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Call of Duty: World at War
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war! Call of Duty is back for another campaign in history's most bloody and destructive war.
November 20, 2008 | 8:49 AM PSTby: Jeff Rivera
Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
Call of Duty: World at War is the follow up to last year's enormous hit game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Developed by Treyarch, World at War takes us back to World War II for another go around in the bloodiest and most destructive conflict in human history. The story mode plays out on two fronts as you switch between American Marines fighting in the Pacific against the Japanese Imperial forces and as a member of the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front where you'll battle the Germans and their Nazi troops. The game features pretty big moments in the war, such as the Russian offensive into Berlin and the American/Japanese conflict at the Battle of Peleliu, a two month long stalemate that decimated the American Marine 1st Division as they fought to advance inch by inch.
What's Hot
It may be unfair, but just about everybody that picks up World at War is going to compare it to last year's Modern Warfare. Luckily for Treyarch, the team behind World at War, the game holds up quite well against Modern Warfare. On the single player front, you get a story mode that's intense, interesting, and challenging from start to finish. As you hop between the Eastern front and the Pacific islands, you'll get to see how different and diverse certain settings in World War II were. With the Russians on the Eastern front you are surrounded by bombed out cities, stretching farmland, and huge government buildings. In the Pacific you'll battle through dense jungle that's been heavily fortified by Japanese defenders. The varied landscape is awesome, and it keeps World at War from feeling like "just another WWII shooter."
In most shooters, the vehicle levels tend to bring momentum to a screeching halt, but in World at War they work quite well. Ranging from tank battles to an aircraft sea battle, the vehicle sections are actually quite fun. The intensity of the naval air battle almost makes you wish that it could have been extended for more than a single mission.
In addition to having very responsive and tight controls, the gameplay is fast and fluid. The game manages to hold a steady 60fps, even in dense jungle environments where there is some complex lighting going on and tons of action on the screen. These elements combine to make World at War one of the more satisfying World War II experiences found on consoles. It would be a shame if people out there discounted what Treyarch has done simply because we're once again playing a World War II title as the gameplay here trumps much of what the competition offers.
Multiplayer and co-op modes are quite fun in World at War. For the co-op side of things, you can play nearly the entire campaign with friends (some levels get skipped that wouldn't work in a co-op setting) over Xbox Live. It makes for some fun times when you and some of your buddies are charging up a fortified hill or digging out Nazis from a bombed out mess of a building. Even in co-op play the game holds its solid visuals and framerate throughout without resorting to graphical degradation.
With the competitive multiplayer
modes, you get an experience that is very similar to Modern Warfare, if you're familiar with it. You start out with a small selection of weapons, game modes, and perks (special abilities). As you play you'll gain XP for getting kills, meeting objectives, and winning matches. The accumulating XP opens up the new play modes, weapons, and perks for you. The progression seems a little odd at first, but it ends up being a very compelling reason to keep playing the game online. The maps are well thought out and aside from a few odd quirks, World at War pulls off multiplayer flawlessly. It's not a stretch by any means to say that World at War is right up there with Gears and Halo as quality multiplayer experiences.
The story and presentation in Call of Duty: World at War are also a step above the norm for the genre. Cut-scenes help to hide loading segments and you're presented with actual WWII video footage mixed in with historical facts and animated tactical information. Activision recruited some quality voice talent to add to the intensity and authentic feel of the action. You'll hear Kiefer Sunderland barking out orders and encouragement for the Marines and Gary Oldman pulling off a sweet Russian accent throughout the game. These little touches of professionalism really boost the overall presentation.
What's Not
When playing in multiplayer, you're bound to notice a few oddities that will leave you scratching your head. For example, to protect the lower level players, the game relegates all players with a ranking lower than eight to a section called Boot Camp. In this area, there are limited play modes and the gap between player levels is small. However, gamers have noticed that if you receive an invite from a player in Boot Camp that they can join the match regardless of their level. This is problematic because at times there were players with levels in the mid-50s going up against total newcomers. Not only are the experienced players better, but they also have access to better weapons and perks. Under these conditions, the new players were just getting slaughtered, and the high level players were just laughing it up. Hopefully this can get corrected with a patch real soon.
Another bummer with multiplayer is respawn locations. The game intentionally places you close to the action when you respawn from a death, but many times it puts you too close and you'll appear right in the middle of fire or just near where you died. The result of this is moments when you'll die, respawn, and die again before you even have a chance to make a move. Again, this is something that could possibly be patched if it proves to be enough of a bother to the online community.
While the story is interesting and the presentation is rock solid, at times the timeline gaps between missions is quite long, and you might get the feeling that you're missing out on events of high consequence. This jumping forward in time at such rapid paces also creates an unfortunate disconnect from previous missions and rather than having a logical narrative, the story seems to feel like random chapters from a much larger book.
This is minor, but many times your AI teammates in the single player campaign will get in the way of your shooting. Luckily this doesn't have much of a bearing on your success, but it does still bug you a bit when you've lined up a shot on an enemy and some dorky private comes running into your sites as you squeeze the trigger.
Final Word
Call of Duty: World at War is an excellent shooter. From start to finish, the action in the game is challenging and well paced. If you're a real multiplayer junkie, this game is capable of providing countless hours of online play with friends or strangers. Treyarch had a rough go around the last time they worked on a Call of Duty, but World at War proves that they're more than capable of handling the franchise when they've been given the proper time, resources, and conditions to work with. While some may feel a little reluctant about jumping into another World War II conflict, World at War is unique and enjoyable enough to make it a must for hardcore and casual shooter fans.
