All new – well forgotten old. Apparently, to this conclusion came the producers Activision when they decided to return the Call of Duty series to its roots, namely in the days when the plot of the gaming franchise was based on the events of the Second world war. And I have to admit that this approach is really not so bad. Players are tired of all these futuristic battles with robots and space Marines. After so many years returning to the theme of one of the bloodiest wars in human history could really breathe new life into the famous series of shooters from the first person. But let’s take first things first.
Game: Call of Duty: WWII
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Genre: First Person Shooter
Release date: November 3, 2017
Developer: Sledgehammer Games
Publisher: Activision
The game meets us under atmospheric Intro excerpts from the speech of Winston Churchill. We briefly talk about the horrors of the Second world war, which killed more than 65 000 000 people from 50 different countries. The game takes place towards the end of the conflict – between 1944 and 1945. To play for two American soldiers Ronald Daniels and Robert Zussman, the roles which actors play Brett Zimmerman (“grey’s Anatomy”, “Hand in a million”) and Jonathan Tucker (“the Virgin suicides”, “Texas chainsaw massacre”). Acquainted and became friends in boot camp, two friends are forced to go through seven circles of hell the military and try to survive, constantly pulling each other out of various scrapes.
From the first frame of a single campaign becomes clear: the developers are not shy to show the war from the most disgusting of her. Everywhere you will have to pursue the blood, turned out the entrails, severed limbs, rotting on the battlefield corpses, the screams of burning soldiers trying to leave the blown up tanks and other creepy images. But somehow differently to show the war would be simply impossible. And the players have to understand that the brutality of the game is not for the sake of cruelty, but solely with the purpose to make it clear that war is a nightmare, and every second of peaceful life should be valued above all else.
The atmosphere of war in the game are recreated perfectly. And now I’m not talking about the above horrors. The relationship between soldiers also get to know the main characters and support characters. Sergeant Pearson (his role was played by actor Josh Duhamel) is constantly screaming at his subordinates and always cranky. It represents a template cinematic commander, who from the first frame causes the viewer dislike, but in the future you begin to realize that actually he’s just worried about his men and doesn’t want their life ended on the battlefield. And then unwittingly inspired to Pearson deep respect. Anyway, the storyline is not very original and could be much deeper. The writers stopped short, to argue would be silly.
As I said above, the events of Call of Duty: WWII cover last year of the war, when the allies pull together their forces in Europe for a joint attack on the Nazis. It begins just like the famous Steven Spielberg film “Saving private Ryan”. American troops land on the Normandy coast and trying to secure the position, capturing vital German strategic targets. The game is literally Packed perfectly posed scenes, not letting you get bored for a second. You MOP up enemy bunkers, go somewhere on the tank, periodically blow up the enemy artillery with thermite, shoot down aircraft, then driven to the car breaking through the German fortifications, and already a few minutes later dragging a badly wounded comrade to the nearest aid station under heavy enemy fire.
The magnificent setting occasionally is confused by highly descriptivename the moments when you’re moving on “rails”, to deviate from which is simply not. From time to time, the game also throws you QTE, when in a particularly stressful moment has to move around the screen a special marker in the correct position and press any button. For example, in close combat with a German soldier, you will need to have time to grab a helmet was lying nearby and hit it him in the head. Or quickly press a button to throw away an enemy grenade. One may grumble about such scripts, but you have to understand that this is not done just so, and then to add the game of entertainment, while trying not to complicate the management.
Periodically, the battles with the Nazis interrupted by spyware attacks under the cover, when you need to infiltrate some German headquarters and quietly sabotage from the inside. These visits provide a break from continuous action and better feel the atmosphere of the time, but in a more calm and measured rhythm. You have to converse with high-ranking German officers and even the dialogues are one of several response options, which will depend upon whether you believe the enemy or you will burn out an operation of (Stirlitz has never been so close to failure).
Military Arsenal of the main character includes many weapon models in those years. A huge number of pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, guns with optical sights. We should not forget about bayonet attacks and killings with the help of the entrenching tool or the blazing flamethrower. The weapon feels great during play and in battle, despite the arcade. Shooting mechanics intuitive. Elementary pleasant to shoot, and to act as a sniper – a real pleasure. When you hold your breath before the shot, time slowed briefly, allowing how to aim and hit the enemy with a headshot elegant spectacular flying off to the side of the German helmet.
