Activision have continued their week of Call of Duty: WWII reveals with a new GQ interview, where Sledgehammer co-founder Glen Schofield has revealed a handful of pertinent details about the content of the campaign.
Check out all the best WW2 games on PC.
Biggest of the bunch that the single-player mode will feature multiple playable characters from across the allies’ side of the war, including a female French resistance officer, an RAF pilot, and a tank commander. This is in line with previous Call of Duty games, but the previous trailer seemed to imply a focus on a single American character, so it’s nice to see multiple perspectives here.
One perspective you won’t be seeing is the German one – at least as a playable character. But that doesn’t mean that they’re painted entirely as monsters. “One of the first things we did,” says Schofield, “was talk to people from Germany and people said to us, ‘I’m a German not a Nazi’. We make sure we have that distinction in there as well – the human side of both sides.”
The debut story trailer implied a bit more narrative nuance than you’d typically expect from a Call of Duty campaign, and Schofield says that’s intentional. The developers have worked with historian for greater accuracy in the conflict’s details, and in the absence of the more bombastic gameplay abilities of modern and futuristic eras, it seems they’re taking a renewed effort to focus on story.
Update, September 19:The latest batch of trailers for Call of Duty: WWII introduce the campaign’s leading characters.
Between the latestWolfenstein trailerand the continued reveals for the Call of Duty: WWII campaign, today is a good day to hate nazis.
Today, Activision have released a series of quick videos introducing the boys who star in the story. First up is former farm boy “Red” Daniels, whose childhood experience with hungry wolves apparently prepared him for war.
Robert Zussman likes cigarettes and alcohol, so he’s already my favourite.
Providing your gravel-voiced “war is hell” monologues will be sergeant William Pierson.
Finally, Joseph Turner is a pragmatic reassuring presence who I’m reasonably certain will die in a second-act turn to raise the stakes for the remaining members of the squad.
Original Story:Activision revealed the Call of Duty: WWII campaign in stylish fashion today, with a new trailer revealing what’s to come for the single-player portion of the upcoming shooter. It hits familiar beats like D-Day with all the visual fervor you’d expect from a AAA blockbuster, and the results look very impressive.
The campaign follows US soldier private Ronald “Red” Daniels from his first combat experience landing at Normandy throughout the campaign to reach Germany, running through major battle locations like Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.
It’s filled with bombast and explosions, but there’s a surprising amount of humanity there as well, particularly in the scene where a Jewish soldier tries to hide his identity from Nazi captors. It’s all swallowed up by explosions and bombast shortly after, but hey, they’re trying.
This is the first in what Sledgehammer promise will be a week filled with single-player reveals, including spots highlighting your allies and squads in the story, as well as the real battles on which these missions are based.
PC players will soon get a taste of COD:WW2’s multiplayer action with an open beta starting later this month.