Today’s FPS market is filled to the brim with World War II shooters, is Treyarch’s latest good enough to beat its series sequel, or indeed the upcoming next-gen FPS titles? This-is-Gaming.com reviews…
Like all of the previous Call of Duty titles, World at War brings us into a deep and immersive gaming experience from the first level to the last. Treyarch has followed tradition in providing an addicting game, with many features that most other FPS titles lack. The Call of Duty series is one of the best in the genre, competing with the likes of Battlefield and Medal of Honour.
From the very first level, you are given a challenge, the artificial intelligence works well enough to pose a threat, without becoming overwhelming. After playing through on the standard difficulty, I managed to complete the campaign in approximately eight to nine hours, which is the average length for shooters in today’s market. While this was the case within a solo campaign, the co-op campaign would not take as long. After playing one or two of the co-op campaign levels, it was a lot easier. This could be avoided by increasing the difficulty, but if you’re not prepared for it, you could be in a shock when your one man down and on your own for the remainder of the level.
The campaign mode brings two conflicts. Swapping between the fight in Europe (Russian and Nazi forces), and the battles over the seas and Japanese islands (Americans and Japanese). This breaks up the problem found in previous games, where you get bored playing as one team for a prolonged period of time. The campaign has a few special moments, without spoiling the experience for future players; some moments do take you for surprise, like the final scene for example which will bring tears of joy to many.
Unlike other titles, I could only see myself completing the campaign mode once; I doubt that I will go back through on different settings, unless it is a co-op game. Multiplayer however, is addicting. After leaving it until after the campaign was complete I stepped into a multiplayer game with some of the other writers here, and since that game I haven’t been able to step away from multiplayer, currently there are 13 maps to play through, mostly all are modified campaign maps. However if you require more maps, there is a downloadable pack containing 3 extra maps. The current map list consists of; Airfield, Asylum, Castle, Cliffside, Courtyard, Dome, Downfall, Hanger, Makin, Outskirts, Roundhouse, Seelow and Upheaval.
Going up levels in World at War works much the same to Modern Warfare, kills and acts of good earn you point which go towards a final score in each match, this adds up to a level according to a few statistics. Weapon and Class management works extremely well, and it is always a good moment when you unlock a new weapon or perk.
Multiplayer features six different modes, and an additional minigame called ‘Nacht der Untoten’, which pitches you and three others against hordes of Nazi-zombies.
The only thing that the multiplayer lacks is a split-screen online function. Not being able to play online while having a friend playing on the same screen is slightly annoying and actually brings down the multiplayer experience quite a bit.
The graphics in World at War are pretty standard for today’s technical advances, while there are no faults in the appearance of the title, it is not quite on par with the newer and yet to be released titles such as Gears of War 2 and Killzone 2. But the graphics do hold up well and they are defiantly not bad, but a little improvement could help to bring more atmosphere to the levels.
The sound and music within World at War is brilliant, as always the music is recorded live instead of synthesized which brings life to the soundtrack. The sound effects work well but more variation when it comes to verbal messages within multiplayer would be nice, as after some time the guy can get pretty frustrating.
World at War is an interesting title, it is extremely similar to Modern Warfare in a number of ways, some have said that it is more of a modification than a new title, however I don’t think this stopped the title doing well in the stores. Probably the worst this about Call of Duty’s latest outing is the title. We’re not to sure what to think about it, I think they we’re trying to find a new and unique way to say World War II, but hey it works.
Overall, this title is better online, and on console. With a few additional DLC packs this title could defiantly pick up a higher score. If you liked Modern Warfare, chances are you’ll enjoy this just as much, if not more. The setting defiantly improves the gameplay, and the Nazi-zombies offer a lot of extra gameplay time.
