Call of Duty: WWII (2017)

Playing Battlefield V and 1 had me jonesin for a break. A CoD break. For those who haven't played it, WW2 is the last "good old CoD" game left, and yes, there are still players in the Domination lobbies.

Today I bought Vanguard so we will see how the newer WW2 Call of Duty holds up. I tried the new CoD mechanics awhile back and didn't like that Activision basically ripped off Battlefield. Now that I am more acclimated to "modern shooter mechanics" I feel it is time to give WW2 a rest and try my hands at Vanguard. I heard I can install it without the mandatory 150GB of Warzone so that was a selling point. I'll let you know how it goes.

Beat on Veteran difficulty. I was given this game as a gift, otherwise I would not have it because I have been out of the CoD franchise for quite some time. As usual I favored taking it slow and steady with long range precision shots. Preferred sniper and all other rifles though I did have some fun with the flamethrower and had to use smgs and shotguns at times. I also used dismounted heavy machine guns every chance I got.

I struggled at a few points. The first flak gun turret sequence saved in the middle when I could only survive a single hit; the part after that was extremely frustrating and took 20+ times. On the first stealth mission I blew stealth in such a way that I thought it was supposed to happen, and then had to solo the entire level with a time limit. That was not happening. Had to check a walkthrough to find out that the stealth part was much longer. Why the hell did the game save right after I blew stealth? The first driving sequence was unforgiving because it was so hard to see where they wanted me to go. The final level was quite annoying with the constant smoke and terrible visibility; I ended up giving up on trying to shoot from a safe distance and just running the hell towards the enemy.

Surprisingly, I got through the second flak gun turret sequence on the first try and never failed a vehicle turret sequence; highly unusual for a CoD game on Veteran. I say that is because they gave the jeep its own health bar rather than relying on your tiny one. I overall enjoyed the game; the story was surprisingly good and the shooting parts were decent. I liked the stealth sequences (except the one with the little girl), though I have my doubts about how appropriate those are for this type of game. The level where you play as a female spy felt the most out of place and seemed like it should have been in a Hitman game. I liked the tank and flying level and would have liked to see more of those; perhaps as secondary mode, like zombies.

I did not like the on rail shooting gallery part with a pistol because it was too scripted and took too much control away from the player. I also noticed a common CoD trope of having enemies respawn infinitely (or some absurd number) until you move up far enough, which as a sniper is something that pisses me off. The part that I hated the most though were the quick time events. The simple untimed one in the first level for arming the Bangalore was bad enough; why can’t it be a cutscene or an equipable item for me to use? The timed ones throughout the rest of the game were much worse. Though they were not difficult, I vehemently oppose the very concept of quick time events. I especially hated how they use arbitrary controls that could change between tries. I remember one where you had to pick up a helmet and hit an enemy, which involves using the left stick and a random face button. Left stick is for moving your legs NOT your arms, and you should be pressing “use” to pick up the helm and “melee” or “shoot” to hit with it. At no point in this sequence should you press “jump” or “crouch”. Is it too much to ask that if quick time events absolutely have to exist that they use logical controls of the game? I found the visuals to be too drab and dark to the point where it was sometimes hard to see enemies and my iron sight; putting up the gamma too high makes everything look too grey. Overall, I find this game to be an increasing trend towards making games more like hyper realistic gritty movies, rather than its roots (Wolfenstein and Doom), and honestly I prefer the latter.

Tried the 2 zombies levels once each. I made a custom class with: Camouflage, M1A1 carbine, proximity mines, armoured up, flak jacket and discipline (though I never had a chance to use this and in retrospect should have chosen fully loaded). I had no idea what I was doing and was disappointed at the lack tutorial for what the stuff in the zombie mode does. I managed to make it to wave 19 before I got stuck on a little piece of fence which I had no right getting stuck on. I worked out a system where I would go around in a large circle trying to spawn all of the zombies in a line behind me and using the svt for accurate shots and the combat shotgun to get through the narrow part. The svt ammo was in the circle, so it was working well. The second map in the house did not go so well (got to wave 9) because of lack of space to move around. The darkness of the game with respect to difficulty in seeing iron sights was very noticeable here. Would be fun to play more but this kind of gameplay is only good for a little bit of fun.

Tried out some multiplayer against bots. I was very impressed at their AI; they would beeline for me whenever I fired and would work together to try to flank me (with 1 or 2 holding just outside of on entrance waiting for more to flank around the other side before attacking). I played solo against a team of bots. I like the sniping (both single and multiplayer) because the transition from hip to scope is so smooth and you can still see around the scope. I focused on practicing with the starter sniper rifle and LMG. I like the Armored division with scoped basic training. I also like Cavalry with the ballistic shield; I do not find shields all the useful as weapons (since the game does not allow you to shield and shoot at the same time), but just having it on your back to protect against flanking is awesome. Did not try out much else.

Not sure if I want to invest into the real multiplayer right now.