You might not recall the Medal of Honor series but it was Call of Duty before there was Call of Duty back in the PlayStation 1 era.

To be more specific, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty were the premier World War II shooters out there with each on having their own unique mechanics and take on the campaigns and battles that comprised that conflict.

Medal of Honor took its name from the military medal of the same name and often focused on recreating the kinds of feats that people were given that medal for accomplishing. That is to say, Medal of Honor was a heady mix of World War II Hollywood epic and real-life story.

Somehow (many blame EA), Medal of Honor lost its way and Call of Duty became the series everyone knows and loves to this very day. But it looks like Medal of Honor is coming back and in VR no less. And it is all thanks to Respawn who is working on bringing their own take on the game to Oculus VR headsets.

Titled Above and Beyond, it comes from the same people behind Titanfall and Apex Legends and the game promises to recreate intense, up close WWII combat in VR. Like we said above, Medal of Honor has a storied history and originally came about as a video game prelude to Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan film.

Intimately involved with that project, Spielberg worked on the first three titles in the series and really helped put it on the map. Ever since its 2012 hiatus, Medal of Honor has languished and is almost forgotten except by those gamers who really know their quality WWII games.

Those fans should be heartened by the news that director Peter Hirschmann, involved with the first game and others, will be working with Respawn on this game which promises to return the series to form.

As The Verge points out, gamers can expect battles such as D-Day and maybe even Market Garden to be events in this game and that there will be a premium on combat and simulation that wasn’t present in the previous games. One example given is the “two-handed” reloading of a gun which not only sounds intense but challenging in the heat of combat.

People who have played the game already are reporting good things so far with many people remarking on how intense the game is. Slated for a release in early 2020, Respawn’s Medal of Honor is coming exclusively to the Oculus headsets but that might not be a permanent thing.

Depending on how successful the game is, we could be seeing more of this kind of thing in the future with other theaters being explored in similarly immersive VR fashion.

What about you? Does Medal of Honor in VR sound like something you would enjoy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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