Call of Duty: World at War – Cochrane612’s Review
To me, the whole point of the Call of Duty franchise is to make the player feel as if he or she is in a live action movie.
The action is fast and the cinematic events are plentiful.
With Call of Duty: World at War being developed by Treyarch what could possibly go wrong, right? Well with this game… nothing! Treyarch seemed to have listened to all the negativity they received off gamers and turned their newest development into a fast and thrilling action packed World War 2 game to hush everyone who has doubted them.
We all know that the World War 2 theme has been well over-used in the gaming industry, make way for another World War 2 game like no other. Treyarch has shown us that there is still a lot of potential in the World War theme. With this game they took us into battles that are not overly mentioned in other world conflict games, this definitely makes a difference from all the other war games out there.
This is still Call of Duty in every sense of the word. The action sequences are fast and overwhelming. Bullets fly from every direction to make the game immensely intense, this is one of the key things the Call of Duty franchise has always been good at doing. There are some fantastic first person cinematic scenes at certain points of the game which I will not mention to spoil, but they range from scenes of your own helplessness and failure to your own country’s supremacy and victory.
Again with Call of Duty: World at War the story will flow with a few different characters from different countries who are fighting their own separate battles; The USA will be fighting Japan and Russia will be fighting Germany etc.
The missions’ objectives vary in this game, like other Call of Duty games you will have to take a certain point out, destroy heavy weapons or take part in vehicle missions. Like Call of Duty 4’s air raid night-vision mission there is another similar mission in Call of Duty: World at War except it is fought above the ocean. The mission is enjoyable because of the sheer intensity, and there are also some nice character animations with the overboard survivors in this mission too. There is also an immense sniper mission just like Call of Duty 4, though World at War’s mission feels a lot more intense than Call of Duty 4’s sniper mission, mainly because you come up close with the enemy at certain points and you have to stay hidden, not to mention your escaping a collapsing building.
Call of Duty: World at War uses the same engine as Call of Duty 4 did, so the game looks good and the frame rate is smooth throughout the whole game. I was hugely impressed with the level of detail there is in this game, you can go up to a team mate and see the stitching in their clothes, its excellent when viewed on a HD television. Perhaps the most memorable graphical moments in the game for me are when you shoot or blow off the enemy’s 
body parts, there is a great looking stream of blood that follows the body part. I feel the level of brutality in this game is just right. It is not over the top blood and guts; it’s realistic, which leads me to my next point.
This Call of Duty is not for the younger gamer, it is much more brutal than any other Call of Duty out there, therefore you might not want to let your child play this game at all, or at least not without the supervision of an adult. Some visual content may disturb young members too, in some of the cinematic footage you will see real life executions momentarily, so though the game can be educational, it is at your own risk to allow your children to see it.
7 kills gets you a pack of dogs that will stop at nothing to rip your enemy’s throats out
Like Call of Duty 4’s immensely successful online multi-player mode, World at War has one too. World at War’s online multi-player is a ton of fun to play. There are new rewards for killing a number of enemies without dying: 3 kills will get you a spotting plane, 5 kills gets you an artillery strike and 7 kills gets you a pack of dogs that will stop at nothing to rip your enemy’s throats out. The dogs are difficult to take down which is why they’re so rewarding, they can get you a nice amount of kills if you’re lucky. The dogs will also find people who are hiding away in corners or buildings.
All the popular online modes are present in World at War such as team death match, search and destroy, headquarters, and so forth. Along with all the present modes are 2 new modes called “War” and “Capture-the-flag”. War is where you must seize points on the map by any means possible, and capture the flag being the same as any other game – grab the flag and make your way back to your base.
There is a new feature that you unlock after completing the game called Nacht der Untoten (night of the living dead) which is an unbelievably fun mode, you basically battle against waves of German zombies for you very survival. As you progress higher and higher in the waves the zombies become stronger and faster, not to mention there will be a lot more of them. You keep battling and boarding up the windows until you cannot hold a certain point any longer, then you can buy a new area for more space using points you have earned. You will also be able to purchase weapons with the points. There is a catch to this though, if you buy more space, there will be more windows to hold therefore making it increasingly difficult to stay alive. I feel it’s a welcome addition to the fun of Call of Duty: World at War and will keep players entertained for quite some time.
Last but not least is the ability to play through the campaign in co-op mode. You can play a campaign with your buddies offline or online. I cannot emphasise how much fun it can be to play the campaign with your buddies on the higher difficulties. You will be screaming at your play pals to come and revive you if you are downed and shouting out where the enemies are, it’s just a ton of fun. You can also find things called “Death cards” lying around in the missions, these “Death cards” allow you to use cheats in the game, and some can be really useful. (No spoiling).
Overall Call of Duty: World at War is one solid, enjoyable game that falls nothing short of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. There are a lot of things to be done in this game if you are interested in online gaming and a huge amount of entertainment if you like playing through a game’s campaign.
There are a few questions that I would like answered though:
Will Infinity Ward continue with the level of brutality in the next Call of Duty instalment? Will Infinity Ward make the game better for all ages? Will the engine for the next Call of Duty be similar? Or will Infinity Ward make drastic changes to it?
Until the next Game is mentioned, we will not know.
Nathan Cochrane
The Bad: good but short campaign, nothing that really sets a new bar in gaming.
Gold Y Award