Call of Duty: World at War Review

Posted Sun 15th Aug 2010 11:11pm by Gavin Lowe

War...What is it good for?

World at War in 10 seconds

World at War strides back to the World War 2 bedrock of the series. A gripping, historical rollercoaster of a single player campaign. Good graphics and gameplay, excellent multiplayer and Nazi Zombies! Did I mention Nazi Zombies? It has Nazi Zombies!

Background

Treyarch returns the Call of Duty franchise to its roots with World at War, focusing once more on that greatest of human conflicts, the Second World War. First person shooter fans are in for a treat as the familiar CoD game mechanics and period accurate weaponry of the series’ earlier WW2 titles are used to great effect. The result is an immersive gaming experience that runs along more by the strength of the story than by any clever new forms of gameplay.

The storyline follows two player characters, an American fighting the Pacific campaign and a Russian trudging his way to the heart of Berlin. Switching between the two theatres of war throughout the game prevents levels from seeming repetitive or stale, and the story attempts to tether the player emotionally to the characters through "overcoming the odds" storylines: both campaigns begin at low points for the protagonists, with the invading enemy subjecting them to physical torture in one case, and in the other the torture of seeing his beloved Motherland torn apart. The game engenders a feeling of retribution and is geared to make the player care about every inch of ground gained whilst pushing the invading armies back behind their own borders.

There is a cinematic feel to the gameplay, with the opening level of the Russian campaign reminiscent of the opening scene from Enemy at the Gates and the Pacific war feeling like Flags of our Fathers. The pre-mission, historically accurate cut scenes use actual footage from the war and combine this with facts and statistics about the campaigns to give players an idea of the sobering gravity of the actual conflict. Despite the fact that this is a game, it is very firmly rooted in real-life events and scenarios.

Things don't start well for our hero.

World at War boasts by far one of the best Easter eggs in any game. Completing the story mode opens up a sub-game: Nazi Zombies. Combining everyone’s favourite bad guys into a neat single or multiplayer experience that has a massive longevity in its own right, Nazi Zombies pits a player, or a team of players, against a marauding horde of undead goose-stepping horrors (all right, they shamble rather than goose-step).

Players are barricaded in a bunker and have to pick off the fiends as they attempt to claw their way in. Kills earn points, as does repairing damaged barricades, which can be spent on buying new guns and ammo or opening up further areas of the bunker to get even better weapons at the cost of creating more points of entry for the undead. The longer you survive the harder it gets, with waves of the fiends relentlessly increasing in number and speed.

Gameplay

They're Nazis...and they're Zombies!

Call of Duty fans won’t be disappointed by the continuation of a great theme and set of tight FPS mechanics, and there are a couple of gems thrown in there for good measure. World at War introduces bayonets which are great for stabbing your foes at a relatively safe distance or foiling the enraged charges of Japanese Banzai troops.

An array of period accurate weapons is at your disposal. Flamethrowers are the most notable new addition to the arsenal and are quite horrifying to use. Spraying bunkers with fire will cause burning, screaming enemies to come tumbling out of their entrenchments, usually into a hail of bullets supplied by your comrades. Walking through the long grass of Pacific islands burning out holes and dousing groups of enemies gives a grim insight to the realities of war.

Players get to experience the war from the air, as well. One mission puts players in a well-armed maritime rescue craft high above an allied fleet. The plane has forward, aft and side facing gun mountings that players switch between to take down Japanese Zeros and help protect the fleet of warships from aerial attack.

Take to the skies and unleash hell.

The tempo of the game is cleverly managed. The campaigns are paced to encourage the player to press on, for example defending a fallen Sergeant against waves of Japanese attackers, or taking the Russian vengeance to the heart of the Reichstag in Berlin. Both campaigns build steadily to an action packed and satisfying crescendo.

The multiplayer game comes in several formats and elongates gameplay exponentially. Players can team up to play through the single player campaign in a four player co-operative mode over Xbox LIVE. The number of enemies increases for each player and although killing an enemy causes numbers to pop up on screen as your XP is calculated, it doesn’t detract too much from the enjoyment. The game can be played split screen on one console to the same effect and XP earned in this game mode is transferred to the multiplayer proper and used to kit out and improve your character.

The default multiplayer maps are intricate and varied, and map packs have been released at extra cost; if you wish to play on all the maps you'll have to shell out. Tanks also feature on some maps and players can drive the steel Goliaths around chasing down vulnerable players in the open. That said, they don’t dominate the map and it isn’t hard to evade them or to utilise some well-placed explosives to destroy them. As with most first person shooters, the inability to effectively use cover is the most frustrating part of the gameplay. In order to get shots off players are forced to reveal much more of their profile than would be comfortable in a real firefight.

Visuals

Burn, baby, burn.

The graphics are a step up from those in the last World War 2 Call of Duty entry as they are based off the same engine used in Modern Warfare. Fire, explosions, and dirt and rock falling from heavy impacts are all handled well and add to the siege atmosphere when under heavy fire. The visuals are more gory than previous titles with enemies’ limbs likely to blow off, copious levels of blood, and the results of a flamethrower attack being particularly graphic.

The multiplayer maps are well designed and serve as an excellent backdrop to the action. Textures look authentic and the obstacle design is such that players can’t camp and pick off victims with impunity, there’s always a way to get to someone. It suffers from glitches on occasion, with guns and limbs disappearing into walls or players getting “under the map”.

Audio

Watch your enemy's homeland crumble.

New “occlusion” technology was used in World at War, which allows a more dynamic use of sound in game. Obstacles, such as walls, directly affect the sound heard by players. Thick walls cause more sound muffling than thin walls and players can tell the difference between footsteps beside them and those above or below. Gunshots are also changed by this technology so that players can distinguish between shots fired close by and those in the distance.

A moody, atmospheric and intense soundtrack complements the visuals well and supports the cinematic feel of the game.

Closing comments

World at War is a great FPS and an excellent addition to a well loved series. It does not break any new ground or stand out as the next step in the genre, but it does build on the strong foundations of its predecessors to provide many hours of entertainment. The single player campaign is engaging and holds the player’s interest. The game’s life is extended by a superb multiplayer experience, again building on the success of Modern Warfare, and the genius sub-game of Nazi Zombies. Fans of the genre will enjoy it and newcomers will find it to be an easily accessible entry level game to the Call of Duty series. The sheer size of the online community demonstrates that this game will be bought and played for a long time with a very long multiplayer life.

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