Awesome Things You Didn't Know About Call Of Duty: WW2

Before you even say anything, I know that Call of Duty has one of the worst reputations in the entire gaming community. The only game that's received more flak recently, at least to my memory, is Star Wars Battlefront 2. Why is that? Well, at this point in time, gamers are pretty much fed up of being treated like trash by AAA developers who are grabbing at money like they're contestants in one of those money hurricane machine things you see on game shows. Gamers are sick of buying incomplete games, season passes, loot crates, and grinding for rewards that really just aren't worth it.

While not perfect, Call of Duty: WWII changes (or at least messes with) the stereotype assigned to most games in that series. It's a total game changer! Call of Duty is back to its roots; it's brutal, rewarding, fast-paced, skill-based, and has great combat that really we've all been missing all this time. The roots of Call of Duty are what we often forget. The original games, Modern Warfare, and World at War were just great games. But, much like EA, Call of Duty lost its way somewhere along the way. This game is a return to the series' AAA status, and it's worth the pickup.

Still not convinced? Here's some awesome things you didn't know about the new Call of Duty that may or may not sway you one way or the other. Is there anything awesome about the game that we missed? Let us know!

25 It Doesn’t Actually Suck

Right?? I'm honestly just as shocked as you are. I've been playing Call of Duty games for years, usually renting them from Redbox. Generally, I immediately realize why I don' actually buy those games. I got WWII on a whim, and as a World War II movie and history buff, I expected it to feel a little bit disappointing. I'll be darned if I'm not actually having a blast playing this game. The gunplay is great, the new game modes are entertaining, and the progression is satisfying. It's not a horrible Call of Duty game, and I'm just as surprised as you are.

24 Microtransactions Aren’t As Pushy

Microtransactions really make me want to take a gun. I just put down $60-100 for your game with the deluxe crap that I really don't want or need. Call of Duty is actually known for having one of the worst reputations for microtransactions, but this latest game really changes that for the better. I've played probably about 6 hours or so of multiplayer, and I've never once had to buy an XP boost, or found some guy utterly wrecking everyone with a DLC gun. I've felt zero pressure to buy into extra stuff. Sure, loot boxes and supply crates are a big thing these days, but this game actually rewards you with them rather than make you spend $1.99 every time you want to roll for that weapon skin. Hopefully this trend continues.

23 Taking It To The Big Leagues

Major League Gaming has always been paired up with whatever Call of Duty game is out at the time. Whether it's Search and Destroy on a tournament bracket or even just TDM, Call of Duty is a AAA game that finds itself at the helm of professional gaming. With the addition of the MLG Playlist, they've opened up the tournaments and their rewards to the console players at home, who'll probably learn a humbling experience. This introduction shows that the franchise is seeing the trends in the gaming community, and is opening up a world that was honestly difficult to ender beforehand.

22 It’s Not As Historically Accurate As You Think, But It Knows That

Sometimes, games alter history but try to defend their reasoning. There's nothing like increasing a fire-rate or weapon accuracy so that it stands up to other current shooters. WWII has some masterful replications of the classic arms used in the real war, all while being realistic with what gamers actually expect. For example, the M1 Garand keeps it real with the magazine, while also putting the ability to have a reflex sight on the cannon. Now, I don't need to tell you that that wasn't the technology back them, but there's a lot of things like that in this game that just don't add up. It's a historical game, but it's one that's really aware that it's a game. By substituting some photorealism for practicality, we end up with a smoother game.

21 Emblem Art Is Pretty Realistic

Everyone knows that you can edit emblems to your heart's content in any Call of Duty game past Black Ops, but what makes this game even better is that some of the emblems are homages to actual 1940s war cartoons, comics, and propaganda. Whether it's Rosie the Riveter ("We Can Do It" pistol grips) or the art style behind the Dog emblem, this game nails the type of propaganda of the time and really brings the vintage and nostalgic feel of the game to an all-time peak. Hear that, hipsters? Vintage! Now all of you are going to flock to get COD, even if you're rocking a handlebar moustache and listening to indie rock.

