Respawn Entertainment’s long-anticipated Oculus-exclusive shooter is a Medal of Honor VR game.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond was announced at the Oculus Connect 6 developer conference today. It’s coming exclusively to the Oculus Rift in 2020. It’s the first all-new entry in the series since 2012’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter.
Medal of Honor VR Is Real
The Medal of Honor franchise started life as a series of WW2-era shooters, though the last two entries were set in modern times. Above and Beyond returns to the Second World War. Players become a member of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). You’ll travel to various parts of the world to take part in historical battles.
A trailer shows a set of varied levels taking players to trenches, riding tanks and having shootouts in French towns. Respawn says it spoke to WW2 veterans to help make the experience as realistic as possible.
For Respawn, it’s something of a homecoming. Studio CEO Vince Zampella worked on 2002’s Allied Assault before leaving to become one of the founding members of Call of Duty creator, Infinity Ward. Since then, Zampella and colleague Jason West formed Respawn, an EA-owned studio behind the likes of Titanfall and Apex Legends (West, however, left the studio in 2013).
Medal of Honor is an EA-owned property, though it’s not clear what involvement the publisher itself has in the project. Its logo can be seen at the end of the trailer, however.
Respawn’s VR game was first teased back in 2017 with the promise of a 2019 reveal. We had hoped that would mean it would release this year, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. As for Oculus Quest? There’s no mention of a possible version of the game for that headset for now.
We’ve been hands-on with Medal of Honor VR ourselves and will be bringing you full impressions very, very shortly.
