Call of Duty: WWII returns the series to the health-bar era after years of regenerating health, and the change works because medkits are everywhere. The Normandy beach landing opens the campaign as a brutal set-piece, with everyone getting torn apart on the sand.
The squad-ability system is the standout, letting each soldier provide grenades, a mortar strike, enemy spotting, health kits or ammo. Zusman’s healing proves the most useful in practice, and the abilities give the squad a real tactical identity.
The Pearson and Turner dynamic is the campaign’s emotional core, with the hard-ass sergeant and the good-guy officer bouncing off each other throughout. The Paris undercover mission, with its dossier, passphrase and pickpocketed key, is the most memorable stretch.
The tank mission at Aachen and the sniper feel add variety, with headshots landing as a satisfying reward. The snowy-forest ambush deliberately echoes the original Call of Duty’s equivalent sequence, and the surrender mechanic removes the need to shoot every routed soldier.
The stick-movement quick-time events are awkward, demanding analog wiggles where a button press would do. The flight and escort controls are heavy and sluggish, yet the enemy craft turn on a dime.
Launch problems required a fallback to the Windows desktop, and the mission-select screen feels needlessly clunky. Weapons change drastically between missions, and picked-up guns carry surprisingly little ammo, while the four-medkit cap keeps the healing supply tight.
Overall, the squad abilities and the character work make WWII a strong return to the series’ roots. The awkward quick-time events and the sluggish flight controls are the main caveats.