Call of Duty: World at War Review
Call of Duty: World at War, has you once again taking the battlefields of World War 2. This time around you'll be playing the parts of an American Private, and a Soviet Private. While in the body of the American you'll be visiting some of the areas battles were fought when the US went against Japan. When playing as the Soviet you'll be taking on the Germans as you try to expel them from Russia, and then take it all the way back to Germany. This is a multi-platform game, appearing on the 360, PS3, and PC.
The graphics for the most part were top notch. You are really able to get into the battle, and the scenery. There were a couple of times where it appeared that you could sneak through the bushes, but there were invisible walls, but other than that the world you played in is solid. The character design you really don't get to admire, and that's probably a good thing, because some of these soldier, actually let me correct myself, most of the soldiers are ugly as sin. I think the contour lines on some of their faces were overly done, and as a result it looks like someone got artistic with a knife and soldiers' faces. The hud is very minimal, and doesn't distract from the game. I do wish, however, that the grenade indicator was a bit more distracting, as that's how I found myself having to redo a section of the level over and over again. The cut scenes were actually used really nicely in this game. You got information out of them, and it wasn't some stock, you'll see it 1000 times, load screen.
The sounds of this game are those that you'd expect in war. I will recommend on thing though, as soon as you start the game turn the subtitles on. There are times in levels where your leader is giving you a mission, or instructions, and if you miss them you might be in for a world of hurt, or you might just be wandering around aimlessly for a bit. The voice acting was fun, especially after a while of hearing at least one recognizable actor barking orders at you.
The controls, seeing as I played it for the PS3 I'll explain those, are good, but I think there was something missing. You're going to be utilizing the hell out of the entire control, but I felt like I caused more damage to my unit and myself when I accidentally pushed a button for the first time to discover it threw a grenade, or switched weapons, or made me stand up. The controls grow on you, and after a while, for me at least, you'll feel confident and will start mowing down enemies, only occasionally hitting the grenade button, and maybe getting a chance to replay the most recent part.
So as all the Call of Duties seem to be, with the exception of Modern Warfare, you're looking at a new WWII game, where you'll be fighting different battles, seeing slightly different action, and coming away feeling like you saved the world, or got to kill a lot of guys. Personally I enjoyed the Soviet missions more than the American ones. I think it was because right off the bat I got to play a level with a sniper rifle, where basically one shot kills. I also got to roll around in a tank a blow up a ton of enemy tanks. You're going to get to see a wide variety of weapons, so you can definitely play the role that you want to play, well that is as long as you're willing to shoot at the enemy. This game finally has some finality to it, so maybe this might actually be the end of the WWII games with the name Call of Duty, or then again maybe they'll take a step back and redo some of the battles a bit more.
This is a nice addition to your collection if you're a Call of Duty fan, and there are definite improvements over Call of Duty 3, the other game reviewed on this site. It has its very realistic moments, and there's not going to be any sci-fi twists, so if you're in for that stuff, then pick up the game. This game gets an 8.2 out of 10.
