Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is coming to Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality devices this holiday season. The announcement was made Thursday during the opening ceremonies of the annual Gamescom convention. Developer Respawn Entertainment (Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Titanfall) also released a gameplay trailer, showcasing the World War II game’s single-player campaign.
Above and Beyond is the first game in the Medal of Honor franchise since 2012. It was first unveiled in late 2019 with a documentary-style trailer. Thursday’s trailer connects disparate gameplay elements for the first time, giving focus to the game’s narrative. Players will take on the role of an agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the modern-day Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They will drop behind German lines on the Western Front, link up with elements of the French Resistance, and kill as many fascists as they can find.
The trailer begins during the D-Day landings at Normandy, and includes a scene of the player parachuting out of a B-17 bomber — effectively shielded by the bombing raid itself. It then progresses to a covert mission at Nazi Germany’s Gestapo headquarters. The action then transitions to a field in Normandy and an anti-tank mission against a Tiger tank and the coupola gun of an allied bomber — likely that same B-17. The trailer also includes the trifecta of experimental German Luftwaffe aircraft as enemy units — the V2 rocket, the jet-powered Me-262, and the rocket-fueled Me-163 Komet.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will also include multiplayer. Developers were particularly excited to talk about the game’s lean mechanic, which will “raise it to a whole other level” said game director Peter Hirschmann.
Previously, developers have shown players fighting intense close-quarters battles in World War II. Players load and fire Thompson submachine guns, pull out the pins on grenades with their teeth, and catch German explosives in the air only to toss them back at the enemy. There was lots of climbing, as well as a scene inside the belly of a B-17 bomber. Polygon had hands-on an early version of the game around the same time.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is an Oculus-exclusive title. When or if it will be made available for other VR platforms is not clear.
