Info about Medal of Honor™: Above and Beyond:

Official game description:
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. A deep single-player campaign bursting with authentic detail takes you through historic events on land, air, and sea, sabotaging Nazi bases, subverting enemy plans, aiding the French Resistance, and partaking in the biggest moments of the war.  
In addition to the rich narrative campaign, you'll be able to hone your skills in challenging combat exercises and go deeper into the history with award-winning short films created just for the game.  
You'll need more than good aim to succeed in your mission. Use anything in the world as cover, throw back enemy grenades, swim from sinking ships, and dive out of burning airplanes. You'll have to stay on your toes if you want to make it out alive. You're not watching history, you're experiencing it, like never before.

Release date: Dec 10, 2020

Categories: First-Person Shooter, VR Compatible, World War II, Story-driven Gameplay, Shooting, Action, Single-player Campaigns, Multiplayer

Feature scans:
- Steam Deck: score 70; verdict: Tinkering Required; summary: The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent crashes that severely impact gameplay. Additionally, there are notable problems with control optimization and user interface configuration, which detract from the overall user experience. These issues suggest that the game requires considerable tinkering and may not be fully enjoyable out of the box.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $20.00 - $35.00
  - Reasoning: The evidence shows that many users find the game worth buying only when it is on sale, suggesting that the full price is considered too high. Several reviews mention specific price points or discounts that would make the game a better value, such as under $10, around $30-$35, or at a 50% discount. This indicates that the community generally finds the game overpriced at its current base price of $39.99 but sees value at lower price points.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 11.0h
  - Story completion: N/A
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: The evidence provides several direct references to the total playtime required to complete the game. One user explicitly states that it took them 14.9 hours to complete the full campaign and test the multiplayer. Another user mentions a 10-hour campaign, and yet another refers to an 8-hour campaign. Additionally, a user mentions a campaign duration of approximately 11 hours. These references help to triangulate the typical total time to finish the game. There are also mentions of mission lengths and session interruptions, but these are less directly tied to the total playtime metrics.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: The game starts slow with a tutorial phase but becomes more enjoyable and fast-paced once players get past the initial learning curve and early missions.
  - Stance: Fun after initial slow start
  - Anchor: Completion of tutorial and initial missions
  - Time to anchor: 1h 0m
  - Friction: slow start; tutorial phase; learning curve; dialogue-heavy initial missions
  - Unlock drivers: mastering the learning curve; completing the tutorial; progressing past initial missions
  - Conditions: patience to get through the tutorial; willingness to learn game mechanics; tolerance for initial slow pacing
- Player Archetypes:
  - Story-Driven Campaigner (sale)
    - Motivation: Enjoyment of a complete single-player campaign.
    - Playstyle: Immersive, story-focused gameplay.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: VR enthusiast; Story-driven gamer
    - Reference games: Half-Life: Alyx; The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
  - Hardcore Challenge Seeker (sale)
    - Motivation: Seeking a challenging and hardcore gaming experience.
    - Playstyle: Challenge-focused, hardcore gameplay.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: Hardcore gamer; Challenge seeker
    - Reference games: Defector
  - Tech-Savvy Optimizer (sale)
    - Motivation: Ensuring the game runs smoothly with high-end hardware.
    - Playstyle: Optimization-focused, technical gameplay.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: Tech enthusiast; PC gamer
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Multiplayer Enthusiast (deep sale)
    - Motivation: Enjoyment of multiplayer and social gaming experiences.
    - Playstyle: Multiplayer-focused, social gameplay.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: deep sale
    - Labels: Multiplayer fan; Social gamer
    - Reference games: Pavlov