What the Game's About
Call of Duty: World at War is the follow up to last year's enormous hit game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Developed by Treyarch, World at War takes us back to World War II for another go around in the bloodiest and most destructive conflict in human history. The story mode plays out on two fronts as you switch between American Marines fighting in the Pacific against the Japanese Imperial forces and as a member of the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front where you'll battle the Germans and their Nazi troops. The game features pretty big moments in the war, such as the Russian offensive into Berlin and the American/Japanese conflict at the Battle of Peleliu, a two month long stalemate that decimated the American Marine 1st Division as they fought to advance inch by inch.
What's Hot
It may be unfair, but just about everybody that picks up World at War is going to compare it to last year's Modern Warfare. Luckily for Treyarch, the team behind World at War, the game holds up quite well against Modern Warfare. On the single player front, you get a story mode that's intense, interesting, and challenging from start to finish. As you hop between the Eastern front and the Pacific islands, you'll get to see how different and diverse certain settings in World War II were. With the Russians on the Eastern front you are surrounded by bombed out cities, stretching farmland, and huge government buildings. In the Pacific you'll battle through dense jungle that's been heavily fortified by Japanese defenders. The varied landscape is awesome, and it keeps World at War from feeling like "just another WWII shooter."
In most shooters, the vehicle levels tend to bring momentum to a screeching halt, but in World at War they work quite well. Ranging from tank battles to an aircraft sea battle, the vehicle sections are actually quite fun. The intensity of the naval air battle almost makes you wish that it could have been extended for more than a single mission.
In addition to having very responsive and tight controls, the gameplay is fast and fluid. The game manages to hold a steady 60fps, even in dense jungle environments where there is some complex lighting going on and tons of action on the screen. These elements combine to make World at War one of the more satisfying World War II experiences found on consoles. It would be a shame if people out there discounted what Treyarch has done simply because we're once again playing a World War II title as the gameplay here trumps much of what the competition offers.
Multiplayer and co-op modes are quite fun in World at War. For the co-op side of things, you can play nearly the entire campaign with friends (some levels get skipped that wouldn't work in a co-op setting) over Xbox Live. It makes for some fun times when you and some of your buddies are charging up a fortified hill or digging out Nazis from a bombed out mess of a building. Even in co-op play the game holds its solid visuals and framerate throughout without resorting to graphical degradation.
With the competitive multiplayer
modes, you get an experience that is very similar to Modern Warfare, if you're familiar with it. You start out with a small selection of weapons, game modes, and perks (special abilities). As you play you'll gain XP for getting kills, meeting objectives, and winning matches. The accumulating XP opens up the new play modes, weapons, and perks for you. The progression seems a little odd at first, but it ends up being a very compelling reason to keep playing the game online. The maps are well thought out and aside from a few odd quirks, World at War pulls off multiplayer flawlessly. It's not a stretch by any means to say that World at War is right up there with Gears and Halo as quality multiplayer experiences.
The story and presentation in Call of Duty: World at War are also a step above the norm for the genre. Cut-scenes help to hide loading segments and you're presented with actual WWII video footage mixed in with historical facts and animated tactical information. Activision recruited some quality voice talent to add to the intensity and authentic feel of the action. You'll hear Kiefer Sunderland barking out orders and encouragement for the Marines and Gary Oldman pulling off a sweet Russian accent throughout the game. These little touches of professionalism really boost the overall presentation.
What's Not
When playing in multiplayer, you're bound to notice a few oddities that will leave you scratching your head. For example, to protect the lower level players, the game relegates all players with a ranking lower than eight to a section called Boot Camp. In this area, there are limited play modes and the gap between player levels is small. However, gamers have noticed that if you receive an invite from a player in Boot Camp that they can join the match regardless of their level. This is problematic because at times there were players with levels in the mid-50s going up against total newcomers. Not only are the experienced players better, but they also have access to better weapons and perks. Under these conditions, the new players were just getting slaughtered, and the high level players were just laughing it up. Hopefully this can get corrected with a patch real soon.
Another bummer with multiplayer is respawn locations. The game intentionally places you close to the action when you respawn from a death, but many times it puts you too close and you'll appear right in the middle of fire or just near where you died. The result of this is moments when you'll die, respawn, and die again before you even have a chance to make a move. Again, this is something that could possibly be patched if it proves to be enough of a bother to the online community.
While the story is interesting and the presentation is rock solid, at times the timeline gaps between missions is quite long, and you might get the feeling that you're missing out on events of high consequence. This jumping forward in time at such rapid paces also creates an unfortunate disconnect from previous missions and rather than having a logical narrative, the story seems to feel like random chapters from a much larger book.
This is minor, but many times your AI teammates in the single player campaign will get in the way of your shooting. Luckily this doesn't have much of a bearing on your success, but it does still bug you a bit when you've lined up a shot on an enemy and some dorky private comes running into your sites as you squeeze the trigger.
Final Word
Call of Duty: World at War is an excellent shooter. From start to finish, the action in the game is challenging and well paced. If you're a real multiplayer junkie, this game is capable of providing countless hours of online play with friends or strangers. Treyarch had a rough go around the last time they worked on a Call of Duty, but World at War proves that they're more than capable of handling the franchise when they've been given the proper time, resources, and conditions to work with. While some may feel a little reluctant about jumping into another World War II conflict, World at War is unique and enjoyable enough to make it a must for hardcore and casual shooter fans.
December 7, 2009
