Call of Duty: World at War Review - Xbox 360

8

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Audio: 8
Multiplayer: 8
Innovation: 7

Introduction

Call of Duty: World at War is the latest in the well known and respected first person shooter series. The series has swayed back and forth between developers a few times, but the quality has largely remained high. Unlike Call of Duty 4, World at War was developed by Treyarch (also known as the developers of Call of Duty 3), who in an interesting approach chose to drop the number from the name of the game, attempting to make the game appear as more than simply a sequel to its predecessor. But is it?

Gameplay

Treyarch set out to make a stand with World at War, and they seem to have delivered fairly well on their original intention, World at War is significantly different to Call of Duty 4, both in setting (to an extent anyway, this is World War II we’re talking about) and content. This time you’ll be fending off hordes of stealthy Japanese soldiers (who are only too eager to impale you on their bayonets), while visiting some lesser seen locations of the war. For a first person shooter game, there certainly seems to be a lot of close combat going on, enemies are more in-your-face then ever, and won’t back down an inch. Having enemies jump out at you so much really helps to keep players on their toes, and gives the game something of a do or die feel. This is war, and Treyarch have done a very good job of capturing its nature, from snipers hiding up tress to bunkers laden with machine gun turrets, World at War has it all. But is it fun to play?

While the action is great, one thing you have to accept when playing this game is that many events are scripted. Enemies will usually keep reappearing until you accomplish a certain goal, after which you get to the next area, where another objective must be met to advance the action. Simply gunning down every enemy you see won’t be enough, as all it really does is slow the enemy’s forces a little, saving you temporarily. The game’s story, while still great, isn’t quite as strong as Call of Duty 4’s since the events you take part in are so spread out through time. You’ll complete one mission, only to be suddenly hurled forwards three months into the future, and into another, largely unrelated battle. While this ensures that there is a nice amount of variety in the battles you take part in, you can also find yourself feeling a bit lost. One great thing about World at War is that nearly every campaign mission has the option for co-op play. This means that you and up to three online friends (or strangers) can battle your way through the story together, which can really help to make things more interesting. Co-op is also available offline, but strangely it only supports two players instead of four.

Multiplayer

As with Call of Duty 4, the multiplayer mode is a major part of the ...