Why Is Call of Duty: WWII SO BAD?! — Transcript

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1. 0:00Wow look at this! A new Call of Duty game? And its not set in the year 5 million AD!?
2. 0:07No man, COD is returning to its roots with boots on the ground combat. Ditching all that
3. 0:13futuristic crap thats been done to death. Man, with all the great COD games based in
4. 0:18World War 2, and the advancements in technology since the last one, this will be the best
5. 0:23WWII game in years! Im excited as can be, so lets check it out!
6. 0:30Oh GOD! This is awesome! Though I didnt realize this was gonna be about squirrels . Thats
7. 0:35kinda weird but - oh wrong game. Hold up. There we go, alright lets check this out.
8. 0:41OH MY COD! What have they done? What the f*ck is this? What what the f*ck is that? OH JESUS!!
9. 0:49NOOO THAT WASNT MEANT TO HAPPEN! Ugh. So why is COD WWII SO BAD?! You might
10. 0:56ask, well where do I even begin? Well lets just jump straight into the multiplayer and
11. 1:02work our way up shit creek, shall we? Uhh but before we can actually do that, lets
12. 1:07talk about how to access the multiplayer. Because for some reason COD WWII copies Destinys
13. 1:13social space idea, probably so theres an excuse for players to watch others open Supply Drops.
14. 1:19But also to unintuitively f*ck with the multiplayer. Alright so for every COD game youd be at the
15. 1:25main menu, click multiplayer, itd take 5-10 seconds to load, badda bing badda boom! There
16. 1:31you go, youre ready to play. Now? First it has to check your xbox live connection, then
17. 1:36it has to fetch your online profile, on some occasions this can take a minute or two. Then
18. 1:41sometimes you get placed into a wait queue. After that the game needs to read your save
19. 1:46device, then you get another loading screen which sometimes lasts upwards of 2 minutes.
20. 1:51And FINALLY! You arrive at the social space where you can search for a match, as well
21. 1:56as access a bunch of crap that couldve just been in the menus already.
22. 2:00This is absurd! They have you jump through all these hoops because the game has to locate
23. 2:04and put you into this Headquarters station with other players in order to access matchmaking!
24. 2:09To be fair, theres some cool and fun stuff you can do in the Headquarters, like play
25. 2:13old school Atari games, test out the killstreaks and even play some quick 1v1 matches. Id be
26. 2:19fine with this Headquarters if you could choose to bypass it to get a faster matchmaking experience.
27. 2:24Now since I initially recorded this video, the Headquarters was thankfully fixed and
28. 2:30youre no longer required to go to it to access matchmaking. So I have to ask: why didnt you
29. 2:35just do that in the first place? Enough beating around the bush lets move on to the real deal.
30. 2:40The REAL sh*t. Its back to basics with COD WWII, but if I
31. 2:45could summarize this games multiplayer Id say: thats pitiful. I mean, its absolutely
32. 2:51pitiful. Customization, loadouts one of the biggest strengths the series possesses, has
33. 2:57been dumbed down to an extreme. Theres fewer weapons to choose from than even WAW offered.
34. 3:03Only 3 secondarys and two rocket launchers. Youd think being the greatest and largest
35. 3:08war of mankind, that itd be quite feasible to add in plenty of unique weapons we havent
36. 3:12seen before, but no! The game recycles 17 of the weapons from WAW. Out of 32 choices,
37. 3:19thats over half of the selection. Theyre both WWII games so naturally theyll
38. 3:23have the more iconic weapons. This is only a problem because COD WWII has less weapon
39. 3:29variety than WAW. It doesnt even make sense to include Russian or Japanese weapons in
40. 3:35campaign or multiplayer because those factions are completely absent.
41. 3:39So they also dumbed down the perks and you just get one to choose per class? I mean,
42. 3:44you also get division perks but you dont really have a choice. This is wrong on so many levels.
43. 3:49See the reason why we all spent hours constantly tweaking and changing our classes to achieve
44. 3:54perfection is because there were plenty of choices. You wanted to find a great synergy
45. 3:58between weapons, ammo, lethal and tactical grenades, perks and kill streaks. You know
46. 4:04if you took perks that gave advantages in firefights, you might run out of ammo quicker.
