This year Sledgehammer Games has made a decent WW2 game that can proudly stand beside the first two Call of Duty games. Decent in this case means exactly what you would expect from a Call of Duty game, and not much more than that. The campaign is firmly directed and scripted, and the multiplayer is recognizably conservative in the terms of today’s shooter games. The advantage of all this is that Call of Duty: WWII slides without any need for instructions. It does not matter that you have to switch from the futuristic Infinite Warfare to World War II since both fronts in the performance of Call of Duty games are very similar.
When it comes to a singleplayer campaign with, leaving out the automatic health recovery is a significant change. Returning to the model we had in the original CoD, 14 years ago, slowed down the game and grounded its gameplay. Kamikaze actions are no longer worthwhile; rather you have to think strategically which shelter would be best to take. The game does not help you, but in the rest it leads you with ” an invisible hand”. As soon as you “jump off the track” you will get the message that you cannot just go wherever you want.
The game is striving for diversity and always throws different tasks to you. As the campaign lasts for only six hours, sometimes it leads to a story development that’s too fast, for example, when you conquer Paris in less than fifteen minutes, but Call of Duty: WWII delivers what is trying to tell. The story is centered on several characters of the American 1st Infantry Division with whom you create a fraternal relationship as a young Ronaldo Daniels. Specifically, you are all BFFs except Pierson who is a “crazy bastard” and a surprisingly original figure for CoD games standards. The characters are well played and that helps the story’s credibility this is the first time in a ages that the CoD narrative was this mature.
As long as your expectations are realistic, which in the case of CoD usually means modest, Call of Duty: WWII could offer you the most entertaining singleplayer campaign in the CoD series. As for the gameplay, it can be praised for a wide range of tasks through tapping, stealth and driving, but criticized for its strict action.
One of the reasons for the campaign lasting six hours and seeming like a ride on a train from Normandy to Rhine is the fact that it is only one half of the story. CoD: WWII has its second story through the Nazi Zombies mode. People often disregard this part of the game because it is focused on cooperative gaming, but every new release is investing more and more in it. This year, David Tennant and Elodie Young were engaged as the more important acting talents.
Contrary to the zombie modes of the previous CoD games that were basically a parody of the horror genre, this mode is beautifully dark and will try to intimidate you. I find that a more serious tone is better suited for this mode, especially when trying to tell a story that has some links with the bloodiest conflict in history. After all, the darker atmosphere is reminiscent of the Left 4 Dead series.
Some gamers misunderstood Acitvision’s marketing phrase about going back to the roots with the Call of Duty: WWII, thinking that they will finally get the good old Call of Duty they enjoyed 10 years ago or more. The old Call of Duty games in the WW2 environment are just exactly that – old. It would literally be irresponsible from Activision to release a product based on old gameplay mechanics and matchmaking systems to a highly competitive FPS market of today. WWII goes back to the roots of the CoD series only on the subject matter, but that means a lot. From legendary weapons to the maps on well-known battlefields of this ugly war, up to new modes of the game that fit the very subject and changes in the system of movement compared to the last couple of CoD games, the sense of playing this sequel is significantly different.
It feels good to shoot again from weapons such as M1 Garand and Kar 98k, as well as move around the tangled WW2 battlefields, lie in trenches and wait anxiously behind the cover for a new opportunity for a headshot. All this makes sense in a new mode called War, which is also the biggest departure from the classic CoD shooting in the last 10 years and perfectly fits in with the WW2 theme game. In War mode, your kill/death ratio is not important, and there are no killstreaks – it is important to just play with team spirit, execute tasks, and gradually progress through the battlefield until victory. The other team tries to stop you, and then the sides turn. What creates an extra sense of immersion and pleasure is the tasks that are to be executed (or defended) for the progress on the map, and which are greatly different from one map to another. This is much more interesting than the classic Deathmatch modes in which the feeling of playing is much more arcade, less calculated.
Another novelty is the so-called Headquarters – a place for gathering players and opening popular lootboxes that bring new weapon skins and similar aesthetic nonsense to CoD. However, Headquarters is much more than that – it’s a completely three-dimensional space in which, beside other players, you can find several NPCs who give you day-to-day tasks and challenges for the multiplayer (winning five matches of a certain fashion and so on) and many other things.
Gridiron, a new mode in which the Allies play American football against the Axis, but with rifles, is also interesting. The goal is to take the ball and score a goal – the player who is carrying the ball cannot shoot because the ball is carried with two hands but if you run into the enemies, you can throw the ball in his direction and thus practically disarm him. This is an interesting concept, and in most cases quite fun as a departure from the much skewer and themed War mode, but I think it would work better if people weren’t dying so fast in the game.
The rest of the MP is a classic CoD, just set in the WW2. That is not bad because CoD is good and WW2 is interesting, but it is lacking creativity. All the maps are carefully designed to accommodate various types of classic modes – from Team Detahmatch to Kill Confirmed, as well as various types of classes or Divisions, as they are called here. Each Division has specific features and opportunities, as well as a distinctive weapon choice. As you progress through the multiplayer rankings, you also unlock new opportunities to upgrade your character. So basically, it is the good old CoD story with classes, upgrades and loadouts – just told a little differently, thematically convenient.
War mode is certainly the greatest power in multiplayer, an element that makes Call of Duty: WWII more different than the other CoD titles and makes the whole game worthy of purchasing if an objective based gameplay is your cup of tea.
Call of Duty: WWII has delivered more than a solid campaign, a better cooperative mode and a recognizable multiplayer. We liked the game as an arcade shooting game that it is and it is unnecessary to do into the discussion whether it is better or worse than some other things on the market.
