'We made sure to hire some ringers who knew what they were doing, but.yeah, the learning experience has been ,' Hirschmann said. While Hirschmann demurred when asked about the project's budget ('we really know how to spend Facebook's money I don't know how else to say that'), he noted that the Above and Beyond team was 180 people strong at its largest, many of whom had never worked in VR before. In a VR game market still expanding and establishing a firm foundation, Above and Beyond is notable for its size and scope alone. We've tried to add a new twist.we try to bring new gameplay, new narrative to it.' So we try to not just say oh it's because it's VR, it's neat. 'So it's not just about trying to get to the shingle you're having to navigate, do stuff, plant explosives, and it's been great to be able to tell the story of those engineers.

'The last thing we wanted to do was 'Oh you're playing Allied Assault again, but in VR.' You've got a whole different experience as a combat engineer,' Hirschmann told Gamasutra during a recent group interview.

Hirschmann worked as a writer on the original game, and for the past two years he's been directing Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, the game teased by Oculus in 2017 when it announced it was working with Respawn on a VR project.įormally announced at Oculus Connect this week in advance of a planned 2020 release on the Rift, Above and Beyond is touted as a big-budget, triple-A WWII shooter with familiar trappings (including a campaign and multiplayer) built to capitalize on VR's immersive nature to sell both its setting and its design. It sprung from Spielberg, and a lot of us were just starting out in our career.'

For a lot of us it's been 15, 16 years where we 've all done other things,' Hirschmann said during a recent press event attended by Gamasutra. 'But there's something special about this series.

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