Call of Duty: WWII

Sledgehammer games is going to releasing the next Call of Duty, and it's going "back to the franchise's roots" by returning to the WWII setting.

New Call Of Duty: WW2 Leaks Suggest Separate Co-Op Campaign And Beta Access For Pre-Orders

From what has been revealed, the plot will focus mostly upon the European Theatre, including Normandy and up to the taking of Berlin. The famous American Big Red One Infantry Division will probably be the unit most focused upon, as evidenced by the rifleman with the unit badge on his shoulder.

There's also word that a co-op campaign might exist, but... given that a proper reveal is going to occur on April 26th, it might be best to wait until then to fill the thread with further speculation.

Here's my opinion on this. This seems interesting. I've never really hated COD. There are a few games in the series I like. I haven't played a WWII COD since WAW, so I'm quite interested in this. However, I can't help but feel that they're doing this because Battlefield 1 was successful.

Not likely. This product was probably in development for a couple of years already, so unless they immediately decided to jump on the concept the moment BF 1 was announced (NOT when it was released), I don't see Sledgehammer making the decision to return to WWII being influenced by their competitors.

I've heard the opposite. That it was a last minute change made because IW missed it's sales goal by almost half and that Sledgehammer is really unhappy about it.

If you've got a link to that rumor, I've love to read about it. Because if that's true then... jeez, Activison really doesn't get it's fanbase.

But then again... there were a crapton of COD fans actually requesting for a return to the WWII setting after seeing the Infinite Warfare trailer, and since they're far from the brightest crowd, maybe Activision actually was listening to the polls and went with what they thought the fans wanted?

I'm wondering if Activision can pull this off. The campaign has to be good and the multiplayer has to be at least decent.

Personally I'm really unexicted for it. I don't wanna go back to WW 2. I think IW was the best Call of Duty in years.

I'm fine with hanging up the jetpacks for now but I'm not doing WW 2 again.

Maybe they can approach it from a different perspective. Do something that makes it different from the other WW 2 shooter COD has done.

I would have to say that's unlikely though while it's about The Big Red One again.

edited 24th Apr '17 10:14:12 AM by VutherA

We may see a playable protagonist die for the first time in a WWII setting here (Black Ops' Dmitri Petrenko doesn't count).

@Le Garcon: And therein is Activison's biggest problem. The COD fanbase in some regards has become similar to the Sonic fanbase: they don't know what they want anymore, nor can they agree upon a consensus of what makes their franchise great.

On one side, you have the players who enjoy the speedy combat, extremely brief TT Ks, killstreaks, and rapid movement around the environment. You could probably make the COD franchise an online-only game with no campaign, and they wouldn't miss a thing: the success of the Modern Warfare remaster proves that.

Then you have the zombie fans: they generally care about playing with their friends and enjoy the zombie DLC expansions, not so much the singleplayer or competitive multiplayer scene. They're arguably the easiest to satisfy, because they enjoy the odd changes of scenery and goofy scenarios.

Then you have the campaign fans. I'm one of them, and from the looks of it so is a significant amount of the TV Tropes base. Most of us liked the approach taken with Infinite Warfare's campaign and actually wished it was longer (or in my case, didn't copy Ace Combat: Assault Horizon's dogfighting mechanics and gave some more freedom). But at the same time there's actually a crowd who likes the extreme railroading the COD games generally have in their level design, and complained when BLOPS 3 and Infinite Warfare gave too much authority to the player. Already, you can see a bit of conflict.

And then we have the fans of tactical combat... honestly, most of them have moved on to other franchises that actually try to be realistic. They were still going strong around COD 4, but started disappearing around MW 3 due to how crazy the story became and how the gameplay began to emphasize speed more than maneuvers.

Now, granted it's pretty easy to reconcile with the zombies and multiplayer fans - this is primarily a multiplayer franchise after all - but with the change to the WWII setting, there's no way they'll be able to satisfy the players who enjoy the speedy combat, unless they suddenly decide to take things in an even more arcade-ish approach.

And let's not even get into those who get flustered merely by the settings alone...

edited 24th Apr '17 10:26:06 AM by SgtRicko

So they're remaking Call of Duty: Big Red One? I still have the disk for that on first generation Xbox. (And the Xbox itself to play it on.)

If so, we're gonna see more than Europe. The BRO fought in Africa, Italy, France all the way to Czechoslovakia by war's end.

