Respawn creates a new medal game for RV

Medal of Honor, EA's first-person classic shooting franchise, comes back as a virtual reality game for Oculus Rift. called Medal of Honor: BeyondThe game is developed by Respawn, the manufacturer owned by Electronic Arts and composed of renowned shooters like the Titanfall series and Apex Legends.

I had a little time with the game last week. It's definitely the most advanced and fun VR shooting game I've ever played, which is a testament to the investment made by Facebook, the owner of Oculus Rift. A Respawn official pointed out that the textures of a single uniform in this game occupied more memory than the original Medal of Honor for PlayStation (about 300 MB). A spokesman for Oculus said it was "probably" the most expensive production so far for Oculus Rift, but declined to reveal the size of the budget.

Like the original Medal of Honor, which came out in 1999 and started a boom in the shooters of World War II, Beyond takes place in the theater of Western Europe. The players play the role of an agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which is entrusted with specific missions to undermine the defense capabilities of Nazi Germany. The multiplayer mode is planned but no announcement has been made.

The missions I saw took place in a French town, before the D-Day landing, as well as in the Norwegian mountains, while I was trying to blow up a heavy water installation. There will also be a landing mission on the beach in Normandy, although this was not shown during the demo. The final game will also include sequences on a motorcycle and a submarine, and players will be entrusted with various physical activities, including rock climbing, swimming, skiing and even playing the piano.

If places and missions seem quite familiar, the experience is made cool by being in virtual reality. It's a pretty world filled with authentic details, while retaining the general feel of a Second World War shooter.

Movement and shots

Respawn / Oculus Studios / Electronic Arts

I move using the controller on the Rift's Touch controllers (the developers rejected the teleportation techniques because they were too disorienting). I can physically hide behind a shelter or lean out of windows and corners of buildings. I can even blind the fire around the blanket.

To shoot, I use both hands when using the majority of weapons, including machine guns, rifles and sniper rifles. Indeed, I play the game in the manner of generations of children in the post-war period, running around an invisible two-handed gun.

I can use the weapons with one hand, although this has a negative effect on the stability and the objective. The developers are still considering the idea of ​​dual-use weapons, but that's not part of the game yet.

I also use a one-handed pistol and I can throw projectiles such as grenades that I put on my chest. These can be unpinned using my teeth.

If I'm in a difficult situation, I can hit my enemies with scrimmages, although I thought it was a tactic of last resort. Sanitary syringes are attached to my wrist. I use them frequently, unsheathing them and plunging into my chest.

Variety of cannons from the Second World War

Respawn / Oculus Studios / Electronic Arts

I found that the shooting was comfortable enough, the tracking rounds helping me fight the enemies. There are two weapons on each shoulder and I can replace them with weapons dropped by dead enemies.

I reload the weapons by clicking on the old store with the help of button A, then using physical actions to take a new cartridge (loosely located under my belly) and slamming it into its location, before to remove the lock.

This series of actions takes a little practice and time, forcing me to retreat to the shelter when ammunition is lacking. This is usually a good idea because health levels are running out very quickly. Beyond looks like a game that emphasizes caution and strategy, rather than letting go.

Different weapons require appropriate use. I raise the sniper rifle at the height of the shoulders to look through the eyes, but I can shoot with rifles from the height of the chest, or lower, if I prefer. The shotgun feels good. Blowing an enemy at close range is particularly satisfying in virtual reality.

The enemies seem to vary in terms of intelligence. In one level, I shot a group of Germans while they were trying to fight back, standing in the middle of a street and apparently losing the cover nearby. But later, I ran into enemies who were looking for the best hiding places.

By imitating the real soldiers of the Second World War, the AI ​​Germans also recognize the sound of a M1 Garand rifle while he is running out of ammo, and can then try to squeeze the player. Enemies scream at each other (in German) about my position and work together to trap me.

History and characters

Respawn / Oculus Studios / Electronic Arts

Between the missions, I meet allies and resistance fighters and participate in face-to-face conversations that advance the story while avoiding cutscenes.

I liked to crawl around the sites of the game, especially at a French freedom fighter. This being virtual reality, the game encourages me to interact with objects, like putting a record on a turntable or playing with the dials of a radio.

The only problem I found in the demo was an occasional difficulty in identifying enemies emerging from dark places, like a row of Norwegian trees. This may make the game more realistic.

Admittedly, I found myself suffering from vertigo while climbing a tower, while looking at the deep ravines below. However, I did not feel any sensation of nausea in virtual reality.

Beyond also comes with a selection of "gallery" content including interviews with veterans of World War II, and a particularly moving scene in which a veterinarian uses a VR headset at home to "revisit" the rendering of a crossroads of Normandy where he resisted a tank attack in 1944.

But it's shooting that really matters. Oculus has wisely partnered with one of the world's most experienced shooting game developers to solve the problem of action games in virtual reality. I'm convinced that Beyond – which lasts about 10-12 hours – will be a fun and achievable experience. It is much more difficult to know if it can propel virtual reality into the world of hardcore gaming platforms.

The question of whether Medal of Honor: Beyond will come to other non-VR platforms, such as PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, is unknown apart from Respawn and its owner, Electronic Arts. I interviewed a representative of Respawn on other platforms, but they evaded the issue, claiming that the company was focusing solely on Rift for the time being. But the representative did not rule out that the game, or a version of it, appears on other platforms. Here is a trailer for Beyond, published today.