A single player WWII campaign is nothing new in the world of gaming, it’s been done plenty of times, but in the upcoming Call of Duty: WWII you know they’re going to try to take it to the next level and go all out.
In a live stream, Sledgehammer revealed information about how they’re doing motion capture for the game, and also revealed that it will include the Battle of the Bulge in the campaign, which was Germany’s last major campaign on the offense, and took place from 16 December 1944 until 25 January 1945.
The Germans overwhelmed with nearly half a million troops, over a thousand tanks, and artillery. It’s estimated that between 67,200 and 125,000 of the German troops were killed, missing, or wounded during the surprise attack. Thousands of American and Allied lives were lost in the battle, and Wikipedia says “It was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II.”
Such a huge scale event makes an interesting scene for a game, but it’s also something they’ll have to handle very carefully as well, since it’s such a huge tragedy and such a massive loss of life. They’re certainly not going to glorify things, they want to put you in the middle of it and creative director Bret Robbins says you’ll often be reminded that “you’re not a super soldier.”
When asked if players would play as Axis soldiers during the campaign, Robbins said:
“We’ll save that one for later,”
So far, the upcoming Call of Duty has gotten a much better reception than other recent titles in the franchise. Fans have been waiting for something like this for a long time, and all signs point to Sledgehammer delivering.