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Stunning visuals and graphics (weight 0.47): The game is praised for its beautiful and detailed graphics, breathtaking visuals, and stunning environments. Players appreciate the high-quality graphics and the overall visual appeal.
- Immersive and enjoyable gameplay (weight 0.43): The gameplay is described as fun, immersive, and engaging. Players find the experience enjoyable and worthwhile, with a mix of nostalgia and immersive elements.
- Excellent VR experience (weight 0.33): The game runs well on VR, providing a smooth and immersive experience. It is considered a must-have for VR users and offers enjoyable VR activities.
- Engaging and fun gunplay (weight 0.32): Players enjoy the gun mechanics, finding them fun and satisfying. The variety of weapons and smooth handling contribute to an enjoyable shooting experience.
- Variety in missions and set pieces (weight 0.3): Players appreciate the variety in missions, set pieces, and environments. The diverse scenarios and situations keep the gameplay fresh and engaging.
- Well-designed environments (weight 0.16): The environments and level design are detailed and well-crafted. Players appreciate the attention to detail and the thoughtful design of the levels.
- Smooth performance on PC (weight 0.09): The game runs smoothly on various PC setups, including mid-range hardware. Players report a good performance experience.
- Good soundtrack and audio (weight 0.09): The game features a good soundtrack and high-quality audio. Players appreciate the voice acting and overall sound design.
- Historical accuracy and representation (weight 0.09): The game is praised for its historical accuracy and representation of WWII. Players appreciate the attention to historical details and the true-to-history elements.
- Decent replayability (weight 0.08): The game offers decent replayability, with varied gameplay concepts and missions. Players find the game enjoyable enough to replay.
- Slow start but improves (weight 0.08): The game starts a bit slow but improves significantly as players progress. The initial slow start is noted, but the gameplay picks up later.
- Cathartic Nazi-shooting experience (weight 0.08): Players find shooting Nazis to be a cathartic and enjoyable experience. The game provides a satisfying feeling of shooting enemies.
- Full campaign experience (weight 0.07): The game features a full 8-hour campaign, which is appreciated by players who enjoy campaign-based games. The campaign is considered good and worthwhile.

Common complaints:
- Long loading times (weight 0.29): The game suffers from excessively long loading times, which disrupts the gameplay experience and indicates potential optimization issues.
- Large game size (weight 0.26): The game has an unusually large installation size, often exceeding 160GB, which is seen as excessive and potentially indicative of optimization problems.
- Multiplayer issues (weight 0.21): Multiplayer functionality is either non-existent, poorly implemented, or suffers from performance issues, making it a significant drawback.
- Cliché and poor story (weight 0.2): The story is criticized for being cliché, predictable, and not well-written, detracting from the overall experience.
- Excessive cutscenes (weight 0.17): The game is criticized for having too many cutscenes, which disrupt the flow of gameplay and make it difficult to get immersed in the game.
- Buggy and poorly designed (weight 0.16): The game is criticized for being buggy, with some scenes being boring and poorly designed game elements that lack interactivity.
- Clunky weapon handling (weight 0.14): The weapons in the game feel clunky and unfinished, with poor handling and lack of impact, affecting the overall gameplay experience.
- Unrealistic dialogues (weight 0.12): The dialogues in the game are criticized for being unrealistic, ridiculous, and sometimes mixed in language, detracting from the immersion.
- Feels outdated (weight 0.12): The game feels outdated and incomplete, with animations and overall design that do not meet current VR gaming standards.
- Not worth the price (weight 0.1): The game is seen as not offering enough content for its price, making it feel overpriced and not worth the investment.
- Game doesn't work properly (weight 0.1): The game is criticized for not working properly, with errors and issues that prevent it from running smoothly, including problems with the prologue.
- Short and disjointed levels (weight 0.09): The levels in the game are criticized for being too short, disjointed, and linear, affecting the overall gameplay experience.
- Short missions with repetitive structure (weight 0.09): The missions in the game are criticized for being extremely short, repetitive, and often involving a limited number of enemies, affecting the overall gameplay experience.
- Performance issues on various hardware (weight 0.09): The game has performance issues on various hardware, including lower-end and recommended hardware, affecting the overall gameplay experience.
- Needs more polish (weight 0.09): The game is criticized for being unpolished and needing more refinement to improve the overall experience.
- Difficult aiming mechanics (weight 0.09): The aiming mechanics in the game are criticized for being difficult, unusual, and poorly implemented, affecting the overall combat experience.
- Not as good as Half-Life: Alyx (weight 0.09): The game is criticized for not being as polished or as good as Half-Life: Alyx, which is seen as a superior VR game.
- Bullet sponge enemies (weight 0.09): The enemies in the game are criticized for being bullet sponges, requiring excessive amounts of ammunition to defeat, which can be frustrating.
- Errors with SteamVR (weight 0.09): The game has issues with SteamVR, including bugs and temporary lags, affecting the overall VR experience.
- Inconsistent interactions (weight 0.09): The game has inconsistent environmental and NPC interactions, as well as inconsistent object interactivity, affecting the overall gameplay experience.
- Short missions with too much dialogue (weight 0.09): The missions in the game are criticized for being very short and filled with too much dialogue, affecting the overall pacing and gameplay experience.
- Unrealistic weapon mechanics (weight 0.09): The weapon mechanics in the game are criticized for being unrealistic and simplified, affecting the overall combat experience.
- Scale issues with NPCs (weight 0.09): The game has issues with the scaling of NPCs and objects, making them appear disproportionate and affecting the overall immersion.
- Poor physics and object interaction (weight 0.09): The game is criticized for having poor physics and object interaction, with inconsistent object physics that affect the overall gameplay experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Varied mission types (weight 0.42): The game features a wide variety of missions, including battles, stealth, aerial combat, and more. Missions are short but numerous, offering diverse environments and objectives.
- Story-driven gameplay experience (weight 0.31): The game offers a story-driven campaign with a focus on narrative and characters, set in a WW2 environment. Players can expect scripted story scenes and an action-packed single-player experience.
- VR and immersive design (weight 0.26): The game is designed for VR, offering an immersive experience. It includes tactile interactions and environmental interactions to enhance the VR gameplay.
- Reloading and weapon mechanics (weight 0.26): The game includes reloading mechanics and various weapon handling features. Players will engage in shooting and reloading guns with simplified mechanics.
- Multiplayer and campaign modes (weight 0.25): The game offers both a campaign mode and a multiplayer mode. The campaign includes training rooms and various weapons, while multiplayer features different modes for players to enjoy.
- Shooter mechanics (weight 0.18): The game is a straightforward shooter with action-packed segments. It includes various shooting gallery sections and rail shooter sections.
- Unique VR experiences (weight 0.12): The game offers unique VR experiences, including beginner-friendly mechanics and a variety of interactive systems. It is designed to be immersive and engaging for VR players.
- Cinematic cutscenes (weight 0.12): The game includes cinematic cutscenes that enhance the storytelling experience. These cutscenes are integrated into the gameplay to provide a more immersive narrative.
- Mission structure and length (weight 0.11): The game includes short and linear missions designed for gradual adaptation. The campaign is long, with missions split into chapters for a structured gameplay experience.
- Character and visual quality (weight 0.1): The game has been criticized for its uninteresting characters and poor visual quality. Players may find the graphics and character interactions lacking.
- Normandy landing mission (weight 0.09): A specific mission in the game involves the Normandy landing, providing a unique and historically significant gameplay experience.
- VR combat mechanics (weight 0.07): The game features VR combat mechanics, though some players have noted outdated mechanics and poor collision detection. The VR design aims to provide an immersive combat experience.
- AI behavior (weight 0.06): The game features arcade-like AI behavior, which some players have found to be good. The AI mechanics are designed to provide a challenging and engaging experience.
- Scene transitions (weight 0.06): The game includes frequent transitions between scenes, though some players have noted a lack of transitional scenes. These transitions are designed to keep the gameplay engaging and dynamic.
- User interface and controls (weight 0.06): The game has been criticized for its atrocious UI and awful controls. Players may find the user interface and control mechanics to be poorly designed.

