Call of Duty is returning to World War II with its latest edition, due in November

THE makers of the beloved Call of Duty franchise had to make a tough call with its new game, the developers tell news.com.au.

THE Call of Duty first-person shooter games published by Activision have, along with their Battlefield counterparts from EA Dice, become bywords for online multiplayer shooter games.

Both series started off with World War II settings, before evolving into modern combat and then taking a step back into the past — first Battlefield with an inspired World War I setting, and now Call of Duty is returning to World War II with its latest entry on November 3.

Developed by Sledgehammer Games, there are two parts to Call of Duty: World War II (COD: WWII), being a campaign mode and the multiplayer aspect.

I haven’t played much of the single player mode, but from what I’ve experienced and the information Activision have made available it appears to be mostly of the American soldier Robert ‘Red’ Daniels. He lands at Normandy on D-Day 1944 and fights through Western Europe to Germany while “experiencing war in all its myriad horrors”, with a special guest appearance by a British Special Operations Executive commando and a female member of the French resistance.

The multiplayer, however, is a different tin of rations and one many players are looking forward to.

Activision recently ran two closed beta weekends, allowing selected players access to an early version of the multiplayer section. A similar offering was available at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles earlier this year as well, which proved extraordinarily popular — large numbers of the public queued for several hours to play it.

Speaking to news.com.au at E3, Sledgehammer Games product development senior director development Aaron Halon said returning to a World War II setting “felt like the right decision at the right time” for the game and he felt honoured to be able to take the game series to its roots in the conflict, particularly with the new generation of consoles and audience.

Visitors wait at the stand of Call of Duty during the gaming fair "gamescom" in Cologne, Germany in Augustr. Picture: Patrik Stollarz

Call of Duty goes back to World War II.

Despite some in the gaming community seeing the new title as a response to Battlefield 1, COD: World War II’s campaign senior developer Tolga Kart said their game had been in development for at least three years.

While acknowledging the Normandy campaign is not a new setting for World War II games, Mr Kart said it was important to understand there were a lot of people without an in-depth knowledge of the war.

“We are telling this story to a whole new generation of players who don’t know about World War II in a way that you and I and Aaron (Halon) might know,” he said.

Mr Kart said the Normandy/European setting was an iconic one in history and one they wanted to introduce to a new generation.

“As a sidebar, there are very, very few Wordl War II veterans left today that are alive to be able to tell us their story, so it is incredibly important for us and an honour to take these stories and be able to revive the genre,” he said.

Interestingly, players can choose a male or female soldier, and some of the commanding officers giving introductory briefings are female.

Developers consulted with historian Marty Morgan while making the game.

The game does not shy away from the realities of combat, aptly demonstrated by an early sequence where the player and their unit take shelter in a church — which the Germans promptly blow to smithereens with an 88mm Flak gun.

Mr Kart said health regeneration would be handled via health packs, sometimes obtained from your squad, in contrast to the current FPS game trend of taking cover and regenerating health automatically.

Other squad members will be able to provide skills or bonuses such as spotting targets from elevation, which is intended to help the player care about their squad.

“When you get to a moment when they’re not around, you realise you really cared about that healthpack and you’ve come to depend on that ability,” Mr Kart said.

“Your relationship with your squad is made into a game mechanic.”

The developers have talked about the realism and attention to detail in their latest COD game — down to visiting the real-world locations and consulting noted historian Marty Morgan — and while that may prove to be true of the single-player campaign, it is most assuredly not applicable to the multiplayer element.

Most notably, players can choose a male or female soldier, and some of the commanding officers giving introductory briefings are female.

From an inclusion perspective this is great, giving players the chance to customise a soldier they feel better represents them on the battlefield. From a historical perspective however, it’s problematic because it pretty much instantly takes away from the sense of realistic era recreation the designers have been trying for.

The game does not shy away from the realities of combat.

Start #CODWWII fully-equipped. Pre-order and get a permanent weapon unlock + Double XP with the Multiplayer Upgrade: https://t.co/EutddxHeDD pic.twitter.com/cutbTbJfgX

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 5, 2017

Still, much as the laws of physics aren’t expected to apply to big budget action blockbuster movies, things like “World War II frontline combat was mostly a guy thing” or “Reflex sights for an M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle didn’t exist in World War II” can largely be side-stepped in the interests of fictional entertainment and multiplayer balance as long as the gameplay is solid.

There are different classes to pick from — ostensibly the player is joining the infantry (soldier), airborne (scout), mountain division (sniper), armoured corps (heavy weapons) or the Free French (shotguns/explosives) — but it’s possible to change in-game.

The maps available in the beta were mostly well designed and facilitated the sort of fast and furious gameplay the series is known for.

Being a beta, the matchmaking wasn’t properly calibrated and I’d often find myself either getting shredded by experienced players or walking all over newbies who were still trying to find the trigger.

Some of the guns seem also seemed underpowered — emptying multiple .303 rounds into someone from a Lewis Gun should put them out of commission, not annoy them while they cut you down with a 9mm-calibre MP-40 Schmeisser — while others seemed excessively powerful (most submachine guns, for example).

Spotter aircraft, grenades, artillery strikes and all the other elements of a modern FPS were there, too, and there are different multiplayer modes, so it’s not all just “shoot everyone in a different uniform”.

While there doesn’t seem to be much that’s innovative gameplay-wise at this stage, the return to World War II has been welcomed by many gamers and there’s definitely going to be a lot of interest in Call of Duty: World War II when it releases on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on November 3.

Originally published as Call of Duty is returning to World War II with its latest edition, due in November