Call of Duty: World at War (PS3) Review
The Call of Duty franchise has been a revered series for a long time and is considered to be one of the best war based shooters out there. Activision, the publisher, alternates the development of the series by switching off between Treyarch and Infinity Ward. With the latest iteration developed by Treyarch, many questioned if the studio could reach the high bar that was set by Infinity Ward last year.
Story
For the fifth iteration in the game, Call of Duty: World at War returns back to World War II to battle it out against the Germans and the Japanese. In World at War, you follow the stories of the two main characters, Private Miller of the marines and Demetri of the Red Army.
You end up switching between these two stories throughout the game which leads up to the end of the war. Unlike COD4: Modern Warfare, there is no main antagonist you grow to despise throughout the game, but mainly focuses on really developing a sense of what war was like back then. Unlike the previous iteration, there will be battles of epic proportions that seem to go on forever.
The game also gives you glimpses into how brutal it all was. At one point in the game a fellow comrade asks if you want to kill a captured enemy soldier. If you refuse, your comrade will shot the captured solider anyway, giving you the sense of how desperate those times were. The game does an excellent job of presenting why war is hell. Cities are torn apart at the seams with bombs being dropped everywhere while hundreds of enemy infantry troops are running towards you.
Visuals
The visuals and the presentation in Call of Duty: World are War are great. The COD4 engine manages to get the job done, but the graphics engine is starting to show its age. With the resolution at 1024 x 600, some of the texts do appear blurry in between load screens. Some of the textures during the epic war battles look a bit plan and bare, possibly from the strain of rendering so many enemies at once.
I hope that a new engine is being worked on for the next iteration in the franchise to bring the visuals up to par with current and upcoming titles.
Design
As far as design goes, World at War does not really elevate the franchise all that much from the previous iteration. COD4, was such a phenomenal game we really can’t hold it against Treyarch for wanting to keep many of the aspects developed by Infinity Ward the same.
However, there are a few new additions, such as a great Zombie mode where you have to fight off wave after wave of the undead. I felt the Zombie mode was so great I wrote up a separate impression of this mode here.
The online multiplayer mode retains the excellent leveling up system seen in the previous iteration. The system has been expanded by increasing the maximum level cap as well as adding more class slots.
Wrap-up
Overall, Call of Duty: World at War retains many of the excellent traits of the previous iteration while managing to add and improve upon its predecessor. Even though World at War does not take a radical departure from many of the previous World War II shooters, it does manage to present itself more intensely. I definitely recommend all shooter fans give Call of Duty: World at War a try.
Score:
4/5
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22 Responses to “Call of Duty: World at War (PS3) Review”
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December 28th, 2008
not on the subject…
http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/game-of-the-year/index.html?tag=topslot;title;1
wanted to say… FINALLY!!! Ive waited for this day for like 2 months… its nice to see it there with Gears of war and Mario Galaxy…
FUCKING AWESOME GAME!!!
December 28th, 2008
The biggest problem with CoD5 in my opinion, is that is really just feels like an addon/mod of cod4.
So the game is fun, but I am ‘burning out’ on it way wayyyy faster than cod4.
December 28th, 2008
Mike, didn’t the AI piss you off, and the fact that they didn’t do anything really new or worthwhile to merit going back and giving us ANOTHER ww2 shooter? I feel i shouldn’t have bought this game, but at £27 it was a steal. The only thing that really keeps me coming back is to unlock more weapons and thats it. Shame really, infinity ward we’re trying to go forward and progress with the series and Treyarch decided to ignore the success of MODERN warfare for another WW2 shooter.
December 28th, 2008
bourne.. youre a wee lad… you wont get it… back in my day… all we got was quake and doom… MAYBE duke nukem if we were good boys all year…
all you “new age” kids are so spoiled… now you will get this generic shooter… AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!!!
plus everyother games sucks… YEAH I SAID IT!!!
without someone else spewing irrelevant data… I have to be extra kooky around here… that makes me sad
December 28th, 2008
DWH you can’t be over the age of 20, otherwise you’re lying. I also grew up with those games, although for me it was all about Doom. Your comments are so immature i just can’t imagine a mature person writing it.
