Free Post - Review of COD: WWII

          I recently picked up Call of Duty: WWII, the newest installment of the long-running Call of Duty video game series. As I've already put in about 25 hours into the game since I purchased it a few days prior to Thanksgiving, I have been able to collect sufficient information to accurately put it against the standards set by previous installments in the series, namely COD: World at War (2008). In this mini-review, I will address several points about what has improved, what has not, and the several controversially significant appendages to this game that has made it stand out in the series among the community. 

          Although I would rather not begin on a bad note, a major point that is on nearly every online forum addresses a severe issue with the servers. Frequent crashing, bugs, and other technical issues have plagued the online services of the game, but personally, this is more minor to me as it is easily fixed by restarting the program (which only takes about 10 seconds realistically speaking). On the positive side, I have heavily enjoyed the historic approach that the series took with this game, returning to the series' original WWII setting. The campaign (a single-player, story-driven game mode), although rather short, does create an immersive--albeit not quite realistic--adventure for the player. The famous Nazi Zombies mode (a cooperative mode in which the player(s) survive for as long as possible against waves of gory zombies) has retained some familiar aspects: combinations of big and small maps (in-game worlds), "Wonder" (special) weapons, and interactive "Easter Eggs". Being a major component in COD Zombies in the recent installments, the Easter Eggs were less exciting than what I had expected (and much shorter). Moving on to the largest component of COD games in general, the PvP (player vs. player) multiplayer has been an addicting experience for me. Although the community is still displeased with the server issues and microtransactions, the gameplay itself has been a somewhat-blissful yet somewhat-rage-inducing yet awe-inspiring experience for me. The introduction of "Divisions", the return to "boots-on-the-ground" style, and the familiarity with iconic WWII-era firearms has made me more-than-content with this game. Moreover, despite microtransactions still present as aforementioned, they all simply contain cosmetic collectibles and upgrades (no gameplay advantage), so it is much less of a "pay-to-win" style COD. Overall, using an IGN scale, I would rate this game 9.3 out of 10 for its immersive campaign, somewhat-compelling Zombies mode, and traditional COD multiplayer mode.