Review - Call of Duty: World At War

8.0 out of 10

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was easily one best games of 2008 and many fans of the franchise were upset when hearing that Activision's newest installment was returning to its World War II roots.

They were of course talking about Call of Duty: World At War.

Simply put, World At War is Call of Duty 4 with a World War II facade - which is certainly a good thing although not too incredibly innovative. World At War returns the classic control scheme, visual elements, outstanding online mulitplayer gameplay, and even heads-up-display from Call of Duty 4.

The game plunges players in two theaters of the war: one as an American marine invading the various Japanese islands and the other as a Soviet sniper marching with fellow comrades into the heart of Germany.

These two campaigns are very different in their gameplay strategies and overall tone although they are played nearly simultaneously. Trudging through the trench and jungle infested Japanese landscapes facing enemies in trees and underground trenchs is very different from marching across ruined Europeam landscapes in a mericless path for vengence - those Russian's were nasty.

This stark contrast provides a unique perspective on the war as two very different environments conisisting of four different nations were all fighting in one war. That granderous scope is further exlempified by actual footage and statistics from the war to place the gruesome conflict in perspective - this was not a glorified picnic.

World At War can be stright-up hard and unforgiving at times. Players can expect to be met with an unfair amount of gunfire and grenade launches in their direction at certain points. So much so, that it becomes overly burdernsome and frustrating.

Nevertheless, Call of Duty 4 fans will feel right at home with World At War although the single-player campagin feels short and cleched at times - running in slow motion after an explosion with a full chorus in the background can get old.

The true star of the game is its outstanding online mulitplayer presentation.

On this level, World At War is almost exactly like Call of Duty 4 with added content such as co-op campaign modes, added challenges, and an exhilerating new "Nazi Zombie" a la Left 4 Dead.

I found myslef focusing so much on the online-multiplayer modes that completeing the campaign almost felt like a chore. Online content of World At War easliy overshadows its single player campagin because of its close resemblence to Call of Duty 4.

Having said that, Call of Duty: World At War feels like a WWII solo mission and map pack expansion of Call of Duty 4, but a fun one at that.