Call of Duty: WWII

I would not call myself an active Call of Duty fan, though I have certainly enjoyed previous entries in the series. I played a ton of Call Of Duty 2 back in 2005 (though, for PC-based WWII MP shooters of that era, I think I'd still prefer Medal of Honor: Allied Assault from 2002), and thought that the original Modern Warfare was a revelation for console shooters. I can still remember sitting in my room with my brand new PS3 (I was a late adopter), a rented copy of COD4, and a crappy, tiny TV. I played through the campaign in one sitting and adored it - I never would have expected the twists and turns, was blown away by the visuals, and felt the gameplay was fresh and unique. I didn't really follow the COD series too closely after that, though. The next one I played was Modern Warfare 2, and I was extremely underwhelmed. The campaign felt directionless, and the enemies were far too bullet-spongey. Along with that, I never really trifled with the multiplayer for either of the Modern Warfare games (I was/am a PC multiplayer guy, and I played those on Playstation), so I ended up falling off the series as a whole after that. The next game I played was just this year - Black Ops 3 on PS4 when my SO asked if I'd like to join her (she's ridiculously good at it, and is a longtime fan of COD). I played that with her online for months and months, and felt that it was a pretty good game. It felt smooth, balanced, had a lot of class-based options/abilities, had great maps without requiring DLC, and was a generally positive experience (once you turned off voice chat). Armed with this newfound context for what modern Call of Duty multiplayer felt like, I joined my SO in getting ready for WWII's release.

Upon launch day, we opened our shiny new (digital) game and navigated right to the "multiplayer" tab. We were met with endless loading screens, and eventually, each of our attempts to play were met with error screens. It was launch night, their servers were probably being hammered, so there was no way we could fault them for that (I work in development, I know the feeling). Instead we jumped into the campaign. The first impression I got from the campaign was "oh man, they're really going for that old experience, huh?" It opens exactly how I remembered MOH:AA and COD:2 opening - the infamous Normandy beach invasion. Among the first things I noticed was that the game looks spectacular, and that the sound design is pretty great. Character models looks wonderful, the effects around the world and players are impressive, the framerate is solid, and it felt decidedly modern (despite going back to the roots of the series). The gunshots sound bulky, the voice acting is good, the ambient noises are immersive, the vehicles sound accurate, and I think the attention to detail with all of the SFX is spectacular. It left a very good first impression, and I think the first mission of the campaign was pretty great.

As the campaign continued, I felt my enthusiasm waning mission-by-mission, to the point where I was pretty much done with it entirely (no intention to ever go back for achievements or anything of that nature). Yes, the game continues to look great, and sound great; but man, the gameplay is just not fun. For one, my main complaint from COD:MW2 was still as relevant as ever: the enemies are ridiculously spongey, and absorb far too many hits. Not only that, but in some missions the game throws a couple dozen of them at you at a time, and clearing them out takes forever. Where I played through the original Modern Warfare's campaign in one sitting because I was enjoying it so much, WWII's campaign took me the better part of a week because I never wanted to play more than a mission at a time. I don't think I recommend the campaign at all, to be honest. They never end up exploring the characters as well as you think they should, they don't really make good on any of the story beats they set up at the start, and most damning of all, they don't take the time to tell a compelling narrative. Have you seen Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers? You've played the WWII story already, and probably had a better time too.

The worst part about the campaign is how loosely they play by their own rules. There is one mission in particular where it is set up as a stealth mission. That is fine, the MW sniper stealth mission was one of my favourite parts of that game, "bring it on" I thought. I made it through the entire mission stealthily, until I reached a certain point where the rest of my crew runs in and says "No time for stealth now, look we need to run!" - the mission acts as though I was noticed, all of the enemies are on alert, and then it was an action game again. Did I mess up? I reloaded from the previous checkpoint and went through the mission even more carefully; but ran into the same conclusion. I did it again, one last time, where I very meticulously killed every enemy quietly, and once I was sure that there was no possible way I could have been detected, continued. Same thing. So there was no real point to me being stealthy at all, because the way the mission was scripted, stealth didn't actually matter. This is but one example, there are many, many more I could draw from to illustrate my frustration with the campaign's mission design. The first mission was pretty great, and the second & third ones had some merit, but I don't think I truly enjoyed a single part of the boring, rote, poorly designed campaign after.

