Call of duty wwii single player company. Call of Duty: WWII review

So, WWII, as is obvious from the name, sends us to the final arc of the Second World War, namely, it begins with the famous “D-Day” and the landing of Allied troops in Normandy. The player, in the role of a certain private Ronald "Red" Daniels, in company with his battalion and two impatient commanders, goes through long haul from the quiet French countryside to the German Rhine, not forgetting to even look into the famous Forest of Arden in Belgium. Well, as you may have guessed, in this part the story will be entirely devoted to the Americans’ confrontation with the Nazi machine.

Overall, Call of Duty: WWII has a good story that is well intertwined with the original historical events, although formulaic, there are well-developed characters and a smooth narrative. However, in general, everything turns out a little prosaically: once again the landing scene is played out, where we are literally helpless and we can only run, we saw a tank - we are looking for the Panzerschrek, and here is a chapter very reminiscent of Pavlov’s House, where we, while detaining breathing with sniper rifle it is necessary to support your comrades in the offensive, and also the “cameo” car from the first games. Of course, the developers tried to tap into nostalgia, but perhaps they overdid it. And thank the creator that at least a few missions really look fresh compared to everything else.

Sledgehammer are probably the best directors from the “CoD team”, as we could see from their last game, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. One can argue with this, but is it necessary? WWII also had some great cinematics, great scripted scenes, and great camera work. The “blockbuster” quality of the series is not only maintained at the same level, this time it surpasses itself. And the advanced graphics engine, together with the excellent work of the composers, pleasantly contributes to immersion. Did you want the most beautiful and spectacular game about World War II? It's already here and it's called Call of Duty: WWII.

And yet, throughout almost the entire campaign I couldn’t shake the feeling of a kind of remake of the first two Call of Duty games, although I can’t deny that the plot managed to pleasantly surprise me more than once! This is probably simply due to the setting that the developers chose for their new game, or rather the hackneyed nature of this setting and general limitations. If in the case of the “near future” the scope for creativity was practically unlimited, then in WWII you won’t have much fun. The developers, of course, tried to dilute the everyday life of the Second World War with small gameplay features, such as mini-timed challenges called “Feats”, but no jetpacks (and as a result, vertical dynamic gameplay), drones, laser rifles and walkers, even if they tried replacing your squad members with special skills, such as requesting artillery support or reconnaissance of nearby enemy positions, still turned out to be rather modest. A noticeable innovation, which, by the way, only applies to the campaign, was the return of the health bar and first aid kits, which greatly increased the difficulty of completing the game on Veteran, so fans of challenges and hardcore will clearly be pleased.

When observing the development trend of the Call of Duty series, you notice that each of Activision's internal studios last years was especially strong at something specific. For example, Treyarch works well with multiplayer games, Sledgehammer, as I mentioned above, are strong in staging and general “popcorn”, and Infinity Ward in their last game rehabilitated themselves after Ghosts, and were able to show a real epic. However, priorities decided to change again, since the excitement of getting to know the multiplayer component of Call of Duty: WWII is simply impossible to contain: you want to shout “finally!” and sing the praises of the developers.

Sledgehammer Games managed to create close to ideal conditions for all fans of online shooters. It all starts with choosing a division and getting to know the headquarters. With the first, everything is very clear: this is a kind of specialization (class, if you want) with its own unique bonuses, with which you will have to start and play out your first fights until you decide to change it. But the headquarters is a social hub for players, ideas for which were partially borrowed from Destiny: in a small location there are centers with daily challenges, and a quartermaster selling skins and business cards, as well as special tasks, and a training ground, to which you can move straight from the display menu with the press of one button, and a range for series of points, and a zone for entertainment, and PvP, and much, much more.

The attention to detail is simply amazing. For the first time in the history of Call of Duty, Sledgehammer Games seems to have done everything directly for the players. For example: they set the game to matchmaking, and at that moment they themselves went to test a new weapon assembly at the training ground, instead of lowering their K/D in the game due to incorrectly distributed assets or selected skills. Very comfortably. In addition, most of the external customization elements can be purchased for in-game currency, which is not difficult to earn. Let’s say “no” to the endless randomness of boxes, which, although present in the game, are now not even sold for real money (although I have no doubt that sooner or later such an opportunity will appear). All legendary types of guns now exclusively affect the experience gained, and their characteristics correspond to the standard ones. In general, an exemplary multiplayer competitive shooter, once you make friends with it you don’t want to part with it at all.

As for the modes, CoD fans will feel like a fish out of water here, because the standard set of them has not gone away, all the best is in place, and as a bonus there is also a copy of the uber-popular map Hijacked from Black Ops II. It is also good that the professional league starts on December 1, and the MLG league promises not to keep you waiting, which could not be said about last year Infinite Warfare , whose eSports potential was quite lackluster.

The debut of a completely new mode from Sledgehammer called “War”, designed for battles between large teams with the goal of gradually completing a chain of certain tasks and changing the boundaries of the map, also looks interesting. We could first observe such a regime in a similar manifestation in Killzone 2, and last year it boasted a similar “trick” Battlefield 1, but in my opinion, this element will not be able to take root in Call of Duty. And the point is not at all in its implementation, but in the lack of scale and general “cardboardness” of the games in the series. Still, 12 people is quite small, and the lack of sane equipment, destructible objects and environment, and the general dynamics of the game do not give the feeling of a “big war,” and you won’t be satisfied with staged intros on the game engine alone.

