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It’s in the campaign’s quieter moments that the ferocity of World War 2 set in. Having that right after a scene meant to evoke the horrors and personal loss of war was jarring. It wasn’t a jovial scene, but the persistence of that church bell chasing me through the collapsing building was certainly more on the silly side. At one point I felt like Indiana Jones was going to pop out and join Daniels in his death-defying escape.

The biggest problem with the campaign is that some of the big action-heavy moments in the first half sometimes feel at odds with what WW2 tries to do tonally. And because this isn’t really a stealth game, there’s no way to move an enemy into position by attracting or distracting them with sound. I didn’t mind it transitioning into a firefight that much, but the overly picky positioning requirements to execute a knife kill were irritating. No guaranteed instant kill means alarms go off.

I’d eliminate the few men that had their backs to me, but the instant I tried to kill someone that wasn’t facing 180 degrees away from me my character would use the butt of their gun instead of a knife when I hit the melee button. Though infrequent and usually not essential, the times I had to sneak around and thrust a knife in enemy throats often went terribly wrong. It started to feel like work, and I couldn’t help but wonder why someone else wasn’t providing the cover fire for me so I could do the fun stuff of destroying mortars or fighting Nazis face to face.Ĭall of Duty: WW2 Matt KimThe stealth missions are also a little frustrating. Clearing waves of enemies was fun at first, but as they just kept coming and I wasn’t allowed to leave my post to maneuver and change things up, I got a little tired of the job.

There’s nothing wrong with the guns themselves, but the cover fire tasks you’re assigned are often tedious. Rockets are somewhat rare – and fun, as blowing things into smithereens is always satisfying – but the sniping was more of a chore than a treat. Aside from mowing down Nazis with all manner of guns, Daniels is also charged with manning specialty weapons like rocket launchers and sniper rifles. The only gun I was in a hurry to drop is the default pistol, especially when I came across a rare rifle that had an attachable grenade launcher or shotgun with incendiary shells. Generally, though, WW2’s weaponry is effective but well-worn – this game isn’t rewriting history, so it’s pretty much all weaponry we’ve seen before in dozens of other games set in this period. Even without fancy sights or scopes, the rifles felt best in the predominantly medium to large firefight areas. “They all use a similar set of tools, though, and the M1A1 Carbine was my best friend by the time I finished the campaign. Overall, teamwork is a nice substitution for technology. It’s a tradeoff, as I found I had to stay close to them to redeem their perks, limiting my movement a bit. Daniels’ teammates each have an item ability – ammo, grenades, enemy callouts, artillery strikes, first aid kits – that charges up as you kill enemies, and they certainly pulled their weight as I called on them to resupply me in battle. Instead of relying on exosuits and drones for assistance to turn you into a one-man army, you depend on a squad to behave like an actual army. But WW2 doesn’t leave you high and dry when it comes to equipment and options. It’s refreshing: it felt good to be a little grounded, vulnerable, and have a less flashy HUD. It does require a bit more patience in identifying targets, more accurate shooting without the assistance of a variety of high-tech scopes and sights, and it tacks on a campaign exclusive health bar for Daniels that requires constant attention, but enemies still drop fast and I still needed to keep constantly moving to stay alive. Taking a step away from a long stint of futuristic shooters – including last year’s far-future Infinite Warfare – this Call of Duty understandably loses a lot of the past games’ verticality and speed, but that’s not to say that combat is slow. “The 1944 European setting definitely provides for an interesting Call of Duty experience.