Considering the poor stigma and accusations of unoriginality associated with World War II shooters just a few years ago, it’s almost odd to think that if one of the industry’s publishing powerhouses were to release a WWII shooter today it would actually be a refreshing change of pace.
With the lines between what distinguishes one modern day shooter and another continuing to blur as the current crop of shooters refuse to budge from their me-too contemporary settings, a bone fide AAA WWII shooter would be, for want of a better word, bizarrely unique amongst the shelf-loads of sandy brown same-fests.
It was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that really set the tone for the modern combat shooters that dominate the discussion today. Interestingly, Infinity Ward had actually wanted to work on a modern combat game for years.
“With Call of Duty 2, we were dead set against it being World War II,” former Infinity Ward CEO Vince Zampella told OPM UK back in 2009, "but Activision really wanted it, the compromise sort of being that we'd get some dev kits for consoles in exchange for doing a World War II game.”
“And something I'll add to that, Activision also did not want Modern Warfare. They thought working on a modern game was risky and [thought], 'Oh my god you can't do that, it's crazy!' They were doing market research to show us we were wrong the whole time.”
“We had to fight for everything,” added former president and CTO Jason West, who along with Zampella was famously ousted from the company in 2010. "They wanted it to be World War II. Again.”
Around 14 million copies later the signature on World War II’s death warrant was signed. It would no longer be the shooter setting of choice.
It’s tough to be too sore about it; publishers had been traipsing back and forth across the same WWII battlefields for years. For gamers exhausted with typical WWII scenarios repeated ad nauseam, modern combat was the new hotness.
Several years on, however, there’s been a role reversal. Today I sit, fatigued with modern soldiering and desperate for one of the genre juggernauts to step back in time. I know I’m not alone. Together we know now how those of you who passionately embrace modern day shooters must have felt back then, faced with an onslaught of WWII shooters.
By that same token, though, those same gamers should probably be able to sympathise with how WWII junkies feel today.
It’s been a long time since the last top-tier WWII shooter. Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway was released way back in 2008, as was Call of Duty: World at War. Both excellent games. Since then, there’s been little to speak of. The passable Wolfenstein came out the following year, as did Battlefield 1943. The latter was online multiplayer only. There’s 2011’s Red Orchestra 2, but it’s only available for PC and the single-player is more-or-less just training for the game’s fairly intimidating multiplayer.
Outside of first-person shooters there have been the likes of The Saboteur and Sniper Elite V2. Still, The Saboteur’s charming yet exaggerated approach to the war doesn’t really share the same page with something like Hell’s Highway, and Sniper Elite V2 doesn’t offer a great deal beyond its sharpshooting shtick. Once you’ve put a thirty-aught-six slug through a German man’s wedding vegetables you’ve basically seen most of what it has to offer.
They’re few and far between. Worst still, there’s very little on the horizon. Sniper Elite 3 is taking the war to North Africa (which is a welcome change of scenery) but it’s a way off. There hasn’t been any sight of City Interactive’s CryENGINE 3-based Enemy Front for months. We’ve heard barely a whisper about Gearbox’s Furious 4 since it was announced back at E3 2011 as a Brothers in Arms game. Speaking of Brothers in Arms, where has that series vanished to? Gearbox has said we haven’t seen the last of Matt Baker and company but, for now, there’s silence.
Why do publishers seem so disinclined to revisit WWII? Well, the difference that stepping 70 odd years into the past would make to multiplayer would be stark. With multiplayer being the leading component of today’s shooters, such a drastic shift is a big red flag.
It’s a shame, really. Call of Duty: World at War notched up over 11 million sales, but it’s tough to imagine the series going back anytime soon. It’s disappointing, personally. It was actually a glimpse of the original Call of Duty expansion pack United Offensive back in 2004 that got me back into PC gaming after a several year hiatus, and Call of Duty 2 remains my favourite of the series. Call of Duty’s multinational approach always seemed to be the perfect environment to tell stories inspired by the many, many theatres of battle WWII encompassed.
The Medal of Honor series has been yanked out of rotation after a lacklustre performance by Warfighter. Will we ever see a resurrection of the series as it was first crafted? Skulking about behind enemy lines, slipping onto U-boats and into rowdy bars filled with drunken German soldiers, false papers in hand to trick our way past over-zealous guards? I’m not counting the sleeps.
Who are we fighting again in Battlefield 4? Can we not just go back to Nazis? Everyone hates those guys.
World War II games were really their own worst enemy. There’s never been a reason for them to hit so many of the same tropes. There’s more to the Second World War than just a Normandy beach landing or a slog through debris-laden Berlin streets. It was a conflict that spanned continents. Recounts of incredible events that occurred during WWII could fill entire libraries, yet 99.9% of these tales remain untold in video games.
Maybe the advent of the next generation will bring with it an emotionally potent and powerful WWII shooter or several. Something new. Something filled with incredible action inspired by the era’s greatest unknown stories. Or maybe it’ll just bring us more of what we’re getting already, with a few more polygons and red dot sights crammed in.
What are you after?
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can find him on IGN here or on Twitter @MrLukeReilly, or chat with him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.
Source : ign[dot]com
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