Over the past decade the Call of Duty franchise has strayed so far from its roots that it actually went to space. Back when Jim Halpert was playing the original game with his office mates it was hard to imagine the series going to those heights, quite literally, but that’s exactly what happened. This year’s iteration is a return to the era that put Call of Duty on the map in the first place, World War 2, and it’s the best decision Activision could have made.
Developer Sledgehammer Games had hoped for the chance to make a sequel to their initial stab at the franchise, Advanced Warfare, but Activision had other plans. Fatigue from spending the last three games in a futuristic setting was beginning to set in. In order to breathe new life into the series, they needed to go backwards.
Like pretty much every game in the franchise since World at War, the game is divided into three sections.
- Campaign
- Multiplayer
- Zombies
Campaign
The campaign takes off with a bang. We experience D-Day for the first time since probably Medal of Honor Frontline and it may not have been long enough. While the opening mission does a good job at introducing the characters to us, it does little to build upon any other D-Day experience that we have played in the past. The campaign is short, even for Call of Duty standards, clocking in at about five or six hours. By the end, you’ll be ready to jump into the multiplayer and zombies modes.
The story has a very Band of Brothers feel to it. You get an inside look at a group of soldiers putting their lives on the line for the men fighting next to them. While it has some nice intimate moments, the story and characters fail to leave a long lasting impression. That’s the one downfall to the long running series campaigns – they fail to create characters that you really connect with. Even down to their generic names they all start to blend together and thereby making them forgettable by the time the next iteration releases.
It was nice to get a break from a campaign full of wall jumps and mechs and dive into a more personal story where teamwork and skill replaced technology and luck. Some of the more annoying moments in the campaign come in the form of quicktime events and heroic actions. Though we’ve never been huge fans of quicktime events, they seem extra annoying here and put an unnecessary lull in the otherwise fun action. The heroic actions are also an unnecessary addition, making you put yourself in harms way for precious little payoff. You may be dragging an injured soldier to safety or capturing a prisoner, but you always make yourself susceptible to demise yourself in these instances.
Multiplayer
The return to a WW2 setting shines the most in the multiplayer. Taking away the verticality of the past few games has made the experience a little slower and more skill based than multiplayer has been over the last ten years or so.
When you load up multiplayer you begin at headquarters. This is Call of Duty’s answer to Destiny’s tower. The game’s development more than likely began about the time that the first Destiny launched, giving Activision and Sledgehammer the idea in the first place. From there you can collect a paycheck, buy your loot boxes (or “supply drops” as they call them), receive orders, and head out to battle. At the time of this review the supply drops could only be purchased with in-game currency, but a real world monetary system is launching in the near future. While most of these drops offer cosmetic items, there are some in-game advantages that can be gained from the drops.
The nine maps that come on the disc at launch are all fairly small, which adds to making the experience feeling fresh again. While some players will still run and gun into certain death, most matches feel like players have the opportunity to be a little more strategic this time around. There are some opportunities to snipe and get kills at close range. Weapons like the M1 feel very much at home here giving that mid range weapon a chance to shine. In addition to the nine multiplayer maps there are three maps specific to the New War mode, including the beach at Normandy where you can play through events similar to the campaign.
War mode is a blast. It can be chaotic, but the WW2 setting is perfect for it.
There are now five divisions that you can chose from. They can level up and prestige along with your weapons and character. Customization of your character now adds feminine faces in an attempt to reach a higher diversity of players. Within each division you can unlock different uniforms and helmets to make your character stand out.
Multiplayer really shines this year and is easily the highlight of WWII.
Zombies
Zombies strips away the glitz and color of the past two games and goes back to a Nazi Zombies take on the mode again. In last years Infinite Warfare, the zombies mode was a bright spot on an otherwise average iteration of the game. Zombies In Spaceland made you feel like the main character in a fun Sci Fi movie, each set piece felt original, and it was simply a blast. While the zombie fun is present here, the darker, grittier setting feels a little lacking. In a very The Monuments Men way you are retrieving art stolen by the Nazis.
Like the zombie modes in the past, this is more fun to do with friends than strangers. Online matches with strangers never seem to work well and it becomes more frustrating that it is fun.
Recommendation: Any fan of Call of Duty will love this game. It captures all the joys in multiplayer that we felt back in 2008 without completely losing everything that makes a modern COD so great. If you’re looking for a classic WW2 campaign, this will wet your whistle. But if that is your only reason for buying the game, you won’t get your $60 worth. Fans of online multiplayer shooters will eat this up and rightfully so. It shines as one of the best experiences of the year in that department. However, without micro-transactions being live, it’s hard to know if they will change the dynamics of the mode in any way.
