Last week Game Director on Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, Peter Hirschmann, revealed a bunch of new details about the VR shooter’s multiplayer modes.
Prior to the interview Hirschmann teased that the multiplayer felt so unique and special to play that it included things “you can only do in VR” which seems like a pretty drastic statement. Upon further investigation though, via talking to Hirschmann himself, it sounds like this was just his way of explaining how exciting it is to play this sort of game in VR.
“You know, we have conventional modes that just by the nature of being in VR and being the nature of our systems, it’s a different experience. It’s just the locomotion and being able to lean and peek and hide and say cover.
That adds a depth beyond just straight death match and TDM [team deathmatch] that’s cool. Our take on sabotage is something that you can only do in VR because of how you interact with the environment and how you interact with the mode playing off of bomb placement for bomb diffusal fantasy.
You know, there are things you can do in VR. And again, we abstract it down to the most accessible mechanics. But with VR where you’re interacting with the world and every surface is available to you. There’s things you can do that are really cool, that would be hard to do on a flat screen.
That would be hard to do with just a conventional controller. And those are the kinds of things that we really leaned into and went deep on because it’s like, wow, this again, death match, team death match, domination, whoop — gave one away!
When you put them in a VR environment you still put them in our maps. So due to the weapon handling and nature of the platform, they’re going to feel different. But at least the rule sets are the rule sets and conventional and easy to get.”
For more details on Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, check out our detailed interview from last year which dives deep into the story and campaign mode, along with my hands-on impression right here.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is slated to release later this year exclusively for the Oculus Rift platform of PC VR headsets.
Editor’s Note: Portions of the quote have been edited for consistency and flow without altering its content.