Once the servers were back online, it was time for us to try and play some Multiplayer together. The first thing you'll notice when you play MP is that you're no longer simply confined to menus - you get to hang around what they call the "Headquarters" with a bunch of other players. It's kind of novel, and as someone who hasn't played games like Destiny, it was a neat thing to see an MMO-like landscape in what otherwise seemed like a pretty normal FPS. Overall, I don't really have strong feelings one way or the other with regards to the HQ. There are some secrets you can find, there are some funny glitches you can exploit, and you can interact with other humans. It's fine, and I think I've generally had a positive time there. That is until all the racial and homophobic epithets started coming out of other players. As is the first thing I do with any modern shooter whose lobby has voice these days, I went to mute all voice communication. That isn't an option. I looked everywhere, and truly, it is not an option. Black Ops 3 had it, why doesn't this? The only way to mute people is to do so individually - and there's no efficient way to do it other than digging 3 or 4 layers deep into the menus, or to physically find their character in the lobby, hold square, and mute them from there. Not off to a great start.

So how about playing the game? Well... It's Call of Duty. But, you know what? That's a good thing. I think they actually nailed the "boots on ground" gameplay they were going for. It is slightly slower paced than Black Ops 3, and I think it is better for it. Each of the five classes feel distinct from one another, and the perks ("Basic Trainings") that you can select all feel useful and balanced in their own way. No one weapon feels like it is overpowered (other than the nearly invisible trip mines), and the rewards from the standard progression you earn feels pretty worthwhile - the seemingly endless 'carrot on a stick' approach. You press left trigger, you press right trigger, aim, and shoot. All of that is pretty standard Call of Duty stuff, and when it works, it is a well executed example of a close quarters multiplayer shooter. However, please note the very selective language I used. "... when it works ..." is perhaps the most important part of the entire written review up until this point, and please allow me to elaborate as to why.

This game is broken. Absolutely broken. There are so many problems that I could easily double the length of this review by listing them all, but I don't think that would accomplish anything of note. The most important critical note is that the game feels like 50% skill, 50% luck. "Inconsistent" is the most accurate word I can use to describe the multiplayer experience. I have a lot of video evidence of me landing double the amount of shots necessary to eliminate an enemy, and them not going down. These clips are usually followed by the person I'm shooting taking me down in one shot. There are also plenty of videos on the WWII Subreddit of the same. This problem alone makes the core multiplayer experience completely not worth experiencing, because this will happen in at least half of your rounds. This isn't to mention the issues with lag, dedicated servers breaking, HQ being empty, map exploits not being fixed, XP gain being incorrect, crashes, and (again) so many more that listing them all would take the rest of this review.

Not only is the game broken from a playability perspective, the designs behind some of the MP modes are absolutely broken as well. For example, War. War is a game mode wherein you are either playing as an attacker or a defender, and as your role, attempting to affect an objective. If I were a defender, I'd be trying to stop the attackers from reaching a certain point, planting a bomb on something, or constructing something. Each map tends to have four objectives that need to be completed in order for the attacking team to win. The round is split into two halves, and after the first half, the attackers and defenders switch sides to determine the winner. Now, if I started on the Defending team, and successfully defended the attackers from achieving the first objective, you'd think that all you'd have to do when it's your turn to be an attacker is make it past that first objective. I mean, that's how it works in Overwatch, right? Well, you'd be wrong. You still have to complete the rest of the objectives, and if you fail on the last one, then the round is considered a draw. I'm sorry, but that is extremely poor design, and when these matches last 20ish minutes each, it feels like a waste of time when it should be finished after completing the first objective within a few minutes.

There are many more complaints I could make about WWII, but suffice to say, I cannot recommend purchasing this game while it is in this state. It is an inconsistent experience, and you'll find yourself frustrated at the broken parts moreso than enjoying the working ones. It is a shame, because at its best, it is a very strong experience - I'd easily have given it four stars if it weren't broken. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and as such, my recommendation is to stay as far away as possible from this game. Spend your money elsewhere, WWII does not deserve it at this time.