Talk about first-person shooters anywhere and Call of Duty is bound to show up since the game basically defined the genre for most modern gamers. Some of the much older ones like us, however, will remember the time when the first Call of Duty came out. It won a ton of awards and rightfully so since the gameplay and story were one of the best around. The games that followed were also pretty good as the main theme always revolved around the events during World War II. Somewhere along the way, things changed and Call of Duty evolved into this futuristic sci-fi game which was far from how the franchise had actually started. It became more about releasing a new game each year rather than providing gamers with a quality experience.
The studio has finally realized that and this year, they’ve decided to switch things up a bit and go with the same formula that made the franchise take off in the first place. On April 26, 2017, a reveal trailer for Call of Duty: WWII was released which confirmed a lot of rumors that had the fanbase excited. Since then, we’ve had a chance to experience the game in beta and collect our thoughts about it. Now, with only a month to its official release, there couldn’t be a better time to put together a list of everything that we’re expecting to show up and all of the stuff we hope doesn’t turn out to be true in the fourteenth title for Call of Duty.
15 Confirmed: The Story Will Span Across Important WWII Locations
Designing a game to ensure that players get to experience the days of WWII to the fullest is no easy task. Attention to the smallest of details and facts is required to achieve this. The guys over at Sledgehammer Games seem to be taking this very seriously and there is proof for it.
According to sources, the game will be taking place across a number of historically important locations from World War II. This really isn’t a big surprise since the reveal trailer for the game featured American soldiers storming the beaches at Normandy. That’s not all, however, as the diversity of location will also bring along a more diverse cast of characters outside of the usual Allied and Axis powers.
14 Confirmed: It Will Feature The Scariest Zombie Mode Yet
Whether you love or hate the Call of Duty franchise, there is no denying the fact that Zombie Mode is one of the most exciting things to happen in the world of video games. There is nothing more satisfying than killing hordes of zombies with a couple of friends on the weekend.
The good news is that zombies will once again be back for COD: WWII. During an interview, Jon Hosley, the game’s lead at Sledgehammer games said that this will be the scariest zombie mode that has been incorporated in a Call of Duty game yet. It will be set in a small village where the Nazis have released an army of the dead in a last effort to turn the tide of the war in their own favor.
13 Hope NOT: The Multiplayer Level Design Is Lackluster
The beta for Call Of Duty: WWII has been out for a while now and this has given some players plenty of time to figure out what the final version of the game will turn out to be. Multiplayer has always been at the core of the Call of Duty experience and the new game is no exception to this.
With the few maps that were made available to players as part of the beta, it seems that almost all of these are quite small in size. Even worse is the fact that their size is being compared to the maps present in Call of Duty: Ghosts, a game that wasn’t received very well. This might not be something that most people would like and we sincerely hope that this turns out to be false since no one really wants another COD game with a poor multiplayer experience.
12 Confirmed: Female Characters Will Also Play An Important Role In The Campaign
Diversity is something that the folks at Sledgehammer games are focusing on in particular. There is no doubt about the fact that women played a very important role in the industrial progress during the war. However, stories of women on the frontline are pretty much nonexistent.
Call of Duty: WWII is addressing this issue by introducing a playable female character in the campaign called Rousseau. The story of her journey with the French Resistance will be explored although the main focus will still remain on Daniels and his squad. During a Q&A session, Glenn Schofield, who is the studio head at Sledgehammer games confirmed that players will be able to play some of the other characters that Daniels will come across during his journey.
11 Confirmed: The Gameplay Is More Realistic Than Any Other COD Game Before
Realism is all that video game developers are striving for these days. Each company is trying to outdo their competitor in this regard, hoping to blur the line between reality and the virtual world. Previous COD entries were mostly focused on futuristic warfare with weapons and technology that does not exist yet.
Call of Duty WWII, however, is taking a much different approach this time. Since the game is set during World War II, the game feels more real. This isn’t the only addition since campaign gameplay will rely entirely upon interacting with your squad mates. This means that you’ll need to request a squadmate for ammo when you’re about to run out. This is quite similar to the concept in Battlefield’s multiplayer but we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out here.
10 Hope NOT: There Is A Possibility Of A Nintendo Switch Version
The Nintendo Switch is a great console, even better for certain games when compared to the much bigger and more powerful PS4 and Xbox One. We’re not here to start a console war and it doesn’t matter which console you really support but there is no doubt about the fact that certain games are just not meant for the Switch.
We have seen how some of the previous Call of Duty games have turned out on Nintendo’s portable consoles (Nintendo DS, we’re looking at you) and the biggest reason behind this seems to be inferior hardware. This makes sense since Nintendo focuses more on portability which requires some sacrifice on performance and that is exactly what the Switch is. While Sledgehammer hasn’t detailed any plans for a specific Nintendo Switch launch, we would be happy if something like that never happens since it will be nothing more than a watered-down version of the original game.
9 Confirmed: Health Generation Doesn’t Exist Anymore
People who usually complain about the games being pretty easy will rejoice upon hearing this. Gone are the days when you could run behind cover after being shot and recover your health. Call of Duty: WWII is really focusing to represent the realism of the Second World War and this mechanic not only adds to that but also reminds of the first few COD games that were released.
