I was never one of those guys who hated CoD with a passion. I actually quite like the games, the futuristic stuff that people complained about starting with Black Ops 2 was just one small gripe because they didn’t go all the way with it, but when they did it gave CoD a second wind for me, I still think Advanced Warfare is a great CoD game and Black Ops 3 is possibly one of the best one in years based solely on the multiplayer. So when I heard CoD is gonna go back to it’s roots I was a little reluctant.

So CoD WWII is a boots on the ground shooter just like classic Call of Duty games. It uses pretty much the same overused and underwhelming at times engine that they’ve been using for a crazy long time now and it kind of shows since there isn’t much of anything new besides fancy new graphics. I love the CoD engine, it’s slick and it gets the job done and in the end of the day I have a good time shooting people. But WWII is at a really weird place where they try to add new stuff to a CoD that’s supposed to feel old school and it just feels slightly off.

Gameplay

Gameplay is pretty much the same and I’m pretty sure whoever is reading knows this but almost no one plays the campaign, but it was alright, it had some cool moments, great visuals but overall it was forgettable and it shouldn’t take up too much of your time. Now we get to the meat of things which is the multiplayer. Right off the bat I have to say that this games servers on launch were quite a mess and even more so for me living in Pakistan. So finding matches later on relatively quickly and almost no lag in most of the matches with my practically worthless internet was really really surprising. It’s already leagues above Black Ops 3 when it comes to connectivity.

Gameplay is pretty great too, it’s just a regular run of the mill CoD game and the guns are pretty solid, however to change things up you now have to choose Divisions which have special stats and specialisations on certain weapons. In addition to that you also have the choice of one perk. Your division will determine a lot of things. With Infantry you can have one hit melees with any assault rifle, with Airborne you can get a silencer for your SMG at any time and so on.

In multiplayer you also have a neat little hub area kind of like the Tower in Destiny where you can hang out with your party, pick up small challenges which’ll help you get loot boxes, go to the shooting range to check out your new classes and a bunch more. I think this bit is really neat and it loads up fast and is overall really responsive.

The maps in this game are a little underwhelming as a lot of them favour close quarters combat with some really weird spawn location choices and sometimes poor design choices, a multiplayer games maps should favour all play styles not limit to using a certain weapon on a certain map because without it you’re basically screwed.

You also have the now infamous CoD ruining loot boxes. I don’t have a problem with loot boxes but when they practically ruined Advanced Warfare and BO3 later on you could see why I was a little reluctant in picking this game up. Luckily and for now at least, this game’s loot box rewards are purely cosmetic and only give XP bonuses. I don’t see this staying for long since in the end someone wants to get paid from those sweet sweet loot boxes.

Visually the game looks great especially the fully animated cutscenes, but in game and especially in multiplayer I feel like the colour palette is a little dull. Only some maps have a little splash of colour in them while others are so grey and boring I can’t tell if there’s a rock in my way or an enemy.

Zombies

Zombies mode is back in a non-Treyarch game, and to be honest it’s probably one of the best zombies modes in years. I absolutely hated how convoluted and annoying later zombies maps would be in Treyarch or even Infinity Ward’s titles, since it was like you had to look up a YouTube video every other minute to make sure you’re on the right path towards the main map quest, while also keeping that one zombie alive so the round doesn’t end. This zombies mode favours aggression, shooting shit up, and getting stronger weapons. Every puzzle is fun to figure out on your own and it even gives you a little checklist of stuff to do with vague hints here and there to help you figure out what to do next. I can’t wait to see more Zombies maps in future DLC.

All in all I would say WWII is a pretty good addition to the CoD series, it’s not as good as Black Ops 3’s multiplayer but it makes up for it with one crazy fun Zombies map. I just pray this game doesn’t meet the same fate as previous games and it stays fair and fun until the next instalment.

I give CoD WWII a 7.5/10