47. 4:08Or if you wanted to be a more stealth oriented class, you could sacrifice combat potential
48. 4:12to be harder to pinpoint. Or you could give up your lethal grenade for more flashbangs,
49. 4:16whatever. There was so much to experiment with in past games, you could always try something
50. 4:21new. Theres no synergy here. Chances are youll
51. 4:24spend about 5 minutes setting up your classes and only change em when you wanna use a new
52. 4:28gun. Customization just feels so lackluster. God, and now you get to choose between one
53. 4:34lethal or one tactical grenade. Why? Why is the game actively giving us fewer sandbox
54. 4:40elements to use? Fewer options? Yea later Call of Dutys overcomplicated the customization
55. 4:46but in this area. But I honestly prefer freedom of choice to this streamlined crap.
56. 4:51Another problem is the killstreaks. Now you might be thinking, how could a COD game f*ck
57. 4:56up the killstreaks? ENEMY NUKE INCOMING! Well by making it absurdly difficult to get them.
58. 5:04Im glad the Emergency Airdrop made a return. All the killstreaks are actually fun and unique
59. 5:08to use, but the costs are too high for certain game modes. 5 Kills for a recon plane? Isnt
60. 5:15that a bit extreme? Especially in domination, sometimes you can play an entire game where
61. 5:19the only thing a player gets is a recon plane. I mean, talk about boring.
62. 5:23The lowest streak you need is 3-4 kills for a Molotov and even then you only get 25 points
63. 5:29for getting a kill with it. Another part of CODs famous formula thrown to the wayside
64. 5:34as normal matches mostly consist of gun fights with killstreaks being a somewhat rare occurrence.
65. 5:40Although, the gunplay in this game is pretty good. It feels satisfying to shoot people
66. 5:44just as it always has. But gamers should expect that from a COD game so its not saying a whole
67. 5:49lot. Sound effects are spot on and balancing is much more uhhh balanced! SMGs dont dominate
68. 5:55quite like they used to, and each gun feels useful.
69. 5:59Maybe Sledgehammer heard peoples complaints about Infinite Warfare and thought, oh, our
70. 6:03fanbase wants a watered down recycled, poor mans of World at War, so lets give them that!
71. 6:09No! Thats not what we wanted! We wanted the classic feeling of boots on the ground Call
72. 6:14of Duty set in World War 2, with all the things made the multiplayer great in the first place.
73. 6:20Oh heres another thing, supply drops! Oh yeah, those things. Youll notice that supply drops
74. 6:26are littered all over this games user interface, theres always an icon in the bottom right,
75. 6:31you get supply drops for doing orders, contracts, at the end of games it shows you everyone
76. 6:36who got a supply drop. Theyre starting to force them into the other parts of the game,
77. 6:40Zombie packs. Then you open em in front of everybody on the beaches of Normandy, theres
78. 6:44even a challenge for watching people open loot boxes. You got that patent that was leaked.
79. 6:49I mean, Activision is pushing the envelope on these damn things so f*cking tough. Its
80. 6:55irritating. I feel gross for buying this game, I feel dirty, someone spray me down or something.
81. 7:01What do you actually get in the Supply Drops? Well in short, a bunch of stupid, pointless
82. 7:06sh*t. Hah! What else is new, grass is green and Activision likes money? You dont say?!
83. 7:12You get emotes some so retarded theyre actually funny, skins, and nothing special. But lemme
84. 7:18just open some to show you. Alright so this is a regular supply drop,
85. 7:22lets see what we got. Calling card, calling card, grip. Alright so thats pretty sh*tty.
86. 7:28Alright lets open another one. Uhh grip, calling card, bonus. Man, another grip? Hey that ones
87. 7:34no different from the last one. Alright heres another one lets see what kind of stupid shi-
88. 7:39man! Another grip? Wha- two of them?! Wait whats the difference? One grips epic, ones
89. 7:44common. They look exactly the same! Alright lets try the Zombie pack it should be pretty
90. 7:49cool, different stuff. Lets see. Christ! Another grip! You gotta be shitting me. Alright heres
91. 7:55a rare supply drop. XP boost- GAH! F*cking grips again! Are you serious? My f*cking god!
92. 8:023 grips that all look the same! Theyre 3 different rarities! WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?! I guess Ill
93. 8:08watch my buddy open some of these, well looks like he got two grips. One of them called
94. 8:12Strong Woman, again they all look exactly the same. Alright hes opening another one.
95. 8:18God, another f*cking grip? He got a dupli- thats the grip he just got! Are you- are you
96. 8:23shitting me? Yeah so as you can see, its the worst thing in the world.
97. 8:28The best part about this, is theyve created a customization option that you cant even
98. 8:33fucking look at because your dude is gonna be holding the gun all the time! Oh yeah,
99. 8:38having unlocked maybe 1% of all the crap in the supply drops, were already getting duplicates.
