Um, I think there's already more than enough threads on this, you don't need to create another one just to ask whether this will win us back to the franchise.
So, will it win my heart? Dunno - it never had my heart to begin with. I played some of the original WWII CoD games, found them reasonably enjoyable, didn't play any games after that (I actually own Advanced/Infinite Warfare, but they're on a long 'to play' list). But I'm apathic towards it, as:
-Sledgehammer did Advanced Warfare, which, not playing it aside, was a game I did watch a playthrough for. Honestly, I thought the game was decent, narrative-wise. Nothing special, but still decent. I'd have preferred Sledgehammer continue on with that setting.
-I just don't care about WWII anymore. I had my fill of MoH/Battlefield/CoD back in the day, I don't need a refill, especially after playing Rising Sun and Airborne this year - not bad games, but very average ones. Thing is, there's plenty of interesting stories you can tell about WWII. Last year, I saw Hacksaw Ridge (an excellent movie), this year, I saw Their Finest (decent, enjoyable, very original concept), and we have future releases like Dunkirk and Pegasus Bridge, and while I've probably missed it, 'Land of Mine', which touches on the war's aftermath in Denmark. This is also coupled with reading 'All the Light We Cannot See', which is a very solid piece of fiction. So, yes, WWII can be used as a good backdrop for good stories...
...and I'm not counting on CoD to deliver it, because WWII games usually have poor narratives, with barely fleshed out characters (at least in my experience) and plots that go like "greatest hits of WWII, or at least the European and if you're lucky, Pacific theatres). If we're lucky, the game might allow us to play as the British and Soviets again. Heck, it could even be super daring and allow you to play as the Canadians and Polish (hello, CoD 3). But I'm not counting on that, and if I did, I'm not counting on anything other than the 'greatest hits' format to play out again - D-Day, Stalingrad, etc.
Maybe there is hope. Even if it does focus only on US soldiers, that could serve as a focused story, but even if that's the case, it'll almost certainly be in the same locations we've seen a million times.
-So, no, I'm not psyched for it. This really does feel like Activision throwing up its hands and going back to WWII, because of a stream of complaints about futuristic settings. And, look, I can get that - this was a series that started out striving to portray some level of realism in war, starting with a historical conflict, and then branching out to operations that mirrored the War on Terror and events such as the invasion of Iraq. And like I said, I'm just over WWII. Even a CoD set in WWI, as much of an aping of Battlefield 1 as that might be, would still be more interesting.
Well, that's just me. At the least, this thread allowed me to get that off my chest.
As someone not interested in online multiplayer I sometimes wish they sold the campaign separately for half price as admittedly they can be fun for an afternoon of mindless entertainment.
