Call of Duty: World War II (“COD:WWII”) is the second Call of Duty title I’ve experienced, the first being Call of Duty: Black Ops. I was extremely excited to play this iteration of the epic Call of Duty franchise, as WWII is one period of history which fascinates me.
COD:WWII is a first person shooter game, the fourteenth installment to the Call of Duty franchise, and follows the squad in the 1st Infantry Division as they battle on the Western Front of the European theatre (a huge area of heavy fighting during WWII). Like previous games, this iteration of Call of Duty consists of a single-player campaign, multiplayer and a Zombies mode.
The campaign follows Ronald ‘Red’ Daniels, a US Army private, who must fight alongside his global allies to liberate Paris and achieve victory in Germany. Gameplay for the single-player campaign is great, with an experience that immediately reminds players that it is YOU that’s in control. The campaign is interesting as well as engaging with gameplay that is actually fun, something that the single-player campaigns of previous Call of Duty games failed at.
Couple the fantastic single-player campaign with the third game mode, Zombies, and you’ll be reasonably hooked. The entire game is filled with incredible narrative. Not only is there finally a decent story to the Call of Duty games but there is also a magnificent visual experience provided by the game. The graphics are incredibly clear, to the point that the characters, including the cast of the Zombies mode, look extremely realistic.
COD: WWII Zombies involves co-operative gameplay of up to four people. In it, players take on the role of four different characters as they attempt to recover priceless artifacts stolen by the Germans in World War II. These characters are played and voiced by reasonably well known actors including David Tennant (Dr. Who) and Elodie Young (Daredevil). The motion capture of the actors are spectacular and the graphics so incredible that their images on screen looked so lifelike and not at all like a typical video game. This in itself had me in awe over the game.
However, while the graphics were fantastic and beyond what I’ve seen in most other games, gameplay of the Zombies mode was a little lacklustre after a couple of hours. The initial few rounds of playing through the story and killing zombies were fun and appealing as I wanted to learn more about the story behind the stolen artifacts. Alas, I was left a little disappointed with the repetitive nature of killing waves of zombies, as it became tiresome and quite frankly, a little tedious as the game progressively got more challenging, leading to me constantly dying.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily the games fault. Rather, it is my own, for being a casual gamer who isn’t exactly skilled when it comes to challenging shooter games. That is part of the reason why I have yet to experience the multiplayer mode of this game.
At the time of this review, I haven’t had the chance to sink my teeth (or, rather, thumbs) into the multiplayer mode. Part of me is hesitant as I didn’t quite enjoy the multiplayer modes of previous Call of Duty games. Being a casual gamer, who isn’t very good at multiplayer shooter games, I am more content playing through the campaign modes of games such as COD: WWII.
COD: WWII may not be the best game to have come out this year but, it certainly changes things up with the addition of a solid single player campaign experience, incredibly brilliant graphics and a story that is compelling. For those who enjoy Call of Duty games, give this one a go.