In pictures review: The amazing new Call of Duty WWII

CoD’s gone back to its roots – and we love it

Out with the preposterous sci-fi warfare, in with good old-fashioned Nazi-killing.

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.

Heading back to WWII is a risk, though: it has to remain faithful to history and still be fun. Oh, and try to be original despite its overly familiar setting. No pressure, then.

1. It’s like playing Band of Brothers, the game

CoD: WWII kicks off with the Normandy landings, before seeing you join your buddies to fight back against the Nazis. In short, it’s Band of Brothers: the video game.

Hacknayed setting aside, the single-player story is mostly a success.

The characters are likeable, if predictable, and there’s a fair bit of variety to the gameplay, with stealth sections in-between the standard shoot-them-all-bits.

2. There’s no lasers, and no wall running. Joy!

The combat is the real star, though.

Gone are the future-tech weapons that allow you to spray and pray, replaced with guns that require aiming.

Two in the body might put an enemy down, but one up top will do it quicker, and you won’t be wasting precious ammo on the way.

3. The health pack is back!

Your squadmates are important here, too: some can distribute health packs, along with ammo and grenades, while others can spot enemies (making them glow), or even give you a flare to light up an area for an airstrike.

4. Quick time events are a bit of a pain

For some reason, certain actions sequences ask you to perform quick time events, which feel entirely out of place and pull you out of the action.

Worse still, the camera will shake as you perform them, making it easy to fail.

5. But overall the story mode works well

There’s nuance in the quieter moments. Weapons aren’t always the way to end a situation, and sometimes you can finish a sequence by holding your gun on the enemy until they surrender.

While it doesn’t quite reach the emotional highs of the Battlefield 1 campaign, when you’re in control of the first-person action you realise how desperately shooters needed dialling back like this.

It’s simple, effective, and respects the subject matter, which is important.

6. You need never wait for an online match again

HQ is the newest, best addition to Call of Duty’s multiplayer.

A sort of lobby area for the online offering, you can spend your downtime kitting out your character, levelling up, looking for loot and even taking part in 1v1 battles.

While the time-to-kill is slightly reduced from last year’s Infinite Warfare, you’re still going to find yourself hanging around in here a lot, so it’s a neat addition to the series.

7. War is a great new mode

Dare we say it, but the all-new War Mode is rather Battlefield-like.

Taking place on far larger maps, each team has to attack and defend an objective.

There’s no score sheet showing you your kills – instead, it’s about the team holding out, or pushing on, and it’s a fantastic addition to the series.

8. Nazi Zombies are back

Class based and with perks, the new Zombies mode is deep, difficult, and rewarding, if you can find the right team to uncover all the secrets.

It’s also really tense and quite scary – which is no surprise, as two of the brains behind the new game previously worked on survival horror classic Dead Space.

9. It’s still as tough as ever

CoD: WWII’s multiplayer modes are still daunting for the novice, but the nature of this year’s game does even the odds a little: you really are just facing people who have to rely (mostly) on their guns and skills.

The maps are a bit larger, and offer plenty of angles for firefights, and they’re as well designed as ever, of course.

That said, KillCams will still often leave you screaming with rage as you question whether your opponents have some kind of sixth sense for this series.

10. It’s visually stunning

We’ve come to expect it these days, but the facial animations and environments created here are top of the class.

As buildings crumble and explosions cover the screen with smoke, it’s hard not to become transfixed, especially by some very impressive lighting.

Unfortunately, on Xbox One X at least we found plenty of sound glitches and bugs, so here’s hoping they get patched quickly.

11. Call of Duty: WWII – The verdict

Everything outside the gameplay is adorned with menus, unlocks, loot boxes, and all the modern trinkets games are full of. But underneath its ultra-visceral graphical polish is the thrilling spirit of arguably the series’ high point: Call of Duty 2.

Cliches and marketing buzzwords be damned, but this really is boots-on-the-ground combat, and it’s terrific fun at that.

Scroll through the rest of our gallery to feast your eyes on what to expect.