If you're after anything resembling a challenge, it's best to steer clear of the easiest difficulty levels. You certainly won't get the most out of the battles when you can take ridiculous amounts of punishment before finally carking it The larger battles are meant to be exercises in intense action, but when you can survive so easily, they lose most of their impact.
You'll find yourself virtually impervious to damage, apart from grenades and flamethrowers. Speaking of flamethrowers, you'll find yourself equipped with one pretty early on in the Pacific campaign. It's devastatingly powerful and makes clearing out bunkers and enclosed spaces a doddle. Unfortunately, due to the nature of your Japanese opponents, specifically their banzai charges, the weapon makes some sections far too easy. When enemies rush right at you, a one-shot-kill weapon takes any sense of fear out of the equation.
This could have been solved by making adversaries appear from unexpected directions more often, catching you by surprise, but disappointingly, this rarely happens.
They usually just pop up right in front of you, virtually pleading to be roasted alive. You can also use the flamethrower to bum the long grass the Japanese sometimes hide in, as well as the trees enemy snipers call home.
However, due to the nature of the game engine, it doesn't feel as natural as the flame-bringers in Far Cry 2 or even Return to Castle Wolfenstein. World at War is still as resolutely linear as its predecessors, except for one or two moments where you get to choose whether to go right or left.
In these days of free-roaming worlds and vast environments, the extreme linearity is both frustrating and, curiously, comforting. Sometimes you don't want to be overwhelmed by side quests or options - you just want to get stuck into the combat When you get that particular urge, the Call of Duty series remains at the top of the pile, providing one' of the most tightly scripted and linear gaming experiences money can buy.
Nevertheless, some more choices here and there would have been nice, even if it was just along the lines of a branching campaign that involved some form of decision making on your part. Multiplayer has been expanded since COM, with the addition of a co-op mode, vehicles and a Nazi Zombies mode unlocked by completing the single-player campaign see 'Zombie co-op'.
There will also be the usual Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag modes, plus the usual perks and achievements for people with far too much time on their hands. The multiplayer beta that has been doing the rounds hasn't gone down too well with some fans, specifically veterans of C0D4, who have complained it is effectively just a reskinning of that game's own multiplayer section.
Even if the more competitive elements of WAWs multiplayer don't go down too well, the co-op side is, as such modes tend to be, great fun. What we have here is an excellent game that will suffer not because of its quality or lack of such, but because it is inevitably going to be compared to its immediate predecessor. Gameplay-wise, there is little to separate the two titles in terms of quality.
Both are perhaps the finest current examples of tightly scripted, linear rollercoasters, packing in as many extraordinary moments into their relatively short timespans as possible. World at War is a bit more expansive than COM, in terms of both level design and length. So the fact there are so many moments I'll remember long after the game's credits is a testament to the cinematic quality of the game.
Sadly, for some players the fact they'll feel like they are playing a mod of C0D4 will be too difficult a barrier to overcome, especially when the scenarios are, at least initially, unexciting prospects for a COD veteran.
Nevertheless, if you can get over these obstacles, you'll find yourself enjoying yet another example of exhilarating action. While World At War isn't original and has moments lacking in inspiration the tank section, ugh it has refined the linear World War II shooter template as much as perhaps it can be.
Like Star Trek films we've come to expect the Call of Duty games if you take into account the ones released on consoles to run one good, one bad. However, now that former provenors of console-fare Treyarch have sat me down in front of the game, I've removed my cynicism goggles to look upon the series with fresh, blood-spattered eyes.
Dropping the number system, Call of Duty: World at War is a new start for the COD 3 developers - having been granted a lot more time to make the damn thing, and specialising on parts of the war not instantly recognisable to your average gamer - stuff like the Russian push on Berlin or, as I was recently shown, the conflict in the Pacific. The raid of Makin Island, one of the first levels, starts with you tied to a chair, faced with a smug Japanese general.
He puffs cigar smoke in your face, before turning to one of your comrades and shouting appropriately phrased Japanese at him. All standard fare until he takes that cigar and stubs it in your mate's eye, the blood-curdling scream making even fellow enemies squirm, before they move into full-blown shock when he slits your comrade's throat, spattering blood across the wall and the dead man's shadow.