As for the new zombie mode, “Nazi Zombies” managed to not only please me, but even surprise me a little. The prologue to the mode seems really creepy, and in general the picture has become somewhat darker, which is especially noticeable after the trashy “Zombies in Spaceland” from Infinite Warfare; Then only additions helped correct the situation. The design of both locations and enemies in WWII is truly frightening, and the behavior of enemies has become much more unfavorable for the player: zombies constantly sneak up from behind, fall from rooftops and try in every possible way to stun you... There are bosses and a dozen a variety of opponents, and tons of easter eggs with perks and personalization. In general, as usual, “its own atmosphere”!

The first (and only this moment) the chapter of the zombie mode is called “The Last Reich”. In it, a group of four enthusiasts, by order American command, it is necessary to conduct an investigation in an abandoned village in the German wilderness, where, allegedly, there is a secret Nazi bunker containing terrible secrets of occult military developments. The characters, as before, differ only in appearance. This time they were played by famous Hollywood actors of the “second tier”: the appearance of virtual Ving Rhames, Elodie Young, David Tennant and Katheryn Winnick was very pleasing. Moreover, the actors even voiced their characters themselves, which is important, because in the settings you can always change the voice-over language (even though our backups in general did a great job with Call of Duty: WWII).

Call of Duty: WWII- a very successful experience in returning the series to its historical roots, a significant breakthrough for the mechanics of session multiplayer action games in general, as well as one of the best and original incarnations of “Zombies” in recent years. Sledgehammer Games may have earned the right to be called the best of the “CoD trio” today, and their work is quite capable of competing for well-deserved awards.

It would seem that only 12 years ago we made a virtual landing in Normandy. 10 years ago we went to Chernobyl, filled with wild dogs. 7 years ago we found ourselves in the fields of Vietnam. And so, we are again sailing in the boat and preparing to storm the captured German army France.

Call of DutyFor several years now, it has been flirting with futurism, throwing players further and further in time. The setting of the future allowed the developers not only to show the vastness of outer space, but also to introduce non-linearity and give players more freedom. INInfinity Warfarewe could complete secondary tasks by selecting them on board the spaceship. The hero, of course, kept up with progress and could vigorously run around locations, thanks to the exosuit. But what does last year's issue have to do with it?Call of Duty? The fact is that now all this has been taken away from us.

This is the most beautiful and technologically advanced Call of Duty for now.

WWIItakes the series back to World War II. This is what fans have been waiting for for so long, who already seemed fed up with the future. And, I must say, returning to the fields of the Great War is quite pleasant (sorry). New CoD from the very first minutes it hits the part of the brain that is responsible for the surge of nostalgic emotions.

We play as Daniels, a simple soldier in an infantry squad. Roughly speaking, we are cannon fodder on the front line. The authors decided to abandon several storylines, placing the main character and his experiences and conflicts with his comrades in the spotlight. Yes, sometimes we find ourselves in the shoes of another warrior, for example, a fighter pilot, but the linear narrative is not broken. We'll be with Daniels from D-Day to Plunder.

As you understand, there are no unexpected plot twists (Roosevelt and Hitler will suddenly not be allies), so the writers had to focus on the conflicts between the characters. Surprisingly, the heroes even turned out to be alive, but still faceless. They want to worry, but they can’t. Nevertheless, the authors managed to show the horrors of war, which is largely facilitated by a very correct color filter and ubiquitous tin with dismemberment.

The developers realized that they were unlikely to be able to surprise the player with the plot. This is why they surprise us with the production of videos and tasks. So that no one talks about the graphic componentCall of Duty, games can still impress with their moments. Unfortunately, there are very few such moments, but the episode with the train will probably be remembered for a long time.

But what's the problemWWII? It seems that there is everything that the players asked for. But if you look back at past episodes of the series, you can see a clear regression. Sledgehammer Gameswere locked in a cage with historical events (although the reliability here can be argued), so there is no nonlinearity or jetpacks for you here. This means slow gameplay and game design from the past. We are again forced to sit in cover and fight off crowds of respawning enemies. But that’s exactly what everyone wanted, right?

But Call of Duty- this has long been not only a story campaign for 5 hours (alas, WWII has nothing more to offer single player mode), but also multiplayer with zombie mode. To be honest, I was always only interested in the single player, but I also spent a lot of time in multiplayer modes, so let’s talk about them in more detail.

MULTIPLAYER

If you're disappointed by a weak campaign, then online game you will definitely be pleased. This is probably what makes it worth buyingWWII, because there are a lot of innovations here.

The developers have redesigned the multiplayer beyond recognition, making it more reminiscentDestiny(Sledgehammer clearly inspired by Bungie's creation). You can still get into the match through the list of servers, but it’s much cooler to wait for it from the general lobby, “Headquarters,” a location where several dozen gamers are located at the same time. You can chat, go into battle together and watch people open loot boxes (not the most interesting activity, but watching is encouraged).

Classes were replaced by so-called “Divisions”. For example, an infantry division has machine gunners, and a mountain division has snipers. Each has its own set of perks and skills.

There are, I must say, a lot of weapons. Here you have both a flamethrower and a shotgun with ignition ayu current projectiles.

A new object-oriented mode called simply "War", introduces a three-stage scenario to battles. Here you understand that against real players it is much more difficult to take the beach during Operation Neptune. It may seem that this particular operation is difficult for the Allies, but the balance remains.

What is important is that this particular mode is not bad a starting point for beginners, due to the fact that here you have to not only kill, but also complete other tasks. In general, accessibility is the main word that characterizes multiplayerWWII. You can take part in large-scale battles, fight with a player 1 on 1, or go into a classic death match. And you will even be taught how to use weapons and hit shots.

Among many modes, crazy Gridiron, looks like it will become a favorite of many: it is an American football with weapons in which you need to carry the ball to the enemy goal. In general, this is analogous Uplink fromAdvanced Warfare, but in new scenery.

