Call of Duty: World War 2 is going to be a significant entry in the first person shooter series for a lot of reasons, but the one that comes to mind more than most is the fact that this is the game that brings Call of Duty back to its World War II roots, back where the series first made a name for itself. And obviously, having just delved into the sci-fi genre with the likes of Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare, WWII is going to a be a bit of a culture shock for some players. Going from jetpacks and robots to beach stormings and old-school rifles can’t be that easy, after all.
In an interview with GamesRadar, when Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condrey was asked about the jump from the current futuristic arsenal and weapons set to a more grounded, old-school collection of weapons, he said that authenticity has been a driving force for the development team.
“This arsenal of World War 2 weapons and the signatures of those weapons were really uniquely defined,” said Condrey. “Obviously we have the classics that people know and love like the SMG44 and the Garand, the rifles, the SMGs like the Thompson or the Grease Gun – but clearly shotguns and LMGs meant things and the battlefields would respond.
“And so we have some really unique map designs that take advantage of those,” he continued. “They’re very different than what we created on Advanced Warfare, absolutely – and we get to take those from real, iconic locations from around the globe, real battles that happened from D-Day to Aachen, right? There’s so many real varied engagements in World War 2 that really lend itself well to saying ‘Hey, these were real battle sites, they were very different in their strategy and we have a real world arsenal of weapons that you will have to manage in order to be successful there.'”
Call of Duty: WWII is scheduled for release later this year for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Stay tuned for continued coverage on the game.