History YMMV / CallOfDutyWWII

** Thiccmaster[[labelnote:Explanation]]Quartermaster Corporal Greene (whose voice and likeness were provided by Creator/CheramiLeigh) is the focus of a series of jokes about the aforementioned character's considerably pronounced ass. In reality, her in-game model doesn't really pack all that much.[[/labelnote]]

* MemeticMutation: A [[GoodBadBugs weird announcer glitch]] on the War mode causes the announcer's voice to suddenly go to [[SensoryAbuse eardrum-shattering]] levels of volume. The sheer unexpectedness and frequency of this glitch caused a few specific quotes that this glitch happens on to go memetic, namely "A BOMB'S BEEN PLANTED ON OUR AMMO SUPPLY!" and "B IS RETREATING, KEEP FIRING!" Rather unfortunately, this glitch was eventually patched.

* ThatOneAchievement: Besides the usual "beat the campaign on Veteran" as common for Call of Duty games, there's "One of the Lucky Ones," which requires you to breach the seawall on the first mission in less than two minutes, without taking machine-gun fire. ''Said first level is the D-Day landing.'' Worse, there's no safe path, meaning you'll simply have to revert from the checkpoint until you can get lucky.

** Main campaign: [[BigBad Metz]] is the [[StateSec SS]] commandant in charge of sending hundreds of American [=POWs=] to [[POWCamp labor camps]] throughout Europe, where they would be worked and tortured to death. Trying to separate the Jews from his next batch of American [=POWs=], Metz shoots one [[ForTheEvulz for no reason]] and beats up Robert Zussman when he refuses to comply with his demands before sending him and the other [=POWs=] to his own labor camp; the 1st Infantry Division arrives there, discovering the numerous corpses caused by Metz's cruelty throughout the [[FieryCoverUp burned-down camp]], many of whom he starved and tortured to death. Metz is last seen executing his remaining prisoners before nearly executing Zussman.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Navy and ship buffs will quickly realize that the multiplayer map modeled after the battleship ''USS Texas'' looks nothing like the ship it is based on. The most egregious example is the fact the in-game ship is missing two turrets the real ship has.

** Several people praised the inclusion of Rousseau as a playable character, some calling it the first playable female character in the series. Tanya Pavelovna was a playable character (and for more than half a mission) in Call of Duty: Finest Hour back in 2004.

* OvershadowedByControversy: While the game has since been VindicatedByHistory to a certain extent, ''WWII'' is primarily remembered for being the cause of the 2017 Wichita swatting incident where an online dispute between two gamers led to the death of an uninvolved man.

* OvershadowedByControversy: While the game has since been VindicatedByHistory to a certain extend, ''WWII'' is primarily remembered for being the cause of the 2017 Wichita swatting incident where an online dispute between two gamers led to the death of an uninvolved man.

* VindicatedByHistory: It's subtle, but there are a good amount of people looking back on the once-mocked game with a little more fondness (''especially'' when it comes to the concept of adding extra weapons and monitisation) after the absolute horrorshow ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps4'' would become to many. The extensive post-season support and being the last COD game on Steam after ''Black Ops 4'' jumped ship to Battle.net helped for many.

** ''Nazi Zombies'': [[HerrDoktor Doctor Peter Glücksbringer Straub]] is a Nazi instructed by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself to create a new type of soldier that doesn't rest or fear death. Finding a mystical sword hilt in Mittelburg, he used the energy from it to [[BadBoss kill his own men]], resulting in these soldiers becoming walking corpses. Believing he found his perfect soldiers, Straub would then use the sword hilt to turn the town's entire population into [[SlaveMooks undead abominations]], having a subordinate [[AndIMustScream sewn onto one of them alive]] when he learns of his ties to the Allies. Leaving Mittelburg, Straub goes to the island of Heligoland where he stored thousands of his creations and takes them to his Zeppelins. He then travels to Berlin so he can unleash them and kill off every human being in the city, allowing him to reclaim what's left of it for the Nazis. Taking pride in creating the Devil himself, Peter Straub would gladly doom the world with his monsters if he could prove his superiority.

** ''Nazi Zombies'': [[BigBad Peter Glücksbringer Straub]] is a Nazi MadScientist instructed by Adolf Hitler himself to create a new type of soldier that doesn't rest or fear death. Finding a mystical sword hilt in Mittelburg, he used the energy from it to [[BadBoss kill his own men]], resulting in these soldiers becoming walking corpses. Believing he found his perfect soldiers, Straub would then use the sword hilt to turn the town's entire population into [[SlaveMooks undead abominations]], having a subordinate [[AndIMustScream sewn onto one of them alive]] when he learns of his ties to the Allies. Leaving Mittelburg, Straub goes to the island of Heligoland where he stored thousands of his creations and takes them to his Zeppelins. He then travels to Berlin so he can unleash them and kill off every human being in the city, allowing him to reclaim what's left of it for the Nazis. Taking pride in creating the Devil himself, Peter Straub would gladly doom the world with his monsters if he could prove his superiority.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Heinrich is proposed as the one that murdered Rosseau's family and the commander in charge of the French occupation by the Nazis, with a build-up and personal meeting that makes it seem like he'll be the BigBad, or at least the DiscOneFinalBoss. [[spoiler:Rosseau promptly overpowers him when he knows who she is and stabs him to death without much effort in a [[PressXToNotDie swift quick-time-event]] and he's brushed over as a completely incidental bump in the road.]]

