Call of Duty: WWII Xbox One Review
Posted on: 2017-11-09
Our rating:
Call of Duty returns to the setting that earned the franchise so much critical acclaim in its early days
After three games of playing around with a science fiction setting Call of Duty this year has decided to go back to its roots which launched the franchise into stratosphere by sending us back to the trenches of the Second World War. Is this the game to bring old fans of the series back? I would say yes so let’s get into why this is one of the best Call of Duty games from the past five years.
Call of Duty WWII’s story mode takes place during the closing years of the war, where you are part of an American platoon known as the “Bloody First”. You play as a Private Daniels who is new in the military and we see him grow as a soldier to an eventual leader throughout the story as he witnesses what Nazi Germany has done to Europe. The game wastes no time and throws you straight in with the opening level being the beach assault of Normandy with the famous D-Day battle. The game truly shows the horrors of World War II as the ramps drop and you see your fellow soldier get cut down by enemy machine gun fire, it’s a tense and horrifying moment but it is handled in a respectful and realistic manner.
The campaign’s gameplay is very different compared to the last three games as there is no longer any advanced movement, so you can’t double jump nor can you run along walls as this is a grounded setting. Another aspect that might catch veteran Call of Duty players off guard is that the campaign ditches regenerating health and goes for a more traditional fixed health bar where you have to find medical kits on the battlefield or from your fellow soldiers. You have different members in your squad that fulfill different roles, such as a medic, support which can spot enemies, ammunition supplier and someone who keeps your grenades topped up. It adds tension to the game as you find yourself running across a firefight panicking when you’re low on health and ammunition.
Multiplayer has been given a bit of a bump with the new Headquarters feature, this is a hub where you can hangout and converse with over players and test weapons on the firing range. This is very similar to Destiny’s tower as you can check your mail, obtain loot boxes and tweak your loadouts. I like this feature because instead of waiting in a static lobby waiting for the game to start you can wonder around and test your guns and see what works before a game starts, it really feels like you’re part of a community.
Another new aspect to the multiplayer is the new War mode, there has been a mode called War before in Call of Duty World at War back in 2008, yes nearly 10 years ago, but this interpretation is very different. War puts you in various scenarios which can range from storming the beaches of Normandy, escorting tanks or taking down anti-aircraft guns. These are a lot of fun and encourage team work to get the objective done because if you don’t work as a team you’re going to lose. My main issue with this mode is that the defending team has a distinct advantage and I found that nine times out of ten they would win, plus it doesn’t help with the fact that snipers plague this mode, where I found myself getting shot out of nowhere.
They have also changed the class system so you no longer have the traditional create a class system or perks. You are presented with “Divisions”, what these entail are specialisations in different ways of fighting. First up you have Airborne which use SMGs and can use silencers on their guns, Mountain which love to sit back with sniper rifles, Armoured who bring out the big guns with light machine guns, infantry which is the bog standard soldier with their rifles and Expeditionary who like to get up close and personal with shotguns with incendiary rounds. I like this change as the create a class system in previous games got way out of hand and made the overall experience unbalanced and frustrating.
The presentation is great especially when it comes to the character models its almost stepping into the uncanny valley with how believable the animation is with the characters even down to subtle facial expressions, it’s amazing how far we have come in terms of animation. Environments look superb especially during a section when you’re in a forest and you see the trees react to a mortar strike as they sway violently. The violence is very graphic and is present in a realistic manner, it is very brutal especially at the start of the game when you storm the beaches of Normandy and you see someone’s head get blown clean off, if that upsets you this is probably not the game for you.
Overall Call of Duty: WWII is easily one of the best games in the series bringing it back to its roots. It’s has an engaging campaign with some tense and emotional moments with a revamped multiplayer mode, there are few issues with the multiplayer that drag it down a bit but I expect it will be addressed in future updates. This might be the Call of Duty game to draw in the old crowd once again.
Article by:
Sam has lived in Bristol all his life. A keen cyclist he speeds around the city but video games are his bread and butter. Whether the old Nes and Snes games or the XBox One and Playstation releases he loves them all. Sam runs his own gaming blog called Bristolian Gamer where he had been reviewing indie games, doing retro reviews and venting his anger at the industry when it does wrong since 2010. Sam joined the 365Bristol team in December 2014.
