Update August 23, 2017: COD: WW2’s Headquarters mode has got its own trailer.
The new footage from Gamescom gives us a closer look at everything you’ll be able to do in the game’s new social space. Something we didn’t know before: you can practise your scorestreaks, including strafing runs in a fighter plane.
Here’s everything we know about COD: WW2 so far.
There’s also a brief peek at the shooting range and the new Prestige ceremony with the general. I see a trench with combat against other players – perhaps a live fire exercise, along the lines of The Pit from Modern Warfare II, but with competition?
It looks impressively fully-featured, either way. Check it out above.
Original story June 23, 2017:You may have heard that Call of Duty: WWII is getting a genuinely new feature for the long-running shooter series: a social space, named Headquarters. Michael Condrey, co-founder of developers Sledgehammer, has now discussed how it’ll work, and where the idea came from: World of Warcraft.
“Remember the first time you went to Orgrimmar in World of Warcraft?” Condrey says, enthusing about the bustle of WoW’s cities, the players showing off their max ranks, gifting each other things, checking their mail, and so on. “That sense of community was something we felt Call of Duty hadn’t capitalised on yet. That’s what our attempt with Headquarters is.”
When you first start COD: WWII’s multiplayer, you’ll spawn in Headquarters, which is set on Normandy beach three days after D-Day. According to Condrey, that’s roughly when the Allies had turned their hard-won beachhead into a rear base: “They had turned it into where soldiers landed in Normandy. They would go and pick up their gear, they would go to the mess hall, the soldiers had a recreational theatre, they would go to the firing range and train and compete and be social.”
You can check in with your superior officers to pick up quests of various kinds. Some will task you to succeed in multiplayer, while others will be social: “It might be a quest that sends you to the Nazi zombies experience, or compete in the 1v1, or create your first emblem,” Condrey says.
Headquarters itself offers its own distractions. Up to 48 other players can appear in the same instance, and you can chat with them vocally, via text, or through the medium of “era-appropriate” emotes, like saluting. You can also visit the firing range, a 1v1 duelling pit, or check out the leaderboards (which will track performance in seemingly everything).
Then there’s the new commending system, which Sledgehammer have designed to incentivise a more positive community. You can commend other players for their skill at the game, for creating a slick-looking emblem, or – imagine this – just for being nice. Commending others will drive your social score, and a higher social score will bring rewards, such as new gear, title cards, or medals. In short, Sledgehammer are trying to make COD players be nice to each other.
Finally, Headquarters is also the place where you’ll Prestige – in a ceremony with the general on a bluff overlooking the beach, amidst great fanfare. Sledgehammer are even considering seasonal events. It’s bold stuff, and I really wonder how such a characteristically MMO import will fit in a multiplayer shooter.
Head over to Eurogamer to read their interview in full.