I'm a little disappointed by some of the cards, which are too banal and don't give much room for maneuver. For snipers, this is, of course, just the thing.

REICH ZOMBIES

Four players will once again have to survive several waves of the undead. As before, zombies become stronger and more dangerous with each wave, and kills are your currency, which can be used to unlock weapons and open new areas on the way to one of two possible endings.

Celebrities again acted as heroes, for example, Mary Fisher played Katheryn Winnick , familiar to many for her role as Lagertha from the series "Vikings". And, as players are accustomed to, zombie mode has everything else that makes it popular: a dark atmosphere, orchestral music and jump scares.

Call of Duty2017 is filled with a wide variety of content that will not make you regret your purchase. Yes, this time the game is made with an emphasis on the multiplayer component, which looks like a logical step, but I would like to hope that in 2018 the “singles” will not be left out.

Sometimes, memories must remain memories. It is commendable that Activision listened to the players, once again reminding them of the horrors of humanity’s largest war, but at the same time they showed the most important thing - Call of Duty has been evolving all this time. And in 2017, evolution took a break, pleasing the “oldies.”

The Call of Duty series returned to World War II, but changed its sources of inspiration.

To bookmarks

Looking at the past years, we can say that Call of Duty was almost ruined by two things. Firstly, this is the change in console generations, due to which we received an incomprehensible and technically weak Ghosts (DICE coped with transition period much better). Secondly, this is a fashion for jetpacks and parkour that is alien to the series.

Fortunately, three years ago Activision came to its senses and equipped Sledgehammer Games to make Call of Duty: WWII.

All over again

Since its founding, Sledgehammer Games has been a place of experimentation and innovation for the publisher. It was in Advanced Warfare that the series first acquired a star villain in the person of Kevin Spacey. And precisely in Advanced Warfare Call of Duty has finally stopped being an “ugly duckling” - the quality of sound and picture has skyrocketed, and jokes about graphics in this franchise seem to be a thing of the past forever.

In WWII, Sledgehammer was given an equally difficult task. The developers had to figure out what to turn Call of Duty into without running along steep walls, which in recent years has become almost the main feature of the series.

After abandoning the futuristic setting, the developers had to look for new sources of inspiration. And among them were Uncharted, Destiny and Team Fortress 2.

The campaign is a mixture of Uncharted and classic Call of Duty parts

The story campaign of WWII begins predictably - we land again in Normandy and try to get to the German bunkers, drowning in a mixture of sand, sea water and blood.

Sledgehammer could have done without such platitudes by starting the story with some other historical point, but this scene successfully works on nostalgia. I just want to say “Chewy, we’re home” while burying my face in the virtual Normandy sand.

But the developers are very quick to make it clear that this is not another Call of Duty 2 with improved graphics. A few minutes after the start of the landing, a Jewish medic named Zussman is seriously wounded, and the main character has to drag him on himself, firing back from the advancing enemies.

This is how WWII introduces the first character we care about.

Zussman, featured on the cover of this text, symbolizes the main feature of Call of Duty: WWII. The campaign in this part is not a set of dry briefings linking attraction missions together, but a clearly told story with several memorable characters whose relationships gradually develop.

We're not surprised to see something like this in games like Wolfenstein II, but it's still pretty new for Call of Duty.

When working on the logic of the narrative in WWII, Sledgehammer Games clearly looked in the direction of Uncharted. Missions flow smoothly from each other and are built on the communication of several key characters, and the goals of individual tasks sometimes change dramatically depending on the circumstances that arise in the process.

For example, in the middle of the campaign, the main characters find a group of civilians in the basement of a building recaptured from the Germans, after which the military has to look for transport to get people out of danger zone. And this twist, almost out of nowhere, gives rise to many interesting gameplay moments, including the fussy running of the unarmed protagonist through the wine cellars.

Finally, the heroes you meet along the way even have small personal story arcs, which in general is not much like Call of Duty.

The updated format gives Call of Duty campaigns a sense of purpose that was previously missing. WWII does not feed the player one shooting gallery after another, but clearly explains to him what, when and why he is doing it.

The action scenes familiar to the series are now also more reminiscent of Uncharted than some Call of Duty 2. They are not only executed with the scope and attention to detail at the level of the latest works Naughty Dog, but are also woven into the gameplay even more strongly than before.

Just look at the main character's escape from the falling bell, which destroys everything in its path. In Call of Duty: WWII, unlike previous parts of the series, the player often becomes a direct participant in grandiose action scenes, rather than their spectator.

In their best moments Call of Duty: WWII is more like an adventure movie than a war movie.

Particularly prominent in the campaign is the train chase, as if stolen by The Lost Legacy, and a spy mission. In the latter, we play as a French spy who needs to find a contact at the German headquarters in the center of Paris.

This episode not only successfully breaks up the shooting, but also shows that, if desired, Call of Duty can absorb elements of the most unexpected genres - for example, a full-fledged interactive movie with the ability to choose answer options in dialogues.

IN better side The segments using transport have also changed. There are no “rails”. The player almost always controls the cars independently, and they drive through expanded linear levels that create the illusion of freedom. It looks and plays simply amazing - in these scenes, WWII constantly gives the impression that the main character narrowly escaped death or miraculously fit into the right turn. Similar elements were present in Black Ops 2, but in WWII these episodes are performed on a completely different level.

A semblance of full-fledged stealth from Infinite Warfare has also returned. If up to a certain point in the games in the series it was necessary to hide only in pre-designated places, now the “quiet” levels have become more open, and opponents have “sight” and a detection indicator. At the same time, stealth, as in some Far Cry 3 always remains an option - as soon as the hero is noticed, the standard CoD shooting begins.

