There’s nothing wrong with the guns themselves, but the cover fire tasks you’re assigned are often tedious.

Rockets are somewhat rare – and fun, as blowing things into smithereens is always satisfying – but the sniping was more of a chore than a treat. Aside from mowing down Nazis with all manner of guns, Daniels is also charged with manning specialty weapons like rocket launchers and sniper rifles. The only gun I was in a hurry to drop is the default pistol, especially when I came across a rare rifle that had an attachable grenade launcher or shotgun with incendiary shells. Generally, though, WW2’s weaponry is effective but well-worn – this game isn’t rewriting history, so it’s pretty much all weaponry we’ve seen before in dozens of other games set in this period. Even without fancy sights or scopes, the rifles felt best in the predominantly medium to large firefight areas. “They all use a similar set of tools, though, and the M1A1 Carbine was my best friend by the time I finished the campaign.

Overall, teamwork is a nice substitution for technology. It’s a tradeoff, as I found I had to stay close to them to redeem their perks, limiting my movement a bit. Daniels’ teammates each have an item ability – ammo, grenades, enemy callouts, artillery strikes, first aid kits – that charges up as you kill enemies, and they certainly pulled their weight as I called on them to resupply me in battle.

Instead of relying on exosuits and drones for assistance to turn you into a one-man army, you depend on a squad to behave like an actual army. But WW2 doesn’t leave you high and dry when it comes to equipment and options. It’s refreshing: it felt good to be a little grounded, vulnerable, and have a less flashy HUD. It does require a bit more patience in identifying targets, more accurate shooting without the assistance of a variety of high-tech scopes and sights, and it tacks on a campaign exclusive health bar for Daniels that requires constant attention, but enemies still drop fast and I still needed to keep constantly moving to stay alive. Taking a step away from a long stint of futuristic shooters – including last year’s far-future Infinite Warfare – this Call of Duty understandably loses a lot of the past games’ verticality and speed, but that’s not to say that combat is slow. “The 1944 European setting definitely provides for an interesting Call of Duty experience.

G2a call of duty world war 2