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REVIEW: CALL OF DUTY WW2 - PS4, Xbox One, PC (Ps4 version tested)

8/11/2017

30 Comments

 
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My dad bloody loves World War 2. He was a kid while it was happening, but did his National Service once he came of age, and clearly embraced every minute of it. He loved being in the army so much that he joined the T.A. a few years after coming out, and spent 20-odd years playing soldiers at the weekends.

The only records he ever owned were The Best of Acker Bilk, and a load of war movie soundtracks. He only ever seemed to watch war movies on TV - by association I became deeply familiar with The Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone, and sort of absorbed a ton of info about the war just because it was always around me growing up.

Even now for Christmas and birthdays I only ever buy him books about World War 2 because, frankly, there's no point getting him anything else. I'm amazed that people can still find new things to write about the conflict, but - I guess - it was a big old war that went on for six years.

Unless you're American, of course, in which case the war didn't start until 1941.

As is too often the case, CoD: WW2 tells the war from an American perspective. An English bloke pops up at one point, and a member of the French resistance becomes the focus of one mission, but for the most part you'd think it was a war fought exclusively between the Americans and the Germans.

​Maybe if the game had been a bit more inclusive we would've seen a less predictable selection of missions.
FAIR GO
CoD: WW2 makes a fair go at trying to portray the true horrors of war. Lip service is paid to there being shades of grey on both sides of the conflict. We hear that not all Germans are bad, we see that your commanding officer is a bit of a dick, ordinary people have their lives destroyed, and the Nazis were responsible for some truly horrible things. As if that needed spelling out...

There's also an attempt at adding some emotional gravitas through the story; you get flashbacks to your character's childhood, he's got a girl and a new baby waiting for him at home, his best friend gets captured by the Germans, and blah-blah-blah. It's a grab-bag of war movie cliches, but the storytelling is so slight and musty that the climax of the game never feels truly earned.

It also doesn't help that your captured best friend - HERE BE SPOILERS - ends up being the only emaciated survivor of a liberated prisoner of war camp, a tonal shift that feels typical of the rest of the game, which leaps jarringly between earnest, behold-the-horror-of-war and bombastic action set pieces.

While I doff my hat to them for trying, they might as well not have bothered, not least when the campaign is bolstered by something called Nazi Zombies.

​But, y'know, that's fine. Push all that aside and enjoy a short, but solid, campaign that is as slick and polished as anything this series has ever produced.
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NO SURPRISES
However, as stated above, there's nothing terribly surprising added to the CoD formula - beyond the fact that you can now only regenerate health by finding medical kits, and are able to badger your army buddies for supplies.

However, as a result of the tired checklist of battles we've seen already in games set during World War 2, it feels like I've stormed the Normandy beaches about a dozen times now, and I've lost count of the number of bridges I've secured. 

Why not have a go at The Battle of Kursk, or Kharkov, or Narva? What about some of the wackier WW2 missions, such as Operation Mincemeat - in which a dead tramp was floated across to enemy lines, his pockets stuffed with fake invasion plans? That's not even a joke!

I was all for the series returning to its roots, but I'd been expecting a fresh look at WW2; ask my dad - there's an endless amount of source material. 
Consequently, the biggest issue faced here is one of over-familiarity and, in all honesty, a lack of ambition.
 
Additionally, it borrows heavily from the series' own checklist; bits where you have to crawl towards a gun, bits where you engage in a hand-to-hand struggle with an enemy, other bits where you have to hide from patrols, bits where you do some driving or flying, and moments where you play as other characters...

Despite the series having avoided World War 2 for a long time, it still feels like well-trodden ground. 
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HUBBA HUBBA
Of course, no Call of Duty game is about the campaign alone. Primarily, it's a multiplayer game - this time adding to the standard CoD online battles by pinching a bit from Destiny here (the social hub) and Battlefield there (the "War" mode). A nice touch is the inclusion of classic Activision games hidden around your headquarters, and a new division/class system.