The campaign was also benefited by the return of first aid kits instead of the usual regeneration. The main character is now forced to manually collect resources or ask party members for them. Someone can give a medical package, someone grenades, someone - cartridges, and in special cases you can call an airstrike or highlight enemy positions.

The resources provided by colleagues are not endless and are renewed through murders, so it’s not always possible to sit out in the bushes and recover. But they won’t let you rush forward as before either - WWII forces the player to be more careful and monitor the health bar.

Many of the advantages of the campaign have their “buts”. For example, although the characters turned out to be memorable, only Zussman, around whom the main plot intrigue is built, can be truly empathized.

The rest of the characters, including the main character himself, are a bunch of clichés. There is a captain who is suffering from the fact that he once lost an entire squad, and a typical well-read, bespectacled guy with a camera, and a Texan warrior who has just found out that his girlfriend is pregnant and is fantasizing about returning home. We have already seen all this hundreds of times in films and TV series on the same topic.

Finally, Call of Duty: WWII, unlike last year's Infinite Warfare, doesn't do anything in its seven hours interesting statement about war. The scriptwriters only have enough thoughts on the level of “The Holocaust is bad,” “we don’t abandon our own,” and “probably our enemies are also people whose loved ones are waiting for them at home.” But expecting something shocking in the spirit of Wolfenstein II from WWII would be at least strange. After all, this is a blockbuster that had to appeal to as many people as possible, so Sledgehammer had to smooth out the corners.

Multiplayer - standard Call of Duty with a dash of Destiny and Team Fortress 2

Destiny is one of the most successful new franchises in recent years, so it's no surprise that Activision tried to bring a piece of it to Call of Duty.

A social hub has been added to WWII's multiplayer mode. Here you can assign yourself timed challenges (for example, kill 100 opponents in Team Battle in 40 minutes), earn collectibles, buy and open loot boxes, view your character (third-person view is enabled by default) and just have fun with friends.

In practice, a hub in WWII is just game menu, turned into a virtual space, but in the future it may become the basis for global changes in the series. If this concept works, then Activision could tie this social zone not only to PvP activities, but also to PvE, turning CoD into a kind of MMO shooter.

In the meantime, WWII multiplayer is a traditional set of disparate modes, among which this year there is only one truly new and worthy of detailed discussion. This is “War”, which we have talked about more than once.

War turns Call of Duty into a cross between Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield's Rush mode. One team performs a series of various tasks on a large (but linear) map (repair a bridge, refuel a tank, capture a bunker), while the second does its best to stop it.

“War” makes everything that happens in Call of Duty multiplayer meaningful. If the same “Team Battle” is a roulette in which players take turns killing each other from behind, then in “War” you don’t need to worry about your rear. Here the result of the match depends on the joint efforts of all team members.

Tanks in WWII are no less conventional than minecarts in Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch, and ride on invisible “rails,” but they still make the multiplayer mode much more interesting and cinematic.

Judging by the matches I played in War, the maps turned out to be quite balanced. At first glance, there are no impenetrable bottlenecks, like in some Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Vietnam. Everywhere you can find a way to break through further - be it a workaround or a timely thrown smoke grenade. However, the situation may change a few weeks after the release - when more experienced players remain online.

And the potential of "War" for Call of Duty is enormous, not only in terms of gameplay, but also in terms of entertainment. For example, on one of the maps, players can play out a simplified version of the Normandy landings, with one side holding the bunkers and the other trying to gain a foothold on the beach.

To add a cinematic feel to the events, the developers added computer opponents to the level, for killing whom they give a little experience - like in Titanfall 2.

War is exactly what Call of Duty needed. Largely thanks to this mode, you want to start the game again and again. At the same time, WWII's overall "groundedness" benefited other types of games as well. Call of Duty has become a little slower this year - there is more room for tactics in it. And for many players this will be a serious reason to return.

I know that the leisurely pace of WWII after the beta was not to everyone's liking. But here the same Black Ops 3 is always ready to come to the rescue, which still has a solid online audience - at least on consoles.

Zombie mode - evolution in the right direction

Left 4 Dead-inspired co-op mode appeared in Call of Duty: World at War and has become a fixture in the series over the ensuing years.

Before the release of WWII, developers from Sledgehammer hinted with all their might that this time the zombie campaign would have a full-fledged horror component. This is true, but only partly - only very impressionable people will be truly afraid. And this hardly changes the essence of what is happening.

After a short cinematic introduction, the player, in the company of three other people, finds himself in a quiet town, under which is hidden a giant bunker, where the Nazis conducted terrible experiments. Actually, it is this dungeon in zombie mode that you have to explore, killing crowds of zombies, receiving points for this and spending them on weapons and upgrades.

The four characters are traditionally voiced by famous (but not very famous) actors, including Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Katheryn Winnick (Vikings), Elodie Yung (Elektra from Daredevil) and David Tennant (Doctor Who ", "Jessica Jones").

As you probably already understood from this text, the main word that characterizes WWII is “meaningful.” The same can be said about zombie mode. Now players don't just wander around a huge space, pressing different buttons in the hope of moving forward. Subsequent objectives in WWII are highlighted, giving users the ability to act more smoothly. The zombie mode this time is more like a full-fledged mini-campaign with a giant boss at the end.

The map available at release is huge and full of surprises, so you can spend a long time exploring it - especially if you have to rely on random players rather than reliable partners. The more cohesive the team, the more waves the zombies will survive.

