Genre: Video Game
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Players: 1-18
Retail Price: $50 (PC), $60
Availability: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
The ball was back in Treyarch’s for the latest odd-numbered Call of Duty, which, like the Land Before Time series before it, has finally said, ‘Enough with the numbering already: there are a lot of us.’ There was a lot of hype, both good and bad, leading up to its release: it’s based on the Call of Duty 4 engine (yay)! It’s set in World War II again (boo)!
To sum it up: yes, yes, it’s all true. Call of Duty: World at War is, essentially, Call of Duty 4 set in the early 1940s. Take from that what you will: Modern Warfare was incredibly fun, and this is too, but if you’ve seen enough swastikas for a lifetime then you may want to steer clear. Except for American History X, of course, because, I mean, Ed Norton.
I’m sure that, two paragraphs in, you’re already sick of comparisons to Call of Duty 4. I know I am: I even used its subtitle up there instead. Unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on your view — it’s going to have to continue at least a little longer, because, temporal differences aside, the games have a lot in common. The campaign is split into two sections, neither of which thankfully are the Western front. You do get your chance to kill Nazis, never fear, as you play as the Soviets pushing Germany out of the USSR and back to Berlin (Hitler should have listened to Vizzini). The American side of things focuses on the Pacific, fighting the Japanese on a series of islands. The gameplay persists from previous Calls of Duty, down to the airstrikes that you can call in as you clear out an area. The flamethrower was a nice addition, though it feels overpowered: with unlimited ammo — only an overheating mechanism saves the entire hemisphere from going up in flames — and no friendly fire (get it?), it’s easy to walk into a wooden building and shoot blasts anywhere you think an enemy might be hiding with no repercussions. It’s possible to shoot the fuel tanks on enemies’ backs to cause an explosion, but if that can happen to you then I never ran across it.
Multiplayer is similarly familiar, with one notable exception, discussed below. Experience is earned by killing individual enemies in addition to playing (and winning) matches, and various challenges can be completed — X kills with a weapon, X kills while crouching — to further your trip up the ranks. The campaign can be played cooperatively or competitively with up to four people, which also earns XP.The XP system seems to be more focused on rewarding persistence, with access to better guns and more playlists, rather than matching players of similar skill. I was repeatedly matched with players whose ranks were an order of magnitude above mine, which was generally fine — this isn’t my first trip down the FPS block — but also ended in frequently lost firefights because my guns weren’t up to par.
There is a beginner playlist, though in my hubris I skipped it. There was no comparable campaign setting that I saw, with the possible exception of playing on an easier difficulty, so my first venture in saddled me in with three experienced players who expected me to know more than I did: ‘You ever hear of laying down while reviving someone?’ they asked after I died in the act. No, sorry, I wasn’t aware that I would be partaking in acts of Biblical scope tonight.
Speaking of the not-quite-dead-yet, there is one entirely new gameplay experience: Nacht der Untoten, with Nazi Zombies! It seems similar to Gears of War 2′s Horde mode (though, sadly, my time with Horde was very limited): numbered waves of der Führer’s former soldiers assault a house that you’re trapped in, breaking down barricades and crawling inside if they aren’t separated from their brains(sssss) beforehand. It has a very arcade-like feel, with kills earning you points that can be spent on repairing the barricades, buying more guns or opening up new sections of the house. While a passable amount of fun by yourself, it seems like the enjoyment of it would increase exponentially with each additional player. Unfortunately, the PS3 World at War players seem to be focused solely on traditional multiplayer, as I was never able to find a match. What do you have against zombies, guys? Zombies are awesome.
There is one gigantic caveat I have when I recommend this game: it is not for children. Do not let children near this disc. The opening cinematic has some brutal executions (from historical tape, not in game footage), then the campaign starts with watching a fellow soldier getting their throat slit before moving into various close-up stabbings and headshots, sprinkled with obscenities. ‘Your grandmother would not have bought you this game,’ my wife said as she watched me play, referring to the infamous ‘I saw a news story about Grand Theft Auto so I returned the copy of Vice City I got for you’ incident of so many Christmases ago. Treyarch realized what they were doing, thankfully, and included a toned down option that blurs the video, forces your perspective on the wall of the opening scene and mutes the cussin’ (though not, they warn, of players online). Even so, I’d recommend against allowing younger children to play, as it’s rated M for a reason.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a call for reason amongst all the duty-specific ones out there: please, please, can we have an end to World War II shooters now? I enjoyed the campaign, yes, but there are so many other conflicts to be fought. You don’t even have to resort to present-day: let’s see the birth of the alternate history war shooter genre. Say the Confederates were victorious in the Civil War: do they side with the Axis? Do the CSA and USA join forces? Maybe the CSA had Hawaii, and the Union said ‘Not my problem’ after Pearl Harbor. The benefit of writing your own story is that you aren’t tied to specific events: go crazy! What’s Harry Turtledove doing these days? I should point out that my impatience with World War II goes far beyond video games, but that’s more of an issue with the History Channel and its ilk than Activision or other publishers.
At the end of the day, it’s entirely fair to call World at War ‘Call of Duty 4 with different guns and accents.’ That’s not a bad thing, though, as Call of Duty 4 was an amazing game and there are many people who would clamor for more, to say nothing of the World War II buffs who haven’t fought in virtual Berlin recently. If you’ve had your share of Modern Warfare, though, and don’t fancy not-quite-as-modern warfare, then there have to be at least a handful of other new releases vying for your money, and you may want to invest of one of them instead. Then again, flamethrowers and zombies…
