After the intense unveiling of Call of Duty: WW2‘s multiplayer at E3 2017, fans had questions. A lot of questions. Sledgehammer Games is promising a return to greatness for CoD, and that’s coming with a return to the war that started it all while looking forward with quite a few tweaks to CoD‘s tried and true gameplay as well as some needed innovations.
Studio head Michael Condrey sat down for a live stream Q&A to explain exactly what we’re getting out of the return to World War 2, and promised “boots on the ground” which he said was strategic gun on gun action, something that would bring the series back to what made it great. (No more jet packs.) Here’s what we learned.
Kill Streaks
We saw a plane dropping a bomb in the multiplayer trailer, and now that’s been confirmed as (one of) the ways to dominate your opponents. Like previous games in the series, you’ll be able to call in recon and other benefits to your team.
War Mode
This looks like it was torn out of Battlefield 1, and that’s not a bad thing. War Mode will pit massive teams against each other to capture and secure strategic objectives in scenarios based on real WW2 conflicts. Tanks seem to be exclusive to War Mode.
Headquarters Mode
Kind of like Metal Gear Solid 5 Online‘s personal hub, Headquarters is based on D-Day+3, when the Allies had successfully invaded Normandy and were gearing to move inland. It will hold 48 players who can talk, plan, and use the firing range to test out certain weapons. This is a welcome change from just another lobby. Hopefully, you can group up with your party in the headquarters and wait for friends before you launch a game together. This is something that should’ve been in these games for years.
Divisions
There are five Divisions for the Axis and the Allies, each featuring a different look and set of skills. This will allow players to get a sense of comradery, some real emotionally-grounding stuff, and most importantly, a specific way to play that sets these group apart from just a team that will try to add to the overall kill score. According to Condrey, Divisions replace Create-A-Class. Perks are gone, but you can still customize your character in the ways you’d expect — through loadouts and aesthetics. Yes, there will be female characters.
Certain Divisions will be better suited for certain maps. Need a sniper? Go Mountain Division. Need a sapper? Expeditionary could work.
The Divisions Are:
- Infantry
- Armor
- Airborne
- Mountain
- Expeditionary
The Divisions are basically classes. Infantry is what you expect — M1 Garand-wielding foot soldiers that make up the front line, while Airborne will carry submachine guns and use smoke and explosives to undermine the enemy.
The Feel Of The Game
From the hands-on impressions making the rounds and the videos that have seen the light of day, this is still a Call of Duty game through and through. It looks smooth and full of action. Like Call of Duty: World at War for this generation. Content creators are gushing.
Here’s an interesting look at the flamethrower gameplay:
The Betas
-The first multiplayer beta will be a PS4 exclusive and will kick off August 25th and end on August 28th.
-The second beta will be on Xbox One and PS4. It goes from September 1st through September 4th.
Until those betas drop, the only big multiplayer reveal that remains is everyone’s favorite — Nazi Zombies. Sledgehammer has gone out of its way to build up the reveal through a series of cryptic hints, so hopefully we can enjoy those through the summer as we get closer to the betas.
Call of Duty: WW2 launches on November 3rd.
(h/t Charlie Intel)