100. 8:45Fan-f*cking-tastic. Just imagine its your job to think of what
101. 8:49to put in these loot boxes. Youve done this 5 or 6 times already and you probably wanna
102. 8:54blow your brains out. And youre doing this for a series that has milked the idea well
103. 8:58completely dry. Now imagine being so lazy and uninspired you cant actually think of
104. 9:03new content so you just recycle emotes with different text and call it something new.
105. 9:08Im not kidding, this wave emote is reused 8 times. This shoulder dusting is reused 5
106. 9:16times, and the one where he shakes his head is reused 5 times as well. Lets take a step
107. 9:21back for one second. You can literally unlock the same emote 5+ times AND still get duplicates
108. 9:30of a recycled emote. WHAT THE FUCK? Basically, the supply drops in this game are
109. 9:37about as satisfying to open as it would be to say, take a pile of sh*t thats been pissed
110. 9:43on. Put that into a nice Ziploc bag, throw it into your refrigerator for about a week.
111. 9:47And then if you were to open that and just take a big whiff of that piss-covered sh*t,
112. 9:53thats exactly how you would feel opening these supply drops.
113. 9:58Aside from that sh*t, the game is pretty damn buggy. Its not quite Battlefield 4 or MCC
114. 10:03but its still terrible. In fact, they even had to turn off the social space because that
115. 10:07was causing too many problems. I played a 50min zombies game, and it didnt keep track
116. 10:12of the game or my progress. I ran into this asshole called Matched Player. Gee, what a
117. 10:18dumb gamertag. UI is a nightmare to navigate. I mean, look at the main menu. It looks generic,
118. 10:24simple and uninspired but when you get deeper you find theres so many sub menus its convoluted
119. 10:29and unnecessary. You dont know where to find your sh*t! When you unlock stuff it doesnt
120. 10:33tell you what weapon its for so you just gotta take a shitty guess. All those grips I mentioned
121. 10:38are a part of different weapons, but again, doesnt tell you what weapon theyre for.
122. 10:43Even in this collections tab you cant equip any of this stuff! How is this even organized?
123. 10:48Why are there categories for weapons but when you click on em it shows you calling cards,
124. 10:52emotes, and outfits? Oh hey! Heres a good idea! Why dont you make categories for calling
125. 10:58cards, emotes, and outfits? Every load screen is punctuated by an obnoxious
126. 11:03logo, which will sometimes fade to black then reappear slightly larger with another load
127. 11:08screen. The game can hardly manage to load your different division classes.
128. 11:12I mean, at the end of each game the Scoreboard is just a still frame that then loads the
129. 11:17post game lobby where you can see people do stupid emotes and get loot boxes. It might
130. 11:22look nice but priority goes to usability and convenience. People are gonna think Im nitpicking
131. 11:27about all this stuff, but when you make a good User Interface, people wont be sure youve
132. 11:33done anything at all. But when you do f*ck it up, its very noticeable and irritating.
133. 11:38But all this trash Ive been putting on the table pales in comparison when it comes to
134. 11:44the actual gameplay. Especially the map design.
135. 11:49Despite the number of COD games weve had over the years, Ive always felt a strong suit of
136. 11:53the series was in its creative map design and selection. With so many shining examples,
137. 11:58youd expect COD WWII to take some inspiration and notes, right? WRONG!
138. 12:04The maps are pure garbage. Im truly stunned. It seems not a thought or ounce of creativity
139. 12:10went into them. Sid Meier once said, a game is a series of interesting choices. However
140. 12:15the people that designed COD WWII have obviously never heard of this!
141. 12:20So you got 9 base maps and 3 for the War mode, which is pretty sh*tty. However, 7 of those
142. 12:279 maps them are flat, small, 3 lane maps that offer nothing unique or different from one
143. 12:34another. Gustav Cannon is the ONLY good one because it actually feels open, its like they
144. 12:39tried to make something different. These maps are boring and generic, the type that are
145. 12:43supposed to be a one-off filler. Like, oh yeah this is alright, I dont mind playing
146. 12:48it. Theres hardly any high ground, or low ground,
147. 12:51and dont offer heights above the 2nd story. Power positions, hidden areas are non-existent.
