Medal Of Honor: Above and Beyond brings the historic battlefields of World War II back to the forefront as you’ll play as an Allied agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), tasked with infiltrating, outgunning, and outsmarting the Nazi war machine.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond returns to the series’ roots, transporting players to a boots-on-the-ground World War II setting that spans the earth, sea and sky, with players jumping from planes, skiing down mountainsides and sabotaging Nazi bases. Aspiring soldiers won’t be going it alone, however: a veteran sergeant and young British medic will serve as companions throughout the single-player campaign, and the game will feature appearances from other Medal of Honor legends, including Manon Batiste and Dr. Gronek.

The game, which is being built for Oculus Rift from the ground up by a team comprised of veteran developers of the series, will put players in the role of an agent in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Players will go behind enemy lines to sabotage Nazi facilities, subvert enemy plans, and aid the French Resistance. Players will also experience a rich, exciting single-player campaign that takes them through historic events on land, air, and sea, all in virtual reality.

Additionally, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will feature a variety of multiplayer modes, some of which are only possible in VR and with the addition of Steam support, players will benefit from cross-platform play across multiple different devices. Keep an eye out for more information on these modes in the months ahead.

In addition to both a full narrative campaign and multiplayer modes, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond includes a unique story gallery, letting you sit with WWII veterans and survivors to hear their stories while witnessing first-hand the events and locations that have shaped our history. The game will lean into the franchise’s history of education through entertainment, bringing the stories of WWII veterans to life for players in emotionally powerful ways.

The Gallery: Part I

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is an action-packed, immersive VR experience set in World War II, where you step into the boots of an agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in war torn Europe. In this installment of our blog series, we’ll look at the development of “The Gallery”: a deeply affecting collection of short documentary films featuring WWII veterans that players will be able to view within the game.

Medal of Honor has always been about celebrating the everyday people who did extraordinary things in the face of overwhelming odds, and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond continues that tradition in new and unique ways. Using interviews and 360° footage, the team captured powerful first-hand stories from combat veterans and survivors of the war, using state-of-the-art technology to preserve their stories for future generations. This is the story of how it all came together.

The Mission Begins

“The goal of Medal of Honor is to be grounded and emotionally authentic. To be as true as we can to the people who actually fought in it and lived in it” said Peter Hirschmann, game director of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, “The goal is to tell and show as much truth as possible and let people get the tiniest of glimpses of what it must’ve been like.” The Gallery is a crucial part of that mission. Peter wrote and produced the original 1999 Medal of Honor game. From the beginning, one of the driving directives for the franchise was to teach a younger generation about the war.

For “Above and Beyond,” Peter wanted to take that idea further by including the voices of veterans and survivors of the war into the game itself. To make that happen, he worked with Anthony Giacchino, an Emmy-winning filmmaker who’d cut his teeth making World War II documentaries for The History Channel. Peter and Anthony wanted The Gallery to add a real human dimension to the gameplay. “At the end of the day you should understand and realize that these were real people,” said Anthony. That mission would take them much deeper -and further- than they could have imagined.

Time is Running Out

Peter and Anthony first spoke about the project in 2016. Adding urgency to Peter’s mission was the sobering fact that we’re running out of time to capture these stories for future generations. According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, 389,292 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II were still alive in 2019. Nearly 300 die every day. Anthony’s great uncle had fought in the Pacific in WWII, and Anthony had grown up hearing stories from him. But younger people, he worried, don’t have any connection to the living memory of it. That was an important point, “for people to hear their stories before it’s too late,” he said.

As Peter and Anthony started interviewing and getting to know a group of veterans, Anthony saw many were looking for some form of closure. He didn’t think they’d be able to find it here. It got Anthony wondering, “if they’d be willing to go back to Europe, to a specific moment that had meaning to them, or an event that was still unresolved.”

