Operation: Shamrock & Awe is Just Enough New

Call of Duty: WWII‘s latest event brings with it a lot of new content and a terrific new UI update.

The Shamrock & Awe event is jam-packed with new content including new weapon camos, reticules, hats, emblems, and uniforms. Additionally, Sledgehammer has added weapon charms and reduced the number of duplicates.

OK, I won’t lie I have logged onto CoD every day for the last 107 days and it has started to become a little rote. Luckily Sledgehammer has been keeping things interesting with regular events and double XP weekends but even so, I find myself just racking up duplicates and unable to unlock any of the items I actually one, like those sweet sweet combat shotgun camos.

As promised in yesterday’s developer update the chance of duplicates has been greatly reduced. Thank the heavens! And with the addition of a whole lot of new customizable items, I at least feel a little motivated to stay on the grind.

So, what’s new?

The Menu

Sledgehammer has completely overhauled the menu UI, which now allows players to access the Operations Officer, Quartermaster, Mail, and theatre without heading to the HQ. This is a huge improvement because it means you can pick up new contracts between matches without even leaving the lobby.

No more giving up a well-matched lobby just to snag a new contract. You still have to head to HQ for scorestreak testing, 1v1, the shooting range, and opening supply drops.

Leprechaun Hunt

There is a new special playlist which rotates TDM, Kill Confirmed, Dom, and Hardpoint games with a special twist. Regularly throughout the matches, a leprechaun will spawn and scurry around the map. You can locate him by his precocious laugh.

This is not easy to kill but if you are lucky enough to nab him you will be rewarded with all three of your Kill Streak rewards being filled instantly. Getting him is very satisfying as he explodes into festive green and rainbows, but watch out for it to be raining kill streaks by the end of the match.

New Camos, Charms & Reticules

Sledgehammer has added dozens of new charms for players to add to their weapons. These are cute little customizations that make loadouts a little more unique. There are also new weapon reticules plus new camos for every weapon class. all of which are unlockable in supply drops.

Skull charm and Canary camo applied to my precious combat shotgun.

The only disappointing thing about the new content is the contracts offered by Quartermaster. Captain Butcher is back but this time his contracts are rather pricey. They aren’t overly difficult but ranging between 250 and 400 for a supply crate seems hefty when just last week you could pick up the same prize for only 50 credits.

The contracts are challenging but not impossible. Yet I find myself not wanting to waste the credits on the chance I only rack up 94 kills in an hour rather than 95. It also costs 4000 credits to unlock the Sten which previously was a special contract and cost nothing so that seems particularly steep.

It is possible the more expensive contracts are to balance the economy now that there will be fewer duplicates but I suspect it is more about pushing players to pay for crates. I am still never going to give Activision the satisfaction, but I can’t believe there was anyone who would have been foolish enough to pay before this update when duplicates seemed to account for 90% of what was in crates. At least now it doesn’t seem like as big a waste of money.

Despite that, there is just enough new to get me reinvested. For one, reduced duplicates means I won’t roll 90% dups which already gets me excited. It’s already working, although still no sweet combat shotgun variations. The new camo options look fantastic as well, i can’t wait to unlock a few more. Plus my new personal goal of hunting down and killing one of those little green devils.