Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

 Day by day

War games have a very special place in gaming, in that their presence is a constant that I think will never truly go away. Like Zombie games, isometric RPGs and anime games with teenager protagonists, historical based war games will have never faded from popularity and even after all these years you'll still find dedicated battle sims and arcade shooters draped in those all-too-familiar battle fatigues. However, if we were to go back to perhaps the golden age of this genre, there is one title in particular that stands out to me in a big way, because it was one of those games that I used to play with my dad once upon a time. I'm talking about the Medal of Honor series and the how they stood out through the way that they dedicated themselves to being great storydriven titles that did their best to provide historical context behind events years before Assassin's Creed made it cool. Thus I was honestly surprised and happy to see them represented at the game awards like they were.

For those that don't know, Medal of Honor was an attempt to capture some of the gravitas and respect for World War 2 which was seen around the time through films like 'Saving Private Ryan' and the series 'Band of Brothers'. Gaming had just begun to hit this period where cinematic storytelling was becoming genuinely feasible (Thank you 'Ocarina of Time' and 'Metal Gear Solid') and thus some of the heads over at Dreamwork interactive (Wow, bet you forgot they were a thing) got together with EA to publish this game at the behest of a small time movie maker called Steven Spielberg. Hang on- Steven Spielberg!? Yep, that's the kind of name behind the Medal of Honor brand and thus you can see why an up and comer like EA were eager to publish it. Great care was put into the project to ensure that there would be respect towards the source material, (because at this time video games were still considered the height of uncouth entertainment) and when the game landed it proved to be the start of a long running and beloved franchise.

Personally I came to the series alongside Allied Assault and the games around that time, thus my fond memories are of charging up Normandy Beach, infiltrating submarines and starting bar fights. When I think of the quintessential mission-based first person shooter, I default to my time with MOH, and I think it's for good reason. Even today I balk at how well the level design, enemy layout and even enemy AI turned out for a game so far in the past. (Okay, maybe the enemy AI did have the tendency to try and physically jump out of the way of bullets rather than take cover, but it felt great at the time.) The sound design too was spectacular, coining that now iconic M1 Garand ping in the subconscious of countless gamer's minds. And, of course, the orchestral score was soaring and typical 'Band of Brothers'-esque; this was the go to shooter game of it's time. And even to this day, I can tell you unironically that my favourite Medal of Honor level is also one of my favourite levels in gaming ever; Frontline's 'Yard by Yard'. (personal classic right there!)

Unfortunately the series found itself at odds once some former developers grew tired with the direction of the series and left to start their own competitor in 'Call of Duty'. History pretty much shows you exactly how that turned out, with 'Call of Duty' growing popular as their formula began to, first match the pace of the industry and then begin shaping it. Meanwhile Medal of Honor found itself wrestling against EA's own Battlefield for attention and often losing. The real final straw came when the series tried to make a jump to the modern day (long after COD had done it) with two titles, the first of which was a bit of a mistep with earnest heart behind it and the second is so legendarily bad that I can never find anyone who'll speak about it to me to say exactly what went wrong. It was a tragedy beyond recounting, apparently. And the consequence? Medal of Honor was put on ice for the rest of eternity.

So Medal of Honor is back apparently. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure how we got here either, I genuinely thought this franchise was dead and there was no money in EA reviving it. I mean EA themselves have proven how much they despise juggling similar franchises when the actively sabotaged their own company during Titanfall 2's launch by mandating launch between their own Battlefield and COD. (Which Respawn took on the chin by-the-way. Really forgiving, those Respawn fellows.) But it seems there's been something a USP agreed on for Medal of Honor, and it's VR. Uh huh, that dubious field of games that are either too hard to make or too limited in scope, it's MOH's new home now and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Actually, I guess I am and I've already stated it; I'm dubious. But when we're looking at a new Medal of Honor game I have to cut a little bit of slack.

Above and Beyond supplants the accessibility of the original franchise but does it's best to recapture that earnest charm which defined this series all those years back. Whereas maybe now we aren't getting the mission reads from the same man anymore, (which is shame, I miss him) now there appears to be interviews and more actual footage from the time as bonus content. This is, of course, on top of providing an immersive story with the level of intractability that we've come to expect from VR. Thus even though some of the situations we're seeing aren't exactly fresh, such as the rebellion of the French, the new perspective is enough to make it all feel new and original to some significant extent. In fact, EA have gone so far as to call it "The closest thing to a time machine you'll ever see" which feels slightly dismissive of the fringe sciences, but I get their sentiment. This is as immersive as you can get into the World War 2 experience.

In fact, the only thing which may bring people out of it would be the art of the game which seems oddly stylised, although I think it's understandable why this is. Old school MOH was always trying to get things as good looking as they could, (and in my memory it still looks great consequentially) but VR just doesn't really have the ability to match traditional games on that front right now. The only VR title which eeks close to console games graphics would be 'Half Life: Alyx', and even then that's only if you get £1000+ equipment to accommodate for it. Thus Medal of Honor's more stylised take, while not my cup of tea given the subject matter, is a tactic for keeping things still somewhat attainable to the average joe. Whatsmore, that development decision likely gave the team room to pursue a competitive multiplayer mode, because the game has one of those too and that's pretty cool. (MOH never really did manage to compete with COD on multiplayer, so perhaps a whole separate player pool is what they need)

As far as pleasant surprises go, I'd like to think that 'Medal of Honor Above and Beyond' is a substantial one, particularly given that it was released the very night it was announced just after the game awards. Though, of course, any one willing to play has to take into account that due to the natural inflation of VR game prices, you won't be getting a £60 experience out of the game in terms of content, but what's there and in the way it's available might be enough for your tastes anyway. Early impressions seem heavily mixed on whether it's worth it, but I'd say that if you have a VR headset and the means, why not take a chance with one of the most storied franchises in gaming? If nothing else, you may just learn something about the war.