As the general grabs you by the hair and readies to kill you, there's shouting, footsteps and a knife in your captor's back. A marine pulls you to your feet, assures you you're safe and shoves a gun into your hand, asking if you can fight. As there isn't a "bugger this" option, you're well on your way into the most brutal portrayal of war you've ever seen. We wanted to make something new, something different," smiles Mark Lamia, Treyarch studio head.
Both in our history lessons and in most WWII games there's a heavy focus on classical tank and infantry combat, with familiar soldiers and countryside dotting a stretch of countryside. Here, we see a rich, pine-laden Pacific and a different war, thanks to the unconventional style of warfare use by the Japanese. While the banzai tactic of running, swords drawn, into the enemy is well-known, the Japanese fought in a brutal, mano a mano fashion.
The Bushido code, which valued honour over life, drove Japanese soldiers to fight to their last breath, no matter how dire and hopeless the situation was. To put it in Lamia's words, "They were taking no quarter, and none was given. The Imperial Japanese weren't like any modern fighting force you've ever seen. They were a gritty, ruthless, non-traditional opponent - stuff like guerrilla warfare and the Bushido code were completely alien to the Americans at the time'.
Japanese soldiers would hide in undergrowth and slit the throats of sleeping soldiers and snipe from trees, using every trick they could to bewilder the allies. I later witness this in-game, near the end of the Makin Raid, as we trundle past a seemingly benign set of bushes.
Flashlights suddenly blind us and a bunch of manic Japanese soldiers leap from the foliage. One primes a grenade and grabs a soldier in a suicidal embrace, winning a grim victory. World at War's stated aim is to move away from convention, removing the stodge from a tired genre with new vistas, under-exposed theatres of war, and a new angle on storytelling.
They go beyond the simple briefing format with amazing combinations of slick graphics and facts about the mission you're sent on. The Makin Raid mission is pre-empted by giant floating ribbons, an introduction to Emperor Hirohito and a visual representation of Japan's invasion of Asia, with historic footage mixed in for good measure.
It's a fascinating mix of Bond-style credits and stock footage, that gives meaning to the action as well as the necessary pep and excitement. Treyarch have had two years to create WAW, and Lamia is proud to say they've used it well: "We've created something that's a great deal edgier, and with that edge the whole thing feels different WAW will feel nothing like any other WWII game you've ever played.
And behind the optimistic waffle, he could be right - while we're used to slowpaced crawls that eventually lead to hiding in ruined houses and bunkers, with the occasional tank thrown in, the Makin Raid appears to be pulse-pounding, erratic and wildly disorienting. Enemies seem to come from everywhere and nowhere, sneaking through undergrowth before charging at you, or hiding in seemingly cleared areas, waiting for you to pass by.
It's all pretty amazing. New to the series is the four-player co-op mode, allowing you and your friends to waltz through IVAWs conflicts, dropping I in and out at the beginning of levels. I am given a demonstration of just how effective this is when the action skips to covering an encounter with a huge armoured division on some exoticlooking farmland.
With two players on hand, one takes on the tank battalions by ducking into foxholes and launching barrages of rockets, then by going hell-for-leather and leaping on top of them, dropping a grenade casually into the metal beasts before scarpering. Meanwhile the other player covers him and handles the infantry, at one point using a flamethrower see Flame On! The blowtorch certainly has a Return to Castle Wolfenstein feel understandable, as many of the staff from Gray Matter - RTCWs developer -are now working at Treyarch , but now has more practical uses in its ability to set fire to trees and any hidden snipers, as well as spreading between soldiers that are touching or are too close to each other.
Moving on from the farmland, the pair hurry up a hill and face a group of soldiers holed up in a building, using a handheld mortar to flush them out. Said building, being of a destructible ilk, is shattered, and the explosion throws two worried-looking Japanese soldiers arse-over-tit accompanied by a pile of physics-enabled rubble.
Not a pleasant end. No time for a breather though as seconds later a low-flying plane screams through player two's vision, snapping power cables and crashing in a wall of flames that engulfs a passing tank. You couldn't imagine a scene that sings from the COD hymn sheet with as much gusto.