Despite having not really spent much time with the multiplayer on the last couple of CoDs, I was happy to discover that my silky skills hadn't left me. Call of Duty 2 remains the game I've spent the most time online with, and this felt like coming home.

Then there are those zombies - a co-op campaign starring David Tennant, of all people. As is now custom with the CoD zombie games, it's considerably more bonkers than the main campaign, but succeeds here in adding more of a creepy atmosphere that feels slightly more appropriate to the historical setting. 

It's hard to find fault in a game which offers so much, and is so solidly put together. While it was refreshing to return to the series' basics, for some of us those first few CoD games - not to mention Medal of Honour, Battlefield, Brothers in Arms - are still all too fresh in the memory. The result is a game that is hard to hate, but nevertheless fails to surprise.

SCORE: An amount of numbers out of some other numbers.
30 Comments
Waynan The Barbarian
8/11/2017 12:18:17 pm

Off subject, but will you be reviewing the Xbox One X, Mr B?

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Mr Biffo
8/11/2017 02:11:44 pm

No plans, alas. Can't afford one!

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Waynan The Barbarian
8/11/2017 04:25:03 pm

That's a shame. I've got one myself (my credit card has took a stinging) and I would have liked to have heard your opinion on it.

Mr Biffo
8/11/2017 07:51:06 pm

What's your verdict?

Waynan The Barbarian
9/11/2017 11:08:17 am

It's tough to form an opinion at the moment because i've only played Halo 5 on it, which while looking a bit prettier, doesn't push the hardware. And i've yet to try a 4K UHD Blu Ray on it, so until i pick up something like the latest Tomb Raider (which is supposed to look fantastic) or Assassins Creed etc it's a bit up in the air. I purchased Quantum Break on Xbox Live for a mere 14 quid last night so i'll see what that plays like when i get back from work tonight. I hear the installation size with all the 4K updates is around 175 gb! So that 1tb hard drive is probably gonna fill up pretty darn quickly. Luckily i've already got an external 1tb hard drive hooked up to it too so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I've upgraded from the original Xbox One so i'm confident the changes will be more dramatic for me than someone who has upgraded from the S.

Voodoo76
8/11/2017 03:32:29 pm

Is it true that no games will be made specifically for the xbox one x, and that they'll all play on the current xbox one? If so then what's the xbox one x going to use it's extra power for, apart from the games looking better?

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Jol
8/11/2017 04:19:56 pm

Q1 - so far, yeah
Q2 - so far, nothing. Potentially, VR / AR?

(I fully expect that the X1X and PS4 Pro will both end up getting games that are too demanding to run on standard X1s and PS4s)

Jareth Smith
8/11/2017 01:38:01 pm

I can't stand what this series has done to the mainstream industry, where an endless series of CoD clones are touted as "mature" gaming, but the CoD games generally do their shtick well. However, these are games for teenage boys, let's not pretend anything else. I had a big debate online with one fatuous sort convinced the CoD games are for adults as they have an 18+ certificate. Nonsense. These are kids games or for man babies who never grew up.

Will I give it a whirl? No. I'll pick up Doom on the Switch this Friday, but for FPS I'll stick with the genius of Half-Life 2 and the Metroid Prime trilogy. Everything else is mindless filler.

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Mrtankthreat
8/11/2017 03:14:11 pm

Change the record will you. This is becoming tiresome. Who cares what they're touted as? Let's all agree, they're games for teenage boys. Happy now? You do know people are still going to play them right, because they think they're fun? Or do you think that once it's recognised that they really are only for man babies that suddenly everyone will rush out to buy a Switch or whatever?

Having stupid rows on the Internet about which games are mature or not, even if you win that argument, isn't going to stop generic, copycat dross being made by unimaginative games developers.

It's not CoDs fault that other developers can't be arsed to put effort in. Also CoD provides something Doom and Half Life et al don't. A multiplayer experience. And it does it well. It's not for me and obviously not for you but why can't you leave it at that. Why are you antagonising people by getting into arguments about whether it's mature or not? That's more man babyish behaviour than enjoying the game.

