamVR headsets, PSVR
  • Developer: Survios
  • Release date: 2020

Studio description: Fight your fears head-on in The Walking Dead Onslaught, the official VR game of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Experience an all-new exclusive TWD story, defend yourself with real-motion melee and ranged combat, and confront both the horrors and humanity of the apocalypse.

Population: One

  • Platform: SteamVR, Quest
  • Developer: BigBox VR
  • Release date: 2020

Description: Population: One is an upcoming battle royale shooter from the studio behind VR indie hit Smashbox Arena (2016). Although it may be late to the table, as its been delayed from its original early 2019 launch window to a vague ‘2020’ release date, we’re still looking forward to what promises to be a capable, clever, and solid battle royale shooter in VR.

Paper Beast

  • Platform: PSVR
  • Developer: Pixel Reef
  • Release date: Q1 2020

Studio description: Paper Beast is a playful exploration game set in a colorful ecosystem born out of big data. Undertake a virtual journey of discovery through an immersive and poetic gameplay experience.

Have me missed anything important to you? Let us known in the comment section below!

The post 15 VR Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 2020 appeared first on Road to VR.

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Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond Didn’t Start Life As A VR Game

The new VR exclusive Medal of Honor game didn’t actually start life as a VR game.

In an interview with LadBible, game director Peter Hirschmann revealed that Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond was already in the early planning stage when Facebook approached developer Respawn.

“It was one of those things that ‘God wouldn’t be great to bring back Medal of Honor’,” Hirschmann said. “Take everything we’ve learned over the last 20 years, all the modern tools, and do a new Medal of Honor game.”

In fact, Hirschmann says Respawn was already “conceptualizing the narrative, the structure, and all that” when Facebook approached the studio. To us, it sounds like the game was still in the very, very early stages of development. There was likely still plenty of scope to build the game from the ground up for VR, then. It was, after all, announced in 2017.

As you can see from the gameplay above, Above and Beyond is very much a full VR shooter. The Oculus Rift exclusive will take players around the world during the Second World War to fight in historical conflicts. Over 50 missions are planned. We also know the developer is planning a multiplayer mode that it hopes will be different from other VR offerings.

We’ve been hands-on with the game and have high hopes for the end product. The game’s due to release sometime in 2020.

Will you be picking up Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond? Let us know in the comments below!

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Medal Of Honor VR Multiplayer Wants To Be ‘Different’ To Other Games

We’ve seen the single-player, but what can we expect from Medal Of Honor VR multiplayer?

Developer Respawn hopes it’ll be something a bit different.

Game Director Peter Hirschmann said as much to Eurogamer in a recent interview. “The sense of presence in multiplayer is crazy, so we’re definitely trying to innovate and take advantage of the best parts of the platform and that’s super exciting,” he said. “I think our multiplayer will hopefully be different from some of the stuff that’s already in the marketplace, but our goal is to be as accessible and as easy to get into as we can be.”

How To Make Medal Of Honor VR Multiplayer Different?

At a guess, we’d wager some of the games Hirschmann is referencing include Onward and Pavlov. Both are modern-era shooters with a focus on realism. In our conversations with Respawn, the developer has spoken about wanting to strike the right balance between authenticity and fun, eschewing realism where necessary. Could that focus be what makes the multiplayer mode different to others?

Either way, we’d still expect a first-rate experience. Respawn is behind excellent multiplayer shooters like Titanfall and Apex Legends, so it has the pedigree. Not to mention that members of the team previously worked on Call of Duty and earlier Medal of Honor games.

So far Respawn is only talking about the game’s single-player campaign, which features over 50 missions. Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond (as it’s called) will take players all over the globe to fight in historic WW2 battles.

We’ve gone hands-on with the campaign already. It’s shaping up to be a welcome return for the series, though we want to know more about its narrative.

The game will release sometime in 2020, so expect Medal of Honor VR multiplayer details in the near future. What are you hoping to see from the online offering? Let us know in the comments below!