By the way, shooting zombies themselves is now much more fun. Sledgehammer has brought shooting in this mode to near perfection. This may sound strange, but WWII is the first Call of Duty where zombie heads actually explode.

Humble Call of Duty Bundle

Call Review of Duty: WWII I don’t want to end with the standard “take it or don’t take it” recommendation, because everyone already knows what the game has under the hood. Every year, Activision sells its audience something like a bundle of three games - a campaign, multiplayer and zombie mode. And every year this “bundle” sells out in huge quantities, because it is understandable and predictable - only the details change.

However, Call of Duty: WWII is definitely the most successful part of the series in recent years. Here, everything is fine with the campaign, with the zombie mode, and with the multiplayer.

And even fans of advanced graphics will not be dissatisfied this time. At a claimed 60 frames per second on consoles, WWII surprisingly looks better than most shooters of this generation. In some places the picture comes very close to photorealism - and we’re not talking about pre-rendered videos.

Against the backdrop of the Lately discussions about the decline of linear single-player AAA games, the value of Call of Duty is only growing. Whatever the multiplayer, this series still seems unthinkable without a campaign - short but intense and absurdly expensive.

It just so happens that only Activision has created the necessary conditions to release story-based shooters every year at the same time, where hundreds of thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of man-hours are spent on every minute.

And this extravagance is still captivating.

Write

Call of Duty greets recruits with the same gray coastline of Omaha Beach, however, there are similarities with the same level from Call of Duty 2 this is where it ends. After just a few tens of meters of barriers, the cinematic war game gives way to a twenty-minute race through the trenches. Methodically clearing out one bunker after another, users become familiar with historical weapons and cardboard mechanics of the next 10 episodes of the campaign.

Contrary to fears, the action will not get bogged down in the monotonous fields of Normandy, although at first it seems as if the authors are trying to copy Brothers in Arms. After several missions, the military fighter will change the scenery of a couple of large European cities, cross two state borders and will eventually reach the Rhine. It would seem to be an impressive geography, if you do not take into account that a significant proportion of the locations are not beautiful historical areas at all, but forests and boring trenches.

Although the game is not completely devoid of spectacular moments, their concentration does not allow you to say that you will have to sit with your mouth open for the entire 5-6 hours that it takes to complete the game. All this action will surprise even less those who played Call of Duty previously.

The situation is much better with the atmosphere - whether you are defending a radio operator who is trying to signal an aircraft, or sneaking into a German base under cover of darkness, the mood of the game about World War II is felt one hundred percent, and in some ways it is more pronounced than in the last Wolfenstein. The atmospheric stealth level is so well developed that it can almost be called without exaggeration the best since the mission in Pripyat from Modern Warfare. After several parts of the franchise with robots and jetpacks WWII clearly evokes positive emotions. With tears in my eyes I remembered that MoH: Allied Assault, That United Offensive, then other video games about World War II that I played as a child. But good impressions relate only to the details of the surroundings, because in all other respects it is new Call of Duty evokes conflicting feelings.

The game got rid of automatic regeneration and returned to first aid kits and a health bar; you can carry medicine with you - a maximum of 4 pieces. All this is reminiscent in the strength and usefulness of the solution of returning the stylus to iPad. Trying to somehow dilute the corridor shooter, the developers added several squad-based features to the standard shooting mechanics. You can ask your teammates for support - ask for ammunition, a first aid kit, grenades, reconnaissance that will highlight enemies, and even a marker for aiming artillery. Fighters with support perks change depending on the mission. Finding yourself without ammo, there is no need to look for a box with equipment, just ask - and the bot will throw you a bunch of magazines. You cannot spam this feature endlessly - each assistant has a cooldown time. It can be shortened a little, for this you will have to upgrade your assistants. This is achieved by performing side quest with the rescue of soldiers.

In different parts of the levels you will encounter soldiers in trouble - this could be either a recruit who is about to be shot by a German, or a wounded infantryman lying in the middle of an open area. Kill a German or drag the poor fellow under heavy fire to cover, and you will receive a bonus. When you meet them for the first time, the idea delivers, but situations begin to repeat themselves literally in the next task, and the bonus turns out to be so small that there is no motivation to find them all.

By and large, the game doesn’t really need cartridge support, if not for one thing. IN WWII There are regularly moments when all the rifles and machine guns dropped by opponents simply disappear. For this reason, the help of a comrade remains the only option not to be left with zero ammunition. In general, cardboard game design and clumsiness appear regularly in the new Call of Duty. Bots emerging from a corner that has just been cleared, shooting you in the back, a suddenly arriving rocket shell (especially in the last level), primitive QTEs...

Cardboard levels, even larger than usual, with rare exceptions, are not able to boast of interesting storytelling and changing dynamics. The beginning of the mission is accompanied by beautiful scenes in which the senior commander addresses the player directly - at these moments the game makes you remember the beautiful covers of the first parts Call of Duty. The squad is sent to clear the next height/building/base. Just like in the good old days, you mow down crowds of fleeing Krauts with a stationary MG42 and expect that the offensive will continue... but the level comes to an end and the electronic sergeant says what a great job you are.

Plot in WWII- an attempt to focus on emotional drama. It will seem obvious and uninteresting to everyone who watched Band of Brothers or at least played Brothers in Arms. To top it all off, the new part tells only about a detachment of Americans - neither the capture of the Reichstag by the soldiers of the Red Army, nor the defense of El Alamein side by side with their British brothers. Other characters meet a couple of times, but the rest of the time we are content to fire Garands at stupid krauts.

But there is an unusual and, in its own way, magnificent spy mission in Paris for a member of the resistance. And also small scenes that try to add humanity to the military skating rink. Germans surrendering as prisoners, rescuing a German girl from a basement or helping old men and women of the enemy creates the right emotional coloring, making a soulless conveyor belt special effects a little more human.