20 Public Vs. Ranked

While no one's surprised when they see a Ranked mode in a game, it's still nice and worth noting that Call of Duty is making the transition between ranked and unranked play. Some of us hardcore gamers really like being in a ranked list, where you hope that everyone is playing the game seriously, working together, and getting that sweet win. Even the most gangster or metal gamers sometimes want to sit down and play a casual public match without being paranoid about their KDR or win/loss ratio, blowing three hours playing instead of doing whatever work they have to do, more like what gaming was originally designed for.

19 Less Gun Options

Now, I know when you first see this it sounds like a negative, but it's something you didn't know and are actually going to be happy about. What's important in a FPS game is weapon balancing, not the number of weapon options. This isn't Borderlands with a million and one variations on the same few classic weapons. These are the main weapons used in WWII, stripped down to bare bones. There aren't 15 different bolt action rifles that differ based on what team you're on; there's five core snipers that were most commonly used. This gets rid of the usual COD standard of, "Well, these are the 3 guns that kill people," and instead balances the weapons nicely. Instead of a million "meh" weapons, you have closer to 25 solid weapons that operate, feel, and react differently in combat.

18 Less Customization? No Problem

Say goodbye to your thermal optics, heartbeat sensors, master-key underbarrel shotguns, and threat detectors, because most of the customization in this game is basic. Again, it sounds bad, but it's not. In other games, there is so much variation of customizable weaponry that many spend the entire game trying to make their shotgun a sniper rifle. WWII goes back to the basics: you want a shotgun? Fine. Pick a shotgun, you wannabe skeet shooter. By getting rid of hybrid sights and some of the modern tactical equipment, you end up having weapons that are not as versatile as modern arms... making you, much like the soldiers who carried these weapons, have to be innovative and adaptive when targets are outside of your weapon's range.

17 Classic Guns Mean Classic Combat

Modern M4-A1 rifles are packing 30+ round magazines, with accurate ballistics, advanced rifling, recoil compensation, tactical grip, and on top of that tactical training for modern combat. WWII weapons were not this advanced, and the tactics of using soldiers that were drafted means the need for boots on the ground is greater than the need for specialized training. M1s had 8 round, semi-automatic, .30-06 rounds. That's a big gun, with no ammo capacity, and a ton of recoil. In other COD games you can start shooting before you round the corner and have more than enough left in your magazine to wreck someone. If you don't choose your shots and properly learn your weapon's strengths and weaknesses, you're gonna find yourself reloading while a bayonet pokes your spine.

16 The Blood Physics

Now, this one is a little detail, but the blood in this game makes me so happy. So many games get blood physics and the look of blood wrong, but WWII shines with its visceral vicious vein viscosity. When a dude takes a sniper shot to the gut, not only does he crumble and bleed but his jacket gets saturated with blood. Which is how blood works! It's really wet! Mostly wet! And this is one of the only games I've ever watched my character bleed out and go, "I'll be darned if that ain't pretty blood." They really got this one right.

15 Mute All Button

Thank you, COD! My prayers have been answered. Now, I don't know about you handsome and/or beautiful people, but when I find enough time to sit down and blast Nazis back into the depths of hell, the last thing I wanna hear is some 13-year-old telling me what my mom's late night activities were. I used to have to go through and manually mute each player during or before every match so I could hear myself think, but now the game gods gave COD a quick "mute all" button. YES. Or better yet, YASSS. Now all the squeakers, trolls, and any kind of social interaction gets to go the way of the dinosaurs.

14 Technically, You Don’t Ever Have To Be The Bad Guys

Fun fact: technically in multiplayer you never have to specifically be a Nazi. I mean, if you're a complete jerk who needs to imagine himself as one of Hitler's little robots of hate and anti-semitism in order to play COD, then sure... when you're Axis you can make yourself one. And while you're at it, how bout you just light your PS4 on fire? If you're a stickler to historical accuracy then yeah, some of you gotta play Axis. What's nice is not seeing a hate symbol in the bottom corner while playing, and for your character to have a German/Russian combination of accents to support you in your fascist ways. I think it's a nice touch to not force players to be these guys and let them play their morally and nationally ambiguous Axis characters.

