EA announces new Medal of Honor game, but there’s a catch

Medal of Honor is back. EA’s former flagship shooter is making a return several years after the publisher tried to give the franchise a modern spin with a 2010 reboot and its sequel, Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

Here’s the good news. This newest entry in the popular series is titled Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond and will be taking fans back to World War II’s familiar European theatre of war. Not only that, it’s also being developed by Respawn Entertainment, the EA-owned studio behind Titanfall, Apex Legends, and the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Have we got you all excited? Well, here’s the kicker. Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be a VR exclusive, and one that has been poached by Facebook for the Oculus Rift.

That news is bound to disappoint some fans though it’s hard not to look at that initial reveal trailer and be blown away a bit. Twatting Nazis with a saucepan aside, this is exactly the kind of hyper polished, cinematic shooter we’ve come to expect from Respawn.

The game looks stunning in motion and as preview start to surface (select media got a chance to see an early build of the game) Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is starting to generate some buzz.

According to those who have seen the game in action, it will feature both multiplayer as well as a singleplayer campaign spanning 10 hours split between three acts across Europe, featuring iconic battles including Normandy. It wouldn’t be a World War II shooter without Normandy now, would it? Here’s the official blurb:

You’ll play as an Allied agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), tasked with infiltrating, outgunning, and outsmarting the Nazi war machine. As you complete your tour of duty across Europe, you’ll collaborate with the French Resistance, working to sabotage Nazi operations from behind enemy lines.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be launching in 2020. Given Facebook’s partnership with EA to bring the game to Oculus, it seems unlikely that a Steam or PlayStation VR version is in the works. At least not yet.