I’ve now had a decent amount of time to play the online mode of Call of Duty WW2. It’s good because all of the series online modes are good and have a strange addicting quality to them. It’s a first person shooter where the objectives basically involve killing each other.

A change from previous games is the new War mode which can only be played on the core difficulty. War is where each team has an objective, to attack or defend and the objectives can be anything from escorting tanks to storming the beach on a D-day landing. It is an interesting addition to the choice of modes.

Another notable change is the new community hub area where players can explore, participate in Luftwaffe shooting events or open supply drops which are this game’s version of loot boxes.

There are classes to customise the loadout of. Each class has its own ability such as Infantry having a bayonet or Airborne having a silencer. These classes can level up to gain more abilities and unlock new guns when they prestige. Weapons can be levelled up and prestiged as can the player profile. There’s a lot of levelling to be done.

Call of Duty online can feel a bit repetitive and aimless but there are challenges to complete to unlock weapon camo, experience points, calling cards and more as well as daily, weekly and special challenges to give you lootboxes to unlock more.

I also had a play on Hardcore mode where I always seem to die in one shot but using a powerful pistol an enemy took four hit markers to kill and the game has getting kicked as punishment for team killing. I preferred ricochet as a punishment as it’s too easy to get kicked from a game for an accidental grenade team kill or a teammate running in front of your bullets.

Problems with the multiplayer are that gun balancing is questionable, lag is common plus internet speeds and luck matter more than skill. The lootbox system doesn’t effect the game which is good, almost everything that can be gained are cosmetic items with a few experience boosts but they don’t provide too much of an advantage, I like randomised loot, it’s just a shame real money can be spent to buy lootboxes.

Overall it’s mostly enjoyable, the big annoying things like constantly getting shot from behind or being hit by random explosions are still there but that’s Call of Duty for you. If you play you need three things – Skill, luck and a good internet connection.

 

The art that I’m using as the featured image was found on the achievements section of the Xbox website. A soldier staring on, fairly standard on its own and not that impressive but with the context of the game being Call of Duty’s big return to the second world war this is marketing genius, add in the fact that we don’t know what he’s staring at and this can be seen as emotional artwork about the horrors of war.

 

Also see my zombies review for this game.