Sign up to FREE email alerts from Daily Star - Gaming Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

(Image: ACTIVISION)

Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condrey expects the next Call of Duty World Championship season to be the most competitive yet.

The new game - Call of Duty: WW2 - boasts a return to 'boots on the ground' combat.

Where previous titles in recent years have relied heavily on boost jumps and rapid movement, this new instalment feels more like an 'old school' Call of Duty game: one that's more tactical and easier to read, according to the developers.

The implication of that, as far as the competitive scene is concerned, means we're heading for one of the most interesting seasons of Call of Duty yet.

"I think the most interesting thing about the season ahead is watching the younger players - for whom perhaps this is their first boots on the ground game - picking up the game and be challenged by the returning, lapsed players," explains Condrey in an exclusive interview with Daily Star Online.

"We hear that [these players are coming back to the game] already, via social media. It’s ironic to call some of these veterans ‘retired’ though, because these kids are 23 years old when they ‘retire’, but we’ll be seeing retired or lapsed players getting back into the ring, so to speak.

"You know, the true veterans - the people that played competitively back when CoD was boots on the ground - they’re going to be going up against younger rookie teams.

"That mix, globally, I think will make for the most competitive eSports season we’ve ever seen."

Condrey believes both casual fans of the game and hardcore players are going to enjoy the new multiplayer offering, because of how it was developed.

*** Take a look at some new Call of Duty WW2 screenshots in the gallery below ***

"The separation of public match design and true competitive eSports design isn’t really that far apart," he explains.

"The community all wants the same thing: good maps, good strategic flow, well-balanced weapons, well-balanced scorestreaks. If you’re the best player in the world or someone coming in new, everyone wants an even playing field.

"We also know that eSports is growing in popularity, we know that more people watch our game being played than actually play our game now - and that’s super exciting. We want CoD to be great everywhere fans of CoD are, but first and foremost we want it to be great to play. I think those two things are symbiotic."

Condrey goes on to explain the level to which Sledgehammer has committed to developing for eSports - even hiring pro-gamer 'RamboEsports' as a consultant on the game.

"We hired one of the top eSports players from day one to join the design team, full-time… what’s the best way to describe it?" Condrey ponders before launching into a delightful metaphor.

"Are you a wine drinker? I’m a wine drinker, but I’m not a wine expert.

"I’ve had - on occasion - a wine sommelier describe a wine, and they’ll talk about the palette and they’ll talk about the wine and they’ll explain things that I don’t have the capacity to understand. That’s the language they’ve developed, that’s the language they’ve spent years refining.

"Have you ever had that? Now I sound really old [laughter]

"Ray is like that for our game - he’ll pick up the controller and play the maps and instinctively feel things on the controller, on spawns, on lanes, on head glitch sights that are all beyond my capability. Those are the exact things that make the game better for everyone.

"You know Malcolm Gladwell? He talks about the 10,000 hour rule - I’ve been making CoD for 9 years, but I don’t know if I have 10,000 hours in multiplayer, but Ray certainly does.

"It’s amazing to watch him. I think we’re in a really special space with the multiplayer."

Call of Duty: World War 2 aims to bring lapsed fans back to the game by dropping a lot of the sci-fi futuristic elements of the previous games and returning the gunplay that made the series the success it is today.

Aside from a robust multiplayer mode, the game will ship with a (now classic) Zombies mode, as well as a sizeable single-player offering, too.

The game will also be introducing a Headquarters mode into the game: a social space where players can collect all the loot they've earned, take place in Prestige ceremonies, engage in 1v1 game modes, collect daily/weekly challenges and more besides.

This is Sledgehammer Games' first Call of Duty game since the release of Advanced Warfare back in 2014.

*** Take a look at some new Call of Duty WW2 Zombie screenshots in the gallery below ***

You can read more from our interview with Michael Condrey below:

• Call of Duty WW2 HQ “just a springboard”, more 'World of Warcraft features' in the future?

• Why Call of Duty: WW2's Gridiron is "better than Uplink", according to the game's creator

• Call of Duty: World War 2 is a 'complete creative reset' for Sledgehammer

Call of Duty: WW2 releases for PS4, Xbox One and PC on November 3.