The difficulty level is as frustrating as always - on the normal setting the game allows you to play with at least one hand. Although in several episodes the difficulty increases sharply and causes irritation - especially in the moment of an absolutely mediocre boss fight with a tank. Hardened presents a little more of a challenge, but is more reminiscent of the Normal of old. Well, Veteran traditionally turns into a random lottery with unpredictable deaths. By the end, almost all positive emotions disappear from the game, and the final level completely causes bewilderment and the question “Is that all?” The game is not without cool scenes, like the explosion of a church or fights in the forest, and some good ideas, but, unfortunately, there are very few of them in comparison with the boring content of a significant part of the running time.

What’s also surprising is the creators’ refusal of the standard surroundings. In occupied cities there are no swastikas, Hitler porters and everything you expect from a shooter about World War II. Before you are simply expressionless and emotionally neutral crosses, which seem to illustrate Pelevin’s prophetic novel iPhuck 10, where in new reality Hitler is portrayed as an eccentric alchemist who is tricked into starting a war by the treacherous Russians. All these flirtations with good Germans who do not want to fight and are forced to defend themselves look strange and in places ridiculous.

You don’t feel any pleasure from killing Krauts, and the stealth levels are made in such a way that all targets necessarily have their backs to you and won’t even think about turning around - why a player is needed here is not entirely clear. The most successful scenes are where you walk around the base and can watch how the newcomers are bored while waiting for an attack/defense, in them you can see how the level designers set up fighters manually, worked on dialogues and art design. But as far as “epic” is concerned, it simply isn’t here, and the decorations of multiplayer maps are sometimes made much more convincing. We move on to the network part.

WWII draws the line after the insane accumulation of the latest ideas Call of Duty. The game got rid of wallrun, laser installations, a deck of perks and specializations - how could it be otherwise? This does not mean at all that the developers have somehow reduced their motivation to stay in network mode for many months. Challenges, additional tasks, there are almost more medals and other side quests than in Infinite Warfare.

So that you don’t have to switch dozens of menu tabs (although this option remains), the authors created a kind of hub from Destiny. Now you can open boxes with rewards, take on new tasks and receive bonuses right at the base. Ideally, while you are doing all this, you should be accompanied by other players in the lobby, but for several days not a single user appeared on my base, with the exception of friends invited to the squad.

The mechanics of class creation have changed. From now on there is no pick10 system. To create a fighter, you must choose a division - it determines the key parameters of your class, be it high speed, stealth or universal skills in handling weapons.

Instead of several perks, you can choose just one, which you can later upgrade and improve its parameters. Some perks give you the chance to put your main class weapon in both slots, others will give you the opportunity to reduce the cost of a kill streak, but in this case you can only use a killstreak once per round. In terms of gunplay balance, Sledgehammer We focused as much as possible on gun-on-gun gameplay. The high price for killing streaks and often inconvenient controls are designed to discourage players as much as possible from the endless launch of rockets/robots and other helicopters that have bothered everyone since MW2.

But with a damaged connection, not everyone will enjoy the shooting. Long delay, ping indicators that do not reflect the real state of things, and a lag compensator are reminiscent of the worst manifestations of the work of network engineers at Activision studios. Showering the enemy with a hail of bullets from the MP44, you will remember the characteristic of games from Treyarch big TTK. "Oh, that reminds me World at War“- you will think, and in the next second you will be killed with two bullets from the very first SMG by an arrogant brat who knocked out 32 to 4. Shoot as much as you like at the victim that you managed to catch earlier, but if your opponent has a better connection, no matter how much damage you they didn’t hit him, he’ll turn around and end your torment with a couple of shots without any problems. Death after you have escaped from the enemy's sight in WWII in order of things.

The game has not yet acquired dedicated servers; you will regularly be greeted with a message about a change of host. There are a huge number of unbalanced positions on mindless, boring maps, some of which are boring with huge expanses that make it easy to shoot from a hill located in the center. Take a place behind the box near the descent of the stairs, and with a high degree of probability they will not be able to knock you out until the very end of the fight. Given the grey-green color scheme, opponents often blend into their surroundings. Nothing new...

quickscope has returned to the game. An ill-considered respawn at some levels will again and again become the reason that you are killed in the back. On others, the respawn will not move to the other side of the map even after your entire team runs to the enemy’s base. Quiet, albeit audible, sounds of footsteps will finally allow you to fix the position of your opponents, but what is the point if no skill will allow you to triumph due to a damaged connection?

On top of all the troubles is the terrible implementation of player selection. After the completion of each match, the standard time between matches is extended due to the fact that players constantly strive to leave the lobby. The search at these moments gets confused and due to an incomplete lobby (10 players out of 12), the match will not start, and the game will take an infinite amount of time to match two users. Breaks can easily take 5 or 10 minutes - longer than the match will last! The client regularly falls off the servers, which can be attributed to the workload in the first week after the release of the project. Broken matchmaking can throw you back into an already played map over and over again - as a result, we played on the same map for three days in a row...

Over time, it is planned to add to the hub more activities. According to the idea, it will be possible to hold shooting competitions and other entertainment there, and you can recruit as many as 48 characters for this action, but at the moment none of this is working, and matches for 12 players are just a slap in the face. Perhaps later Ground War will be expanded to at least the usual 18 participants; now all playlists allow a maximum of 12 opponents to enter the arena.