These days it's become corny to even say that WWII is a road that has been heavily-trod previously - its something that everyone says and everyone thinks. However, the C0D4 engine, along with the new environment, has led Treyarch to believe they are creating a genuinely exhilarating experience out of source material thought long-since bled dry.
That's how we're making this game. It's a realistic, true-to-events game that we're taking in a direction that no-one's ever seen," grins Lamia. Heller steps away from the controls and nods. Another help is that they're using the multiplayer from Call of Duty 4, right down to the matchmaking and the excellent levelling-up system that makes playing COD4 online so engrossing.
WAW also has a new attachments system, allowing guns to be realistically modified eg bipods can be connected to machine guns, letting you to lean the gun on a wall to make an accurate turret. Players will also have dedicated vehicle-based games, including some in specially made vehicle-only combat zones. Treyarch are promising great things, but they're keeping schtum about them for now.
Rumour is that you'll be able to use the LVT - an amphibious transport vehicle - to sneak up on people from the water. Multiplayer-wise PC gamers will be treated to player free-for-all battles much larger than on World at War's console versions. That means, with the promised dedication to mappers and modders, we can expect some epic combat scenarios. Also new to the multiplayer is the cross-map squad feature.
Rather than just letting players stick together, you can now have built-in squad benefits - we predict better I accuracy will be one example - that work across the team. These are still a work-in-progress, but promise to reward players for sticking together through Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Vehicle Deathmatch and other returning modes. They may also lead to some interesting clan-based scenarios, with particular load-outs leading to monumental clashes. The maps have all been forged using readily available tools and have been tested and tweaked since development began, allowing Treyarch time to create convincing line battles, fast-paced fights so that you're no more than five seconds from a fight at any given point and some individual and interesting maps for the multiplayer modes.
I watched a game played by a group of testers. The play was every inch as action-packed as a COD4 game, with one player shooting through a hut wall and leaping through the hole to escape a grenade, while others joined in a pitched battle that appeared far more fast-paced than earlier WWII notches on the Call of Duty bedpost. It isn't all Pacific either, Treyarch are still to reveal the European campaign -the Road to Berlin - where you are part of the Russian advance.
This part of the war, previously only covered in depth by strategy titles, saw embittered Russian forces pushing the Nazi forces back into their home country and on to Berlin.
Here the Third Reich's army fought a street-by-street battle to slow down the Red Army's advance, in a bid to give civilians a chance to escape the brutal vengeance of the Soviets. I went into Treyarch's offices cynical, and came out cautiously excited.
Call of Duty: World at War looks truly different. While it's still a World War II FPS, it has new enemies that react differently and, as Treyarch and their war researchers repeatedly say, entirely different battles. Sure, we've been burnt by this sort of thing before with the mediocrity of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, but even in EA's botched effort there were moments in which the variety, spectacle and terrifying 'trees have eyes' tension as you snuck through the undergrowth, gave us something new.
What is remarkable is that despite the preponderence of action games set in World War II, the bits we're all-too familiar with remain the thin-end of a particularly horrifying global wedge.
The day people truly run out of things to say about the conflict, or ways to portray it, will be the day that it's revealed that historians haven't been working hard enough. Say "It's not Infinity Ward! War could be massive. Looking back at past Call of Duty games it is easy to see why this one is still held in such high regard to this day.
Call of Duty: World At War was developed by Treyarch and I think this was the game where they really hit their stride with the series. World At War had the hard job of following up from Modern Warfare.
World At War takes the series back to World War 2. Fruit Ninja Kinect. Full House Poker. FunTown Mahjong. Fusion Genesis. Galaga Legions DX. Galaga Legions. Gatling Gears. Geometry Wars Evolved 2. Geometry Wars Evolved. Ghostbusters Sanctum of Slime. Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams. Golf Tee It Up!. Gotham City Impostors. Guardian Heroes. Guardians of Middle-Earth.
Gunstar Heroes. Happy Tree Friends False Alarm. Happy Tree Friends. Hard Corps Uprising. Hardwood Backgammon. Hardwood Hearts. Hardwood Spades. Harm's Way. Hasbro Family Game Night. Haunted House. Heavy Weapon. Hell Yeah!. Hole in the Wall. Home Run Stars. Hunters Trophy 2 America. Hunters Trophy 2 Australia. Hydro Thunder Hurricane.