13 Announcer Voices: Allied And Axis

Guys and gals and apache helicopters, you're in for a treat. The announcers in this game bring you back to the days of old, where the gaming announcers in game have the same ability to motivate you as the pursuit of gaining the scalps of bad guys. Now, this game's announcers almost have a Shaxx from Destiny 2 level of love for combat, constantly cheering you on with either a country accent and encouragement or cold German precision. Either way, the announcers stand out in a way that makes the game feel even more authentic and downright awesome.

By adding a social space, gaming companies add a place for gamers with a common interest to gather, discuss tactics, and... oh god... I couldn't make it through that with a straight face. It's a hub of shenanigans, and it's awesome. If you didn't know, the HQ is the equivalent of Destiny's Tower, PUBG's pre-airdrop area, and PlayStation Home. Yeah, forgot about that little hiccup in the PS3's history, didn't you? Regardless, the HQ is a shenanigans party. Whether it's the ever popular butt-scoot races, or simply flaunting your supply drops in front of others and waving your rewards in their jealous little faces, it's a fun place. Check out the firing range before you drop into combat too; learning your weapon is actually kinda fun in there.

11 Zombies Has Character Classes

Zombies now has four main classes: offense, control, support, and medic. Now you can specialize your post-apocalyptic playtime with some tactical and class based advantages to get you through the wave after wave of zombies. The character classes will help you against the redesigned and new zombie types that will require you to think on your feet, and as always, make sure you pack a punch. The zombies made their debut in World at War and have been a selling point and staple for the COD series since then. But WWII has made the zombies return to their former glory and reminds us why we started playing zombies to begin with.

10 Loot Box Weapons

With any game with microtransactions or loot boxes, it's always good to know that the rewards received within the supply drops are skins. So when you see that someone unlocked the "Rookie II" version of the M1, you can unrustle your jimmies and know that this gives zero stat-based weapon enhancements, and is nothing more than a reskinned version of the weapon. While these are still pretty awesome and cool to come across, the most the skins will do is give you a weapon based XP boost which will reduce your grind to get FMJ or Steady Aim, but there's no OP guns or unbalanced pay-to-win weaponry. That being said, the M1 is OP as heck.

9 Party 1v1

Alright, this feature is really cool. When you find yourself exploring the wilds of the HQ social space in WWII, make your way (with your grouped up homies) to the beach-head, where you'll see a pitched tent with leaderboards for your group. One of those leaderboards has a 1v1 playlist for your group. Essentially, you can all "sign up" to prove who the gangster is in your group. 1v1 Close Quarters Map, winner stays, loser gets swapped out. This is a fun way to assert dominance in your group with good old fashioned gladiatorial arena combat. Choosing the next game mode has never been so fun.

8 Steps To Improve Toxicity

I hate dropping quotes, but when speaking with the Guardian, Corey from Sledgehammer Games said that the system “represents the number of commendations other players give you for being a good member of the community." You can be friendly, welcoming, and helpful but maaaybe not the best domination player, and people can still commend you when they see you. You get more rewards the higher your social score. Okay, so, maybe people won't use this in the right way, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt, okay?

7 Test Your Scorestreak

When you're done with your 1v1 fighting, butt scooting, rifle qualifying, and prestige of weaponry, there's one other thing to screw around with in WWII that will improve your effectiveness in the field. You can actually test the scorestreak options on the beach-head, to hone your skills with each one. Sure, seems hard to mess up a mortar strike, but after a few practice rounds on the beach, you'll find your effectiveness and kill ratio with each scorestreak increases astronomically. Plus, if you don't get the higher point scorestreaks because you're garbage, this may be your only chance at the higher tier rewards, you poor, poor person.

6 Your Division, Your Play Style

Division is an early choice, but fret not, you can unlock others later that will impact your gameplay a little differently than your standard COD game. Rather than your classic perks system (#BringBackStoppingPower), you'll now pick a Division (Infantry, Airborne, Armored, Mountaineer, Expeditionary) and as you level up your Division you'll be rewarded with the perks you're used to. For example, Infantry means you get the built-in bayonet attachment, extra mags, faster movement when ADS... etc, while with Airborne, you'll get an SMG suppressor, faster sprint, faster vaulting, etc. The attachments will supplement the primary weapon for that class, and the abilities should help for a play style that supports the weaponry. Don't worry, you can still be Infantry with an SMG, or Armored without the LMG.