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Jareth Smith
8/11/2017 04:24:57 pm

Mrtankthreat - "It's not CoDs fault that other developers can't be arsed to put effort in" - This implies CoD's developers, who steer what is well known as one of the industry's most cynical cash cows, are putting effort in. Looks like they've actually tried this time out, but I find the gratuitous WWII insulting to history and those who died. Are these titles helping to raise a new generation of pacifists, or do we have a generation of Millennials discovering WWII for the first time by thinking it's a hell of a laugh? "omg bro diss iz sick as fuq!!! lol".

Valiant Hearts managed something historically accurate, moving, and entertaining. It's a shame CoD has to following this shambolic routine, which only imbeciles would fawn over, each time out.

If people want a fun FPS, go and play Doom or Half-Life 2. Don't turn an appalling event into la-de-da time for philistines - a tragedy made into a playground for overly privileged, notoriously obnoxious prats. In conclusion - your comment is based on erroneous reasoning and is an embarrassment. Grow up.

PeskyFletch
8/11/2017 04:40:23 pm

I like how you ignored the parts of his comment you couldn't respond to. "grow up" indeed.

Mrtankthreat
8/11/2017 05:51:05 pm

"This implies CoD's developers, who steer what is well known as one of the industry's most cynical cash cows, are putting effort in. Looks like they've actually tried this time out,"

So you agree they put effort in this time?

"It's a shame CoD has to following this shambolic routine"

That should be "It's a shame CoD has to follow this shambolic routine", dear.

"If people want a fun FPS, go and play Doom or Half-Life 2."

I already told you, they are single player games. They don't offer the same experience as CoD. You could have said Splatoon and maybe made a decent point.

"In conclusion - your comment is based on erroneous reasoning and is an embarrassment"

Which comment? The one you quoted and then agreed with right at the start?

PeskyFletch
8/11/2017 06:56:58 pm

Also Jareth, the millennial cohort begins at about 1982. Are you implying that people in their mid thirties haven't come across WW2 before?

Winston
8/11/2017 04:09:10 pm

DOOM is fine now, because it's on the Switch of course. So, so arbitrary and sicophantic

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Jareth Smith
8/11/2017 04:16:56 pm

Winston - It's "sycophantic", dear. I had no issues with the Doom update, having owned it on Steam. Damn good game. Formulate a better response next time, please, this caustic leering the moment I point out how tedious mainstream gaming is doesn't hold up. Troll harder.

Jareth's dad
8/11/2017 10:50:28 pm

Do the doctors know what you're missing, or have you just stopped going?

Phil Mitchell
9/11/2017 09:42:59 pm

Recently replayed Half Life 2 and while the gameplay still mostly holds up the horrifically trite dialogue and crap boat and car sections hold it back. It's far from genius, I'll say that.

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Mrtankthreat
8/11/2017 02:29:21 pm

How has someone not made a game (or even a film) featuring "Mad" Jack Churchill? A nutcase who fought in WW2 with a longbow and a broadsword would be a perfect video game character.

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RichardM
8/11/2017 03:06:31 pm

Yeah. The classic WW2 scenarios have rather been wrung dry over the years... I think Medal of Honour: Allied Assault from 2002 (!) remains my favourite D-Day experience.

Harking back to the Nazis article a while back, I commented then that I thought other wars should be investigated through the medium of videogames... But sadly I don’t think videogames can do war without Hollywood having lead the way, so WW2 and the modern era are probably where we’re staying for now. I think this is sad, because I think videogames could shine a light on other conflicts with different - or, gasp, more interesting - moral quandaries.

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Soldier Timothy the lovely soldier
8/11/2017 04:26:25 pm

Did you play Special Ops: the Line?

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RichardM
8/11/2017 11:42:56 pm

I haven’t, but it seems to fall into the ‘near future fuckfest’ bracket. Having read a summary on Wikipedia... the hallucinations sound interesting and all, but all a bit predictable plot wise in the end.

