Call Of Duty: WWII Team Offers Tour Of Beta’s Vertical Gibraltar Multiplayer Map

Call Of Duty: WWII emphasizes boots-on-the-ground multiplayer, but plenty of the game’s maps still feature a sense of verticality. During an exclusive tour of the space with Game Informer staff, Sledgehammer Designer Greg Reisdorf made an in-depth case for Gibraltar, the title’s most vertical map and a highlight feature of this month’s Private Beta. Gibraltar is a mid-sized multiplayer map suited for all weapons, but its developers see much greater purpose in it.

Right from the spawn point pictured below, we can see how having extra points of entry from stairs and bridges is so important. The path ahead leads to doors with machine guns that can be manned in windows, but getting elevation means being able to score a proper vantage point on opponents. Covering the pictured bridges with snipers is key to holding down the spot and maintaining objectives.

With that goal in mind, Reisdorf sees verticality as a chance to give teams visual variety and options for how they’d like to play. That idea doesn’t have to be limited by this game’s World War II setting either:

“A lot of it is just that modern playstyle that we can have in the game without all the boost and everything else. This would've been an interesting boost map way back when, but now without that and being able to have to utilize the stairs... It's adding verticality to the space to really have a little more variance in where you're looking and making sure that your targets are not always horizontal."

Moving from the spawn and towards the center is where the action of Gibraltar truly heats up. Pictured below, this is where most of your objectives will be in modes like Hardpoint that require one. A spot like this is going to be difficult to capture and defend based on how much is going on around it. Cliffs in the distance pander to long-range weapons, and the center’s many pillars equally cater to LMGs and shotguns. You could send in a skilled army on the ground, but death could be waiting from above on pretty much all sides. The goal of Gibraltar and the rest of WWII’s multiplayer is to ensure all targets are visible at once. In other words, no soldier will be standing one or two screens above the player’s head.

When you aren’t getting caught in the heat of the moment, Gibraltar and Call Of Duty: WWII also offer the chance to appreciate some unique historical sights. There’s a cache of anti-air guns on the edge of the map meant to replicate Princess Anne’s Battery. It’s the only military site in the world to still house refurbished versions of those guns today. Another section has a bunch of fire buckets that were used in place of hoses during the war.

In addition to Gibraltar, the multiplayer Private Beta features maps based on Pointe du Hoc and the Ardennes Forest. The objective-based War mode can also be experienced in an online campaign called Operation Breakout. Read gameplay impressions of all of those maps right here.

Call Of Duty: WWII releases Nov. 3 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. The Private Beta begins Aug. 25 on PS4.

What are your thoughts on this Gibraltar map? Can Sledgehammer do World War II multiplayer right? Tell us in the comments section!