Performance notes:
- Long loading times reported (weight 0.21): Many players have reported extraordinarily long loading times, which significantly impact the gaming experience. This issue appears to be persistent and widespread.
- Large game size (weight 0.18): The game has a large installation size, which can be a drawback for players with limited storage space. This is compounded by potential optimization issues.
- Optimization issues (weight 0.16): The game has optimization issues, which can lead to poor performance and high hardware requirements. Some players note that the game could be better optimized.
- Performance improved by adjusting supersampling (weight 0.12): Players have found that turning down the supersampling rate in Steam can significantly improve performance, making the game more playable.
- FPS drops and stutters (weight 0.1): Players experience frequent FPS drops and stutters, which can disrupt gameplay and reduce enjoyment.
- High PC requirements (weight 0.09): The game requires a high-end PC with a powerful CPU and GPU, which may limit accessibility for some players.
- Runs well on VR (weight 0.09): The game runs smoothly on various VR platforms, providing a good experience for VR users.
- Smooth performance on high-end GPUs (weight 0.09): Players with high-end GPUs such as the RTX 3080 and GTX 1080 Ti report smooth performance when settings are adjusted appropriately.
- High memory usage (weight 0.06): The game has high system resource usage, which can be demanding on players' hardware and potentially lead to performance issues.
- Game fails to start (weight 0.06): There are reports of the game not starting after updates, which can be frustrating for players eager to continue their gaming experience.
- System crashes (weight 0.06): There are reports of system crashes, which can disrupt gameplay and potentially cause data loss or other issues.

