Call of Duty WWII: PS4 Review

Call of Duty WWII: PS4 Review

Developed by Sledgehammer Games
Published by Activision
Platform: PS4

The annual Call of Duty release is a thing many are passionate about.

From its first person shooter days to the multiplayer and subsequent side campaigns, the game's a much anticipated event that still manages to enthrall as many as it does.

This time, the World War II setting gives Call of Duty a sense of place and time, thanks to some excellently visualised maps and created environments to fight in.

The latest iteration of the game feels in many ways like it's gone back to basics, with a core gameplay attitude of taking on the opposition and keeping things simple.

Its campaign follows the 1st infantry division as they take part in various battles on the European front. It's your typical war story with a infantryman brought in to the earlier combats and finding his feet - progression is as you'd expect and there are elements of the cinematic in the game, as well as the emotional.

Interestingly the campaign becomes more about survival than slaughter - and this is something which is lost a little in the multiplayer (though the server's proved difficult finding games with that in COD WWII's early days).

Multiplayer is the usual frantic boots-on-the-ground scramble you'd expect with hints of carnage in among the trying to achieve your various goals. Whilst it may be that occasionally you respawn too far away from the game itself, and you can frustratingly be picked off before you'd expect to be, there's much to admire in the solid execution of the multiplayer itself, even if the game occasionally doesn't want you to get amongst it thanks to server problems.

Nazi zombies arise and arrive in the new co-op mode and again, this offers a lot of thrills to the player looking to follow and shoot where necessary. It's a welcome return for the sub-genre of the game and there'll be much for the fan to engage with.

Ultimately, Call of Duty WWII feels like a solid and playable entry into the canon.

There's an emotional depth in the campaign that's interesting and an engaging level of play throughout - it may feel like Call of Duty WWII is the franchise going back to its roots, but just because it does, doesn't mean that Sledgehammer Games have jettisoned everything that's been learned along the way.