The first thing that amused me about this game was on the back of the box.
?Experience war like you?ve never experienced it before.?
No. No, Activision, this is exactly how I experienced it before. I have played Medal of Honour, you know.
Ok, let?s get this review started proper.
Call of Duty: World at War is the sixth game in the Call of Duty series, if my memory serves me correctly. I?m including the extra part of the second game.
After the big hit that was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Treyarch somehow got their hands on the Call of Duty licence, and gave birth to this first person shooter, based in the Second World War.
The game features several game modes, which I?ll go through in order.
First is the obvious ? The single player campaign. This puts you through a series of missions from the perspective of either the US Marine, Miller, or the Red Army Private, Dmitri Petrenko, and the story alternates between the two. The gameplay is predictable, with mission objectives alternating between ?clear area? and ?destroy object?, but the weapons and environments are varied, ranging from the tropical island of Makin, to the ruined city of Stalingrad, and one of the most visually effective, the fires of Berlin.
Most of the events, if not all, are historically accurate, and although not adding to the gameplay per se, it definitely adds some authenticity to your actions.
Now, I?ve not played many shooters set in WWII, but each of the ones I have played included the D-Day landings. Treyarch decided to omit this. I don?t know why, but I?m glad they did. The thing about the historical accuracy means there?s very little variation between the WWII shooters. If you?ve beaten D-Day once, you?ve done it a thousand times.
Although the general mission objectives are repetitive, the methods aren?t. The introduction to Petrenko, and the Soviet forces, has you involved in a sniper duel, between yourself and a Nazi sniper in Stalingrad. This is very entertaining, especially on the hardest difficulty, as the sniper can take several shots before finally dying, whereas the player may take only one.
The final parts featured in the campaign are the, you guessed it, forced vehicle sections. They crop up a lot in FPS, so the only thing you can really do is get used to them. Out of the two that I can remember, my favourite is the second. The first puts you in control of a Russian T-34 battle tank, armed with an extra flamethrower. Now, rather than hiding from German fire, you can drive right up to them and incinerate them with your flamethrower, and destroy the other tanks that show up.
The second puts you in the shoes of Petty Officer Locke, manning the guns in an American PBY Catalina, attacking a Japanese merchant fleet. The atmosphere is truly defined by the pounding soundtrack, which I at first mistook for the guns from PT boats thudding against the hull of the Catalina.
There are two other modes for the campaign. One is a co-op mode, which features up to four players over Xbox LIVE (Once again, I review the Xbox 360 version), or system link. I think it works for system link ? it usually does.
The aim of this co-operative venture is simply to complete the campaign. Having four players makes it both easier and harder to beat a level. I know it sounds odd.
It?s made easier by the fact that if you take a usually-fatal shot, you?re put into Last Stand, which has you lying on the ground with a pistol, allowing you to shoot or knife any nearby enemies. It is then up to one of the other players to revive you. This can happen an infinite number of times, so missions are made easier by the ability to carry on from where you fell to Last Stand, rather than restarting from a checkpoint every time you forget to reload.
It?s made harder, however, by the fact that if one of the players falls to Last Stand, and they?re in a particularly dangerous area, it?s very difficult for the other players to reach their comrade, and even more difficult for them to revive them without being shot. And should you leave a player in last stand, they eventually bleed out. If one player dies, the whole team must restart from a checkpoint.
The other mode of campaign is a multiplayer competitive one. The aim for each player is no longer just to complete the level, it?s to gain as many points as possible, from killing enemies in a variety of ways. But, just in case players were considering being selfish, and leaving their downed allies to bleed out, they are awarded points for reviving their allies in Last Stand, whereas the downed allies lose points for falling.
In my opinion, the points system is balanced, and keeps most games near-equal, creating a sense of real competition.
Competitive campaign also features the Challenges system the Call of Duty series holds so close, with the rewards from completing the challenges coming in the form of XP, which gets added onto the Multiplayer total.