I’d like an action war game entirely in shades of grey: play a guerilla setting bombs in the awareness of potential civilian death sentence, play security forces obliged to crack down on their own people, that kind of thing.

Stuart
14/11/2017 10:59:16 am

Spec Ops: s'awright. It too forcefully plays the whole Heart of Darkness tribute (more on Apocalypse Now than the novel that's based on, which is the case with a lot of stuff). Possibly worth the 5-6 hours it takes to complete, as the game can be picked up cheaply now, or maybe just watch a Youtube Let's Play if you're still curious.

In terms of shades of grey (titter ye not), the only thing I can think of right now is the original Syndicate (not the FPS reboot thingy, which I gather totally misreads the tone of what it's based on). But as you probably know that's more of a squad-based RTS, and is less morally ambivalent than full-on blackhearted glee, so maybe not what you're after.

Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
8/11/2017 04:16:25 pm

Oh, for a British games journo to be able to review a WW2 game without moaning that it's about the US Army in France again. There are other games which will give you what you're after if it's so ghastly that exactly the story you wanted isn't being recounted here. D-Day and Omaha Beach captures the imagination because of the tremendous cost and destruction, much like Stalingrad, Market Garden and Iwo Jima do.

For Eastern Front stuff, COD1 and 2 have Stalingrad, World at War has Stalingrad and Seelow Heights/Berlin. For British stuff, COD2 has North Africa, COD3 has the SAS and Maquis. COD3 also has a Canadian section (which is arguably more intense than the US bit) as well as a bit with a Polish 1st Armoured Division in their Sherman tank.

That's just COD, too. There's other FPS, flight sims, tank games, naval games and RTS games which will give you other theatres of the war.

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SweetMrGibs
8/11/2017 07:28:51 pm

But without the bastion of the British games journo, WW2 history would be broken and lost. We need them to represent the truth!... and maybe review... a game?

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Blame Canada
8/11/2017 08:06:44 pm

Ah but just as with the Mario and its plot, it doesn't matter that there are thousands of other games out there that do comply with their desires, this one game has to provide exactly what they want because they are entitled to it god dammit!

They don't want to buy something else! It's not fair and they are going to tell their mom!


To be honest though, on launch day I immediately headed to Youtube to watch the first few levels of a play-through to see if I should buy it.

I simply could not believe that they did the Beach scene AGAIN and ripped off all the same cliches from the Saving Private Ryan sequence AGAIN!

I remember after the Matrix came out almost every comedy film I saw (stuff like Shrek etc) did a skit on that scene where two characters jump into the air to hit each other and the action freezes and the camera rotates around them. This eventually got very tedious and the movie industry realised it had been overused and was time to stop.

For some reason the video game industry never gets to that point! It was time to stop a long time ago but they still ain't go the memo!

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
9/11/2017 04:56:15 pm

The best version of the beach in gamesdom remains the one from the BF1942 mod Forgotten Hope. Huge beach, three bunkers, 64 players. Complete mayhem, and with a lot of different ways of completing it (and you had to move inland a bit too once you got up the cliffs)

It also had Gold and Juno beach maps with tanks to drive!

SweetMrGibs
8/11/2017 07:25:39 pm

Positive... Negative. Positive... Negative. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

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Nick
9/11/2017 12:13:39 am

I've always quite liked the CoD campaigns, their well put together with a nice line in mad set pieces. Never been a huge fan of the multiplayer.

I have nothing more to add at this stage.

So... here we are... ermm... No, nothing more to say.

See yer.

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Lodge Rebel
9/11/2017 02:12:51 pm

Every WW2 game seems to sound the same: storm the beach. Disable some guns, secure a bridge, rescue a POW etc etc.

It's crazily and boringly same like in almost every game in that era.

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PS1Snake
9/11/2017 09:00:45 pm

Saw a few previews of this and I thought it was unremarkable. I was surprised to see the return of the classic videogame health bar in CoD as big budget realistic games have become obsessed with "cinematic" experiences in recent years.

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