Going Back

One of the veterans Anthony was getting to know, David Marshall, had spoken to him of his first day in battle. David was in the 84th Division in the Siegfried Line Campaign in Germany. On that first day, his best friend was hit by a mortar and killed just ahead of him. Anthony and his team had found the field where it happened. Anthony didn’t know how David would react, but when he presented the idea of returning, the veteran was fully onboard. “In David’s mind that place was always that day of battle” Anthony said, “and we walked out onto the farm and how beautiful it was, and there was a really great family that lived there…He never in his wildest dreams could have imagined 75 years later, of returning to this spot.” You can see the impact it has on him in the film. You can tell the experience helped put something to rest. That held true not just for David; it’s a theme throughout the films. While the journey is often painful, and the wounds aren’t fully healed, it made a difference. “It was clear that there was something in their service that was unresolved, and going back there gave them some form of resolution,” said the filmmaker. Going back was a big part of it, but equally important was that they weren’t going alone. Another generation was bearing witness.

A New Platform for a New Generation

While The Gallery has always been a part of the Medal of Honor franchise, technology has advanced tremendously since the first Medal of Honor came out on the original PlayStation -- which had 2MB of memory. The Above and Beyond team was able to expand way beyond what games were capable of in 1999. “That original vision, experiencing World War II through the eyes of a soldier, this [VR technology] literally allows you to do that,” Peter said. And it makes these stories connect even more. Even though Anthony had been there, filming in 360° on Omaha Beach, he was stunned when he actually put the headset on and experienced it again, “this is exactly what it’s like. It’s an amazing tool for transporting people into the stories that we’re telling.”

In addition to the films, players will also be able to virtually explore the locations where the stories took place. “You’ll be able to go to Peenemünde where the V2 rocket program was, or Omaha Beach, parts of the world you’d otherwise never get to see.” It’s a stunning experience, but hopefully it connects on a deeper level. Anthony hopes visiting these places, feeling like you’re there, will help viewers build empathy.

The gameplay in Medal of Honor is filled with period-accurate details, and it’s a blast to play. But The Gallery is there to bring a reality to the gameplay. “If playing the game and watching these films sparks an interest then we’ve done our job” said the filmmaker. For everyone involved, this project has been an intense, emotional journey, but it’s been worth every moment. “World War II was one of the most important historical events in human history, but it was also the most important event of their lives even 70 years on. If we can capture some of the truth behind that, that’s the goal,” said Peter.

In addition to the films, players will also be able to virtually explore the locations where the stories took place. “You’ll be able to go to Peenemünde where the V2 rocket program was, or Omaha Beach, parts of the world you’d otherwise never get to see.” It’s a stunning experience, but hopefully it connects on a deeper level. Anthony hopes visiting these places, feeling like you’re there, will help viewers build empathy.

The Gallery, Part II: Scouting Europe

An earlier installment covered the inception of the Gallery project, and introduced you to some of the veterans featured in the films. This entry will explore why the location scout was such a critical - and unusual - step in the process. Along the way, you’ll uncover more about the documentary subjects and some of the hidden history of World War II.

In 2018, Peter Hirschmann, game director of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond and filmmaker Anthony Giacchino, landed on the idea to take their subjects back to Europe. To make that happen, Anthony’s team set out to scout the places they planned to visit with the vets. “When you’re making a documentary, it’s very rare that you can scout the location before you go,” said Anthony. But the logistical hurdles and emotional stakes of the project demanded it. Many of the locations were now historical sites with restricted access.

“It would've been much harder for us to take Gil to Nordhausen, or David to Margraten if we’d gone there for the first time with them,” said Anthony, “it was vital we went to these locations and actually saw them before we went to go film there.”

With their subjects on board with the idea of returning to Europe --often for the first time since the war-- the documentary team needed to venture to dozens of historical locations across Europe before they could return to film. The expedition had a profound impact on the project and unearthed new stories they never would have discovered otherwise.

In the War’s Shadow

For many Americans, the memories of World War II are fading. The physical reminders of the war are confined to memorials and museums. But in Europe the scars of the war are still everywhere.

In Germany, the scouting team visited Peenemünde, where they met with Reiner Sigmund, a historian in the process of building an onsite museum. It’s widely assumed that Allied bombs destroyed Peenemünde, but that’s not actually true. “When you walk among the ruins, what you’re seeing is not Allied destruction, but from Russians after the war,” Anthony said. But walking the ruins of Peenemünde isn’t something any member of the public can do. Reiner explained that much of what they gathered for the museum they had recently salvaged nearby themselves.

