WWII Call of Duty TEST: Between emotion and bourrine tradition, a successful assault?

juliusfatai (58)in #gaming • 7 years ago (edited)

Activision has made the bet to return to World War II without a hitch after many (too many) long years to travel in a modern or futuristic context. And who better than the Sledgehammer studio to make this comeback, led by such eminent figures as Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey? It remains to be seen if the end result is up to our expectations, which we will check together now.

It's been 9 years now that the Call of Duty series had not done in World War II. A long pause and detachment from this historical context that may have allowed ideas to flourish and mature gameplay proposals. Anyway, it is with great pleasure that we make this leap in the past to abandon the superfluous and get back to basics. One can almost palpate many times in the single-player campaign references to masterpieces of the field, such as the unmistakable Band of Brothers series or the feature film It Must Save Private Ryan . But no need to hold the suspense longer: to be short, the solo campaign is a real success!

A human epic

The Second World War. It is surely one of the most terrible and darkest periods in the history of humanity, but it is also - and it is paradoxical - a real human epic where honor, bravery and fraternal love faced horror and barbarity. A time when many brave men of all nations died to respond to the madness of their enemies. A terrible time that hides incredible individual and collective stories, which have their place in the art ... and in the video game.

Thus, in the single-player campaign, we mostly follow the personal story of Private Ronald "Red" Daniels and his teammate and friend, the First Class Robert Zussman, American Jew, which is important in the story. . Both are part of the 16th Regiment of the First Infantry Division of the United States. A good opportunity for the studio Sledgehammer to make us travel across the Normandy Landing, from Normandy to the Battle of the Ardennes, through the Liberation of Paris. Obviously the game has chosen for opening sequence the terrible day of D-Day, on the beaches of Omaha, the scene of a battle that, remember, made 1,000 deaths on the US side and 200 German side.

Total immersion and guaranteed emotions

Headphones on the head and eyes riveted on the screen, we could discover a very strong moment of the video game. This is surely the most intense and powerful depiction of D-Day ever in a video game to date. It must be said that it was a long time since our media did not try it. In a few minutes, hell breaks loose. Landing barges (the famous landing crafts) land on the beach and the bullets begin to whistle. Blood flows, limbs tear, shells rain. A definition of human horror, one that broke the morale and sanity of thousands of men in a few hours. Very honestly, it's almost a faultless atmosphere. Our ears still remember it. Only small complaint: a crossing of the beach may be a little too fast ... What do you want, the modern player is demanding and takes more time.

After having managed to cross the beach without too much trouble, we are quickly led to blowing the sand dunes with a bangalore torpedo, a long telescopic tube loaded with explosives. A beautiful staging obviously referring to a historical truth, but also to the film It must Save the Soldier Ryan Steven Spielberg. Later in the dialogues, we also find a concrete reference (a phrase word for word) to a passage of the formidable series Band of Brothers. The solo campaign is loaded with strong emotions and will make you vibrate into your bowels, especially since the sound design is simply sumptuous and will accompany all your adventure without any missteps.

Almost no-fault for the solo campaign

Note also that cinematics are very successful and that, technically, Call of Duty WWII does not have to blush competition . On the other hand, and it is always more or less the case with the games of the series, one notes some technical weaknesses throughout the game . Some textures that drool a little, some shadows that tend to pixelize ... Nothing really bad, especially as some volumetric effects like smoke effects are bluffing, and it was "only" a PS4 Pro version. We also regret very much not having been able to see feel the PC version for this test, and it is hoped that it will correct these defects. In short, despite some small visual problems, rest assured: it remains very honest overall and immersion is never affected.

The immersive / historical side is also present from one end to the other of the adventure. Only regret about this: the overbidding of some scenes typically Call of Duty . A single soldier who takes a Flak 36 German anti-aircraft battery to shoot down 10 planes is no! It is however difficult to be choosy with solo campaign, which reserves especially great moments. Special mention to the famous chapter where you play as a French resistance undercover in the 5th arrondissement of Paris : a success at all levels, which is clearly a big slap to those who swear by action, action and again the action.

In total, the single-player campaign has 11 chapters (+ 1 bonus epilogue) and we are caught up in the atmosphere and mechanics of play every moment, from beginning to end. It is almost hard to resist the temptation to spoiler two specific scenes of the game, absolutely great, but we obviously prefer to leave you a total surprise and nothing to spoil your pleasure. In short, the cod solo WWII is a great vintage and deserves to focus on this new episode.