* DemonicSpiders: Enemies wielding the Toggle-Action with Incendiary Rounds are some of the hardest enemies in the campaign to fight. They hit with enough power to make you think they're wielding a rifle. They become very common later on as well.

* ScrappyMechanic: While not as reviled as other games, the loot box isn't considered the best reward system largely for having new weapons and skins locked behind it. Not helping matters is how a July 2019 update had several weapons that could only be unlocked by loot boxes.

** As noted in HollywoodHistory on the main page, the campaign is focused exclusively on the Western Front and the main characters are US Army soldiers. Given how there have been an overabundance of ''Call of Duty'' games that featured Americans vs Nazis in Europe, some fans wished that the game could've also focused on different theaters of the war, like the North African or Italian front (the latter of which being a conflict almost never touched by any of the games), or even different units, such as Japanese-American soldiers of the 442nd Infantry Regiment.

* ScrappyMechanic: While not as reviled as other games, the lox box isn't considered the best reward system largely for having new weapons and skins locked behind it. Not helping matters is how a July 2019 update had several weapons that could only be unlocked by loot boxes.

** On a similar note, there's a subplot in which Daniels's squadmate Frank Aiello has to overcome his racial animosity to work with an African-American soldier named Marcus Howard. On paper it sounds like a good character arc, but it comes so late into the story and is interrupted by so many timeskips that it means that Aiello and Marcus aren't shown developing an authentic onscreen friendship. Furthermore, outside of the first mission in which Marcus appears, Aiello never shows any overt signs of being racist, making it come across an InformedFlaw, and even then it is resolved with a simple apology and nothing more. It comes across less like a compelling character arc and more like AnAesop being thrown in to say "Racism is bad!" without putting the work into making it fit naturally.

* ScrappyMechanic: While not as reviled as other games, having weapons and attachments unlockable through loot boxes is rather contentious due to the randomized nature. Not helping matters is how a July 2019 update had several weapons that could only be unlocked by loot boxes.

* FandomRivalry: ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' once again came head-to-head with its old competitor, ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}''. However, this time the rivalry is even more vitriolic as ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'' having came out the year before with a similar historical throwback theme comparable to ''Call of Duty: WWII''. The fandoms of the two games have fought and argued with each other over which game is more historically authentic, innovative and fun. The only thing anyone can agree on is that ''Battlefield 1'' got one hell of a head-start.

** While the return to the classic "boots on the ground" setting is well received, some fans felt that multiplayer didn't take full advantage of the historical setting. Given the small map sizes and low recoil on automatic weapons, the current metagame is dominated by submachine guns and assault rifles at the expense of the more iconic and ubiquitous semi-auto and bolt-action rifles of World War 2. For some, this has resulted in the game feeling too much like the fast-paced ''Modern Warfare'' games instead of the slower-paced historical games that ''WWII'' is trying to emulate.
** As noted in HollywoodHistory on the main page, the campaign is focused exclusively on the Western Front and the main characters are US Army soldiers. Given how there have been an overabundance of ''Call of Duty'' games that featured Americans vs Nazis in Europe, some fans wished that the game could've also focused on different theaters of the war, like the North African or Pacific campaigns, or even different units, such as Japanese-American soldiers of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, or other armies entirely, such as the Russian front or the Italian front (the latter of which being a conflict almost never touched by any of the games).

* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: Given the sheer abundance of class-based multiplayer shooters, some have accused the game of stealing ideas from other similar games. The WWII setting has drawn accusations that the game was trying to recreate the success of ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'''s historical throwback angle. The asymmetric multi-staged multiplayer War mode was accused of copying modes like Operations of ''Battlefield 1'' and Escort of ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''. The Headquarters social space, the arguably most important innovation to the Call of Duty series, is seen as a imitation of the social spaces in both ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' and ''VideoGame/Destiny2''. With the game sharing many elements with its rivals, there are bound to be accusations of "plagiarism".

** On a similar note, there's a subplot in which Daniels's squadmate Frank Aiello has to overcome his racial animosity to work with an African-American soldier named Marcus Howard. On paper it sounds like a good character arc, but it comes so late into the story that it means neither Aiello nor Marcus get to actual show time developing an onscreen friendship. This is at least partially because the game has timeskips after each mission, meaning any potential development is offscreen. Furthermore, outside of the first mission in which Marcus appears, Aiello never shows any overt signs of being racist, making it come across an InformedFlaw, and even when he mends fences with Marcus is is just a simple apology and nothing more. It comes across less as character development, and instead AnAesop being thrown in to say "Racism is bad!" without putting the work into making it fit naturally.
* ToughActToFollow: Being the first game after ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyWorldAtWar'' to return to the Second World War, it naturally had this issue. While its visually impressive and overall plays well, the inclusions to the game such as loot boxes, the very linear story focusing on one front, and the dumbing down of many elements from ''World At War'' meant it was on the negative end of this.

** Comparisons to ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'''s Operations mode aside, the new multiplayer mode War has been praised as a new addition to the Call of Duty gameplay that captures the exciting cinematic experience of the single-player campaign. However, there are only 3 maps at launch, leading to some players getting bored and leaving the mode. Fortunately, Sledgehammer has confirmed that there will be more War mode maps added via DLC.