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Respawn ‘Focusing on Rift’ For Medal Of Honor VR But ‘Loves The Quest’

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is an Oculus Rift-exclusive VR shooter coming from Respawn Entertainment that marks the first entry in the long-running war series in over seven years.

At a reveal event a couple of weeks ago I got the chance to go hands-on with Medal of Honor VR briefly and took some time to speak with Peter Hirschmann, Game Director on the project. You can read some other excerpts of that interview as well as it relates to authenticity vs realism in game development.

Near the end of the Q&A session at the reveal event for Medal of Honor VR I asked about a ported Oculus Quest version since that’s the new hotness in the VR world. His answer was interesting:

“This is a title exclusive to Oculus platforms and we’re focusing on Rift, although we love the Quest, we’re focusing on Rift. Quest is awesome.”

Clearly, that isn’t a no, although it isn’t a yes either. If the answer was no I feel like that would have been made clear, so it seems likely that this game will, in some way, make its way to the Oculus Quest at some point — but that’s just me guessing.

All Respawn has been willing to talk about thus far is the single player campaign and what gameplay is like from a moment-to-moment basis, but we’ve been told there will be multiplayer options as well. In the past the series has always been most well-known for its cinematic and immersive campaigns, so we’re excited to see how that translates to VR.

Would you want a Quest version of Medal of Honor VR? Let us know down in the comments below!

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Preview: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond – Better Than it Looks

During Oculus Connect 4 (OC4) renown developer Respawn Entertainment revealed that it was entering virtual reality (VR) development, following that with a tease in 2018 stating work on a ‘AAA shooter’. It was Oculus’ new VP of Content Mike Verdu who then made the big reveal during OC6, that the Oculus Rift exclusive videogame would be Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

While there have been many, many WWII first-person shooters (FPS) for PC and console, there haven’t been that many in VR – Front Defense ­comes to mind. It’s always a boon for VR when a well-known developer enters the fray but even more so when they feel a notable franchise like Medal of Honor is worth the VR treatment.

In all honesty, when the first images of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond appeared during the keynote announcement they didn’t appear to be that impressive. The graphics seemed a little plain and scaled-down, lacking the detail and destruction of the European battlefields. Plus, there was the worry that the title would be another generic WWII shooter with some VR-style elements.

So VRFocus is happy to report that those fears were soon allayed as the demo for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond turned out to be a lot of fun. Respawn Entertainment had certainly ensured that its first VR reveal was going to be something special, offering too much content to get through in the limited time window. There were three levels available, one inside a hotel fighting the Gestapo, another fighting troops in a French village, while the third was a snowy mountain level designed for sniping. Plus, there was a training level to get acquainted with the controls.

Medal of Honor: Above and BeyondPlumping for the first two locations, Respawn Entertainment has gone straight in for full immersion, no messing whatsoever. No auto reloads mean expelling the empty clip, pulling another from your belt and cocking the weapon. Grenades are attached to your chest and pins can be pulled by hand (or with your teeth), and if your health is low syringes on your left wrist need to be plunged into your chest with your right hand. All very hands-on aiding that feeling you’re in a warzone.

The first level in the hotel is very much an action sequence fighting your way through the deadly troops of the secret police. The gun handling felt solid with distance aiming proving not to be a problem. You can hold each gun – pistol, machinegun, rifle) with both hands to give yourself a ‘stability bonus’ which for some reason pops up in big white letters, ruining the immersion somewhat. It’s strange that the studio did this when the rest of the design is HUD free, giving a nice clean look. Should you get stuck with what to do next – other than killing Nazi’s – your right wrist as the mission objectives, which is handy.

The enemy AI also seemed to be a little erratic at times. In some instances, it performed well with hostiles taking cover, popping back and forth to take shots. Then in other moments caution was thrown to the wind. Some troops just charged headfirst towards the dangerous end of the gun, almost tripping over as a bullet went through their face. At other points, they just stood out in the open as if they believed they were impervious, making for very easy kills.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond isn’t purely some mindless WWII FPS. As shown in the second demo level, Respawn Entertainment has employed some light puzzle-solving to mix up the pace, needing open a secret room with a specific piano note combination. It was nice to have some other interactive elements other than purely shooting, helping to build that sense of presence in the world. Additionally, there are lots of other items to pick up and be inventive with. This included finding a silver spoon lying around which VRFocus used to beat a Gestapo officer into submission.

