GameCenter - March 2018 - 50

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PARTING SHOTS

MICHAEL CONDREY
GAME DIRECTOR, CALL OF DUTY: WWII

VITAL SIGNS
OCCUPATION
CO-FOUNDER AND S TUDIO HE AD,
SLEDGEHAMMER GAMES
GAME HIGHLIGHT S
C ALL OF DUT Y: W WII, C ALL OF DUT Y:
ADVANCED WARFARE, C ALL OF DUT Y:
MODERN WARFARE 3, DE AD SPACE

fter wall running and boost jumping
in the near future the past few years,
Call of Duty is returning to its roots
with classic boots-on-the-ground gameplay
in the setting we most associate with the
series: World War II. We spoke with game
director Michael Condrey to get the latest on
Call of Duty: WWII.

WGC: Why take WWII's campaign in a direction with a more personal, heavily characterized, protagonist that isn't generally
found in Call of Duty games?
Michael Condrey: There was this fundamental
desire to bring the common World War II soldier to life, and that was a bit of a change from
the past games we've made that were about
a tier one super soldier. This is a 20-year-old
kid from Texas who, in many ways, was facing
insurmountable odds. We wanted that attachment to his story, that emotional arc he has as
the center of his squad, and that squad around
him. It was important that we gave him a voice
and that you saw his journey, saw his sacrifice,
his loss, his life, from the time he was a kid with
his brother up to the moment he understood
the true meaning of camaraderie and sacrifice.

MC: The capturing of the big war experience
was important to us. Originally, we thought
the greater number of players, the more you
could give this immersive big war experience,
but we didn't find that more players actually
led to a better experience. 6v6 is what players
know, so what we wanted to do was capture
that spirit, but on a smaller scale that really
leaned into the strengths of what Call of Duty
does well. We know our structure is based
around this low-latency, best-in-class, gun-ongun experience, and 6v6 is at the foundation
of that. So, this asymmetrical, linear experience that we crafted - with big events like
escorting the tank or calling in reinforcements
to build the bridge - capture the experience
of big war, within the construct of what makes
our 6v6 experience great.

"There was this
fundamental desire
to bring the common
World War II soldier
to life."

WGC: What are a couple elements of WWII's
Zombies mode that sets it apart from previous entries from other studios?
MC: Each Call of Duty studio does amazing
Zombies offerings and we love what Treyarch
and [Infinity Ward] have done, but from the
Sledgehammer pedigree, we are rooted deeply
in the backdrop of survival horror. We wanted
this to be the most terrified you'd been in
Zombies. It's dark, it's gritty, and for this game,
I think it was a great extension of the overall
WWII theme. You can imagine, married with
World War II and the fall of the Third Reich, the
Nazis were trying a last-ditch effort to push
back the Allied forces. So, they turn to the Nazi
war machine to come up with an army of the
dead. There's this really interesting tie-in to
the universe of WWII with a layering of things
we've done in the past with survival horror.

WGC: What do Divisions do to the core Call
of Duty multiplayer experience and do they
indicate a new direction for the series?
MC: We wanted you to feel that fantasy of
enlisting in World War II and that experience could be very different if you were an
infantryman, airborne or sniper, right? So, it
was important that we allow you the flexibility
to make core choices, but also have a role that
played to a particular playstyle. Divisions gave
you the structure for a role, which can be very
important. Armored, for example, have the
ability to withstand damage. They're great for
holding a Domination position or a Hardpoint.
Meanwhile, Airborne and Infantry are faster,
and are very important for being at the front
of battle. We were looking for that opportunity
to really lean into a playstyle, but give players
the ability to still have choices that were meaningful to them.
WGC: With War mode, why stick with the 6v6
team sizes instead of something bigger?

WGC: If you could only play one multiplayer
Division forever, which would it be and
why?
MC: Wow, that's a tough one. My answer is my
most common Division, which is Airborne. I
tend to take Airborne with either the Rifleman
basic training, which gives me two primaries,
so I can run the MP40 with the STG. Or with
Primed, which gives me a third attachment.
So, if I could only choose one, I think I'd go
Airborne.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GameCenter - March 2018