What you need to know
- Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is the first entry in the landmark series in almost a decade, and is Respawn's first VR game.
- Respawn is focusing more on personal, emotional stories from actual WWII war veterans, creating empathy that other WWII games don't have.
- This focus means that realistic human-on-human violence is being toned down to avoid confusing the narrative of the game.
While all of these past games feature cinematic events and, in the case of Call of Duty, can feature incredibly realistic-looking scenarios, none of them have exuded the empathy that Respawn is attempting in the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot for Oculus Rift VR headsets. It all boils down to how Respawn is attempting to tell the tales of the people in the many battles that spanned years and thousands of miles, claiming the lives of millions, each with a personal story to tell. That personal touch is what will set Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond apart from all the other World War II games that came before it.
Everything we know about Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond
Since virtual reality puts you in the literal eyes of a virtual person, Respawn is using this wholly unique and immersive perspective to transport you into the minds of actual WWII veterans as they retell the haunting stories of the sights and sounds war. Utilizing a unique mix of documentary interview footage of war veterans, complete with new footage the team took of historical locations throughout Europe, Respawn is hoping to take players on a journey not just of sight, but also of empathy and emotion. Because of this unique perspective on war, Respawn is being careful to represent human-on-human violence in a way that's authentic but not necessarily realistic.
"When you know the setting is life-and-death and it's a historical thing — while you may be causing harm to virtual humans you're doing it for the good of other virtual humans — in that simulation it's something that was valuable to the world."
While there are plenty of violent and/or realistic games on the market, many of them are still treated as a game. VR titles like 'GORN' and 'Blade & Sorcery' are certainly as violent as you could make a game, but neither of them is attempting realism or trying to elicit any specific emotion from players other than the enjoyment of a video game. Other titles, like Onward, attempt to recreate as realistic an experience as possible via complicated weapons and environmental systems. Medal of Honor, on the other hand, is focusing more on the variety and depth of stories told from first-hand accounts while trying to focus in on the feelings and real emotions of the people involved, and that might end up being a more realistic experience than violence or visuals could ever recreate.
