Just a few days ago, Sledgehammer Games talked about the sprint out times in Call of Duty: WWII. While the studio didn’t exactly say if they were changing it, they did mention that they’re going to open up on their thought process, and game design decisions. Well, I’m here with some bad news, Call of Duty fans, as Sledgehammer Games boss Michael Condrey has written a long post explaining why the studio is not changing the COD: WWII sprint out time.
Condrey made the post over on Reddit, where he says it’s the studio’s choice that they want the gameplay to be slower, and that they don’t want something like the Dexterity perk in past CODs to be part of the current Basic Trainings since that’ll be a “crutch” perk for most.
ADS Time Out of Sprint, WW2
byu/Mcondrey inWWII
In past Call of Duty games the Dexterity perk made the ADS time out of sprint faster, in some cases +50% faster than without dexterity. This made it a crutch perk and by far the most used perk in those games. We initially had a Basic Training that offered this functionality, but found that it was once again being chosen much more often than the other options presented. When there’s a “crutch” perk like this, it results in a non-choice for players since they feel they need to take that perk or Basic Training just to be competitive. This problem was exacerbated with our Divisions CAC system which promotes a more focused playstyle through a sole, meaningful Basic Training choice rather than a multi-choice Pick system.
Additionally, a main design pillar we had in this game was “boots on the ground in a WW2 era.” That meant more than just not having boost jump and an arsenal of speed buffs; it also meant a return to an overall more strategic and slower pace of conflict. The removal of boost / thrust also gave us predictable places from which threats could appear, and a more consistent closing speed between players. The question for us became, “Do we want a crutch perk that also makes the game play faster?” Our answer was no.
Given that, we decided to make the ADS time out of sprint the same as the normal ADS time and not offer a means to make it faster. We do have the Quickdraw attachment, which makes ADS speed faster across the board and, as you can imagine, it’s super popular. A dexterity perk + quickdraw attachment “crutch combo’ just didn’t work for our design ambitions and game feel for WWII.
We have discussed a buff to ADS sprint out times for Airborne, but we already have an SMG heavy meta and we’re not convinced that’s the best option for the game. I don’t think a Dexterity Basic Training is either. Perhaps a new movement focused Division, with other trade-offs built in, would be a future option (but don’t hold us to that).
I’m sure for some people this will go down like a lead ballon. Given everything we see across all players, regions, game modes, skill levels, etc, we’re definitely listening here but not acting on any sprint out changes in the short term. Hope this update helps provide context, if nothing more.
Namaste, – Condrey
Personally, as someone who uses the Airborne Division with the SMGs as my main weapons of choice, I don’t buy Condrey’s justification of the sprint out times in COD: WWII. Maybe, increase it across the board for every Division? Have it as a gun attachment so people will need to compromise to get it? Forcing people to play one way (turtling) isn’t giving them a choice, but rather, telling them how to play — and who wants that, right?
Let’s hope health regeneration and other community requests are implemented for the greater good of the community.