December 28th, 2008
thats it bourne… no more sugar for you… you are going to the quiet corner…
December 28th, 2008
ohh also… if you havent finished MGS 4… dont watch that video… it has a big ass spoiler… thanks a lot gamespot for telling me about the end hallway crawlway scene… dicks…
December 28th, 2008
watch what video?! I finished it.
December 28th, 2008
Never bought this in the end, I can’t really be bothered with that ol’ WWII thing again. Medal of Honour drained me long ago.
I only bought COD4 because it was ‘modern warfare’ and due to the ace reviews. I’ll wait until COD6 perhaps, because COD4 will do me just find for now.
Just been reading the bit of paper that came with my electric shaver, it clearly states ‘NOT for use by people lacking mental capabilities’. Urrr.
December 28th, 2008
dear activision… stop fucking around… let Infinity ward do Call of duty series… they dont whore out the series like you want it to…
let treyarch work on a decent spiderman game… one as good as ultimate spiderman…
seriously… stop fucking around… Ill pay $60 for COD 4… I wont pay a cent for WaW…
also… CONGRATULATIONS!! you are the new EA…
December 28th, 2008
good review!
December 29th, 2008
mike, you’re a very generous man. a very, very “meh” game…altho the nazi zombies are fun for a goof….
December 29th, 2008
yeah mike… you need to stop looking at the positives and bash the shit out of any game… thats what real video game “journalists” do…
no seriously…
December 29th, 2008
I finally got the platinum trophy today! Take that Royzy hahahaha. It was on COD:WaW which is why i posted this breaking news on here. Took long enough
December 29th, 2008
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/ps3-trophy-faq/
that almost makes me want to get WaW… but… nonetheless…
DAMN YOU BOURNE!!! I hope you burn in hell you wee lad…
December 30th, 2008
Shut up Bourne, I didn’t want a stupid Platinum one anyway. Platinum is for gays, bronze is where it is at.
I better get back on Uncharted then.
I’m getting Fallout 3 given to me this week too. There just isn’t enough hours in the day!
December 30th, 2008
dwh – i’m talking about the crap AI, collision detection and other screw ups.
1. your teammates will save your life one second and not “see” an enemy soldier staning 3 feet in front of him while the enemy kills the player. dumbest. AI. ever. (barring DWH)
2. I was actually pinned to a wall while fighting in the metro tunnel by own guy. i couldn’t kill him and i couldn’t get off the wall. had to throw a grenade to gain freedom. terrible.
3. for no reason whatsoever, i become “stuck” in a tunnel on one of the earlier missions. noone was around me, couldn’t jump, or stand. wth?
if you think those sound like “A-” atributes you really need to learn more about gaming…. but then, we already knew that didn’t we…
December 31st, 2008
kev… I wasnt even talking to you… and again… if you know so much… why dont you start your own blog…
I would really like to see that… lets see how much respect you get from the gaming community…
I wouldntve bought WaW even if it got perfect scores… because I dont want a shooter to have a sequel every year… so… dont mouth off before you know the full story… fucking retard…
December 31st, 2008
dwh – yes you were responding to me and my “generous” comment. go ahead, play dumb…it’s what you’re good at. you always go this route when faced with the facts of what i’ve presented. nothing new.
it’s funny you mouth off even WHEN you know the “full story’… and for a F.R. just check the mirror, sport….
December 31st, 2008
Look, there are several problems with WaW, i do have the game, only because i found it in a walmart parkinglot.(xbox360)
1)the game wont load the mission after the sniper mission,
2)the graphics in my opinion are worse then C0D4,
3)WTF is activision doing by not continuing the modern warfare leg of the game.
the last thing i would like to point out is why do the games have the same dam guns everytime with diffrent names, and why would you want 65 lvls.? that just sounds retarded.
January 2nd, 2009
Seems to me a step backwards for no good reason other than to sweep up some cash for very little development effort. Hard to believe this gets a “A-” from a “gamer”.
January 6th, 2009
Hmm. What would you give it DavidB?