148. 12:57Environmental conditions are nowhere to be found, no explosive barrels, no gates to open,
149. 13:02or rockets taking off the edge. Every map is surrounded by invisible barriers so theres
150. 13:07no risk of falling off. They have no interaction aside from turrets placed in the most inconvenient
151. 13:13locations. However it gets worse! Any cover, barrels or whatnot are surrounded by invisible
152. 13:20barriers. Why is it the newer COD games especially, are so reliant on these invisible walls to
153. 13:27create their maps? In fact, the reason I like USS Texas is because
154. 13:31you can actually jump on stuff, its the one level that isnt plagued by invisible f*cking
155. 13:37barriers on every piece of cover. And it has some modicum of height advantage. You might
156. 13:42also notice theres no large maps and only 1 medium sized. Thats because Ground War was
157. 13:49replaced with War. Sounds like a familiar move to create a new, inferior Big Team Battle
158. 13:55mode that replaces the old version. Well where- where have I seen or heard that before?
159. 14:01Just when you thought the maps couldnt get anymore sh*t, they offer so few options for
160. 14:05movement and gameplay that theyve already become tired. Heres your typical choice, go
161. 14:11left, go middle, or go right and theres little deviation from this formula. Go left, go middle,
162. 14:17go right. Go left, go middle, go right. Go left, middle, right. Left, middle, right.
163. 14:25Left, middle, right! LEFT, MIDDLE, RIGHT! GOD F*CKING DAMNIT! DO SOMETHING CREATIVE!
164. 14:31But to showcase and prove that Call of Duty was actually good at one point in time, lets
165. 14:36look at the last WWII game, World at War. Alright so we got this map, Airfield and already
166. 14:42you can probably see theres a huge difference. Mainly in the amount of ways I can move around,
167. 14:46right. I mean, just look at how expansive it is. That isnt part of the background or
168. 14:50anything you can run along all those open paths. And just check this out. Holy sh*t
169. 14:57you can jump on that truck! What a f*cking revolution this game is! You can jump on this
170. 15:03stuff? NO WAY! Oh whats that? Oh thats an explosive barrel. Oh check that out theres
171. 15:08some cars right there. Oh Im gonna f*ck that up with a cocktail. I mean, look at that!
172. 15:13You got stuff that explodes on the map, thats unique, its interesting, its a dynamic. I
173. 15:18mean, look at how open this map is. Just imagine all the different gameplay variety that can
174. 15:23be had here. Well lets look at another one. We got this
175. 15:26map, Castle. Now already its got a pretty defined style of being set in a Japanese castle.
176. 15:33Again, look at the design. This is a small, medium sized map, but look at how much room
177. 15:39there is to move, how much there is to navigate. Its not just a set few paths that you have
178. 15:44to go down. I could hide behind that wall there, I can hide behind here, you know. I
179. 15:50can run around to the back. I can set up shop in the middle or move to the right to flank.
180. 15:55I mean, theres so much more to do in these maps, theyre so much better and dynamic. Look
181. 16:01at this! Look at this, Ive got a height advantage. Man, if I had a bazooka and a sniper up here
182. 16:05this would be a pretty good power position to play from. Ahh look theres even another
183. 16:09tower over there which someone could use to snipe at me. And I got a great cover view
184. 16:14of this area down here. Meaning, this is position is probably very sought after.
185. 16:20Alright one final example, Seelow. Wow. Wow this is huge! And doesnt it say something,
186. 16:27when just a normal map from a previous Call of Duty game is even bigger than the War modes?
187. 16:32Like, wheres all the kill barriers? Wheres all the walls you cant get past? Theyre not
188. 16:36in this f*cking game because it didnt need it because the developers knew what they were
189. 16:40doing when they made the game! Big Team Battle would just be so freaking awesome on these
190. 16:44maps. Look, you got that big underpass right in the middle. You can go up on the train
191. 16:49tracks, its just- its interesting! Then you got these rice fields you could hide in theoretically.
192. 16:55I mean, you get what Im saying. The maps are inspired they have a certain style about them,
193. 17:01a feel. Freedom of choice. A tank there, you can get in that tank!
194. 17:06My point is, no matter the size, most of the previous Call of Duty installments always
195. 17:11managed to make the maps feel open, like you had options. Or offer some gimmick that made
196. 17:16them just a bit more unique. WWII doesnt offer anything special in this regard.
