Release: Nov 11 2008 (US), Nov 14 2008 (UK)
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Genre: First-person shooter

It was never going to be easy for Treyarch to create a follow-up game that would adhere to the same high levels of quality that Infinity Ward managed with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (COD4); especially considering the current backlash against World War 2 games. However, Call of Duty: World at War, while certainly not as a groundbreaking as its aforementioned predecessor, is a fantastic entry into the series that will please series veterans and wow the virgins.

The horror of war

From beginning to end World at War is a tougher, bloodier and more visceral experience than we have come to expect from the franchise. Characters are merciless, often callous, individuals who seem to relish the opportunity to spill the blood of any and all that are unlucky enough to cross their path. This is evidenced from the very first scene, which sees you having to watch as a fellow U.S. Marine prisoner of war has a lit cigarette thrust into his eye before his neck is viciously sliced open by a Japanese soldier.

That level of intensity is mirrored in the actual gameplay which features fire fights of epic magnitude, with numbers of both friendly, and enemy, soldiers far beyond the scale seen in COD4, or most other shooters for that matter. At times the odds seem impossibly stacked against you and you’ll be struggling to stay alive, let alone think about fighting back. This is where the main strength of the campaign mode lays, as every moment spent playing is constantly engaging and exhilarating, demanding your full attention in order to progress. No one can accuse this particular game of having any ‘filler’ moments what so ever.

As a result each mission tends to be fairly short in length and usually consists of a single objective or enemy encounter. This structure helps keep the action fresh in that you’re constantly experiencing new environments and taking on new challenges. That being said the nature of your objectives never really change throughout the course of the campaign, and largely involve destroying a set number of tanks/artillery guns/mortar pits etc. It can all get a little repetitive after a while and it would’ve been nice to have had some variation; rescue this person or escort these vehicles, for example.

A couple of vehicle based missions (both in the driving and gunner positions) help break up the repetition to an extent but they are too infrequent to fully succeed in that regard. These missions in themselves are extremely well designed and a lot of fun to play, unlike the majority of vehicle sections in first person shooters.

A war of two worlds

The campaign takes the form of two separate stories; the American attack on the Japanese in the Pacific and the Russian invasion of Berlin. Missions intersect each other at random, meaning one moment you may find yourself as Private Miller of the US Marines head-to-head with a Japanese ‘banzai’ soldier and the next you’re Private Petrenko of Russian Red Army flushing out some Nazis from Berlin’s underground metro system. Each of the narratives jump forward in time between missions (at one point the Russian story jumps forwards three years), which is somewhat of a mixed blessing. On the one hand it helps in exposing you to lots of different environments and enables the plot to cover a huge span of time but, on the other hand, it’s difficult to become attached to any of the game’s characters; a task already made difficult by having two parallel stories.

Accompanying you on these journeys are a plethora of weapons, from standard rifles to the all-powerful ‘Panzershrek’ rocket launcher. All have a real ‘kick’ to them and it actually feels as though you’re doing some real damage when someone gets in the way of your bullets. This is aided by the way that bodies tear up and become dismembered when hit with a heavy barrage of lead, or happen to be too close to a live grenade. Bodies will literally be torn in half from the burst of a mounted gun, and if you throw a grenade into just the right place then you can just sit back and watch in macabre satisfaction as the enemy is hurtled thirty feet into the sky.

Despite the destructive force of the aforementioned arsenal, it’s the flamethrower that packs the biggest punch. While the majority of the scenery is – disappointingly – invulnerable to its flame, the enemy certainly is not, and when used properly it’s arguably the most lethal weapon at your disposal, easily taking down ten enemies at time within close quarters.

The graphics and presentation are very similar in their design and quality to those in COD4; most likely due to the use of the same game engine. Character models and particle effects are extremely impressive, as is the lighting and texture quality. Audio design is also phenomenal in all departments, be it the roar of a tank’s engine, the deep growl of a machine gun or the high pitched ping of a bullet bouncing off metal it’s all without fault. Voice acting, lead by Hollywood hot-shots Gary Oldman and Keifer Sutherland, is also fantastic.

Lets do it Marines!

And so we come to the multiplayer, a multiplayer that has to contend with the well established online behemoth that is COD4. World at War has two four player co-op modes; co-op campaign and competitive co-op. Co-op campaign is fairly self-explanatory and impressive in its execution, play with the right group of people and it becomes significantly easier to beat the harder parts of the game than it is with your A.I. buddies. Competitive co-op sees you taking on the same campaign missions only you’re vying with each other for most the highest score. There’s another rather good, if rather bizarre, bonus co-op mode awarded for completing the campaign, but we don’t want to ruin the surprise so we’ll let you find that one for yourself; rest assured it’s a lot of fun.

The multiplayer modes ‘proper’ are made up of the usual deathmatch, team deathmatch as well as everything that was included in COD4 (headquarters, search and destroy etc.). Two modes are new to World at War; War and Capture the Flag. Capture the Flag the same as in any other game you’ve played while War is a conquest style game (that also appearred in COD3) in which team fights over five points on the map, with only one being ‘live’ at any one time, making for some intense action.

The create-a-class and perks systems make a welcome return, allowing you to fine tune your weapon set-ups to your preferred style of play. Perks are largely the same group as was present in COD4, albeit with a generational shift to keep things in the WW2 era (claymores are now ‘bouncing betties’ and the ‘UAV jammer’ is known as ‘Camouflage’), of the few new perks ‘Revive’ is probably the most useful, allowing you to heal team-mates in ‘Last Stand’.

As in COD4 you’re rewarded if you manage to string kills together without dying. Three kills gifts you a recon plane (think COD4’s UAV), five an artillery barrage (air strike) and seven calls in a pack of vicious dogs that maul the enemy to death. While dogs are a fun addition, there’s an argument that they are slightly overpowered (due to their difficulty to take down) with kills of a single dog attack constantly entering the double figures.

Thirteen maps are included for your pleasure, four of which contain tanks that can occupied up to two players at a time (one gunner and a driver/cannon operator). Maps are generally a lot larger and more elobarate than COD4’s and are packed with hiding places, sniper positions and choke points. It’ll take the majority of players a lot longer to ‘learn the map’ this time around so expect some bloodbaths in the early days of your online ‘career’.

Before we wrap up we can’t help but complain about one particular aspect of the multiplayer. Game modes are unlocked by levelling up your stats, meaning that the vast majority are unavailable when you first start playing. This can be somewhat frustrating especially if you, like us, prefer to play solely on the hardcore modes (unlocked at level eightteen). Admittedly it doesn’t that too long before ereaching the relevant rank but we’re at a loss to decipher why they are locked in the first place.

A few problems aside Call of Duty: World at War is a fantastic entry into the series, packed with intense gameplay in both single and multiplayer modes. Long after the campaign is over you’ll still be horribly addicted to the online play which, with its reward system, abundance of game modes and diverse set of weaponry has more than enough content to eat away at days of your life – it must be said though that it is merely the same multiplayer as Call of Duty 4 with a WW2 shell. Still, if you thought WW2 shooters had had their day, think again because Treyarch have just brought them back to life in a big way.