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<\/p>\nDuring E3 2017 in Los Angeles, we had the chance to try out Activision's new title, Call of Duty: WWII, the next installment in the war saga currently under development at Sledgehammer Games. The long-awaited return to the franchise's roots extends not only to the setting, which is obviously the same as the very first installments, but also to the online multiplayer concept, which abandons all the high-tech frills to focus on a more traditional experience, paced at a more realistic pace. The video below shows the trailer for the new title.<\/p>\n
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Before getting our hands on the multiplayer mode, we watched an introductory video about the campaign, which will take place primarily between 1944 and 1945 in France, Belgium, and then Germany. During the demo, we observed our alter ego and his two teammates assaulting a Nazi-controlled church. A seemingly easy task, it quickly turns into a no-holds-barred battle: the need to recharge your health using the medkits provided by the doctor forces you to always stick together and support each other, while a good mix of classic scripted sequences and AI-controlled enemies helps maintain the familiar pace we've come to appreciate from the series (or not, depending on your taste).<\/p>\n
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The very high level of violence immediately stands out: shots from fixed emplacements decapitate and mangle the bodies of soldiers, there is a waste of detail inside the bisected torsos and of the many comrades at the beginning of the assault, the same ones you get to know through a few exchanges as you progress. Very few make it to the end of that brief gameplay, the others we watch die before our eyes. The gameplay doesn't seem to have changed much, but with the wall runs and super jumps removed, Call of Duty: WWII returns to seemingly more banal situations, which are actually still very effective. The pace itself is a bit slower overall, at least in the single-player campaign.<\/p>\n
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Visually, with the exception of the aforementioned super-violence, what we see is a classic representation of Europe during World War II: destroyed houses, collapsed bridges, barbed wire, and landscapes that have gone from being splendid to smoky battlefields. The rest, of course, is up to the clever scripting, which allows Sledgehammer Studios to drop a fighter plane on a bell tower just as we're in front of the church, or to set off choreographed explosions when we finally reach the top of what is now a ruin. From a strictly technical standpoint, we're not experiencing any innovation. Not disappointing, in short, but not jaw-dropping either. What's very interesting, however, is the work done on a multiplayer component that appears richer than ever before, which we had the opportunity to try out firsthand.<\/p>\n
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The first and most notable new feature is the large hub shared with dozens of other virtual soldiers, a meeting point clearly inspired by those in other titles (who said Destiny?!) that serves both as a large chat room and a place to relax between matches, perhaps challenging each other in one of the themed mini-games and assorted skill tests. The five divisions to choose from are essentially five classes specializing in different approaches to combat, from ranged to close-quarters and everything in between; playing with each of these divisions improves their equipment, unlocking weapons and abilities. Our test began with a couple of standard matches, in Team Death Match and Domination, on two different maps, one near a bunker complex and the other in the Ardennes forest. Here, the pace returns to its standard level; the slower-than-usual pace felt in the campaign is less noticeable, but then again, that's exactly what you'd expect from Call of Duty multiplayer.<\/p>\n
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Our roughly forty-five-minute demo allowed us to test three of the modes that will be included in the game, due out in November: Team Deathmatch, Domination, and the brand-new War, undoubtedly the most interesting of the entire package. Here are our first impressions. The first mode, which we're telling you right now, is the classic team deathmatch, where a team of six players faces off against a team of the same number. It was a good opportunity to adapt to a pace that is inevitably no longer the frenetic and suffocating one of the modern Call of Duty games released in recent years. As we mentioned at the beginning, the action is very classic and lacks all the frills that made Activision's saga so different from its origins. Once you've formed your team on the new battlefield, a social hub with a nod to Destiny, you'll be able to choose one of the new Divisions: essentially, these are classes specialized in a particular playstyle, each with a specific weaponry and skills that can then be upgraded or expanded based on your performance in the game, obtaining weapons similar to their class but more powerful. The Divisions available in the build we tested at E3 were Airbone, Armored, Expeditionary, Infantry, and Mountain, each available in at least one different weapon or skill variant. In the lobby, while waiting to start the multiplayer match, you'll be able to view your weapons and skills, along with a small test bed to test your playstyle. The first match took place inside a trench on the map called Pointe du Hoc, a very small setting that makes the approach to combat rather direct, with gameplay as fast and frenetic as previous COD titles. Here, we were able to experience a much more considered pace, certainly for the more experienced, since going into battle without a bit of tactics means repeatedly dying within moments. The time-to-kill is significantly different from previous Call of Duty titles and more similar to what characterized the franchise in its early iterations, with weapons that are well-defined and diverse, although one in particular caught our attention (and prompted us to try it to counter the dominance of some fellow journalists who particularly enjoyed using it): the infantry rifle called the M1 Garand, probably the first weapon Sledgehammer will have to try to balance.<\/p>\n
The second mode, however, is the classic Domination, which features three areas to conquer in three different points of the map: two perfectly mirrored, and one located off-center and outside of combat. The map we tested this mode on was a snowy landscape in the Ardennes forests. It's also quite small in terms of vertical extension (enough to allow you to move from Zone A to Zone C in 15-20 seconds), but quite extensive on the sides and characterized by tunnels and corridors that offer a different approach to conquering the zones. This requires the presence of at least one player in the area for a total of ten seconds, and if you manage to conquer more than one zone in succession, perhaps adding a few kills, you'll activate a sort of killstreak that will allow you, for example, to call in air support capable of bombing the surrounding area and scoring a few free kills.<\/p>\n
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Before we wrap up our Hands-On, we need to talk about the War mode we tested: this pits two teams of six players against each other, and the objective is to attack or defend to win the match. In the Operation Breakdown scenario, we began the challenge as the defending team. The goal was to defend our outpost from enemy attacks within a certain amount of time. If we did, we would win, while if we didn't, the opposing team would continue their advance, forcing us to surrender. The entire game takes place in four phases, provided, of course, that the attacking team manages to complete their objectives within the time limit. Initially, we were unable to prevent the enemy team from invading the outpost, thanks to a particular moment when all members of our team were knocked out, allowing a small group of opponents to position themselves inside the outpost while we waited to respawn. This forced us to retreat to a second zone (which effectively expanded the map considerably), shifting the conflict to an area that required defending an incomplete bridge, giving our opponents the objective of building it to continue their ascent. In the first match, the defensive one, we managed to prevent the enemy from advancing and building the bridge before the time limit, securing victory and reversing the roles.<\/p>\n
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As the attackers, we were able to experience all phases of combat: after conquering the enemy stronghold and building the bridge, the third objective was to escort a tank to a specific point in the enemy camp and then attack the enemy and force them to surrender. It's important to note that, even when faced with a seemingly invincible tank, an overly bold approach is definitely not recommended in these situations: strategy has proven fundamental to WWII's gameplay and encourages the player to try alternative approaches. This is demonstrated by the ability, in the third phase, to build barricades that the attacking team can detonate with explosive charges to surprise the enemy troops, thus offering a significant advantage and numerical superiority, considering that after each death, there's a short respawn time and we'll be forced to restart from the starting point of the map.<\/p>\n
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After completing our hands-on, we can only be satisfied with our test of Call of Duty: WW2 on PlayStation 4 Pro: War mode is undoubtedly the most interesting of the package and can count on a good level of challenge, embellished by the presence of objectives and a minimum of narration that makes the experience intriguing even for those who are less fond of throwing themselves into the fray of more obsessive and frenetic modes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0This coming November 3rd, when Call of Duty: WWII arrives on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One.<\/p>\n