You can’t go home again is not just a book I haven’t read, it’s also a feeling I’ve had about the Call of Duty series as it returns to the “boots on the ground” combat of World War II. In the franchise’s latest entry, players take the role of an American warfighter in the European theater. This is a return to the origins of Call of Duty, but publisher Activision and developer Sledgehammer Games have not found the welcoming and warm embrace of familiarity with this game. Instead, they’ve made a game that doesn’t fit with 2017 — especially when it comes to portraying racism in the U.S. military during the war.
I have a lot of problems with the storytelling in Call of Duty: WWII. Most of my issues stem from how it sets up plots and then follows them through (or doesn’t). These include major narrative elements like an inexplicably, impossibly grumpy officer who gets an unearned redemption just before the final battle. And it also includes minor plot points like a Jewish American soldier who shows you he wears a Catholic charm that is never mentioned again — even when it would’ve saved his life.
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