Call of Duty is one of the biggest games franchises in the world and, on some levels, the funniest. The way that CoD: WWII was marketed suggests an interactive Saving Private Ryan. The reality is that my Axis coach shouts “zey haff ze ball” in multiplayer NFL-like Gridiron, as an opposition carrier runs towards our goal, before a period-appropriate hail of fire brings them down. “Gut, now drive forwardz!”

If that gave you tonal whiplash, try playing the thing. CoD: WWII is three games in one. A single-player campaign that shows a unit of US soldiers winning the war; online competitive multiplayer with a dozen modes; and then Nazi Zombies. Call of Duty is a series with annual releases, with multiple development studios working on staggered schedules. As a result, it has crystallised into a certain structure. CoD: WWII covers all the bases that players expect.

It is also something of a return to the series’ roots of more grounded infantry combat, following the advanced-movement-style introduced in future-based entries (think supersoldiers with jetpacks). CoD: WWII makes us grunts again, with relatively slower movement and more “realistic” capabilities. But this is married to a generous aim assist and assorted impact effects that, simply put, make shooting things wonderful.

Getting the feel right is no small achievement for a shooter, and CoD: WWII does that, and then some. This is a precision game, its high notes accentuated by incredible sound design: the “shoonk” as you land a headshot is satisfying at an unfathomably subterranean level. Gun recoil remains relatively light, but the jarring flinch when taking fire more than compensates. Each weapon has its idiosyncrasies and gorgeously elaborate reload animation.

The campaign follows player character, Pte Daniels, and a handful of chums in his unit, beginning with the Normandy landings. It’s a straight-to-video Band of Brothers, where you fight through France, help the resistance, go on to the Battle of Bulge, and by the end, there’s a big ol’ redemptive arc for your good ‘ol Texan boy. COD: WWII’s narrative inspirations are obvious, but they go places that this particular game won’t countenance.

The bigger issue is that the campaign remains an on-rails shooting gallery enlivened by largely non-interactive moments – such as when, after sniping from a church tower, it collapses and you fall down with the bell in frankly spectacular fashion. There’s some great stuff, such as tank battles, airborne engagements and protracted slow-motion sniper sections. But there are just as many gun emplacement scenarios and pop-up ranges.

CoD: WWII’s campaign has high points. Considering the pedigree of co-directors Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, however, it is deeply conservative where it matters – with a climactic moment so contrived it’s hard to take seriously. Could do better.

Multiplayer

CoD: WWII’s multiplayer is a beautiful core game smothered in messy menus. You start by choosing one of five specialisations for your soldier, all of which are soon unlocked. There are a dozen ways to throw down with other players: from straight-up Team Deathmatch to War (a mode with unique maps and objective-based play) and Gridiron, which is basically American football with guns.

The multiplayer is exciting, fast, and fun. The old problems remain though, with spawn-camping prime among them. But these modes are battle-hardened, everyone knows they work, and the basic thrill of shooting another player with this kind of feedback can never be understated. It can, though, be overstated: in-line with a silly trend towards rewarding players as encouragement, a successful shot is likely to see you awarded anywhere between five and 10 medals.

Headquarters is a new multiplayer feature intended as a social space where you collect in-game missions and open supply crates – the latter a symptom of the highly profitable games-as-a-service model. The supply crates are for cosmetic stuff, easy enough to ignore you’d think, though I couldn’t help feeling that the unlock structure was nowhere near as rewarding as older CoDs.

HQ is great nevertheless. The 1vs1 pit is its greatest flourish, a board where you can sign up to fight another player while others watch – amazing fun. There’s a tower to test out scorestreaks, the big-hitting multiplayer rewards, a scoring range where you can challenge others, and even a machine with ancient Activision classics to play.

But you can’t shake the feeling that it’s been grafted onto something that doesn’t necessarily suit it. The three elements of CoD: WWII exist in isolation, with each having to load its own front end separately making the game feel like a bunch of wildly different modes yoked-together into one big value, but ultimately dissonant package.

Thing is, Nazi Zombies might be the best part. This co-op wave shooter has an elaborate environment that unlocks in layers, requires a surprising amount of strategy and in its unabashed schlockiness, finds an intensity even beyond the campaign. It’s bonkers but it works, and it’s notably more polished than a lot of the game’s other elements.

Things aren’t all rosy. Playing the multiplayer since its Friday launch there have been frequent server outages alongside areas where it has repeatedly failed, such as playing with friends. I wasn’t able to successfully invite or be invited by any online friends on Steam over this time, despite our various router experiments.

Such rough edges, and there are many more, suggest that while CoD: WWII may look the part, this is actually a game rushed to hit release – there are at least two areas in HQ with placeholder vendors saying ‘coming soon’.

These issues can be fixed, and surely will be, but that’s not much consolation to the people playing at launch. Shipping a game of this magnitude in such a shonky state suggests a troubled development, even if the final product just about passes muster.

The way CoD: WWII is packaged seems bizarre, but then these three individual games don’t have much to do with one another anyway. Call of Duty is the Golden Goose for Activision, almost its own genre through sheer dint of popularity. This is everything you’d expect. I suppose you could call that praise.

Activision; PC/Xbox One/PS4 (version tested); £50; Pegi rating: 18+

• I think I’m too old for Call of Duty: please send help
  
• Call of Duty WWII is about killing for fun. Why pretend otherwise?