Parents' Guide to

Call of Duty: WWII

By Paul Semel, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Engaging, mature shooter goes back to its roots & triumphs.

Game PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One 2017
Call of Duty: WWII Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 64 parent reviews

jgentry0046
jgentry0046 Adult
November 20, 2020
age 12+

Not as bad as it seems

I got this game for my son and I was skeptical about it at first, so I tried it out and I'm glad I did because I realized that it wasn't that bad. You can turn off the gore in the game and honestly it is a game about world war two so it's generally history. Also, the language is only in the campaign mode and I have found that both of my sons like playing the game more with each other than online anyway so the unmoderated multiplayer doesn't really matter. In the end I would say that this is probably the best COD game to get your kid and really, it isn't as bad as the rating and initial appearance make it out to be.

This title has:

Great messages
Easy to play/use
7 people found this helpful.
Nick B.
Nick B. Parent of 11-year-old
July 1, 2019
age 10+

People OVERREACT

Sure the age rating is 18+. But its rated M because of blood and language. If you're kid can handle language without cussing, then the language is fine. If they watch Marvel movies or any type of movie like that and they don't cuss, then it's fine. So language isn't really a problem. The blood also isn't really bad either. When you get shot and die, blood pools onto the screen but all it looks like is a red picture frame. Then when you shoot the enemies there is a little tiny bit of blood that looks like the blood was shot through a water gun. So blood isn't super bad either. The game itself can teach kids about WWII because it is close to what is was like. It is difficult to play but this is coming from someone who is only decent at party and sports games. Without the blood and language I'd say 8 and up, with it 9 and up, but with the difficulty of play and the setting, 10 and up. On PC only you can turn off blood but I don't think language.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Too much swearing
3 people found this helpful.
See all 64 parent reviews

What’s It About?

Set in 1944 and 1945, the campaign in CALL OF DUTY: WWII casts you as an American soldier during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. From there, you move on to Merigny, Falaise, and other French cities on your way to Paris before heading into Germany. Along the way, you'll join up with the British, take out artillery, and shoot a lot of German soldiers who were only following orders. You also, on occasion, become other characters, including a French resistance fighter and a tank driver. The game also features a second campaign where you (or you and some friends) have to kill an endless army of Nazi zombies.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (64):
Kids say (105):

By going back to its roots, both in its setting and its gameplay, the latest installment of this first-person shooter series is one of the best action games of the year. In Call of Duty: WWII's single-player campaign, you play as an American soldier who, starting with D-Day, goes on a series of infantry missions against the German army. Along with the historic setting, this also brings back some of the mechanics from this series' early days, such as health packs instead of regenerating health in the campaign. More importantly, this largely goes back to the kind of gritty realism of the original games, with only brief bits where it has the over-the-top action movie vibe of the Modern Warfare installments. All of this applies to the game's addiction online competitive multiplayer modes as well.

What hasn't changed -- whether you play the campaign, multiplayer, or the co-op zombie mode -- is that you still engage in a series of harrowing firefights that will test your reflexes and your trigger finger. All of which is aided by this series' always intuitive controls. That said, the campaign's interactive cut-scenes can get tedious at times, there are times when its action sequences drag on, and its ending is a bit too heavy-handed. But even with these irritations, Call of Duty: WWII is a solid and engaging shooter that's not so much a throwback as it is a return to form.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about violence in games. Does it make a difference that you're killing people in this game's campaign, as opposed to aliens or monsters? What about the parts where you're killing zombies; does that make you feel different?

  • Talk about World War II. Do you know why we fought WWII? Do you know what happened?

  • Discuss risking your life to save someone else. In this game, you sometimes put your own safety aside to rescue another person, but would you ever do this in real life? Why or why not?

Game Details

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