The next mode is the main Multiplayer. The playlists featured in the Matchmaking are varied, involving the straight-up Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All, the territory-based War mode, and Hardcore variants of each. Hardcore removes a good chunk of your starting health, and removes the HUD, so you have only your wits to rely on when it comes to combat. The XP and ranking systems are especially prominent in this mode, since reaching a certain amount of XP results in a promotion. Promotions result in new weapons, and completing weapon Challenges earns you extras for the guns, such as suppressors, scopes and larger clips.
Unlike a large number of first person shooters, the Call of Duty series uses a class system, where weapons and Perks are chosen before games, as opposed to having a starting weapon, and having to find new weapons on the battlefield. Weapons do not spawn on the maps, they are only dropped by fallen players.
The aforementioned Perks are bonuses onto the player. Proximity mines, faster reloads, faster firing speeds, to name but a few. They featured in previous Call of Duty games, so long-term fans would be familiar with them.
The final mode, and possibly the only new thing to come to the WWII shooter subgenre in years, is the Nazi Zombies mode. Up to four players hold out in an abandoned house/mental asylum against a horde of undead Nazis. Starting with only a pistol, they must acquire points from killing zombies and rebuilding their barriers to purchase new weapons from their outlines upon the walls, and to unlock different parts of the house.
Recently, Treyarch released a map pack for the game. This included three new maps, to add to the already fairly extensive list. Nightfire, Kneedeep and Station. In my opinion, these maps were definitely worth the 800 Microsoft points I, well, my brother, paid. Nightfire is a visual spectacle, Kneedeep is quite annoyingly circular, so I keep getting stabbed in the back, in the most literal sense of the phrase, and Station is delightfully linear, giving some of that old-fashioned conflict I?ve been missing.
The final thing the map pack included was Verruckt. A mental asylum to fight the Nazi Zombies in. Before the map pack, there was only Nacht Der Untoten, leaving little variation in the Nazi Zombies game mode. Now there?s a little more variation.
So, in conclusion, I?d advise getting Call of Duty: World at War, as, although nothing new to the subgenre, it?s still a lot of fun, and if you like World War II, and you like zombies?well, it?s obvious.
Oh, tanks are also included in the Multiplayer mix. What?s next? Jeeps? Boats? Battlefield: 1942?
?Experience war like you?ve never experienced it before.?
No. No, Activision, this is exactly how I experienced it before. I have played Medal of Honour, you know.
Ok, let?s get this review started proper.
Call of Duty: World at War is the sixth game in the Call of Duty series, if my memory serves me correctly. I?m including the extra part of the second game.
After the big hit that was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Treyarch somehow got their hands on the Call of Duty licence, and gave birth to this first person shooter, based in the Second World War.
The game features several game modes, which I?ll go through in order.
First is the obvious ? The single player campaign. This puts you through a series of missions from the perspective of either the US Marine, Miller, or the Red Army Private, Dmitri Petrenko, and the story alternates between the two. The gameplay is predictable, with mission objectives alternating between ?clear area? and ?destroy object?, but the weapons and environments are varied, ranging from the tropical island of Makin, to the ruined city of Stalingrad, and one of the most visually effective, the fires of Berlin.
Most of the events, if not all, are historically accurate, and although not adding to the gameplay per se, it definitely adds some authenticity to your actions.
Now, I?ve not played many shooters set in WWII, but each of the ones I have played included the D-Day landings. Treyarch decided to omit this. I don?t know why, but I?m glad they did. The thing about the historical accuracy means there?s very little variation between the WWII shooters. If you?ve beaten D-Day once, you?ve done it a thousand times.
Although the general mission objectives are repetitive, the methods aren?t. The introduction to Petrenko, and the Soviet forces, has you involved in a sniper duel, between yourself and a Nazi sniper in Stalingrad. This is very entertaining, especially on the hardest difficulty, as the sniper can take several shots before finally dying, whereas the player may take only one.
The final parts featured in the campaign are the, you guessed it, forced vehicle sections. They crop up a lot in FPS, so the only thing you can really do is get used to them. Out of the two that I can remember, my favourite is the second. The first puts you in control of a Russian T-34 battle tank, armed with an extra flamethrower. Now, rather than hiding from German fire, you can drive right up to them and incinerate them with your flamethrower, and destroy the other tanks that show up.