Old relics from the war are everywhere in Germany, some more dangerous than others. On their way back from Peenemünde to Berlin, the team was forced to get off the train because a 75-year-old unexploded bomb had just been unearthed near the station. “It happens in Germany on a weekly basis” Anthony said. It took two days to clear the bomb and the team had to be rerouted, “we came very close to the history there, in more ways than one.”

The Story is Still Being Written

Alice Doyard, a French director and producer, helped guide Anthony and Director of Photography Rose Bush while they were scouting locations in France. During one of their tours the guide mentioned a member of the French Resistance lived nearby. Soon, the team would meet Colette, whose brother had been captured and killed in a German concentration camp during the war. Colette, now in her 90s, had refused to step foot in Germany ever since.

“[Alice] in more ways than any of us, convinced Colette to take this trip,” Anthony said. If you watch the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival winning short “Collette” you can see how difficult that trip was, and how much it meant to her to go on it.

The location scout serendipitously set everything else in motion -- otherwise Anthony would never have learned of Collette, and that journey would never have happened.

“So much of World War II history, from my perspective growing up in the U.S. feels like this time period that sits on the shelf that we look at and reference as this origin story,” said Rose, “but having the opportunity to see how recent it is and how it’s still playing out, and taking new shape, was the privilege of a lifetime.”

Scouting in VR

Telling stories of World War II through VR creates an interesting challenge. The crew needed to chase down stories that are starting to fade from memory, and document them with a technology that is moving at breathtaking speed. Part of the goal of the scout was to figure out the 360° material. Because of the length and breadth of the project, “we phased through two cameras in a rapidly evolving technology and had to adapt very quickly,” said Rose. When you’re able to visit these places in the “History Happened Here” section of the Gallery, you’ll be able to see their efforts were well worth it. After watching a short video on the events that took place, you’ll be able to virtually visit these significant landmarks yourself. Short of actually walking through Peenemünde or on Omaha Beach, there’s nothing else like it -- and it really helps you visualize and feel what occurred there.

As fascinating as it is for us to explore these historical sites in VR, when the documentary subjects were able to try on the VR headsets themselves, the impact is even more profound. In the last entry, we touched on David Marshall returning to Germany for the first time since the war. Here you can see David revisiting these places through the VR headset. He’s moving through time as well as space, revisiting an old memory. And having an attentive audience that’s excited to go on the journey with him clearly means a lot.

Restoring Humanity

No matter how much you read about the important battles and figures involved, there are some things you just can’t get from a textbook. For Anthony and Peter, it was critical to put a human face on the war. “It’s really important for people to understand that this was real. To be able to take these journeys that are emotional, sorrowful, that show the true cost… Let’s never forget that actual people did this, and they were like 18,” said Anthony. VE (Victory in Europe) Day is often contemporaneously viewed as a time of celebration. That wasn’t Collete’s experience. “Her takeaway was... we never would have allowed ourselves to indulge in something like that. It was over, but it wasn’t happy. That sentiment tracks well with all our pieces,” said Anthony. The Gallery in Above And Beyond exists to explore these other angles, the complex parts that don’t have easy answers. That’s why it’s such a critical companion to the gameplay. “We wanted to restore humanity to what it was like to be alive during that time,” said Rose.

Thanks for your continued interest in Medal of Honor and the stories we’re sharing in the Gallery. Be sure to watch the films when the game releases, and continue to explore the history on your own!

- The Medal of Honor team

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is developed by longtime series developers and in partnership with Oculus from Facebook, and explores the theatre of war in an entirely new cinematic and immersive way. Respawn worked directly with WWII veterans to capture their riveting stories to add context around the historical set pieces players will engage with in the game’s powerful story and unique VR gameplay. 

Medal Of Honor: Above and Beyond is coming Oculus Store for Oculus Rift and Steam with OpenVR support and cross-platform play on Dec. 11, 2020.