Available in WWII and pleasant innovations. Among them is the “War” mode. The attacking team must capture one line after another, while the defenders are tasked with stopping them. Capturing frontiers depends on different conditions, starting with the simple thing - knock the enemy out of positions, and ending with the construction of a bridge. In order for the construction process to progress, at least one player needs to press the activation button at the desired point. How more players repair the bridge, the faster it is built. At this moment, the other side is firing as hard as they can at the attackers with rifles - in order to build a bridge, you will either have to defend your own very well, or use a smoke screen.

In other modes, combined with poor ping and ill-conceived maps, the game demonstrates the worst examples of a degraded community - almost no one runs anywhere, and the air is occasionally pierced by sluggish shots.

It seems that the authors paid much more attention to “Zombies”. The mode has long gone beyond the limits of a simple add-on with boring running around two rooms and has turned into a kind of series with its own history, an independent world and special bonuses in the gameplay.

IN WWII zombie mod tells the backstory of the Nazi zombies. The prologue invites us to go to a Tyrolean town, in the underground communications of which a laboratory for reviving the dead was founded. As always, hordes of carrion, guns with bells and whistles await us, secret passages, easter eggs and mini-bosses.

The mode has become even more atmospheric, with a combination game moments and the sounds of the game often give a creepy impression. Experimenting with the possibilities of scaring the user, developers sometimes turn off the lights, forcing them to wander in the dark.

Some perks have been reworked, most of them will be familiar to those who played Black Ops 3. Progress seemed to be going a little faster, but this was more of a plus than a minus.

Despite the fact that from a technical point of view from the new Call of Duty no one is waiting for revelations, WWII looks very nice - especially on PS4 Pro And Xbox One X connected to screens 4K. The picture runs at 60 FPS, delighting with high clarity, effects and high-quality work by artists.

The levels look nice. Shattered ruins with the remains of tiles and wallpaper, puddles of greasy mud in the thickets of the forest, dense vegetation in the clearings, lighting and bright flashes illuminating the helmets of soldiers - without a doubt we are playing the most modern and beautiful game about the Second World War.

The forest in the game is one of the most realistic and beautiful in today's games, but the destruction model in some places is clumsy. Cars do not always explode, and buildings collapse only at the right points and according to scripts. In addition, the levels themselves are designed to maintain a rigid structure, allowing you to take an additional route only in special places.

A well-made but sterile blockbuster that you'll likely immediately forget once you've finished it. The game suffers from a lack of fresh ideas, and technical problems will not allow you to enjoy multiplayer - even though positive changes in mechanics. The zombie mode will please fans of co-op and horror style, and the main game often has a good atmosphere, but overall we expected a lot more memorable moments and drama. On this background WWII pulls out great job artists who created cute characters and beautiful locations with a lot of small details.

The return of the Call of Duty series to World War II, according to its idea, turned out to be a very correct and timely thing. If the debut trailer for Infinite Warfare set records for the number of dislikes on YouTube, and the game itself, despite a solid single-player campaign, was never able to reach the financial records of its predecessors, then with WWII the situation turned out to be completely different. More than half a billion dollars collected in the first days of sales - the best for that confirmation. Apparently, people really miss the classic war game, where there are movies and Germans.

Another question is how this war actually turned out. And the point here is not even that the new “Kolda” is trying to show that the victory over the Third Reich was won without any participation of the Soviet Union. Let us also close our eyes to the fact that the war itself is here called the most difficult test for Western Europe, as if for the rest of Europe it was exclusively a holiday. Yes, we can also say that since the series decided to return to its roots, then it would have a direct road to the Eastern Front, because it was there that the events of the very first Call of Duty unfolded. But to hell with it. What happened to the war game in the end?

With the war game, alas, not so much. First of all, because WWII already looks indecently outdated. Most illustrative example– a scene with a jeep chasing a German train. A completely classic episode by the standards of the series: crazy speeds, gunfire from all sides, but for the life of me it’s not impressive. First of all, because I immediately remember a very similar chase from Unchartred 4. Yes, there was no train, there was just a car convoy, but this does not change the essence of the matter: in terms of entertainment, “Kolda” loses out to its blockbuster brother. And even the crash at the end with cars flying past you does not save the situation. This tram-ta-ra-ram does not cause the required shock and awe, and would not cause it even if a giant zeppelin flew in and dropped the Eiffel Tower on the crash site.

Another problem with Call of Duty, and this is... back side coins called “return to origins” – the total secondary nature of what is happening. The game is built almost entirely on scenes that we have already seen in other “Call of Duty”, in Medal of Honor, in “Saving Private Ryan” and in the series “Band of Brothers”. Yes, it was almost impossible to avoid such turns even in theory, and the developers also probably understood that, to put it mildly, not everyone would like to chew the same gum for the tenth time. And we tried to come up with something like that. For example, they added episodes in occupied Paris, where we play as an undercover Resistance activist. Here we even have to remember the simple legend of our ward, so that when checking documents on the subject, we can answer questions about who sent us here and for what purpose. But one episode is too little, and apparently there was not enough imagination or historical materials for more.

In WWII, the series returned to the past not only in terms of the setting, but also put old gameplay mechanics under attack: the self-healing health that appeared in Call of Duty 2 was replaced by the classic shooter scheme with first aid kits. A sort of tribute to hardcore, but in practice the idea turned out to be very controversial. The fact is that Call of Duty just wants to be compared to an amusement ride. While you are constantly running somewhere and shooting, the gears of this mechanism are rotating properly. But pushing forward was good in the previous parts. I reached the next corner with my last breath, recovered and ran on. This approach doesn’t work here – you simply can’t stock up on first aid kits. In WWII you often have to suppress enemy firing points from afar, and here you have the opportunity to take a breath and look around. And it immediately becomes clear, not on the battlefield, but among mediocre scenery, this is a field imitating with extras assigned for the occasion.