197. 17:23Except in the War mode which has better level design than sh*t. But not by much, its still
198. 17:273 lane garbage with very few options to deviate. Now take a moment and look at Operations in
199. 17:33Battlefield 1 which is pretty much what the War mode is based off of. The maps are huge,
200. 17:40sprawling canvases with 64 players fighting across battle lines. Pushing back and forth
201. 17:45for control in airplanes, vehicles, tanks, trucks, everything! Theres a distinct level
202. 17:51of freedom, the angles from which you can attack or defend are countless. Sure it has
203. 17:56kill barriers but theyre there to balance the game without forcing invisible walls everywhere
204. 18:00and restricting it. Now back to Call of Duty, youre in a heavily
205. 18:04confined area where once again, youre forced to go down one of 3 paths for 20minutes and
206. 18:11thats the entire mode. This is supposed to be like all out War, however
207. 18:15it feels exactly like a normal COD match except with progressive objectives and no killstreaks.
208. 18:21You can get into a tank, storm the beaches of Normandy with AI soldiers that die for
209. 18:26no reason. You can destroy and repair walls but aside from that, the mode is plagued by
210. 18:31the same problems, lack of options, feels too tight and enclosed, with ridiculous f*cking
211. 18:37kill barriers and invisible walls Oh sh*t! Oh sh*t! I gotta retreat! Ahh dont
212. 18:41worry I got 20 seconds I can make it. 12 seconds later. F*CK THAT! I just blew up for no reason!
213. 18:50And its such a shame because this War mode could be so freaking awesome, it could be
214. 18:55the best part of the game. But they applied the same terrible philosophies from their
215. 18:59base maps into here. Instead of trying to innovate and really expand and say, you know
216. 19:04what? F*ck the boundaries. F*ck the kill barriers. Lets just make something huge and unique,
217. 19:08something that Call of Duty has never seen before! Lets just do that. Lets go balls to
218. 19:12the walls. But they didnt! It doesnt matter if a game has the most perfect, refined mechanics
219. 19:18ever made, if youve got sh*t maps, youve got sh*t gameplay.
220. 19:23In short, the maps suck. Now you might be thinking, well the rest of
221. 19:28the game is pretty bad and dumbed down, but zombies, man! Zombies is always good! Hahahaha
222. 19:36except its not. Oh sure its got a cool opening cinematic, but thats about it. This is a classic
223. 19:41case of simplicity vs complexity. In fact Zombies has more customization than the actual
224. 19:48multiplayer, and thats not a good thing! Its convoluted for this type of gameplay, you
225. 19:53got 3 perks, weapons to choose from, you got loadouts, you can customize the weapons that
226. 19:58you might get. In addition to the perks you can buy in game,
227. 20:02theres attachments you can equip, you got these ultimate overwatch abilities for some
228. 20:06reason. I mean, what just- what happened to just starting the game and playing it? Seeing
229. 20:11how long you could survive? Why bother with all this crap?
230. 20:15On top of this, the whole style and charm of Nazi Zombies is completely gone. Now look,
231. 20:20I know its made by Sledgehammer Games but seriously, it again feels generic. You cant
232. 20:26repair walls, and what happened to the mystery box? Why does it look like sh*t? Doesnt have
233. 20:31that nice jingle to it either. Or the creepy little kid sound effects. Its tear em up time!
234. 20:43Sweet! When waves start theres no longer that cool music that makes you kinda terrified.
235. 20:59And just look at the difference between what happens when you grab a power up in COD WWII
236. 21:07versus Black Ops. INSTA-KILL! DOUBLE POINTS! MAX AMMO! KABOOM!
237. 21:37This game doesnt even have an announcer so most of the time I didnt even notice we were
238. 21:40getting powerups because nobody was saying anything!! And another thing, when the myster
239. 21:45box disappears theres no audio cue so you dont know unless youre talking to your buddies!
240. 21:51What happened? The characters you play as dont have any funny or memorable lines except
241. 21:56for constantly f*cking grunting all the time. *Endlessly annoying grunting.
242. 22:14Part of what made Zombies great was they featured exaggerated stereotypes that would make you
243. 22:18laugh in between gameplay. Youre a walking f*cking cliche, Takeo. Like a Russian Communist
244. 22:25who when he doesnt have enough points to buy something remarks, why do we not share the
245. 22:30points? Or a German Nazi who really f*cking enjoys killing zombies. YES! YES EXPLOOODE!!
246. 22:37Your classic American tough guy, swears a bunch. Theres just something so beautiful
247. 22:43about blowing shit up. And then the incredibly honorable Japanese samurai. My weapon is low
248. 22:49on honor, I will soon need ammunition. I mean, its great. I love these characters.
