Call of Duty: WWII Reviews

Republished on Monday 28th May 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of June's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows.

With a terribly below mediocre campaign, an average zombies mode, and an excellent multiplayer option, Call of Duty: WWII manages to hit all the marks. But not in the way that it should. I had high hopes, and was surprised that the real gem I found was not the one I was originally hoping to. It's not great, it's not good, it's okay.

Call of Duty: WWII is a welcomed return to simpler times.

Call of Duty: WWII has a good but forgettable campaign. It has a fantastic new multiplayer mode surrounded by some mediocre ones. It has an interesting entry to Zombies that squanders its potential. There's a ton of content here, and all of it is good, but none of it really gets above that bar.

Nazi Zombies is of course back, although can we really say the mode is ever “back” when it’s been in every release for the past few years? This time around they’re going back to the horror roots of the mode with a level that takes you from spooky village to spooky underground mines, to spooky laboratory. The level isn’t very creative from a visual standpoint, but the team did a good job making it at least feel incredibly eerie and the new zombie designs are super gross to look at. Besides that, the mode plays exactly how you expect it to with waves of increasingly difficult zombies coming to ruin your day and there’s a story to explore if you’re interested in the zombies lore. While marketing itself as a “back to basics” package, WW2’s zombie mode makes some small changes that fans of the mode may or may not take to immediately. The most notable change is the lack of boarding up windows; once a zombie breaks through that window stays open forever. This small change drastically changes the pace of the mode since before the usual meta was to keep windows boarded up so you could slow down the upcoming wave; now you have to deal with the full assault immediately and there’s no way to delay it. The other change is the addition of classes to your starting loadout. Besides getting to customize the type of guns you’ll find in the level, you’ll also choose one of four abilities such as invisibility or being able to shoot without reloading. This are minor changes on a grander level, but they do add the one bit of variety in a game that is severely lacking in it.

Call of Duty successfully goes back to its roots, with a solid campaign and multiplayer that has a fresh pace but a familiar feel.

As perhaps one of the only constants in the gaming industry alongside the heralding of a new schedule of Fall gaming releases with Madden, this year's Call of Duty aims to scale things back a century from the previous tours of war. Sledgehammer Games and Glen Schofield's team have returned to a simpler time, when atrocities and harrowing acts of heroism were committed by soldiers face to face. Taking place in 'The Big One,' players return to boots on the ground with the three core tenets that drive this year's Call of Duty: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies.

With an addictive, fully-featured multiplayer suite, one of the finest campaigns the franchise has seen in years, and a fresh, revitalised Zombies mode, Call of Duty: WWII is an absolute blast that boldly goes where no modern Call of Duty has gone before: back to its World War roots. And it’s about bloody time.

If you were worried that Call of Duty would not deliver on the promise to go back to its roots, please try the game!  I was skeptical, especially after the beta.  I thought there was no way it could happen.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out they made good on that promise.  Call of Duty: WWII has an amazing, engaging, and emotional story.  It is very worthy of the title and will go down in history as one of the best single player experiences Call of Duty has offered.

Three years ago, Sledgehammer took a bold step forward with Advanced Warfare. Now, in 2017, it’s taken a bold step back. Despite some interesting additions like Headquarters and War, Call of Duty: WWII is arguably the most reserved entry we’ve had in years, but is already proving a hit among fans. There is still that sense of fatigue, however, and if Call of Duty is to soar to the top once again, Treyarch and Infinity Ward will need to change something more than the time period in the coming years.

It's not a full-on revolution, but Call of Duty: WWII wins a few key battles. Here is our review:

In terms of bringing old-school Call of Duty up to modern standards, Call of Duty: WWII does fairly admirably, but at the same time every end of it feels like something is missing. The campaign is a tour and spectacle of the terror and intensity of the conflict as the Allies fought their way into to the Eagle’s Nest, but the forgoing of nearly all outside perspectives in favor of an all-American campaign feels narrow in comparison to previous COD outings that have tackled this subject matte...

Call of Duty has spent the last few years trying to go further and further into the future, from Modern Warfare to Advanced Warfare to Infinite Warfare which took the fast and furious combat all the way into space. While the advancements made for some interesting ideas with technology and weaponry, it lost some of its heart and soul which made COD so enjoyable to begin with. Call of Duty: WWII recaptures this feeling, with an intense and enjoyable campaign backed up by a strong multiplayer su...

When looking at the big picture, Call of Duty: WWII is absolutely a fun time. With a multiplayer that includes a ton of unlocks and a new social hub, as well as a zombies mode that features some incredibly intense moments, players could easily get lost spending hours upon hours playing with other people. Aside from the unfortunately short campaign with flat and boring characters, I believe Sledgehammer Games succeeded in bringing the series back to where it started, while at the same time putting their own spin on the Call of Duty franchise to make it relevant for their newer audience.

A derivative, middling campaign, good multiplayer, and a ton of content means that Call of Duty: WWII is more Call of Duty - for better and worse.

The best Call Of Duty for several years, but it still owes too much to the past – and the campaign’s attempts at a more serious tone are only half successful.

Having pushed the boundaries of armed conflict into outer space, the latest Call of Duty is a return to all the stuff that has made the FPS series such a blockbuster success.

May it be the likes of Shadow of the Colossus or Metal Gear Solid, if it’s quite there but not enough to push the boundaries, it’s still an awesome game.

A return to the 1940s makes for a weary campaign, but the multiplayer fits like an old Modern Warfare shaped glove.

No summary available

The developers hammer home what made Call of Duty so great in previous years, while also adding a bunch of modern content and gameplay twists of their own.  As far as Call of Duty games go, WW2 is an instant classic.

When’s the last time fans have been genuinely satisfied with a Call of Duty game? When you really think about that question, it is a difficult one to answer. Sure, we all have our favorites but there’s no way 2016’s Infinite Warfare could be on many lists. Have you seen the number of dislikes the game received on Youtube? Black Ops 3, Advanced Warfare and Ghosts (largely considered the worst in the series) aren’t the first CoD games that come to mind when nailing down the best in the franchise. My point being, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen a Call of Duty game generate some serious excitement with fans. Call of Duty: WWII, on the other hand, has been greeted with a warm reception. Folks seem thrilled to go back to the deadliest conflict in human history. But is WWII the best Call of Duty in the series? Not by a long shot. Still, there’s plenty of reason to reunite your squad and head back to Activision’s juggernaut franchise.