And it was a very awesome Band of Brothers-esque campaign. No over the top explosion setpieces, no clownish escapes or action movie shootouts, just well built war.

Welp, looks like Activision hit the reset button. Everything old is new again.

I'll be interested in following this one solely to observe how much the Co D formula changes and how much it stays the same. I have fond memories of the original Medal of Honor games, but it's been a dead genre for a long time and that's for a good reason. You can only shoot Nazis for so long before genre fatigue sets in, and the setting is so well-worn that there's basically nothing to do. There is no story that you can tell in a WW 2 game about shooting Nazis that hasn't already been told a thousand fucking times.

Strangely enough the Sniper Elite series manages to be pretty fun, and I suspect it's precisely because it gives players the perverse ability to shoot politically acceptable bad guys like Hitler and the Nazis in the testes with so much gory detail. Or, if you're feeling more creative, dropping a giant bell on the guy (possible in Sniper Elite 2, and it's arguably the funniest Hilter death in the series so far).

The Sniper Elite series is fun because of it's finely honed and highly iterative sniper-oriented gameplay mechanics and killcam system. It's setting and plot is entirely predictable and dull as dishwater. The fact that it's Nazis you're shooting is almost perfunctory. I enjoy it a great deal, but I don't think it's setting serves it particularly well. Sure, if you want to mutilate someone horribly and have no one bat an eye, Nazis are a classic choice, but at the end of the day they could just as easily be evil aliens or whatever.

edited 24th Apr '17 11:37:53 PM by Gault

If there is one WWII film I hope this game takes influence from in terms of the action, it's Hacksaw Ridge.

edited 25th Apr '17 2:19:50 AM by LDragon2

I only played the Zombie Army Trilogy, so I wouldn't know that much about Sniper Elite.

Speculation from several sources seem to think this upcoming title will be trying to tell a tale similar to Band of Brothers (or COD Big Red One, as Major Tom mentioned) in the sense that you won't be some hero saving the Free World from the Axis, but just a guy with his platoon doing their job, and trying to make it to the end of the war. Not sure how they're going to reconcile that with the typically huge bodycount of your typical COD campaign, or how damned near unstoppable the player character typically is... but hey, maybe Sledgehammer is actually gonna try and make the franchise a bit more slower-paced and tactical for once?!

In particular, notice how the eyes of the American soldier on the cover have an odd glint? Turns out that if you focus in on it, you'll see the shapes of four other soldiers looking back at him. And since the soldier is holding in his hands what are likely dog tags, one can assume they belong to his (possibly fallen) comrades.

Just in case you want to see the image, plus what another one writer thinks, check out this link from MSN Entertainment.

Trailer is up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Q_XYVescc

...MAN, this is deja vu personified. Like, couldn't they have zoomed out on that Normandy scene or something? It feels like a weird remaster.

A nice emebed for people who might want it.

Some key notes from the reveal livestream

• No Eastern Front or Pacific Theater

• Following a private in the Big Red One in 1944-45 Europe

• Zombies confirmed

• Season Pass may not cover all the DLC

That was quite a trailer. Maybe I'm impressed too easily, but I'm actually kind of optimistic about this. It seems like the gameplay is focusing more on teamwork instead you being a one-man army.

It's actually the first in a long time since they covered the Western Front.

I saw quite a few references to Saving Private Ryan in that trailer.

The game may feature a social space like Destiny's Tower.

This is feeling weird. And further fuels the rumors that the WW 2 setting was a last second reskin of another sci fi game. The social space would have been some sort of hub ship or something.

Some more details from GI. Some changes include the removal of health and ammo regen (was there ammo regen in the newer ones?), instead having to call on squadmates to heal, resupply, and get covering fire (it's unclear if any of this crosses into the multiplayer). Multiplayer changes include choosing classes in infantry, armor or airborne and asymmetrical matches based on WWII battles (ie Axis defends Normandy beach while Allies storm it).

The gameplay changes are welcome, but I still don't look forward to a return to WWII shooters. I've said before that new WWII games are just going to be the same battles but with flashier graphics. And looking at the trailer, we have another Normandy beach, so that prediction is turning to be pretty accurate. Plus, given that Co D is written by 14 year olds on caffeine, I thoroughly expect them to blow the War Is Hell theme they have going in the trailer.

Also, there's inevitably going to be microtransactions and shitty business decisions in it so I'll probably be avoiding it by default. Believe me when I say that I don't want to hate Co D (I don't believe it's as creatively stale as some do), but Activision makes it too damn easy.