You notice how a soldier from your platoon stood in the way of machine-gun fire, caught a couple of kilograms of lead, grunted and hobbled on - he’s not supposed to die here, because he’s a character in the story. Here a German infantryman crouched behind cover almost back to back to the American who had reached there and, as if nothing had happened, without noticing the enemy, fired in the other direction. Another one hid behind a wooden table standing on its side, which turns out to be an insurmountable obstacle for bullets. No, you can peel off a couple of boards from it to create the effect “everything is like it’s real here,” but you can’t break it. Bringing down the wall of a building where grenade launchers are holed up with a tank gun is no problem. Destroy another similar one across the road - you'll get by. We wondered, is it possible to bypass the positions of the enemy entrenched near the farmhouse through a grove? We shouldn't have thought about it. because that's where the level border is, and Call of Duty levels have always been very narrow and linear.

While you are being driven forward like a hare, you can still somehow believe in the illusion created by the developers, especially if you yourself are ready to believe in it. But as soon as you take a break, no amount of faith will help.

The plot idea didn't work either. The conflict between the conditionally “bad” Sergeant Pearson and the certainly “good” Lieutenant Turner looks far-fetched. The first is assigned the role of a kind of sadist, ready to bully a platoon and send soldiers to the slaughter, and the second is one hundred percent “the servant of the president, the father of the soldiers.” The theme is promoted in all possible ways: the sergeant sometimes appears in the frame drunk, he can beat up a prisoner or, even worse, look ominously at the main character, Private Daniels. That is, they hint to us with all their might that he is the main negative character. But at the same time, all these scenes look extremely unconvincing in the game. Perhaps, because along the way it turns out (sorry, spoiler) that the sergeant is actually good too, he just hides it very carefully.

There are also problems with logic. In the finale of the campaign (sorry, spoilers again), after capturing the bridge over the Rhine, our platoon goes in search of the captured Private Zussman, the main character’s first friend. I wonder if these brave guys at least informed the command of their intentions? Imagine, an order comes from the authorities to storm some city, and they respond by saying, I’m sorry, but Zussman won’t wait. Apparently, in order not to increase the degree of absurdity, all these searches are almost not shown in the game itself, they are only talked about behind the scenes.

There’s a funny thing about partners in Call of Duty: in addition to participating in combat crowd scenes and story cutscenes, they also act as “supplies” for the main character: someone will throw a grenade, someone will throw a first aid kit. And not just like that, but for a certain number of killed Germans. And even though this is justified by gameplay considerations, on an everyday, everyday level it all looks very strange. Here is the already mentioned Private Zussman. Even before captivity. Ready for you through thick and thin. Practically brother. But without passing the GTO standard for enemy kills, what the hell is he going to share his first aid kit with you. Your gesheft is strange, citizen Zussman.

By the way, in the unit, the sergeant is responsible for the “binoculars” (that is, illuminating opponents). And for some reason the lieutenant was responsible for supplying ammunition. I just want to ask, for what offense was this deputy in the rear sent to the front line?

What’s interesting is that the lieutenant has cartridges not only from American, but also from German and even Soviet weapons. Yes, many enemies in the game are armed with PPSh, which can be picked up. Where does such goodness come from in Normandy? Okay, let's say trophy ones brought from eastern front. But where do the Germans get cartridges from? So you see how, after stubborn battles, some Hans writes to his warrior in Belarusian forests a letter to a friend: “Dear Fritz, the cartridges you sent last time are already gone. Please come again and quickly, otherwise we’ll be completely screwed.” Or do the Germans also have their own supply lieutenants?

The situation with multiplayer in the new “Kolda” is better. Here, too, in a sense, it was decided to return to the roots. If in the previous three games in the series the developers actively promoted the theme of exoskeletons, running on walls and other futuristic shawarma, then in WWII all this had to be abandoned for obvious reasons. And what’s most interesting is that the return to a more relaxed gameplay is almost perceived as a new thing. It’s just that we haven’t seen anything like this for several years.

Super abilities are a thing of the past. But there remains a whole heap of all sorts of, mostly cosmetic unlocks. Appearance, skins for weapons, emotions - all this can be unlocked through long and stubborn battles. Or rather, loot boxes are given out for feats of arms, and then it depends. Of course, loot boxes can also be purchased for “real money,” but since there are no serious gameplay things other than cards that give bonus experience in such chests, there is no reason to swear at Activision for such a donation.

Otherwise, everything is as familiar and recognizable as possible. Classes were replaced by types of troops. Now you choose the unit in which you want to serve, and in return you receive certain bonuses. Let's say to the fighters airborne divisions A silencer for a submachine gun is issued. It’s clear that no one will limit you to one thing; you can play as fighters from different formations, and along the way, receive additional bonuses. For example, for ordinary infantry, an additional weapon slot appears for the second unit level.

The battles take place on traditionally small maps and do not impress with either graphics or sound (and sometimes are quite annoying with network lags). And of course, there is no talk of any tactics here, which is quite in the traditions of the series. This entertainment is designed purely for “shooting”. The local “zombie” regime, which once again takes dark Nazi secrets as a basis, should also be attributed to the same occupation. They didn’t invite particularly popular stars this time, but you will probably recognize the same Katheryn Winnick, who played the role of Lagertha in the TV series “Vikings.”

In general, if you really want to shoot, and if none of the other recently released shooters warm your soul, then the new Call of Duty, albeit a stretch, will do.7 Although, of course, this is not what we expected from the developers. After all, this series was once at the forefront of production in the world of spectacular shooters. Now, alas, this is far from the case.