I Am Alive. Inferno Pool. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. Intel Discovered. Invincible Tiger. Ion Assault. Iron Brigade. Islands of Wakfu. Jeremy McGrath Offroad. Jet Set Radio. Jetpac Refuelled. Jewel Quest. Joe Danger 2 The Movie. Joe Danger Special Edition. Joy Ride Turbo. Kinect Party. Kung Fu Strike. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Lazy Raiders. Live Draft Tracker. Live Score Tracker. Lode Runner. Lost Cities. MLB Stickball. Madballs BaboInvasion.
Madden NFL Arcade. Magic The Gathering. Marathon Durandal. Marble Blast Ultra. Mark of the Ninja. Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death. Mars War Logs.
Marvel vs. Matt Hazard BBB. Mensa Academy. Merv Griffin's Xwords. Metal Slug 3. Metal Slug XX. Military Madness. Minecraft Xbox Edition. Minesweeper Flags. Mini Ninjas Adventures. Missile Command. Monaco What's Yours is Mine. Monday Night Combat. Monkey Island 2 SE. Monkey Island SE. Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection. Motocross Madness. Mutant Storm Empire. Mutant Storm Reloaded. NBA Unrivaled. Narco Terror.
Naughty Bear Panic in Paradise. Orcs Must Die!. OutRun Online Arcade. Outpost Kaloki X. Pac Man C. Pacific Rim. Panzer General Allied Assault.
Penalty Saver. Penny Arcade Episode 1. Penny Arcade Episode 2. Perfect Dark. Phantasy Star II. Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds. Pinball Arcade. Pinball FX2. Pirates vs Ninjas Dball. Planets Under Attack.
Plants vs. Poker Night at the Inventory 2. Poker Smash. Polar Panic. Pool Nation. Portal Still Alive. PowerUp Forever. Prince of Persia. Prize Driver. Puzzle Arcade. Puzzle Chronicles. Puzzle Fighter HD. Puzzle Quest 2. Puzzle Quest Galactrix. Puzzle Quest. Quake Arena Arcade. Quantum Conundrum. R Type Dimensions.
RISK Factions. Radiant Silvergun. Rayman 3 HD. Reaction Rally. Realms Of Ancient War. Red Alert 3 Commander's Challenge. Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect. Red Bull X Fighters. Red Faction Battlegrounds. Red Johnsons Chronicles. Renegade Ops. Retro City Rampage.
Rhythm Party. Robotron Rock Band Blitz. Rock of Ages. Rocket Knight. Rocket Riot. RocketmenAxis of Evil. Rocky and Bullwinkle. Root Beer Tapper. Rush'N Attack. SF3 Online Edition. Sacred Citadel. Samurai Shodown II. Scene It Movie Night!. Scott Pilgrim vs. Scourge Outbreak. Scrap Metal. Sealife Safari. Section 8 Prejudice. Sega Vintage Collection Golden Axe. Sega Vintage Collection Monster World. Sega Vintage Collection Streets of Rage. Sensible World of Soccer Season Sensible World of Soccer.
Serious Sam 3 BFE. Shadow AssaultTenchu. Shadow Complex. Shoot Many Robots. Shotest Shogi. Shred Nebula. Shrek n Roll. Skulls of the Shogun. Snoopy Flying Ace. Soltrio Solitaire. Sonic 4 Episode I. Sonic 4 Episode II. Sonic Adventure 2. Sonic Adventure. Sonic CD Fixed Audio. Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3. Sonic The Hedgehog. Sonic the Fighters. Soul Calibur. South Park Tenorman's Revenge. Space Channel 5 Part 2. Space Giraffe. Space Invaders Extreme.
Spare Parts. Spartacus Legends. Special Forces Team X. Speedball 2. SpongeBob UnderPants!. Spyglass Board Games. Star Raiders. Star Trek DAC. State of Decay. Street TraceNYC. Streets of Rage 2. Super Contra. Super Meat Boy. TMNT Arcade. Tecmo Bowl Throwback. Tetris Splash. Texas Cheat'em. Texas Hold 'em. The Baconing. The Dishwasher Dead Samurai.
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