249. 22:54I dont give two f*cks about these nameless nobodies. Might as well just have em been
250. 22:58the nameless soldiers in Nacht Der Untoten because at least that way we dont expect them
251. 23:03to have character. And when you hit level 5 theres another theres
252. 23:06another layer of customization, Raven Research. Like, who needed or asked for all this sh*t
253. 23:12to be put into zombies? Who wanted this? And if there is a sizable portion of people that
254. 23:17enjoy this type of gameplay, why not make two maps? And offer both styles of gameplay
255. 23:21so that you please everyone? Im not saying the game needs to be exactly
256. 23:25like the other zombie modes but if theyre going to get rid of all the style, charisma,
257. 23:30and charm, you gotta replace that with something! And they didnt!
258. 23:34The whole point of Nazi zombies is to be a survival game where you carefully considered
259. 23:40what doors to open, weapons to buy, when, but now the game gives EVERY player a wunderwaffle
260. 23:46just for progressing through the level. Look at this. Am I supposed to feel threatened?
261. 23:51Is this supposed to be difficult? Why should I feel threatened when I got the best gun
262. 23:55in the game for free and an infinite ammo powerup that has such a short cooldown. And
263. 24:00when you get downed, instead of being severely punished like you should be a in survival
264. 24:05game, nah you get a revive in time you get all your shit back. Theres even Zombie packs
265. 24:10that give you one time powerups. Like nukes, max ammo and even something that automatically
266. 24:15revive you??? I mean, what the f*ck is all of this?
267. 24:18The map is a convoluted mess. As well as having almost no areas that you can hold out in.
268. 24:23Youre pretty much forced to play run and gun style. Its just an unnecessarily complicated
269. 24:29version of Zombies with no soul. But if you like that sorta thing, maybe youll enjoy it.
270. 24:34Me? I think its trash. Surprisingly, I think the best part about
271. 24:40COD WWII is the Campaign. This is where I had the most enjoyment. Unfortunately, theres
272. 24:45still so many problems. Beyond this point there will be spoilers so skip ahead to the
273. 24:50time on screen if you dont wanna hear them. The intro boldly states 60 Million died, but
274. 24:56we arent going to show you the perspectives where 80% of those losses took place. It also
275. 25:01tries to mimic the intros for the older Call of Duty games with this sort of retro visual
276. 25:06style. But this style is never seen throughout the rest of the campaign so it seems out of
277. 25:11place. Now for a second, lets again go back to World
278. 25:14At War. Right from the start, the player understands the style of the game as gritty, dark, and
279. 25:20creepy. The music at the main menu sets up the atmosphere for the rest of the game, its
280. 25:25unsettling. Has the feeling of terror. It carries a sense of trauma, loss, and a bleak
281. 25:30future. So when you boot up COD WWII, what sort of impression do you get from it? To
282. 25:35me, its just generic. Now in the campaign, the story has a more
283. 25:39brothers in arms sort of feel which I do like, and also harkens back to the title of the
284. 25:44series. Lieutenant, tell them what were all about. No mission too difficult. No sacrifice
285. 25:50too great. Duty first. I cant hear you. No mission too difficult. No sacrifice too great.
286. 25:57Duty first. Thats right! Now get ready to move out!
287. 26:00You know, duty first, which I thought was a nice touch.
288. 26:03I think the issue Im having, is COD WWIIs entire style feels generic. Its too upbeat
289. 26:10and doesnt commit to a visceral WWII experience. Theres not much focus on the horrors of War
290. 26:15aspect until the very end of the campaign, and even when youre in the Concentration Camp
291. 26:21you dont see any terrifying obscenities depicted in some of those old photographs. Not every
292. 26:27piece of media needs to go for the same type of thing, but when youre telling a realistic
293. 26:31World War 2 story you really should commit to portraying what it was like.
294. 26:36The story has some nice character, dialogue, the cinematics are impressive as f*ck. I felt
295. 26:42a decent connection with the other soldiers and a much stronger connection with my protagonist,
296. 26:46Daniels. The story follows his perspective as you wage war against the German army. Starting
297. 26:51with D-Day. Daniels periodically writes letters to his older brother about the things hes
298. 26:56going through, theres some cool flashbacks and I felt Daniels was a great protagonist.
299. 27:01Probably the best part was near the end your buddy gets captured and Daniels gets a honorable
300. 27:05discharge so hes free to go home. It shows a cutscene of him returning home to his woman
301. 27:10whos pregnant, of course, war cliche. And you think the game is gonna end on that note.
302. 27:15You alright there, Red? We gonna talk or we gonna hunt? You should be proud. You ruled
303. 27:28your fear, you held your own. Nothing more you can ask of a man. Its the best feeling
304. 27:33in the world, aint it? Facing down hell and coming home a bonafide hero.
