With Call of Duty: WWII, developer Sledgehammer Games aims to bring some excitement back to the series, and that means a hard-hitting campaign. It seems that the developer aims to respect player agency, and they're telling most of the campaign story through gameplay instead of cutscenes.
Recently, senior creative director Bret Robbins revealed during an interview with Glixel, that an in-game narrative approach is key:
"In anything like this, you need time to breathe. We're being strategic with our breathing points, though. We have excitement, stealth, and then we take a breath, but we tell more story in the game, rather than cut scenes. That way we can really bring out the personality throughout the whole story."
In addition, Robbins revealed that he's drawing inspiration from narrative indies such as Firewatch, Virginia and Gone Home:
"Firewatch is one of my favourite games. Gone Home was great. Games are growing up and the audience is sophisticated. More and more, they expect a good story. Not just from blockbusters but from indies [as well], and the whole genre is being pushed forward. Virginia is another good example. I definitely looked to them for inspiration and for techniques. We're not shy about taking our time with the story. We want something meaningful and a bit deeper. You need that kind of quiet to balance the crazy. You need both or one will go flat without the other. We've learned from those other games and tried to infuse that into ours."
Call of Duty: WWII is heading to PC, PS4 and Xbox One on November 3. You can read our first look preview by hitting this link.