The conclusion of Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 earlier this year wrapped up a 6 year streak of completed Call of Duty titles.
Call of Duty : Modern Warfare did not have trophy support when it was released back in 2007, but it was where this journey began.
Full completions for World at War, Modern Warfare 2, Blacks Op 1, Modern Warfare 3 and finally, Black Ops 2 all eventually followed - and I vowed to never play a Call of Duty title again.
I've stayed true to that word since, mostly. However, Call of Duty : WWII, released 5 years after Black Ops 2, is the anomaly in the collection. Reason? I always had a soft spot the World War 2 era, so felt like it was worth revisiting, just for a little bit of personal nostalgia.
The game is broken down into 3 main offerings - A World War 2 campaign, Online Multiplayer and of course, Zombies. The origins of Call of Duty games were all about a strong campaign offering, and this is another decent outing, with a story that focuses on a squadron as you play out their part within the Second World War, told through a series of different missions that throw up plenty of variety. Standard ground-based combat is accompanied by the opportunity to control tanks, dogfights and play out some famous World War 2 set-pieces.
It's short, as it usually is, but it captures authenticity well, and many of the missions are based off real experiences.
The Multiplayer also follows a fairly traditional blueprint. Multiple different game modes, mainly 6 v 6, but other variants added and removed from rotation at certain points. It's also the first time I've experienced the Multiplayer component of a Call of Duty title having been shown some love within the trophy list too.
Zombies is still just Zombies - A quirky alternative game-mode that prides itself on Easter Eggs and a mysterious backstory tying them all together, but is ultimately different compared to previous iterations. The noticeable progress of Zombies would make sense, given the fact there are 5 years between Black Ops 2 and WWII, and it does feel like a much different experience that has gone through the natural course of evolution. Gameplay actually feels way less hectic and much smoother than previously, which ultimately works out for the best, but it is also still where the hardest part of this trophy list resides.
Speaking of which, there are 51 trophies in this list, spread across all 3 aforementioned game modes, and there's something to touch upon within each.
The Campaign mode stretches across 11 missions, and this is where the bulk of the list is focused, where a whopping 35 of the 50 trophies are obtained.
The "Distinguished Service" trophy, awarded for Completing the game on Veteran difficulty, is the main standout trophy within this large grouping, and has become a staple for Call of Duty games.
Beating the Campaign on Veteran has previously gone down in infamy, but this did gradually become a watered down experience after the dizzying heights of World at War. I was intrigued to see if anything had changed whilst I was gone, but if anything, it's actually become easier than it ever has, and this is down to a couple of notable differences within the game mechanics.
The automatic health regeneration system is gone, and has now been replaced with a request feature. Your squadron will all have specified roles, whether this is to supply you with ammunition, first-aid or air support, and these can be requested on demand as your progress through each mission. If you're low on health, tap the corresponding prompt on the d-pad, and you'll be issued a med-kit by the medic, which makes it much easier to stay healthy compared to having to duck for cover and pray you can recover health quickly enough via regeneration. It's a more realistic system, but on-demand med-kits to heal up instantly, and air support to quickly supress enemy fire, makes the game easier, even on Veteran difficulty, which also just feels way less punishing in general.
The rest of the Campaign trophies are earned for various tasks specific to the 11 missions across the story, as well as beating them for the first time, so it leans heavily into the progression angle. There are also a small handful of collectible-based trophies to acquire, for picking up mementos distributed throughout the landscape across the Campaign, as well as performing specific Heroic actions, which are prompted to the player at chosen points throughout each mission.
Chapter select makes these easy enough, giving you the power to venture back into any mission and gather the mission collectibles, which are also well signposted on the navigation menus, so you always know which missions you may need to dive back in to in order to grab anything you may have missed. It'll also allow you to obtain any outstanding trophies tied to performing specific tasks related to certain missions too. It's exactly how chapter select should be used.
Moving into the Multiplayer, and this is the first time in any Call of Duty game I've played where at least a small portion of the list has been dedicated to the online element of the game. There are only 5 trophies here, but it'll require a reasonable level of dedication in order to pass through this portion of the game on your way towards the Platinum trophy.
The "General of the Army" trophy, awarded for Entering Prestige 1 in Multiplayer while playing online, is a fairly standard levelling grind, which simply asks you to play enough Multiplayer to reach level 55, and eventually choose the option to Prestige.
To Prestige just simply means to start over, and once you acquire enough experience points to hit the end of level 55, you'll be able to do this and begin the cycle again from level 1, but more importantly, grab your trophy.
You'll need a total of 1,457,000 experience points to reach the end of level 55 and unlock the option to enter Prestige mode. This is a fair chunk of experience, and under normal circumstances, will probably take you somewhere in the region of 20-25 hours of gameplay, which is a modest grind. If you wish to, you can potentially hold off and take advantage of double experience points special events, and this will slash the amount of time it takes significantly, but I'm not sure how common these are, or even if they're applied to older Call of Duty games anymore, so whilst I don't think it's fair to set this as the standard benchmark, it is still worth noting.
You should unlock the remainder of the Multiplayer trophies naturally as you progress through this levelling venture. There aren't any real recommendations to levelling up - Just choose your favourite game mode, stick at it and you'll get to where you need to be eventually. War and Search and Destroy was my personal preference.
Finally, we have the Zombies mode, which equates to the remaining 10 trophies within the list. I have garnered a love/hate relationship with Call of Duty Zombies experiences over the years, and my overall experience with any Call of Duty trophy list has been heavily influenced by my satisfaction levels within Zombies. Sometimes it's been good, sometimes it's been about as bad as imaginable.