From what’s been shown so far Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be one of the biggest VR titles to look forward to in 2020 for Oculus Rift owners. The experience wasn’t necessarily doing anything new or inventive, simply taking what’s been learnt over the last few years of VR development and combining it into one cohesive whole. VRFocus can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

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Medal of Honor VR: Respawn Wants It To Be ‘Authentic’ But ‘Not Necessarily’ Realistic

At Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) Facebook finally revealed what Respawn Entertainment has been working on alongside Oculus and it’s called Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. This is the first new game in the series in over seven years.

During the event we learned a lot about the game even though it’s not coming out until sometime in 2020. The demo was split across three levels, spanned about 45-minutes, and showed off lots of different guns and various mission types. We still have a lot of unanswered questions, but we did at least get to spend a good chunk of time with it ahead of the announcement.

For more on my thoughts, you can watch my impressions below or read my thorough hands-on preview here.

At the event we got the chance to also attended a presentation and spoke with Peter Hirschmann, Game Director on Medal of Honor VR.

“We’re trying to make an authentic game, not necessarily a realistic one,” says Hirschmann. “If it’s fun, it goes in. Fun always wins. For us authenticity is defined by if it feels real, but we always try to be pro-player entertainment. For example, when switching weapons you just let go and it flies back to its slot.”

Other than the reloading example, you can see that sentiment carried through in the art style as well. It doesn’t feature photo-realistic character models or overly dark environments and it’s not very gory either. But at the same time it certainly has the mechanics, sound design, and general production values to feel more polished than most VR games.

“What defines Medal of Honor for us, going back to World War II, is that it’s all about analog warfare,” says Hirschmann. “It’s about the tactical relationship between you as the player and that bad guy. I really like Sid Meier’s definition of a game, in its purest form, is a series of interesting decisions. Medal of Honor is at its best when it’s you versus one, or two, or maybe three or four, bad guys with tactical decisions in real time about who to take out, analyze what weapons they have, taking an easier shot to wound them or trying to take them out and eliminate them completely. It’s about being up close and personal. Bullets matter, health matters.”

medal of honor vr respawn tank and planes

A lot of the intricate aspects of the gameplay and the intensity of hunkering down in an intense firefight I just didn’t see in my demo at all. All of the combat encounters I had were very straight forward and sometimes highlighted sub-par AI, but there is still a lot of time to work on that before release. If they can nail a smart, tactical feel without sacrificing the accessible pick-up-and-play design, that would be fantastic.

Most VR shooters right now are heavily focused on multiplayer. While it does require a healthy player-base, it means not having to design missions, creating a narrative, building AI, recording voice over, and all of the other things needed for a high-quality campaign story. But a developer of Respawn’s pedigree is of course tackling that challenge head on.

“We are contractually obligated to deliver a 10-12 hour long experience to our friends at Oculus, but we are well over that,” says Hirschmann. “When we kicked this off a couple of years ago we weren’t sure of what we’d be able to achieve…We realized what the platform was capable of, we loved to work with Oculus, so we decided to expand the scope and make it a bigger game. Usually you’re scoping down but we decided to scope up.”

According to Hirschmann Medal of Honor VR will include over 50 mission segments across three acts. Basically the way it was described to me is that each Act has a series of missions in it and each mission is split into segments, or levels. There are over 50 of those individual segments in total.

“We tried not to repeat ourselves,” says Hirschmann. “In those 50+ segments there are only a few times where we repeat a piece of geography and it’s usually only after battle damage.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVxtNrLrXg

Obviously the most iconic moment from World War II, a moment that has been replicated in films, TV, and video games multiple times, is the landing on Omaha Beach at Normandy, often referred to as D-Day. I had to know if that would be included at all.

