Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond is a VR-only WW2 shooter from Respawn
Medal of VR
The folks who make Apex Legends are working on a new Medal of Honor game. Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond is a VR WW2 shooter, announced by Respawn Entertainment during last night’s Oculus-a-thon. It's the first in the series since 2012's Warfighter. In it you’re an American spy from the Office of Strategic Services, sabotaging the Nazi war machine with wacky VR shenanigans. Come and watch a characteristically tone-deaf trailer.
The usual Medal of Honor schtick of honouring the soldier’s effort and talking to people who have been part of the war, claiming authenticity, doesn’t sit well in a trailer where you bonk a Nazi on the head with a flying pan. That’s Indiana Jones tomfoolery to me.
The last line of the trailer incredible: “If the game we’re making ignites people’s imaginations and illuminates the world, then we’ve accomplished what we set out to do.” The levels are densely interactive, letting you play the piano or listen in on telephone chatter by picking up handsets and holding them to your ear. You can put records on turntables and hit some music as you shoot Nazis with guns, which was apparently a real tactic used to co-ordinate attacks. I very much giggled at the player raising the grenade to their face to "bite" out the pin before chucking it. It looks like a lot of fun, and there are some lovely looking vistas, but it's not what I'd call "illuminating". Not even when they're riding on top of the train. It's coming out sometime in 2020.