The second puts you in the shoes of Petty Officer Locke, manning the guns in an American PBY Catalina, attacking a Japanese merchant fleet. The atmosphere is truly defined by the pounding soundtrack, which I at first mistook for the guns from PT boats thudding against the hull of the Catalina.
There are two other modes for the campaign. One is a co-op mode, which features up to four players over Xbox LIVE (Once again, I review the Xbox 360 version), or system link. I think it works for system link ? it usually does.
The aim of this co-operative venture is simply to complete the campaign. Having four players makes it both easier and harder to beat a level. I know it sounds odd.
It?s made easier by the fact that if you take a usually-fatal shot, you?re put into Last Stand, which has you lying on the ground with a pistol, allowing you to shoot or knife any nearby enemies. It is then up to one of the other players to revive you. This can happen an infinite number of times, so missions are made easier by the ability to carry on from where you fell to Last Stand, rather than restarting from a checkpoint every time you forget to reload.
It?s made harder, however, by the fact that if one of the players falls to Last Stand, and they?re in a particularly dangerous area, it?s very difficult for the other players to reach their comrade, and even more difficult for them to revive them without being shot. And should you leave a player in last stand, they eventually bleed out. If one player dies, the whole team must restart from a checkpoint.
The other mode of campaign is a multiplayer competitive one. The aim for each player is no longer just to complete the level, it?s to gain as many points as possible, from killing enemies in a variety of ways. But, just in case players were considering being selfish, and leaving their downed allies to bleed out, they are awarded points for reviving their allies in Last Stand, whereas the downed allies lose points for falling.
In my opinion, the points system is balanced, and keeps most games near-equal, creating a sense of real competition.
Competitive campaign also features the Challenges system the Call of Duty series holds so close, with the rewards from completing the challenges coming in the form of XP, which gets added onto the Multiplayer total.
The next mode is the main Multiplayer. The playlists featured in the Matchmaking are varied, involving the straight-up Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All, the territory-based War mode, and Hardcore variants of each. Hardcore removes a good chunk of your starting health, and removes the HUD, so you have only your wits to rely on when it comes to combat. The XP and ranking systems are especially prominent in this mode, since reaching a certain amount of XP results in a promotion. Promotions result in new weapons, and completing weapon Challenges earns you extras for the guns, such as suppressors, scopes and larger clips.
Unlike a large number of first person shooters, the Call of Duty series uses a class system, where weapons and Perks are chosen before games, as opposed to having a starting weapon, and having to find new weapons on the battlefield. Weapons do not spawn on the maps, they are only dropped by fallen players.
The aforementioned Perks are bonuses onto the player. Proximity mines, faster reloads, faster firing speeds, to name but a few. They featured in previous Call of Duty games, so long-term fans would be familiar with them.
The final mode, and possibly the only new thing to come to the WWII shooter subgenre in years, is the Nazi Zombies mode. Up to four players hold out in an abandoned house/mental asylum against a horde of undead Nazis. Starting with only a pistol, they must acquire points from killing zombies and rebuilding their barriers to purchase new weapons from their outlines upon the walls, and to unlock different parts of the house.
Recently, Treyarch released a map pack for the game. This included three new maps, to add to the already fairly extensive list. Nightfire, Kneedeep and Station. In my opinion, these maps were definitely worth the 800 Microsoft points I, well, my brother, paid. Nightfire is a visual spectacle, Kneedeep is quite annoyingly circular, so I keep getting stabbed in the back, in the most literal sense of the phrase, and Station is delightfully linear, giving some of that old-fashioned conflict I?ve been missing.
The final thing the map pack included was Verruckt. A mental asylum to fight the Nazi Zombies in. Before the map pack, there was only Nacht Der Untoten, leaving little variation in the Nazi Zombies game mode. Now there?s a little more variation.
So, in conclusion, I?d advise getting Call of Duty: World at War, as, although nothing new to the subgenre, it?s still a lot of fun, and if you like World War II, and you like zombies?well, it?s obvious.
Oh, tanks are also included in the Multiplayer mix. What?s next? Jeeps? Boats? Battlefield: 1942?
