The success of Call Of Duty WWII should not be questioned. No matter how you look at it, Call of Duty will sell because it is a recognized brand, and even the “bad” games in the franchise still make billions. A sign of the times maybe, where people pre-orders games before even the first real gameplay footage was even shown.
Infinity Ward touted during the marketing of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare as the game that was going to bring the franchise back to its roots. I do know that Call of Duty never lost its core gameplay, so it makes me wonder what root they were going for in the future. The game did not play like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and even more so when compared to Call of Duty 1’s. What is with this “back to its root” buzzword anyways? In fact, what is the root of Call of Duty?
The cinematic campaign, once touted as one of the best story telling in a first person shooter. A lot of the set pieces you see in the newer games like take the same play book and do it over and over again. The conflicts similar, the characters fitting in to established tropes, the guns renamed and remodeled. S.S.D.D, same shit different day. Previous titles have pulled it off like Modern Warfare 2’s infamous airport massacre mission, or Black Ops 1’s trippy revelation.
Too many times have the developers been trying to rekindle the flame, but we all get tired of seeing themed versions of Modern Warfare 1’s nuke and final scene. The big three, Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer need to get out of their safe zones and just do it. Bring out the ideas that were chosen to be buried because it would cause controversy or ire from news outlets. Call of Duty franchise is the experience, the means to give people to see, hear and feel what they would otherwise not.
Sad to say, Call Of Duty WWII is bound to play it safe, again. The Texas farm boy is meant to show naivety, the innocence we see before it is shattered by war. I admire that we are not playing as a veteran of many conflicts badass, but technically, I’d rather be a badass from the get go. You are fully geared, rifle in hand and grenades at the ready, so this gives the player the full power trip. Watching the “Texas farm boy” mow down German after German is ironic to say the least. So what if you take that all away and make the player vulnerable?
That was what it was like to be Alexei Voronin from Call of Duty 1. Armed with only a stripper clip of bullets forced to charge an enemy in an entrenched position. Make the odds feel stacked against the player, make them feel small. Removing the magic health regeneration will help, but skilled players will be able to breeze through the game outside of scripted near-death events. Maybe exploring the other side, yes, the enemy would be very interesting.
Take an everyday Wehrmacht soldier, tear down the myth of the clean Wehrmacht in scripted sequences. Go from constantly winning battles against the “enemy” to finally realizing that there is something wrong. Oh it would bring the hammer down from all those who claim your game is pro-Fascism, but who are they when they have not played the game. You want to play it safe still? Maybe show two stories of war side by side.
End of the day, Call Of Duty WWII will still be successful. The lack of regenerating health will work wonders in how people play the multiplayer, cannot wait to get a hands on for that.