305. 27:42But NOPE! Daniels cuts off his vision because he cant home without saving his buddy, Zussman.
306. 27:48To the end? To the end. That was a nice twist. The end of the game has a really touching
307. 27:55moment and a nice motif with symbolism, which I didnt see coming and quite enjoyed a lot.
308. 28:02Its a quality, somewhat generic war story. But the best part was the way the characters
309. 28:06interacted with each other throughout the gameplay and the cutscenes. Theres charm and
310. 28:11a few laughs here and there. These soldiers try to lighten the mood of a desperate situation.
311. 28:15And Ill just play some of those moments for you.
312. 28:18See the address? She wrote Daniels, not Red. Only one reason to be so formal. I hate to
313. 28:24say it, I think shes cutting you loose. Or hey, maybe its like Schrodingers Ladder? You
314. 28:29know, you dont open it, shes still your girl. Hell of a Christmas eh, fellas? Oh yea. Why
315. 28:36would I want to be cuddled by my nice warm fire with my gal, when I can be freezing my
316. 28:42ass off with you bastards? Got some ammo, fellas. Lookie here. Its a regular Old Saint
317. 28:48Nick. Throw it under our tree. Now it does kinda rub me the wrong way, what
318. 28:56with the uhh social justice warrior, political correctness aspects surrounding this game,
319. 29:02that we see a British female fighting on the front lines and she doesnt do anything else.
320. 29:07Has no purpose in the narrative aside from, you know being a woman. Then theres a French
321. 29:12woman who gives some forced exposition about how her family was killed, and its totally
322. 29:16out of the blue. The garrison is run by SS and Heinrich. When he couldnt find me, he
323. 29:23came for my parents and my husband. And finally, my son. She on the other hand is a French
324. 29:33resistance fighter so she makes sense. Next theres a black mechanic, whos the only
325. 29:38black guy in the game. And it seems he was included so we could have a scene like this
326. 29:42where all the white guys are like, whaaaaaat? A black guy? I cant believe they let him fight.
327. 29:48Oh yeah! They even let us die! Then after the day is won this happens. Believe
328. 29:53I owe you an apology. You owe me a hell of a lot more than that.
329. 29:59Now dont twist this into some I hate women blacks bullshit. Diversity is great when its
330. 30:05utilized properly. But the mechanic, Howard is introduced in the 9th mission. And they
331. 30:10dont do much with this character except use him as a vessel to make the statement, black
332. 30:14people are equal and can fight. This game had a great opportunity to do something profound
333. 30:19and thought-provoking, but it seems the writers just settled for a cheap gimmick. Like they
334. 30:23were trying to please people who wouldnt play the games anyway, who would only care if they
335. 30:27heard, yeah theres a black guy in here. Hey heres a not-so-sh*tty idea. What if you introduced
336. 30:32Howard and perhaps another battalion of black soldiers, and then have Daniels and his squad
337. 30:37still remain skeptical. Then perhaps you have a few cutscenes where the race relations are
338. 30:42boiling up. You know, heated arguments. Maybe a couple fist fights, insults, you know. But
339. 30:48the higher ups stop it and get everyone back in order. Then through fighting, dying, and
340. 30:53bleeding together both sides learn to respect and accept the others as brothers. I was afraid
341. 31:07of you, Julius. I only saw what I was afraid of, and now I know I was only hating my brother.
342. 31:13I think the reason this wasnt fleshed out is because Sledgehammer games was too afraid
343. 31:18to take risks, to show the ugly side of war, to actually portray racism, or hatred, or
344. 31:24vile, despicable acts. They played it too safe and as a result many of the plot points
345. 31:29and characters dont resonate with the audience as strongly as other war stories. I think
346. 31:34a greater point with all this is Sledgehammer just got spooked by all this modern outrage
347. 31:39towards Nazis and oh racism is such a bad word nowadays. Everything can be racist, we
348. 31:45dont want to appear racist. And so they decided to suppress all the offensive
349. 31:49imagery, I said suppress not remove entirely. In an effort to please the social justice
350. 31:55warriors or whoever, COD WWII lost artistic vision by censoring the history its based
351. 32:02on. Its a damn shame too, Howard was pretty cool for the 1 minute of screen time he had.
352. 32:07If only the writers had balls. Theres a touching section, where you rescue
353. 32:12German civilians. I thought this was pretty special and a nice change of pace, because
354. 32:16a lot of WWII media tends to portray the Axis Powers as entirely evil entities. But people
355. 32:23forget those nations had civilians too. People caught in the crossfire, so its good they
356. 32:27brought a little light to that aspect. Unfortunately this is a story entirely about
357. 32:32the American vs. German side of the war, with small snippets of the French and British.
