Call of Duty: World at War

"Not bad...for Treyarch..."

Usually, the opening paragraph of a review is a brief explanation of the game about to be reviewed but since this is a review of a Call of Duty game I'll save you trouble of skipping an entire paragraph and get right to it.

Graphics 9/10
For this title, Treyarch, having at least partially realized their incompetence, decided to use Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4 engine to great effect. the character models are excellent right down to the camouflage grease paint on the faces of your fellow marines, blood splatters the walls and floors, and (this one's new to the series) limbs can be blown off, giving WWII an appropriately more brutal feel than previous Call of Duty games.

Sound 8/10
I would have liked to give sound a 10 due to the outstanding music (and, subsequently, the elimination of the former WWII era orchestra music that left us all bored to tears), but unfortunately this game features some terrible voice acting while playing as the russians, who all speak english with poor russian accents. Another problem with the sound is the inability of you teammates to alert you to danger such as when they throw grenades (and you'd think the germans would want to warn their teammates as well...).

Gameplay 7/10
This is where the incompetence of treyarch (that's right, I'm not even capitalizing it anymore) truly festers. Let's start with grenades. When I play a shooter, I expect good, entertaining, gunfights. I do not expect to spend the vast majority of my time dodging grenades. NO ENEMY IN THIS GAME CAN TAKE A STEP WITHOUT THROWING GRENADES and that is just poor game design. And for some arbitrary reason, the good grenade indicatore used by Infinity Ward is replaced by a crappy one that barely lets you know you're in danger before you're killed. Next, the firearms come to mind. Specifically the damage (or lack thereof) done by the bolt action rifles. If you are shot in the chest with a high-powered rifle, you will die. You will not shrug it off and keep throwing grenades. The same problem exists with all of the pistols (most pistols are larger caliber than most rifles fielded by most armies) and the M1 Garand ( which uses the extremely powerful 30-06/7.62x51mm NATO cartridge) is laughably weak, and this is a gun that can blow a hole in a padlock/deadbolt.
By the way, there's a terrible vehicle section that has you operating a tank. It is poorly done. Enough said.

Immersion 7/10
During the (very) brief moments when you aren't being killed by grenades, the atmosphere is pretty convincing. Unfortunately, dying breaks the flow of any game.

Replayability 9/10
the addition of couch coop will always double the replayability of a game which is why I'm left scratching my head wondering why there are games without it.
Another way to add replay value to a game is to include bot matches, which CoD World at War does with it's Nazi Zombie mini game awarded upon completion of the campaign. Don't expect Left 4 Dead zombie action, but it is pretty fun.

Conclusion
The game is not terrible, it's just not the great game that just a little bit of polish could have brought out. I will admit that it's probably the best WWII shooter out now. That being said, I think it's time to let WWII rest in peace.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/08

Game Release: Call of Duty: World at War (US, 11/10/08)