Recommendations:
- Buy on sale (weight 0.27): Many players suggest that the game is worth purchasing, but only when it is available at a discounted price. They feel the full price does not offer good value for money.
- Worth for specific audiences (weight 0.22): The game is recommended for specific groups such as shooter fans, WWII enthusiasts, and those interested in historical content. These players find the game enjoyable and worth the purchase.
- Recommended for VR users (weight 0.21): The game is highly recommended for those who own VR headsets. Players find the VR experience immersive and enjoyable.
- Worth trying out (weight 0.19): Several players suggest that the game is worth trying out or playing through. They find the gameplay and multiplayer modes enjoyable.
- Worth $20 or less (weight 0.15): Many players feel that the game is worth $20 or less. They suggest that anything more than this is hard to justify.
- Technical adjustments needed (weight 0.08): Some players recommend making technical adjustments such as turning off the blue grab guidelines and playing in lower resolution mode for a better experience.
- Not a triple-A title (weight 0.08): The game does not meet the expectations of a triple-A title and some players feel it was released as a money grab. It needs more work before it can be widely recommended.
- Play before judging (weight 0.03): Players recommend trying out the prologue and the first mission before making a judgment about the game.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.29): Players are frustrated primarily due to performance issues, including crashes, FPS drops, and high system requirements. Additionally, gameplay mechanics such as clunky controls, unrealistic aiming and reloading, and repetitive mission design contribute to this frustration.
- Disappointment (weight 0.19): Disappointment stems from the game's failure to meet AAA expectations, with outdated mechanics, poor graphics, and a lack of immersion. Players also express dissatisfaction with the story, multiplayer issues, and the overall quality not matching the hype or price point.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.15): Enjoyment is derived from the game's engaging combat mechanics, varied missions, and immersive VR experiences. Players appreciate the graphics, story, and the fun gameplay, which contribute to a positive experience.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.1): Satisfaction comes from the overall quality of the game, including smooth performance, enjoyable combat, and a rich arsenal of weapons. Players also appreciate the historical accuracy and the game's value for its price.
- Positive (weight 0.08): Positive sentiments are driven by the game's enjoyable storyline, graphics, and immersive gameplay. Players recommend the game for its performance and the effort put into its development.
- Excitement (weight 0.05): Excitement is generated by the game's immersive and varied missions, thrilling gameplay, and engaging VR experiences. Players enjoy the action-packed sequences and the variety of activities.
- Negative (weight 0.03): Negative feelings arise from technical issues such as lag, pixelation, and poor optimization. Players also dislike the lack of true physics and the game's high system requirements.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Appreciation is expressed for the game's visuals, sound, and the effort put into its development. Players also value unique elements like tanks and planes, and the game being translated into Spanish.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.02): Nostalgia is felt by veterans and long-time fans who find the game reminiscent of older titles in the series, bringing back good memories of classic Medal of Honor games.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.02): Enthusiasm is driven by the enjoyable and exciting storyline, as well as the fun and varied missions that keep players engaged.
- Excited (weight 0.01): Players are excited about the game's immersive gameplay, technical performance, and the variety of missions in the campaign, which provide a realistic and engaging experience.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is caused by the game being unplayable due to constant crashes and file corruption. Players are also angry about the high system requirements and the lack of promised features.
- Amazement (weight 0.01): Amazement comes from the game's stunning visuals and the overall quality and detail, which provide an impressive VR shooter experience.
- Frustrated (weight 0.01): Frustration is due to the large size of the game and the slow start, which initially leads to a negative impression.
- Disappointment (weight 0.01): La decepción surge porque el juego no cumple con las expectativas en términos de inmersión, calidad gráfica, contenido y valor.
- Frustration (weight 0.01): La frustración es causada por problemas técnicos con las Oculus Rift S, la falta de opciones gráficas avanzadas y elementos que rompen la inmersión, como la pantalla de 'victoria'.
- Angry (weight 0): Anger is caused by severe technical issues, such as the game launching improperly in VR, freezing, and crashing, making it unplayable.
- Fear (weight 0): Fear is experienced during intense moments of virtual panic, which add to the game's immersive and thrilling gameplay.
- Blown away (weight 0): Players are blown away by the game's stunning graphics, top-of-the-line combat and gameplay, and the fun adventure story.}