Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, if nothing else, represents a symbolic step forward for VR game platforms like the Oculus Quest 2. It’s the closest thing to a AAA title I’ve played on my headset yet. I don’t know if its nearly-50GB file size is warranted given the so-so visuals, but I did have a lot of fun with the Campaign missions. I’ll still wait a while for the multiplayer to work out its kinks, but I can see myself enjoying that eventually, too. All in all, I’m not sure if Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond would do Grandpa proud, but if you own an Oculus Quest 2, it’s a fun experience and worthy of your time.

Medal of Honor Above and Beyond returns to Oculus Quest II, and the challenge is great on this small autonomous headset. And unfortunately, he doesn’t get it too. The technique is often faulty, with jerky animations of the sets and characters, which can become unpleasant over time. And if we set the graphics settings to the maximum, the game almost starts to row. In addition, the single player campaign, made up of small scenes of a few minutes, offers a false rhythm, with a lot of rather long dialogue, with a French accent in overplayed English, between two sometimes short fights. If some spectacular passages stand out, it is difficult to get excited about its events. A survival mode and a multiplayer mode complete the picture, but the rather stupid AI of the enemies does not make it all essential. It's a shame, because in terms of interaction, it was pretty well done, with pretty cool weapon handling. On recent releases, prefer Resident Evil 4 VR, by far.

Bland plot (which prevents Above and Beyond from being a truly magnificent experience) and somewhat cartoonish characters did not spike the game’s guns. I was impressed with the scope and details of the environments, and gunplay was awesome because the weapons have a nice kick to them. If only the controls were better… I lost count of the situations when I picked up a wrong object or ended up giving myself an injection instead of throwing a grenade.

It’s clear that Respawn still has the chops to make a quality Medal of Honor game. There’s a lot of heart here, and an attention to detail that must be admired. With that said, it’s clear the studio had troubles accomplishing its goals in VR – and the result is a curious VR experience that’s worth experiencing, but equally is nothing like a VR system seller. It stands strides behind Alyx – but then again, so do most VR games.

What should have been a staple of VR shooters to come turned out to be little more than what feels like a rehash of a 2000's shooter. While the gameplay might have you yawning at times and racked with frustration in others, The Gallery at least provides an incredible wealth of stories from real WWII veterans that brings a level of intimacy to what could otherwise feel like a soulless experience.