COD WW2
The next entry in the COD series was released to praise but is it worth it. Well, I am going to dissect it the only way I know how to, Starting with the campaign and then I will move onto the multiplayer.
The campaign, I mean wow. How great was it to be fighting on the beaches of Normandy again? I was instantly transported back to my youth and playing the Original COD and MOH games. I would even say I felt as somber and amazed as I did when I watched that scene in Saving Private Ryan. Then it all vanished with a flash, and I was fighting my way through bullet sponge enemies and QuickTime events that I could've done without and pulling my "best friend" through German bunkers. Next thing I knew I was on the second floor of some poor french families farmhouse trying to shoot an MG 42 at a horde of Germans all the while my friendly A.I.'s effectively shot what apparently amounted airsoft bb's at them. Meanwhile, the Germans focus fire on me and pin me down with what probably amounted a battalion's worth of ammo that was set to kill.
From here on out the campaign has it's high and low points. The most significant thing that got me was the idea of stealth and sneak missions. It is almost a COD staple at this point and one that this game could have gone without to keep its tone and tempo up.
It is not something that needs to be removed entirely either. It would have been perfectly fine if it was a sidebar where you took over as an SOE operative and gather the intel for the infantry division to act on. What took me out of the moment was that the basic infantry was interacting with SOE that seemed to be a bit too Hollywood. I get it through COD games have always been Hollywood movies that you can play, but they also used to have multiple characters you could play and enjoy the story of. For most people, I assume this was not a problem just a negative for me.
[Spoilers ahead if you have not played the game and want to remain untarnished stop here]
I draw my biggest criticisms from the ending of the game though, not the part where Zussman was captured and sent to a concentration camp. That was masterfully done and was a bit of a heartbreaker for anyone who felt for Daniels. No, my biggest criticism had to do with the interaction between Daniels and Pierson. Classic soldiers think the older grumpy NCO is incompetent and going to get them killed. It is a bit overplayed anymore and seemed a bit unnecessary in the midst of everything else that was happening in the game.
Moving on to the multiplayer, the reason why COD has become a huge success. It is traditional COD; I assume that is what they meant when they said they were going back to their roots. That is also where some traditional COD problems reveal themselves. The biggest ones are very game breaking glitches. I am not going to go into detail about locations because by now I am sure most of you have either encountered them or got into them. It is a sad state of things when games of this day age have super exploitable map glitches even if they do get patched rather quickly.
Aside from that, the second most significant issue is the weapons, I do not know who in multiplayer development took a look at shotguns and said, well these should only have a range of about 15 ft. It is weird because most of the other guns are close enough. Maybe some ROF issues here or there but nothing that jumps out at me as much as the shotgun range. For some this is a nonissue, it has a simple answer, just don't use them. To those people, I say go for it; I also say why did they put them in the game if they are going to be so ineffective.
In the end, Call Of Duty will always have its detractors and its defenders. My overall opinion on this game is pretty simple.
It is Call Of Duty, and as so it does deserve the praise it got.