Call of Duty WWII is Dividing Fans of "Classic" Call of Duty Games
In a franchise with so many games, which entries are even considered "classic"?
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Call of Duty WWII finished one beta this weekend and players are mostly torn over the classic experience Sledgehammer Games is gunning for with the first Call of Duty game set in World War II in almost nine years. After such a long time away from the more classic setting (and classic feeling) of Call of Duty, fans are mostly debating whether or not stepping back into the past is a step forward for the franchise. Or maybe Call of Duty already crossed a point of no return after the more modern settings of the franchise.
The last time Call of Duty visited the European theater was back in 2008 with Call of Duty: World at War. Since then, the franchise experimented with modern warfare before moving onto future wars that included bigger, and faster gameplay experiences.
There are those who say that while Call of Duty WWII still retains some of the faster aspects of the modern Call of Duty games, it's still a refreshing throwback to the older, slower Call of Duty games.
Call of Duty WWII is also attracting players who skipped the last couple games, which helps show that even if the series continues to sell millions of copies, recent changes to the game have definitely alienated older generations of fans.
That doesn't mean Call of Duty WWII isn't without modern flourishes, like an emphasis on smaller, faster-paced maps. In fact, one of the big requests coming out of the beta was for larger, 12 v 12 battle modes which lends itself to bigger, more methodical matches.
Food for thought: it seems that Call of Duty fans are resigned to the fact that games in the series won't feature massive 12 v 12 multiplayer like their counterparts in Battlefield and Halo. Whether this is something that makes Call of Duty unique, or shows the growing pains of the franchise remains to be seen.
Another contentious subject is in regards to killstreaks, which over the course of the series has become bigger and deadlier. While killstreaks are back in WWII, they're limited to WWII levels of destruction.
If anything, the Call of Duty WWII reddit is already drawing battlelines across players who prefer the modern Call of Duty games, the classic Call of Duty games, and somehow a series of even older Call of Duty games. It's all a bit confusing, but maybe that's just because there are so many damn games in the Call of Duty franchise. What even constitutes as "classic" in such a long-running series?
While the Call of Duty games probably won't ever be like the older games in the series that predate Call of Duty Modern Warfare or World at War, WWII is a different beast than games like Infinite Warfare and Ghost. The question is whether or not this game further splits the Call of Duty community.