358. 32:37It allows the game to flesh out your soldiers and focus entirely on one conflict and setting,
359. 32:42but I wouldve liked to see other perspectives. This game has some great action as well, the
360. 32:47only stipulation with this, is the story feels like the newer modern games with its heavy
361. 32:52emphasis on Blockbuster movie-like action-y cinematics. Quick time events are back and
362. 32:59quite honestly ruin the pacing of sections that would otherwise make for great cutscenes.
363. 33:04They work in Resident Evil 4 because theyre incorporated into the gameplay itself. However,
364. 33:08when the QTEs pop up here, it slows down the intensity and action when it doesnt need to.
365. 33:14The main issue with the campaign is its gameplay. Course its your classic COD formula of shooting
366. 33:19bad guys with stealth, turret, and plane sections to switch it up. And theres even a mission
367. 33:24where you play as a French spy and infiltrate a Nazi office. This was the most unique mission
368. 33:30the game had to offer and even though its short and straightforward I appreciate the
369. 33:34innovation. Something different from the constant shooting. Now the last COD I beat was Black
370. 33:40Ops 1, so I could be wrong about the more recent games. But the levels are so linear
371. 33:45it hurts. First mission after you storm the beaches is basically 1 long path you cant
372. 33:50stray from. So out of curiosity I pulled out some older games to refresh my memory and
373. 33:55see if they have always been this linear. Funny enough, even Finest Hour and Big Red
374. 34:00One gave you more freedom to move around in the first mission than this latest entry.
375. 34:05The linear missions in WWII are plagued by, you guessed it! Invisible barriers and walls,
376. 34:10which again is a symptomatic problem the entire game faces.
377. 34:13Now it does have some cool new mechanics with your squad being able to give you powerups,
378. 34:18ammo, health which is a nice touch and makes the moment to moment gameplay more interesting.
379. 34:23They also brought back health packs which I thought was awesome because now the decisions
380. 34:27you make are much more impactful. As well as returning to the roots of the original
381. 34:31Call of Dutys and straying from the regenerating health weve seen for the last 12 years.
382. 34:37Some later missions do open up just a bit but not by much. So this game has a tank section.
383. 34:43Youre in a very enclosed, tight space with little room to maneuver. Which kind of defeats
384. 34:47the purpose of being in a tank when you can hardly move around. But again, back to World
385. 34:52at War. Same era, same series, but look at this! Wow! Ive got so much room to move about,
386. 34:58theres enemies way off in the distance I can shoot at. Im not restricted to a single path.
387. 35:04It feels like real tank warfare. Another example, compare the first missions
388. 35:08of both of these games. World at War, youre a POW in a Japanese camp. Some sh*t goes down,
389. 35:14you start the level and whats this? Different paths I can choose? The enemies are spread
390. 35:19out and Ive got multiple routes and options to get through these encounters.
391. 35:24My point is, to highlight the way Call of Duty games have changed their design for the
392. 35:28worse. How what theyve done in the past really couldve helped them out here. They were still
393. 35:33linear, but always offered player freedom. COD WWIIs campaign is decent dumb fun but
394. 35:39wont warrant a second playthrough. To summarize, this game is a return to boots
395. 35:44on the ground. But its plagued by annoying technical problems, the most aggressive microtransaction
396. 35:50system to date, piss poor map design, lackluster customization, an overcomplicated, stupidly
397. 35:56easy zombies mode, and a bunch of other sh*t. While it does have a half decent campaign
398. 36:01that doesnt give it much replay value and thats not why people buy into the series.
399. 36:06Im just thoroughly unimpressed with this newest game. Its gotten so boring so quickly that
400. 36:12Ive already hopped back to Battlefield 1. But you know, maybe thats just me. Maybe Ive
401. 36:16just been playing Call of Duty for so long that its just run its course for me. Perhaps
402. 36:21the formula just doesnt have the same appeal it used to. Perhaps all the innovations and
403. 36:26new ideas that could change Call of Duty are just things that theyre not gonna try. All
404. 36:32good things pass in time and maybe this once great series has simply lost its luster.
405. 36:41But what do you think? What was your favorite or least favorite part of Call of Duty: World
406. 36:46War 2? Like the video if you enjoyed it, and subscribe to The Act Man for more AWESOME
407. 36:52content! Alright everyone, thats all Ive got for today. This is The Act Man signing out.
408. 36:57PEACE!