Call of Duty: World at War

Last year's Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a truly excellent game. It had one of the best single player campains ever, and the most addicting first person online part ever.  It even beat Halo 3, who many thought would be the champion of 2007. Of course people always wants more, so a new Call Of Duty game had to be made. Enter Call Of Duty: World At War, the latest chapter in the Call Of Duty series. World At War is developed by Treyarch, who made the well done, but fan negative, Call Of Duty 3, while Infinity Ward is developing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Can Treyarch improve on their last outing, or is this game destined to be overshadowed by COD4?

Unlike Call Of Duty 4, World At War takes place in World War 2 yet again (i was one of the fans who didn't like that decsion), but this time only from 2 perspectives. There's the US Marine Private Miller, and the russian Dimitri Petrenko. Miller fights agasint the Japanese while Dimitri fights with the Red Army agasint the nazis on a quest to take over Berlin. That's really the story of the game.

The story in World At War works rather okay, but fails compared to COD4. In COD4, you had some good twists, a main villian, and buddies you really cared about. In WAW, there's almost none of that. There are only 2 people you care about for one reason. Those people are your comanders from each side, and as i said, for one reason. Your US comander Roebuck, who's being voiced by none other than Jack Bauer himself (Keifer Sutherland from 24), and from the russian side Reznov, who's being voiced by Gary Oldman (from The Dark Knight). There are hundreds of characters fighting with you, but it's only these two that get's attention. There's a breif plot about a Seargent from the US side, but that quickly get's closed. The other thing is that there are no great twist in the stories. And by twists i mean like when the true bad guy in COD4 was revealed, or the death of one of the playable characters. The last part is that the obvious villian is Hitler, but since he died by his own hands, it's not a problem. The real problem is that  it works better where there's one bad guy to go after, and when he's dead, it's over. Here there's none of that, and you fight along just cause the game tells you so. So basicly the story is okay, with some okay moments, but it feels a bit underdeveloped.

The gameplay remains laregly the same as every other game in the series. You still get to fight epic battles, on great scenery, mow down countless of nazis and japanese guys, and experince jar dropping events. If you played Call of Duty in the past, this game will feel right at home. WAW does have some new things, but they count more as small tweaks than big upgrades. Vehicles are back in the game, like tanks, and they control pretty well. They are easy to learn (there's an entire level where you drive in a tank), and very fun to use. Then there's the added meele attacks which is if the weapons have barionet, like a japanese rifle. The quick time events of COD3 kinda return, but are this time non scripted, and diffirent. Instead of engaging a battle agasint one solider that goes on for a good amount of time, your going to experince Banzai soliders that comes at you and knocks you down. Then you got to quickly push R3, or they stab you to your death. They can basicly happen anywhere, and they are very well done. Also added are mutiple ways to complete your objective, which dosen't change the game in anyway, but it's a nice little addition anyway. The last addition is a weapon that has been highly publicized. I'm talking about the wrath of the Flamethrower. Seriously this weapon is awesome, and when i say awesome, i mean really awesome. It's just extremely satasfying to burn enemies, and watch them burn to their deaths. It has unlimited ammo, but can overheat if you use it too much. It's more used in multiplayer than single player, but when you get your hands on it, prepare for awesome stuff.

In tradition to the series, WAW includes scripted events, which as always are very awesome. It's some pretty awesome things you get to experince, but this is also one of the game's problems. There simply aren't enough of them. They are a good amount in the beginning of the game (the first level as the russians is one of the best levels in the series), but then they kinda seem to dissapear, and only pop up a few times. There's nothing that rivals the deteonation of the atom bomb, or chasing the bad guys son in COD4, although there is a great level rivaling the stealth level from COD4. The scripted events are great in WAW, but there could have been more. Also one problem to mention is a few bugs. One of the last levels has a script bug that prevents the progression of the game.

The single player campain lasts around the same time as COD4, which means it's a pretty short affair. 5-6 hours is all it takes, and after that there's a very fun Nazi Zombie mode, higher difficulty, and collectables.

As in COD4, there's also a big focus on multiplayer, and in WAW this focus is even bigger. The online from COD4 as we know and love return, with a few new additions. The level cap is raised from 55 to 65, a new fun mode called War, vehicles, the flamethrower, the 7 kill streak kill bonus has been replaced from helicopters to dogs, some new servers for new players and veteran players, and new perks. The online mode still remains one of the best and most addicting ever seen, although it has a few problems. I had good amount of connection errors in lobbies, and during the game, which i would love to get fixed. Then there's the problem with vehicles. They still play well, but get your hands on one of them, and you can basicly dominate the whole match. The flamethrower is also a bit owerpowered online, but then it's good that you have to be level 65 in order to be able to use it. These problems are easy to look past (well besides the connection issues), and it's amazingly fun to play.

But we are not done yet. There's also a co-up mode. You can work together through most of the game's levels (not all levels in the game are buildt for co-up), or you can play them and compete for the highest high score. It's a fun mode and especially the last one is amazingly fun. It's always a blast to try and get the highest high score. The game borrows this from Halo 3, along with Death Cards, which are excatly like the skulls of Halo 3. These cards can be picked up during the levels, and they each have their own function. Not helpfull functions though. Most of them makes the game harder, but it only adds to the fun. The last mode is Nazi Zombies, which you unlock when the game is completed. In this mode, your inside a house, where zombies are coming after you delicious brain. You must protect yourself agasint them and see how long you last. You can play this mode alone, but doing that not only ruins the idea of the mode, but makes it impossible to last long. If you can gather 3 other plays (which is far from hard), you'll be having a great time.

The grafics are basicly the same as in COD4, just in World War two, and a few tweaks The game is very violent, and this is the darkest and most violent COD game to date (the intro is good proof of this). You'll see some nasty stuff, and your actually able to blow off peoples arms, legs, and head. The game also has some pretty epic battle scenery, where the last level of the game blew me away. The game runs as smooth as COD4, although it's becoming clear some of the flaws of this engine. The ground texture for examlpe looks very ugly when you phone. But besides from some aging, WAW is a good looking game.

The sound is actually pretty perfect. The sound effects sound much better than COD3, and just as good as COD4. It begs to be heard through surround speakers. The voice acting is great, and the two celebreties Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman do a great job, although Gary deserves alot of praise for delivering a great russian accent. The music is like the tone of the game, dark. There are still some music in style with COD2 and COD3, but mostly it's eletronic and rock based, which is really nice.

Overall Call Of Duty: World At War is a good game. It's very entertaining, has alot of replay value, and it's addicting. The problem of the game is that it's basicly a mod of COD4, without the same amount of greatness that game had. World At War is still a great game, but compared to COD4, it falls a bit under it's shadow. But World At War is still a game i recommend, and you'll have a great time playing the game.