On that scale, this probably fits somewhere around the mid, with most of the trophies requiring you to fulfil fairly simple tasks, which you can do solo or within an online lobby/private group. However, there are still a couple of trophies attached to the old Zombies Easter Eggs that we've all become well acquainted with over the years, and this is where the challenge of the overall list hits a few extra notches.
The "Dark Reunion" trophy, awarded for, saving Klaus in The Final Reich, plays out exactly how you expect any Zombies Easter Egg to play out - by carrying out a set of specific actions across the map in certain orders, culminating to the final stage, which, in this instance, is defeating the final boss on the map.
A couple of things about Zombies as a general note compared to my previous experience;
Movement is fluid and the map is bigger, which actually helps the game flow better. It felt so easy to get overwhelmed by the undead in previous versions of Zombies, and maps always felt tighter, so you never had anywhere to go when things got a bit hectic. Better movement mechanics, which always used to feel more stagnant and rigid in older games, and a larger, more open map generally avoids these frustrations, and makes for a better quality of life experience within the Zombies game mode. I frequently reached round 25-30 and even sometimes higher where necessary, which would just never happen previously, and that makes it more fun - There was never anything more demoralising than going for a trophy and dying so late into a game knowing you probably had to spend at least another couple of hours grinding back up to that point.
There's also a change in how the health system works here too. Previously, unless you had the Juggernaut perk, you'd take a couple of hits and die, and there was never a visual indication of your health. This has been addressed, and not only are you now shown a visual health bar, to allow you to understand how close you are to dying, but you also have the ability to purchase shields, which give you 3 when fully stocked. If you get hit enough times, it will break a shield, then you'll have the cushion of 2 more before you go down, but most importantly, you can visualise your health, and also have the ability to purchase more shields if necessary, providing you better protection in general. It's definitely the most positive change.
The Easter Egg comes in 2 forms, and you can obtain the trophy for the shorter form of this Easter Egg fairly easily, because it's the main goal most people play towards in public lobbies. The steps are mapped out on the screen and give a clear indication to the player on what they have to do to reach the end - Something that has also never existed previously in Zombies.
However, not all the steps are documented for the "Hardcore" version of the Easter Egg, and this requires a list of hidden steps in order to reach the conclusion, which is where it gets a little bit more complicated.
At the point where you're told by the game to trigger the ending of the shorter Easter Egg, you'll have the option, unbeknownst to everyone in the lobby, to take things further, and complete a handful of additional steps to trigger an alternate ending. Whilst it means you have to advance a bit further to complete this, that isn't really the issue - The issue is making sure that the players in the lobby don't trigger the ending for the lighter Easter Egg conclusion, and almost everyone will do this because the game instructs them to.
I attempted this a couple of times with a group, and this isn't exactly an issue with the game, so it wouldn't be fair to blame the game for this, but there are alot of people who are looking to unlock Easter Egg trophies in Zombies and just simply come unprepared. These challenges are further complicated when they don't use a headset or cannot respond to verbal instructions, and if these steps aren't carried out like a well-oiled machine, then things will go wrong.
It doesn't really matter for the shorter version, as instructions are clearly signposted right through to the end, and I even grabbed this one naturally whilst going through my own process of understanding and learning. However, the "Hardcore" version has too many extra steps for players to just walk in unprepared, and I failed on a few occasions due to botched attempts caused by a couple of people who were either just clearly looking for a carry from others, or just did the wrong things, such as triggering the ending for the shorter version of the Easter Egg accidentally or just simply not knowing what to do next when they needed to play their part.
To have a defined ending within Zombies is a big change. Zombies games were infinite to the point where everyone died, so the fact you can now trigger a boss fight, which will end the game automatically once complete, makes it a pain when this ends up slipping out of your control.
Ironically enough, my success eventually came from playing with a random player who I noticed was level 1000, and I chanced a direct request for support, which he duly obliged with. This identified another positive with the Easter Egg, whereby you can still achieve it with just 2 players. Large parts of my disdain for Zombies in the past has come from those Easter Eggs that contained steps that mandated the need for 4 players, so it's great to see that this isn't the case here.
But, it also just proved the importance of playing with people who know exactly what they're doing. Easter Eggs in Zombies have always been about intricacy and attention to detail. Research and study are important, and there are just too many people out there who want to be the beneficiary of the effort of others, and this isn't viable in Zombies for the vast majority of the time.
The Single Player Campaign is not the gruelling experience it was once infamously known for on it's Veteran difficulty, and being able to freely dip back into chapter select to go back for any mission specific tasks or collectibles, makes it a seamless journey. The Multiplayer element of this list is no more than a minor commitment to grind, but still doesn't stack up against some of the truly grindy levelling tasks that sit out there within the wider trophy community.
In reality, the majority of this Platinum difficulty rating rests on the Zombies experience. It wasn't as straight-forward as I had it planned out, but that was mainly due to the deficiencies experienced from attempting to achieve the end-game with players who just didn't have the same common goals, or weren't good enough to keep an Easter Egg attempt rolling into the latter stages of a game.
Being able to just call on the support of a random player I happened to get into a lobby with, partly based on their Zombies level, but also pure instinct, was just another example of being resourceful. Sometimes, trophy hunting is just about seeing opportunities you don't necessarily look for, and playing by ear, especially when it comes to seeking help from others.
If I rated in halves, I'd give this a 6.5/10. Outside of the Zombies trophies, I don't think the wider experience does enough to propel this into the upper echelons of the difficulty scale. I enjoyed the foray back into the Call of Duty experience. It wasn't enough to bring me permanently out of hiatus, but it was fun to revisit something that's important to remember gave me alot of enjoyment over the years, and that is always worth it.
Notable Trophies -
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| Distinguished Service - Complete the game on Veteran difficulty. General of the Army - Enter Prestige 1 in Multiplayer while playing online. Dark Reunion - In The Final Reich, save Klaus. |
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