Call Of Duty: WWII

PC, PS4, Xbox One

War, it turns out, is actually heaven. Call Of Duty: WWII’s principal addition to its series’ timeworn multiplayer formula may not actually be all that new in a wider context, but it’s the most enjoyable time we’ve had with a COD online mode in many a year. War mode puts you on either the attacking or defending side, focusing on a series of shifting objectives. The action is bound to a timer; should it run out before the attacking side completes the current objective, it’s round over and a victory for the defending team. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before elsewhere, but in the context of this series’ multiplayer it’s immensely refreshing, giving context and focus to COD’s annual merry-go-round of death.

Each objective requires a change in approach for both sides – only a fool brings their sniper rifle to the battle over the ammo dump, but it feels essential during the bridge section – encouraging, if not quite forcing, players to experiment with loadouts. And by ignoring your kill:death ratio, which is neither displayed during the game nor is tracked behind the scenes, War lets lesser-skilled players take part without worrying about the end-of-game wall of shame, and allows everyone to focus on the objective without a care about what it’s doing to their stats.

Above all it proves that the luxury of working within the confines of so well-established a template is that you can pluck ideas from elsewhere, and have them feel fresh. So it is with Headquarters, a social hub that owes an obvious debt to Destiny and underpins, at least in theory, the entirety of the game’s multiplayer experience. Yet while War is an effective magpie job on Battlefield’s Conquest gametype, Headquarters proves that you can’t just rip off an idea – you have to do it well.

First up is that, a fortnight and counting after launch, we are yet to see another soul in Headquarters, matchmaking issues leaving us running disappointedly around our own personal Normandy army base. That rather takes the shine off the revised loot-crate system: they now drop directly into the stage, and other players can see their contents when you open them. In another Destiny nod, WWII has bounties – some permanent, others timed – that only really come in two flavours. It’s either a grind (500 kills in a week, say) or the sort of speed-slayer challenge that feels beyond all but the most capable of players (100 kills in 40 minutes, you say? No ta). The latter type must be bought using an in-game currency, and the more achievable an objective, the higher its cost. It feels like it should be the other way round, letting lesser skilled, or more casual, players pick up cheap bounties for a basic reward, while the fifth-prestige hardcore, who will naturally be sitting on more currency, pony up a premium for tougher challenges that yield better prizes. Bounties should encourage you to keep playing; these do the opposite.

That’s a shame, because even away from War mode this is the most fun we’ve had in a COD multiplayer component in years. While it’s still a little pacier than we’d like, the return to the simpler militaristic times of 1940s Europe is a great help. You might still feel too slow for it, but the removal of the double-jumps and wall-running that have defined recent CODs means that the action is at least more grounded, and therefore more readable, set on maps whose layouts make sense. You’ll still kill one guy then get shot in the back of the head by another, but at least your killer won’t have doublejumped over the wall you had your back to.

The campaign, however, is a little less successful. It’s already been criticised for the way it airbrushes the Allies out of history, but that’s a natural consequence of having such a tight focus. This is really a story of two men: protagonist Red Daniels, the archetypical Good Southern Boy, and Robert Zussman, a Chicago-born wise-cracker of German-Jewish descent whose rather on-the-nose characterisation somehow isn’t enough to stop you liking him. It’s predictable stuff but it’ll be a cold heart indeed that isn’t at least a little touched by what is an uncommonly personal climax to a COD campaign. And it looks sumptuous, Sledgehammer’s work on a new shader system reaping obvious dividends, especially on 4K consoles. While it may sit near the bleeding edge in tech terms, however, COD: WWII’s design ethos reminds you why the setting was abandoned by game developers a decade ago. Levels escalate in predictable patterns; you assault a point, then defend it, and then the heavy armour shows up. There were only so many ways to blow up a tank in the ’40s, and Sledgehammer, to its credit, tries them all, but the formula wears thin and the setting offers little by way of variety elsewhere. Stealth, at least, is finely implemented – get spotted and the game checkpoints instantly, forcing you to go loud for the rest of the level. The weaponry’s great, too, the standout a delightful retooling of sniper rifles: a click of the left stick, traditionally used to hold your breath and steady your aim, now grants a gentle bullet-time effect.

Yet it’s the multiplayer that’s the main draw this time, and after years of being scythed down by wallrunning SMG players with catlike reactions, there’s something comforting about a COD game in which brains once again feel as important as reflexes. With the fluff and gimmickry of recent instalments gone, this comes close to reminding you why Call Of Duty remains the most popular FPS on the planet. At its best it’s a game of wits and skill, and thanks to War is now a game of tactics for even the most casual player. How apt that, after half a decade spent in futuristic flights of fancy, Call Of Duty should take an overdue step forward by travelling 70 years into the past.

Even away from War mode, this is the most fun we’ve had in a COD multiplayer in years