Graphics at a decent level. On consoles, of course, the picture is less impressive than a powerful PC. I specifically watched videotranny. However, the abundance of the smallest detail, excellent character animation, and also a huge number of impressive effects on the screen doing their thing. Complementing the picture is just gorgeous prerenderennye CG-clips created on the highest standard of modern visual technologies. The music of the game is building the right atmosphere of military pathos and keeps players in constant tension. The sound is excellent positioning of the sources, good headphones creates detailed 3D scene of the battlefield. Russian voice I liked very much, so I was very happy to find in menu the option to include the original audio track.
The story campaign of the game takes place in just 5-6 hours, but we all know that in Call of Duty series has many additional modes, one of which is “a Zombie of the Reich.” Feeling that the situation is not in their favor, Nazi scientists led by Dr. Strombom locked in a secret bunker, an army of the living dead. The team, consisting of several avid enthusiasts trying to stop the plans of the Nazis. Cooperative gameplay involves the story passage, the study of locations, solving puzzles, activating all sorts of mechanisms and ongoing cooperation between the players. Of course this all happens in parallel with shooting of waves of zombie Nazis, climbing on you from all the cracks. Mode this could prolong the fun of the game for a few nights. Most importantly in this case – to find a suitable partners for passing.
But most fans of the franchise appreciate it Call of Duty multiplayer mode. One of the innovations of WWII we can immediately note the new asymmetric multiplayer mode “War”. In this mode, it is important that all team members worked together and supported each other, otherwise there is no victory. While Marines move closer to the goal, the snipers cover them from behind. Capturing a machine gun and points the construction of the protective fencing is also key to the success of the mission. You always have to perform a variety of story missions that are unique to different cards. Thus instead of creating a class of your character the player is offered to choose one of the legendary divisions of the Second world war, each of which gives him access to unique courses, training and weapon skills.
For the first time the game offers fans of online battles to get together in some kind of headquarters, something resembling a social hub of the game Destiny. Here players can take part in different daily or weekly challenges to earn for their performance in-game currency. Here you can test different weapons on a special shooting range, and even go one on one against another player, find out who’s the baddest in battle. In addition to “the War” are classic and multiplayer modes. For example, Team Deathmatch, when your team must destroy the enemy faster than it will make enemies, Domination – capture and hold three points on the level map, Search and Destroy – laying or mine clearing bombs in the allotted time, and so on.
Pros:
- The game returned to its roots that is sure to please fans of the series.
- Every second of gameplay is literally crammed with action.
- Staging of some scenes can compete with Hollywood blockbusters.
- High-quality graphics and a great story CG videos.
- New multiplayer mode “War” very quickly fascinated.
- A huge Arsenal of weapons and great shooting mechanics.
- High-quality surround sound and atmospheric music.
- Full set of classic multiplayer modes.
- Additional story mode with zombie Nazis.
Cons:
- The plot does not Shine with depth and mostly consists of stamps.
- At first there was some problems with the servers.
- Sometimes the game starts to strain excessive pathos.
- Too few cards in the new “War”.
- In the game there is the ubiquitous microtransactions.
It seems to me that the developers of Call of Duty: WWII moving in the right direction. Returning to the historical themes of world war II there is indeed a breath of fresh air after all those space ships, artificial intelligences and dzhetpakov. There is nothing wrong with that, years later, the series returns to basics. The magnificent setting of the story mode and exciting fights with zombie Nazis is able to entertain the players for several evenings, and seriously modified for the first time in many years, the multiplayer component to extend the pleasure for weeks or even months. The game definitely has its drawbacks: at first there was difficulties with the online servers, sometimes from the pathos of what is happening on the screen I want to exit the window and close it from the other side, and the plot could be more developed and do not consist of hackneyed clichés. Otherwise, we have a strong and very fun shooter for which you do not mind giving your hard earned money. I put the game score of 8 out of 10.
Game overview Call of Duty: WWII
Sergey Grey