“We are doing Omaha Beach, but it’s different,” says Hirschmann. “Playing Allied Assault but in VR would have been cool on its own, but we have a rule for ourselves that we never revisit a Medal of Honor location just to do it in VR, we want to do something different. So in Above and Beyond you’re playing a Combat Engineer who is recruited into the OSS. The Combat Engineers were the first ones on the beach. They have a job, it wasn’t just to get to the top, it was to clear all those obstacles along the way…So you are planting explosives and clearing the way for the armor on the shore which was crucial to getting a foothold. It’s very scary because you’re blowing up the things that are providing you cover…Some of that actually comes from one of the veterans we interviewed. He said that getting to port before he left was some of the loneliest, quietest times he has ever had as a human being, so we wanted to capture that, not just immediately starting on the beach but building up to it.”

All things considered Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond certainly has the ingredients to be something truly special and impactful for VR, but now it’s just whether or not they can execute on that recipe. A big factor will be the quality of the actual narrative (which we haven’t experienced yet) and how deep the multiplayer components will be. All we know is that they’re included, but the team isn’t willing to share details just yet.

medal of honor vr aim down sights respawn medal of honor vr respawn plane wreck medal of honor vr respawn submarine medal of honor vr bunker screenshot

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond releases exclusively for Oculus Rift platforms via Oculus Home for PC in 2020. Stay tuned to learn more in the coming weeks and months!

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Hands-On – Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond Is A Welcome Return To A Series Long-Forgotten

We’ve gone hands-on with Respawn’s Oculus-exclusive VR shooter, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, and are excited to report it feels like an authentic and welcome return for the long-forgotten franchise.

At a pre-OC6 preview event last week I was able to go hands-on with the game across a handful of different levels and sat through a lengthy presentation that broke down the origins of the franchise, its evolution over the years, and what VR adds to the experience. Without playing the finished game it’s hard to say for certain, but this certainly checks all the boxes of being a AAA-quality made-for-VR shooter the likes of which we haven’t quite seen yet.

When I wrote my predictions last week for what I thought the Respawn VR shooter would be, I didn’t expect to come out feeling like a prophet. I figured it would be a WWII setting (or modern Middle East) and that it would feature a prominent single player campaign that leverages what the studio did well in Titanfall 2. It certainly seems like that’s the case.

I just didn’t predict it’d be a new Medal of Honor game; I don’t think anyone did.

This is significant for a few reasons. First of all, the last Medal of Honor game released seven years ago which is roughly an eternity in the game industry. It did not sell well and was poorly received across the board, hence EA deciding to instead focus on the Battlefield franchise. Getting revived in VR, by Respawn, makes a lot of sense.

And for those unaware, Medal of Honor is the original WWII shooter. Without Medal of Honor we wouldn’t have Battlefield or Call of Duty and likely wouldn’t have shooters as cinematic as we see them today. Prior to its initial release on the original PlayStation, the landscape was very different.

Vince Zampella, one of the founders of Respawn Entertainment and a former founder of Infinity Ward (creators of Call of Duty) actually worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which is often regarded as one of the very best, if not the very best, World War II shooters of all-time. This means that Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is a return to the franchise’s roots by re-focusing on World War II, but also a push towards the future by embracing VR as the only way to play from the very beginning.

What struck me most immediately when I strapped on an Oculus Rift S for my hands-on demo, is that it looks shockingly good in VR. In the footage and screenshots, the colors seem a bit too vibrant and almost exaggerated (it’s how I felt watching footage for the first time and even looking at it on my monitor now) but inside the headset it certainly feels much more impressive. The clarity and sharpness is there and the production values are just fantastic. You can tell that the team went to extraordinary lengths to capture authentic audio, fully render authentic 3D models of planes, tanks, ships, and more, and actually film 360-footage on-location across Europe to aid with accurately reconstructing iconic wartime locations. It’s pretty remarkable.

According to Respawn, Medal of Honor VR will include over 50 levels across three acts totaling at over 10 hours of single player campaign gameplay. That doesn’t include the multiplayer modes, which do exist, but aren’t being discussed at this time.

