A Huge Amount Of Research Has Been Done
Activision and Sledgehammer have enlisted the services of renowned WW2 historian and author Marty Morgan.
“It is critical to understand the absolue violence of the Second World War, to understand how weapons and firepower functioned,” Morgan says.
The reveal teased some of the guns in the game (including a minuscule in-game shot of the famous Garand) and weapons included period-perfect recreations of the MG42, M1903 and Grease Gun.
The team has reportedly spent two-and-a-half years gathering photos, studying archive footage, watching documentaries, meeting veterans, visiting real-world locations and even using photogrammetery techniques to get realism spot-on. And before you lay the claim at their door that WWII is only in response to Battlefield 1, know that the game has been in development three years, ever since Sledgehammer finished work on their previous title, Advanced Warfare.
Apparently, there’s been a concerted effort to capture the terror of war and also recreate real-life battles with the intention of “introducing the conflict to a whole new generation of players.” Furthermore, Sledgehammer claims that their research will produce a level authenticity close to the real thing.
There’s Going To Be An MMORPG Element
This one was teased for a matter of seconds, but Sledgehammer showed off a mode dubbed Headquarters all too briefly. In the 5-second clip, we got to see a beachfront littered with masses of players and names blinking above their heads.
What will it entail? That’s hard to say, but we expect you’ll be able to talk and exchange gear with fellow soldiers in a non-combat environment. Very cool.
Zombies Co-Op Mode
Yup, Zombies is back and it’s a co-op mode that pits you against the “Third Reich’s desperate attempt to create an army.”
There was a single screenshot to demonstrate the quote, and it was appropriately grotesque. Pencil this in as another addictive mode that brings back fans month after month.
All in all, the Call of Duty: WWII reveal was a step in the right direction after the bloated excess of Infinite Warfare. The return to the gritty battlefront of real war suits the franchise down to the ground, and with films like Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk on the horizon, it indicates the resurgence in popularity that this topic is enjoying.