As silly as loot crates raining down onto the Normandy beaches in Call of Duty: WWII may be, the most tangible silver lining in the push towards ‘games as a service’ seems to be a move away from DLC and season passes as the one and only way to expand a game post-release.
It seems that every major multiplayer shooter – from Overwatch to Battlefront 2 – is running some variety of winter event this year to keep eyes on the game. Call of Duty: WWII’s offering looks like it may be one of the better this season, from now until January 2nd.
How fitting that Call of Duty: WWII had landed in the middle of enemy territory, surrounded on all sides by amazing FPS games. Don’t like your war old-school? You’ve got plenty to pick from.
The event is now live, and for the next month you can grab yourself a free loot box once every few days, plus a variety of perks by completing bonus objectives and bounties posted. Among the earnable rewards are a set of winter variant guns, including a snow-covered Sten, a bandage-wrapped Gewehr 43, and an icy GPMG, all of which you can requisition from Captain Butcher, temporary quartermaster for the event.
The biggest perk of this event is time-limited global access for all to a snowy winter variant of the Carentan map. The original, non-snowy version was previously a perk for pre-ordering the season pass for the game, but at least for the time being, everyone can get to play around in this familiar old map, a throwback reference to the original Call of Duty.
Winter Siege also sees the return of the fan-favourite Gun Game mode, a Call of Duty staple, and a surprising omission from the base game. Starting out with the weakest pistol in the game, players scramble across the map to score kills, each frag providing you with an instant upgrade to a fancier (if not always better) weapon. The winner is the first to smack another square in the face with a rocket launcher – how better to end a match than to send someone else out with a bang?
You can read up on the full Winter Siege schedule for the game here, and check out our full review here, if you’re still on the fence.