I asked for more clarity surrounding what “over 50 levels” means, and basically each act has a handful of dedicated missions and each mission is split into multiple segments. So there are over 50 of those dedicated segments. During my demo, each of the missions I did (they took about 15-20 minutes each) were described as individual segments. Furthermore, each segment reportedly will be in a new area without liberally re-using assets. If that all holds true on release then wow, that’s a lot of content.

My demo was split into four segments. First up was a shooting range to teach me the controls and weapon handling, which only lasted about five minutes and was all pretty basic stuff. The first actual level I went into had me infiltrating a Gestapo HQ to locate a list of names of influential French Resistance leaders that the Nazis had acquired. After finding the list, it was my mission to burn it to preserve their identity and continue the fight.

This was a very action-heavy level with Nazis around almost every corner. Lots of corridors for poking my gun around and shooting, I creeped through a kitchen hiding behind counters and taking shots from cover, and eventually mowed down a room with an assault rifle before finding the shotgun, which was just pure kinetic bliss to use. Nothing in this segment really surprised me, but it just reinforced the fact that this is a real AAA shooter made by an experienced development studio that has been here and done this before with proven success.

The second full level was my favorite of the bunch. I began perched on the side of a cliff with a sniper rifle taking a look at a group of Nazis down below. All I had to do was hold the scope up to my eye and my vision automatically becomes magnified down towards my enemies. I don’t mean to brag, but I definitely got all three headshots in a row. And since it was Kar 98k rifle, I had to reload after every shot for authenticity and it certainly made the exchange more intense. The rest of the level was about sneaking up the side of a mountain, climbing up an electrical tower, and snipping some wires.

Finally I explored the ruins of what appeared to be a destroyed lower level of a library, but the upper level apartment was still in tact. After finding a key for a cupboard and discovering a code to unlock a hidden Resistance Fighter planning closet, I had to play a record by a window to alert the rest of the town it was time to strike back against the Nazis in a coordinate assault. This level put on display that gameplay will have some variety and isn’t just all about shooting all the time.

 

medal of honor field daytime screenshot vr

In the full game for Medal of Honor VR you play as an Allied agent of the Office of Strategic Services, who is tasked with infiltrating and outsmarting Nazis as you travel across Europe.

Right now, based on my roughly 45-minute demo, I’d say my biggest reservation for the single player campaign is the narrative, which was mostly stripped out of the demo levels intentionally. I didn’t hear much voice acting at all and the short little mission segments seemed fairly self-contained without much connective tissue tying things together. I’m hoping that, on release, it will play out like an involved and cohesive story – like an extended version of something you’d get from Saving Private Ryan, or like being ported into the boots of a soldier from Band of Brothers. The Medal of Honor series was at its best when it focused on the “boots on the ground” stories and followed soldiers across entire story arcs, fighting alongside one another. I’m hoping Respawn taps back into that emotionally-grounded framing once again for the franchise.

Beyond that, I hope the AI is improved. During the presentation the developers made a point to emphasize how smart the AI was, but half the time during my demo Nazis would get stuck on the edge of tables, run into walls, or just stand out in the open waiting for me to return fire instead of finding cover. This was countered by the other half, where the AI seemed to work closer to what was intended. Still not impressive at all, but capable for a modern AAA shooter in those moments.

If you’ve played PC VR shooters before, such as Onward or Pavlov, then you’re probably exceedingly familiar with how clunky things can feel — at least at first. Both of those games require you to accurately navigate your gun to release magazines, insert new magazines, load the chamber, and manipulate the gun, all while in the heat of battle. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost my knife in Onward because I wasn’t looking while trying to place it back in the slot on my character’s body and missed ever so slightly, resulting in it falling on the ground. The same thing happens with grenades sometimes.

To remedy this sort of stuff, Respawn decided every item from grenades to guns will automatically go back to its holster when you let go. Reloading guns is somewhere in the middle of ultra-realism and button-press reloading. For example, you still need to eject magazines, insert a new one, and rack the chamber, but most guns are easier to navigate and use quickly. I really enjoyed actually pumping the shotgun after each blast and loading new shells into the gun. It felt really, really good. The sound design and haptics really helped sell the act of firing and pumping. I never wanted to use anything else once I found the shotgun.