Players will now need to interact with their squad medic and ask to be patched up when running low on health. This is being done in a bid to have players get involved in some actual squad work, making the campaign more fun as a result. Other methods for replenishing the health back up will including picking up med packs along the way.
8 Confirmed: Squad Interaction Will Be An Important Game Mechanic
A big part of creating a realistic experience for players involves interactions with some of the other characters in the game, especially the fellow squad mates. Now, Call of Duty: WWII obviously won’t be the first game to introduce this, in fact, some games in the past were centered completely around this mechanic. One notable example is Call of Duty’s direct competitor, Battlefield, which has focused on squad play in multiplayer for quite some time now.
COD: WWII is bringing this to the campaign. Different squad members will have different roles such as medic, engineer etc. The player will need to interact with them to get a lot of tasks done such as replenishing health or ammo. It is also being said that players will lose certain members of their squad at different sections of the campaign, making the game more difficult as a result.
7 Hope NOT: The Visuals In Beta Aren’t The Best
These days all the craze seems to be about the best graphics. This is no surprise since devices with powerful hardware are being released every day so it is only fair if all of that hardware is pushed to the max. Now, a good story will always be better than the most amazing graphics, a sentence which you’ve probably heard many times.
However, no matter what you say, excellent visuals do matter at the end of the day and this is something that worries us when it comes to COD: WWII. Though we’ve only played the beta so far, the visuals have failed to make the impression that we were looking for. We really hope that isn’t true when the game is finally released.
6 Confirmed: Multiplayer Gameplay Is Down To The Basics With More Realism
People who are used to playing the COD titles that have come out in recent years will know that those games require a lot of jumping around and stuff in multiplayer. In the case of Call of Duty: WWII, they will notice that things have slowed down a bit because it is all back to the good old days.
The concept of killstreaks has been toned down a bit and those crazy ultimate moves have been removed as well. This makes sense since all of these wouldn’t really work in the setting for World War II. There are only five classes and the loadouts have been kept pretty simple to avoid the clutter that had formed up as a result of the previous games.
5 Confirmed: Headquarters Will Be A New Multiplayer Mode
The inclusion of iconic locations from World War II will ensure that players have plenty of fun while taking down their opponents and not only that, iconic weapons have also become a part of the game. All of these will greatly affect how each multiplayer experience will turn out to be.
While the traditional multiplayer modes are most certainly there, a couple of new ones have been introduced as well. One of these is the Headquarters mode. It is similar to how Destiny’s Tower works or hubs which exist inside World of Warcraft. A third person view will also be available inside the social space for the game’s multiplayer mode where players can show off their characters and the items that they carry.
4 Hope NOT: It is Historically Quite Inaccurate
Apparently, Sledgehammer has made the decision to get rid of swastikas on the uniforms for German soldiers in Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer. This isn’t the only thing that has a lot of controversy as those same German soldiers without any markings will show up as black or white women in the multiplayer as well. This is a problem for most people since historically this isn’t accurate at all, reducing the sense of realism that most people are expecting from the game. In any event, it’s a lot to chew on. Would you go for realism or a better character customization tool?
3 Confirmed: Players Will Control A Young Soldier During Campaign
For the past few years, game franchises like Battlefield and Call of Duty have focused more on the multiplayer aspect of their games. This has resulted in some pretty poor single player campaign missions. This wasn’t really a great thing since there are still plenty of people who enjoy doing their campaign missions.
With the release of Battlefield 1, things changed a bit since the game featured a very intense and engaging campaign, even though it wasn’t very long. Now it seems that Call of Duty is also going down a similar path with the release of the new game. Players will be put in control of Red Daniels, a young soldier from Texas who is associated with the 1st Infantry Division. Accompanying him will be his best friend and a couple of other soldiers.
2 Confirmed: War Mode Will Allow Story-Based Multiplayer
Along with the introduction of Headquarters as a new multiplayer mode, another more interesting addition has also been made to further improve the multiplayer experience in Call of Duty: WWII. Known as the War Mode, it will focus on capturing and defending objectives in an axis vs allies style gameplay.
The maps are quite large in this case and gameplay will shift across the map as objectives are carried out. These aren’t limited to capturing or defending stationary objectives, however, as some of the objectives involve building bridges and even escorting vehicles like tanks. Teamwork is essential here as a whole squad of players is put into battle with a sole purpose of completing the objective. Techniques like rushing in will pretty much prove to be suicidal so success in War Mode depends entirely upon strategy and everybody working together.
1 Hope Not: Lootboxes Might Still Play A Big Role
It seems that no matter what you do, you can’t run away from the dreaded grind, especially when it does nothing more than unlocking items that do not hold a lot of value. Lootboxes have been a pretty big deal for Call of Duty games released in the past few, but it isn’t very clear what Sledgehammer intends to do here.
On one hand, a setting like World War II will take the franchise back to its roots, but that also comes with a few problems. It is quite limiting in the stuff that can actually be implemented, unlike the more futuristic titles where imagination was the only limit for game developers. Running around with chrome weapons doesn’t make a lot of sense here so only time will tell how the entire concept behind loot boxes will be handled.
