We managed to have a shot at the Call of Duty: WW2 closed beta which ran its course, this weekend on consoles. The closed beta offered a taste of what to expect when the game releases in November.
Call of Duty as a franchise is something that was best known for hashing out a title every year or so. In doing so, the popular shooting franchise seemed to have lost its way. It needed to reinvent itself after the mixed reception to last year’s Infinite Warfare. I found it quite relieving that Sledgehammer Games decided to got back to its COD 2 days with World War 2.
I always had a special love for Call of Duty 2, it was the title that put COD in its foothold until we got the Michael bay esque Modern Warfare series came around and really turned things around for Activision’s shooter. After playing the beta albeit for a short while thanks to connection issues from my end, it’s refreshing to go back in the trenches. So here’s what you can expect before you jump in the open beta.
It’s the Call of Duty you remember, without the excessive
COD became the fast, twitch reactive shooter in multiplayer that was getting to the same speed as Quake or Unreal. It was a pure adrenaline rush that rewarded the effective killers in the game. I belonged to the camp of players that felt intimidated or wouldn’t be part of a kids youtube “no scope kill montage” video. With the world war 2 edition, it’s still fast but noticeably something that you can manage and that’s from coming from a slower and apparently more “authentic” feel of Battlefield 1.
WW2 looks and sounds great
COD has always been something of a spectacle. Happy to say that World War 2 will continue that trend. There are three maps you get to play on. From the icy forest of the Ardennes to elevated landscapes of Gibraltar and finally, the trenches of Pointe Du Hoc. That said, those with Xbox One X, PS4 Pro consoles and PC’s with 4K enabled setups are going to enjoy the sights and sounds of this game.
Maps aren’t as dynamic and that’s a good thing
It’s 1940 and there are no jetpacks, drones or wall running, just boots on the ground and reasonably more traditional, so it’s not going to be something to compare with recent fps games that have come out. This will probably be not as appealing for those coming from infinite warfare but for the rest who liked it back in the old days,
War is a brilliant new mode
Among the various traditional modes like Team Deathmatch, Domination and Hardpoint, WW2 introduces players to War – a new objective based mode that offers the most dynamic Call of Duty multiplayer mode up until now. War plays out much like a game of Battlefield’s large scale battles like Operations for instance, ‘War is fairly shorter and as a result don’t need to commit lots of time to it.
The shooting’s the best
I’m going to sound like something of an old fart here, I’m glad there’s no more lasers, or robots who will kick you in the face. This is what COD was known for and it does it so well. Every gun you handle, you’ll feel the power. Snipers will be rewarded with the sense of nailing that headshot and there’s some satisfaction to be earned for nailing that “near impossible long distance headshot halfway across the map.
When someone comes at you with a flamethrower, run.
Divisions are the new Classes
While COD may have you feel that you’re making a big decision about what division you join, you’re joining a playstyle and that’s not a significant choice to make. You’re actually picking specific skills or weapons and abilities. On offer, are the Infantry, Airborne, Armored, Mountain and Expeditionary Divisions. You can also create your own character on top of class specific skills.
No word on singleplayer
Sledgehammer is promising an authentic “boots on the ground” war experience and they’re fairly tight lipped on what that is. Since this beta was multiplayer only, it looks like we’ll only get to know what that is on November 3rd and I’m cautiously optimistic for this title.
