Traditionally these games have ignored the topic entirely. One of those tough questions is how a game about World War II deals with the Holocaust. Without strong emotional hooks, even major deaths in the game fell flat - a mere hiccup in my conquest to take down the Reich. War movies hinge on the bonds you form with the characters, lending their sacrifice weight and meaning. Unfortunately the rest of the cast manages to blend into a forgettable mash, even though it’s clear that a late-game turn for one of them is designed to show some unearned depth. That bond features prominently throughout the game, in intense heart-to-hearts and bro-ing down. The only character that inspires even a modest emotional response is the kid from Chicago, who becomes your bosom compadre when you save his life in the very first mission. His squadmates include some familiar war story tropes: a nerdy, bespectacled photog a smart-ass, tough-as-nails Jewish kid from Chicago and a gruff, “orders above all else” sergeant played by Josh Duhamel.
You play as a private in the famed 1st Division, a country boy from Texas who, between missions, shoots the shit with the boys about girls back home and what they wish they were doing instead of fighting. If you’ve seen Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan or frankly any other World War II flick made during the last 30 years, you’ll be trekking over familiar ground in the Call of Duty: WWII campaign.
That desire to tell a realistic, compassionate story is constantly at odds with the desire to make an engaging first-person shooter in which the player cuts through hordes of generic foot-soldiers. In a lot of ways it attempts to reboot the series as a more grounded, more sober military shooter that’s less Michael Bay and more Ken Burns. Call of Duty: WWII is a return to the original recipe, the first game set during the Second World War in 10 years.
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