That being said, I do think some of the immersion and interactivity is lost by streamlining some aspects of the gameplay. A big draw for VR shooters is usually just how responsive and intricate the interactions are, but Respawn seem focused on removing obstacles to enjoyment for Medal of Honor, which certainly has its own benefits as well.

medal of honor vr plane on fire respawn
medal of honor vr respawn plane wreck

One extremely bright spot from the reveal event I attended is just how dedicated the developers seem to be regarding maintaining authenticity. They’ve interviewed veterans, visited locations, recorded footage, and even included a lot of those media assets in the game itself, ready for players to view as educational material and place the game in the proper historical context.

I was even shown some footage of a veteran in his 90s using an Oculus Go to view images and videos taken on the spot where he fought over 70 years ago. That’s some powerful stuff that only VR can allow.

medal of honor vr above and beyond logo asset

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, Coming To Oculus Rift in 2020

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is slated for release exclusively on the Oculus Rift platform sometime next year in 2020, likely after Lone Echo 2. The game will feature a lengthy 10+ hour  campaign and multiplayer modes, but we only got to try out the single player during our demo. Details on multiplayer are presumably slated to be shared at a later time.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond Revealed at Oculus Connect 6

There has been some big virtual reality (VR) announcements during the first keynote address today at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6), mostly on the software side. While most were a surprise one was highly anticipated, what Respawn Entertainment has been working on. Finally, it has been revealed, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

Respawn Entertainment is behind some big videogame IP’s including Titanfall, Apex Legends, and the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Having announced its plans to step into the field of VR during Oculus Connect 4 a couple of years ago, it’s felt like a long wait to find out what the studio has been working on.

Medal of Honor is a classic franchise where a lot of Respawn Entertainment’s developers first started, so it seemed apt to bring the series into VR. In Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond players will take on the role of an Allied agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), tasked with completing a tour of duty across Europe to disable the Nazi war machine in collaboration with the French Resistance.

“From the beginning, Medal of Honor has taught gamers about the tremendous sacrifice and heroic efforts made by earlier generations to safeguard our freedom,” says Peter Hirschmann, writer of the original Medal of Honor on Oculus Blog. “Thanks to VR, we can actually put a player in the boots of a WWII soldier with Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond—the immersion that the Rift Platform provides lets us tell that story in a really meaningful way, sharing the full impact of the sacrifices and camaraderie of our shared history. Interviewing veterans of WWII was an immense privilege and allowed us to ensure its respect and faithfulness to those who served. They’re helping us drive home the full emotional and historical weight of this subject matter with players in a way that really resonates.”

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will feature a single-player campaign as well as multiplayer modes which are historically accurate, from the environments to the items available. Additionally, the title will include a unique story gallery so you can sit and listen to stories from WWII veterans and survivors.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be released on Oculus Rift in 2020, for further updates keep reading VRFocus.

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‘Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond’ Revealed as Respawn’s AAA VR Shooter, Trailer Here

Respawn has been know to be working on a ‘AAA VR shooter’ for two years, but today finally revealed the game. Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond brings the iconic franchise back to life, now realized for virtual reality.

Set to launch in 2020, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is set in World War II and will put players right in the midst of the fight.

The game is being published by Oculus Studios for Rift, which means it will be exclusive to the Oculus platform, and only officially available on the Rift (though with any luck it’ll play nice with the well known ‘Revive’ workaround).

Medal of Honor is a storied franchise spanning more than 15 games, with the first title launching in 1999. With eight years between the most recent Medal of Honor game (2012) and this upcoming 2020 rebirth, it’ll be very interesting to see how Respawn re-imagines the franchise for VR, and whether it can truly carry it forward.

So far Respawn hasn’t offered too much detail on the features of the game, but at this point it’s clear it’ll be a WWII action shooting game. Hopefully it won’t be long until we learn more.

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