Call Of Duty: WWII - 5 Ways It Will Blow Battlefield Out The Water
The tide of battle is about to turn.
Some might say it's come a year too late, but Call of Duty is about to return to a genre it once ruled to recapture the territory it's lost to enemy franchise Battlefield.
Since Black Ops introduced fans to techy warfare, CoD has gradually shifted from historical conflicts to futuristic battlefields, and the results have been divisive.
Last year's Infinite Warfare, with its space skirmishes and zero-gravity prancing, didn't resonate with the fans, while Battlefield 1 boldly marched into a new theatre of war.
But the voices of discontent haven't fallen upon deaf ears at developer Sledgehammer Games, which has boiled CoD down to its essence and taken it back to where it all began - the muddy, bloody trenches of World War II.
The incoming Call of Duty: WWII marks a return to the 'boots-on-the-ground' approach that made the early instalments first-person shooter dynamite, and the Battlefield camp should be worried about the firepower it's packing.
The game picks up towards the end of the global conflict, chronicling the downfall of Nazism and the battles which led to Germany’s eventual surrender. We can't wait to fight them on the beaches... again.
5. A Richer Period Setting
All credit to Battlefield for exploring one of gaming's underrepresented conflicts in World War I, but Call of Duty: WWII promises to deliver a more explosive frontline experience against a setting the series has owned in the past.
During World War II, the stakes were higher, the battles were bigger and the weaponry was more advanced, varied and punch-packing.
Although Battlefield 1 succeeded in bringing us an authentic depiction of the bulky, clunky firearms of WWI, CoD's tools of the trade will be a welcome upgrade.
Obviously, WWI had its fair share of epic battles for the Battlefield development team to cherrypick from, but will any of it really compare to storming the beaches of Normandy with the power of current-generation console hardware behind you?
It's going to be Call of Duty's year, simply because the series is now playing on home turf following its return to the WWII backdrop.
This is where it cut its teeth, naturally belongs, and reshaped a genre all those years ago. Sure, we've been here before, but the time feels right to go back.