A classic multiplayer but with good ideas

Multiplayer, it's still very traditional, but fortunately some novelties of good quality come to bring an interesting boost . Like the famous "Headquarter", which was very vague before we could play the game Yet it is very simple and we wonder why some studios did not think earlier. Instead of going through a matchmaking menu without any charm, we pass by the famous Headquarter, a giant community hub in the form of a military base in which we can interact with the rest of the players during a matchmaking , or just throw a shot look at the prestige mode of his character. Fans of e-popularity will be able to rise in rank until becoming prestige 1, then 2, then 3, overall of all that we could unlock.

It is even possible to train via a "Duel" mode, in which one faces a player having previously registered on a list. Obviously, this is also where we open his "loot box", these famous rewards that can be recovered during our games in single and multi mode. A box can include a skin, a weapon, an XP boost for x time. The classic as we can also find on Star Wars Battlefront II and Battlefield 1 . In short, this Headquarter is a real good idea and is largely inspired by what is done on Destiny and Destiny 2 .

Otherwise, we find in the list of multiplayer modes, 9 proposals:

*** War Mode

American Football (Gridiron)
Strategic point
Flag catch
Team Deathmatch
General Melee
Domination
Search and destroy
Elimination Confirmed**

Clearly, the most interesting are the War (War mode), Gridiron and Team Deathmatch modes. It is also on these that the majority of the journalists present for this test spent most of their time. War mode is the big novelty of Call of Duty WWII and it will draw in what is done in the competition ( Battlefield ). Basically, it is a game mode with objectives, which avoids small selfish actions, which is enjoyable from the beginning to the end, because of its high cooperative value. Special mention to the map "Sword", which is the most successful of all (D-Day requires). To embellish all this, we find the famous killstreaks, ranging from barrage to parachute drops on the battlefield. Very good ideas.

More fun-oriented, Gridiron is actually an American football game in which you have to score with a ball in the other side. It is simply a flag capture mode, but with a ball in place of the flag. Adrenaline guaranteed, especially when we are on the verge of touch down and we know that the entire opposing team is on our heels.

We do not do you the offense to present the Team Deathmatch mode, which still works as well. The rest of the multiplayer is not uninteresting, far from it, but say that it may be a bit too classic. In general, we would have liked greater risk-taking and above all more scope in the fighting. Because the classic 6 vs 6 is clearly not worthy of a clash of the Second World War. War mode could, for example, have made the effort to go up to 10 vs 10, see - let's be crazy - 20 vs 20, just to increase the epic side of the conflict.

From the "politically correct" high level

There is still something quite incomprehensible in this Call of Duty WWII . On the one hand the desire to pay tribute to the victims of this conflict, to show its extreme violence in a realistic way (the solo campaign), and on the other. To explain things simply: to propose for example to embody a black woman on the side of the Wermarth is ridiculous. As for the absence of a swastika, the argument of the studio justifying it seems totally obsolete: there is no reason that the presence of a swastika can shock in multiplayer while it is freely represented in the solo mode. The two game modes are not sold separately but are part of the same video-game work. Decisions that are not very serious, but for reasons that are difficult to understand, seem to want to "hide" History as it was. Besides, we do not understand the helmet customization system either: to see German soldiers with American helmets or vice versa is quite incomprehensible. It's ugly, it has no interest and it's kind of an "insult" to history.

A zombie mode at the top

Finally, let's go to the Zombie mode, which is making a comeback by returning to the sources, with Nazi zombies (obviously). What else can you say is fun, fun and still fun! In cooperation with some friends, it's a treat. Having to deal with the waves of undead more and more powerful, see his adrenaline climb when you reach the end of his last loader, having to manage the (complex) puzzles in the environment... The growing oppression when we find ourselves alone, far from our 3 teammates, should alone inspire and give ideas to the great decepts of horror that sometimes fail to make us reach such a level of stress. I was really surprised that a traditional FPS-style game like Call of Duty could work better at this level than some survival horrors.

WE LIKE	WE DO NOT LIKE
* A return to the Second World War succeeded.	* Some technical weaknesses.
* VERY big surprises in solo.	* A lack of historical fidelity in multi.
* A very successful War Mode that gives a boost to the multi.	* Unlocking weapons system a little rough.
* The Headquarter system that works perfectly and transforms the game online.	* Lack of scale in multi (6 vs 6 maximum).
* A zombie mode fun and very high quality.
* A sound-design without fault.
* A system of interesting prestige.