Call of Duty: World at War Review (Xbox 360)

Call of Duty: World at War has everything you loved from its predecessor, COD 4 : Modern Warfare, with an online upgrade. Newcomers to the franchise will instantly fall in love with engaging gameplay that puts you in the heart of “real life” warfare.

World at War is much like Modern Warfare, but it returns to its roots, putting you deep inside the historical saga of World War II.

You play through the lives of two characters: an American fighting through the Japanese stronghold on the Pacific Islands and an a Russian trying to save his home from Nazi Germany. Each soldier begins the game barely escaping death and under the guiding wing of a veteran soldier. You start the game an American POW. After seeing your comrade’s throat slit by your captors, you prepare for death. Luckily, the Americans save you just in time to throw you into World at War.

On the Russian side you’ll be playing dead amidst a pile of fallen soldiers. The Nazis shoot each one of your comrades to ensure that they’re dead. Of course, you survive and there’s a seasoned soldier with you to start you on the way to sniper-dom.

The story on its own isn’t compelling enough to follow. It’s choppy and jumps several months at a time. You’ll never build loyalty to your characters. But honestly, it doesn’t really matter that the plot isn’t airtight and it really doesn’t take away from the game.

If you’re not familiar with the Call of Duty franchise from Modern Warfare, then you should know that the graphics are nothing less than amazing. It’s what we’ve come to expect from a Call of Duty title. The settings have amazing detail: barbed wire fences, trenches, mortar holes, and decrepit bunkers - just to name a few. There are a couple points in the game when you can get stuck inside the geography of the map, such as the Bunkers in “Hard Landing.”

Each character is modeled with details down to their dirtied bloody knuckle. If you don’t have an HD TV to experience this, then just equip your sniper scope and look at some of the character details and you’ll be blown away. The game is topped off with actual World War II footage airing during the load screens, which was a nice touch for World at War.

Speaking of blown away, the sound design puts you right there in the action. You can look forward to waking up neighbors with the overwhelming onslaught of bullets, grenades and miscellaneous explosions. And let’s not forget about the Japanese kamikaze soldiers yelling as they run up to ambush you. The attention to detail is mind boggling as always. Small moments when your player reloads his sniper rifle to the ringing in your ears caused by a nearby grenade will give you a feel for how much thought the designers over at Treyarch put into this game. Die hard Call of Duty players will once again be able to toot their horns and claim that, unlike Halo, Call of Duty is “real life.”

The sound is augmented by the celebrity voice over work of Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman, voicing the Americans and the Russians, respectively. Fans of 24 will immediately recognize Kiefer’s voice and fall in love. His delivery over the real WWII war footage adds to the eerie and realistic tone of this game.

The game mechanics still hold up strongly. Your screen will get more red with each bullet or piece of shrapnel that hits you. Give your second a moment to cool down, and you’ll be back up to full health.

You’re arsenal of weapons is pretty much the same with the addition of the bayonet. You get introduced to this when the Japanese Kamikaze soldiers ambush you. This brings up another plus in the Call of Duty bible. When the Kamikaze soldier attacks you and tries to stab you with the bayonet, you’ll have a moment to turn the tables on him and slice him with your knife. The knife in Call of Duty was one thing that always trumped Halo. For close encounters it’s just way more satisfying to have that one slice kill from a well-timed attack. Turning the tables on Kamikazes isn’t the only melee plus. When a dog attacks, you can trigger your melee with the right stick and break its neck. You’ll have to be very precise in doing so or you’ll meet a quick death.

As always, XBox 360 achievements are nearly impossible to get in Call of Duty. If you slip up and play the game on Normal or Hardened the first time around, you’ll get cheated out of the majority of gamer points. There are achievements to unlock within levels, and one major achievement for beating the game. But, if you’re looking for a few points just for beating a chapter you’ll be in for a sad disappointment. Individual chapter achievements can only be earned on “Veteran” difficulty – the most difficult setting aka “You will not survive.” It’s about time they started prorating achievements for Call of Duty. Nothing crazy: 5 points for Normal, 10 for Hardened, and the full 30 for Veteran. Give gamers a sense of accomplishment.

Much like Modern Warfare the game is short and can be beaten in under 10 hours. But, here’s where playing on the game onVeteran will come in handy. You’ll be forced to take your time with the each map and not make any brash decisions.

One of the achievements comes from collecting all of the Death Cards. These nifty cards allow you to perform some amazing tasks like causing your enemies to explode in multiplayer.

As for the AI, it has been slightly improved for your fellow soldiers (as in they don’t act like complete morons). Your comrades will actually kill enemies for you. But don’t expect sheer heroics - developers still have some work to do in perfecting them.  Sometimes they’ll block your escape from a nearby grenade.

The online experience has been upgraded to feature four player cooperative play. You’ve also got a competitive mode and there are achievements in both. Beat the game and unlock a special Nazi Zombie mode for added fun.

If you thought you saw the end of those pesky dogs in the single player game, you’ll revisit them in multiplayer. 7 kills in a row allows you to unleash a pack of raved dogs.

Activision and Treyarch delivered another visually stunning and well designed Call of Duty title. World at War is the “real life” gameplay that is an instant keeper for any first person shooter fanatic. For those seeking originality, you won’t find much difference from the prior release. But, who cares. The game is still loads of fun and belongs on your game shelf.