If you’re a longtime fan there’s plenty of appeal in Call of Duty: World War II

IF YOU like fast-paced gameplay and entertainment over realism, you need to check out the latest COD “inspired by actual events”.

ONCE upon a time in World War II, an American soldier pretty much single-handedly invaded occupied Europe, killed all the Nazis, learned a valuable lesson about brotherhood, un-Nazified the world forever, and then went back to his farm in Nowheresville, Texas to marry his fiancée who’d been baking apple pies in the kitchen since December 7, 1941 while waiting for him to come home.

That’s broadly the plot of most of the US World War II movies and computer games of late and Activision’s latest first-person shooter (FPS) game, Call of Duty: World War II follows that formula so closely it’s only an absent “Blow up the Nazi Superweapon” mission away from a Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V of the whole thing.

Developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Call of Duty: World War II is really two and a half separate games.

The first one is the story of Private “Red” Daniels and his squadmates as they machinegun their way across occupied Europe in the later stages of World War II en route to Berlin, and the second is the multiplayer game, and then you’ve got the return of the popular Zombies mode.

The story mode is visually spectacular but the story itself was, I thought, mostly trite, clichéd, uninspired, inaccurate, and illogical in some key points.

The story mode is visually spectacular.

But the story itself was a little played out.

Despite being a lowly private, your character is apparently the only person in the squad capable of doing anything at all, and always seems to be the one who ends up assaulting enemy positions, commandeering ack-ack guns and hunting Panzers with a bazooka.

Over the course of the campaign, your character performs countless feats of heroism and derring-do, to the point where they would likely need a wheelbarrow to cart all their Medals of Honour, Victoria Crosses, Croix De Guerres and assorted other accolades back home — yet the only one which is acknowledged in story is a trivial matter that is almost laughable in its insignificance compared to your other deeds.

While most of the campaign is American-focused, one excellent mission had you sneaking into a German HQ as a female French Resistance member, providing a welcome chance of focus and playstyle.

Despite apparently trying for an air of authenticity throughout the game, I thought the developers dropped the ball in some areas, particularly the weapons — among other things, some of them are shown working in a way that’s fundamentally different to their real life counterparts, which is inexcusable given that a quick YouTube search would have found several videos of how the gun actually operates.

Having said that, the gameplay aspects of the single-player campaign are solid, the action is frenetic, and there’s some good performances from Josh Duhamel as your squad’s sergeant. Some of the set pieces are particularly impressive too, so it’s worth playing through at least once and treating it as a 10 hour long action movie rather than an a serious attempt at recreating World War II from the front lines.

The action is frenetic, and there’s some good performances from Josh Duhamel as your squad’s sergeant.

Of course, the real draw with Call of Duty (COD) games is the multiplayer aspect, which in this case has very little regard for actual history at all.

Between firearm accessories that didn’t exist at the time, combat maps in areas that were never warzones, and gender/ethnically diverse avatars fighting on the front lines for all sides, there’s a lot here that will appeal to some gamers with the cool and inclusive factor while making anyone with a serious interest in military history drop their monocle and start typing a strongly worded letter to the editor of an actual newspaper.

Taking off my leather-elbowed tweed jacket for a moment, the multiplayer gameplay itself is solid — it’s fluid, fast, frantic and there’s a lot of elements in play to create interesting and dynamic matches.

Unfortunately the matchmaking is not great — in most games I played, the opposing team were far, far more skilled, had better equipment, and far too regularly pulled off shots that seemed frankly impossible. The lag issues I experienced on PC didn’t help either, making it hard to play effectively when speed was of the essence and the shot window on a target might be measured in less than a second. Adding to the confusion are customisable helmets and uniforms, often making it hard to work out who is on which side.

Having said that, when the teams were balanced and the lag wasn’t problematic, multiplayer was actually quite fun, with interesting maps, plenty happening and lots of opportunities to use everything in the arsenal to full effect.

The the multiplayer aspect is as strong as ever.

Fans will be pleased to hear the popular “Zombies” mode where — wait for it — you’re fighting Nazi Zombies, is back. It’s silly fun and features some well-known names in the cast including Ving Rhames, David Tennant and Katheryn Winnick.

Zombie mode notwithstanding, the overall problem with Call of Duty: World War II is that D-Day to Germany from the American perspective has been done so very many times. From Saving Private Ryan to Band of Brothers to pretty much any American-made World War II FPS, it’s been covered.

There’s nothing new there and it’s time we start exploring different areas of the conflict — the fighting in Burma or Malaya, the Kokoda Track, North Africa, or even China spring readily to mind; we really don’t need a rehash of the same story we’ve all seen for the past 25 years or so.

On paper, COD: World War II has a lot going for it and I should really enjoy it, but it just didn’t tick all the boxes I was after.

If you just want to run around a WWII themed environment and shoot people online then COD: WWII it’s not a bad game, but it’s not groundbreaking either. If you’re a longtime fan there’s going to be plenty of appeal here, but if you want a historically-themed FPS then Battlefield 1 is, in my opinion, a better game on that front.

Having said all that, this is classic COD and it’s already made a bucketload of money for Activision, so if you like the fast-paced gameplay of COD and want entertainment over realism, then by all means lace up your combat boots and enlist for an “inspired by actual events” version of World War II.