Call of Duty: World at War

"A game that could have shot beyond the stars had the developers tried harder."

Call of Duty: World at War: DS is a good games, and there's no doubt about it. Fast paced combat on 11 maps won't get old even after hours and hours of straight playing. However, this game falls short of being truly excellent due to a few major flaws. These flaws will be addressed in their entirety.

::: Controls :::

The controls are excellent. Using the stylus as the means of aiming the gun and reticule is nearly as awesome as using a mouse on a PC. The level of aim achievable is incredible, and players don't need to struggle with 4 directional buttons. Players have the choice to increase or decrease stylus sensitivity, which will satisfy the picky type. Moving is quite fluid. In order to sprint, players must double tap the UP directional button. No real problems have arisen with this method. There have been a few moments where the sprint feature didn't respond on time, so it is important to know that the game isn't entirely responsive in this domain.

Players can shoot with either the L or R button, so players that have bad L buttons due to excessive use can switch, and vice versa. Crouching is activated by double tapping the DOWN directional button, and players can sprint out of a crouch.

In order to use ironsights with the guns that have them equipped (also known as zooming in) players can either tap a special icon known as the "ribbon," or they can set the function to active when double tapping any section of the screen. There have been a few problems with zooming in when the intention was to turn around. The screen isn't entirely responsive, and sometimes excessive and sudden zooming in can ruin a firefight or result in a death. This occurs most often with sniper rifles.

Weapons can be switched by tapping the designated icon and sliding it to the right, where the second weapon option will appear. Characters can hold 2 weapons - their weapon of choice and a pistol. Both can be exchanged for weapons found on the map. Grenades have their own designated icon. Throwing grenades is as simple as selecting them, holding L, and releasing L at the desired time and height.

Over all, the controls are quite fluid and mostly responsive. They work quite well on the DS, although a larger bottom screen would be appreciated to avoid excessive zooming. More room for maneuvering, or a better ironsights system, would make competitive players happier.

::: The Campaign :::

The Campaign is incredibly fun. The missions are quite challenging, depending on the difficulty level, and they demand that you think rather than waltz into the midst of an enemy camp and shoot like a mindless wacko. Cover is often needed to remain alive, and grenades are very useful and demand skill. Ammo counts for each weapon aren't super high, forcing you to conserve your ammunition, and picking up ammo or weapons is always a challenge because the amount of ammo available in each gun is different.

A variety of weapons make this experience incredibly diverse. Flamethrowers and Panzerfausts (missile launchers) are always fun, and the large number of semi-automatics, sniper rifles, and standard rifles will add a touch of replayability to the campaign mode. Experimenting with weapons from a different country is always fun.

Enemy AI isn't all that bad. Enemies take cover and sometimes run, and they have great aim on higher difficulty levels. They rarely take cover from grenades, however, and sometimes they'll simply stand still and shoot or reload, allowing for easy hits. Map designs prevent AI flaws from being too damaging to the game campaign, however. Often times, enemies have a crossing field of fire, which prevents you from simply standing still and shooting the reloading enemy.

Levels are decently detailed. The graphics are decent for a handheld, and quite acceptable for the Nintendo DS. There are a few problems with bad pixelation when you're close to a wall, but this isn't something terribly huge. Enemies are distinguishable, and the gun animations are simply gorgeous. Reloading never gets old. The sky is beautiful to look at, and far off scenes of nature are beautiful.

The voice acting is actually quite good. I was very impressed with it, although at times, you can't understand what you are hearing because of gun fire or bad audio work. The music is also acceptable, although it can get a tad annoying, especially if multiple deaths arise from a lack of experience.

The mini-games are very fun. Disabling a mine is always fun, as is typing a morse code message to some outpost. These are a plus, although any heavy player will quickly become bored of them. Still, they keep the campaign fresh.

All in all, the campaign surprised me with its fast paced action. I never expected to shoot down planes on the DS, and voice acting was a bonus. The guns sound great, for the most part. There are a few guns that are different models yet sound the same. The number of guns will satisfy even the most hardcore handheld gamers, and possibly a few console gamers as well.

::: Online Multiplayer :::

The random feature of this game works wonderfully. Finding opponents on random takes less than a minute for the most part, and error codes haven't been labeled as a problem at this time. The only issue with finding random players is the designation of a host. Becoming a host is quite difficult. Many have reported issues with being able to become host, and this is an issue because the host determines the settings of the match and the time. While this isn't terribly damaging to the game, occassionally a noob will be the host, and the same map will be picked over and over, with obsurd settings that no one wants.

The online gameplay is very fast paced and addicting. There is virtually no lag. Even teleporting enemies die, since the game registers damage done on your screen and applies it to the over all game. The guns are nearly entirely balanced, with the exception of sniper rifles, which are the most powerful and easy to use, especially at point blank range.

However, sniper rifle spamming is virtually non-existant due to the nature of the maps. Maps that aren't designated for sniping will make sniping quite annoying.

There are virtually no weapons on the maps except for the occassional sniper rifle and panzerfaust (missle launcher.) Weapons can't be picked up from dead enemies, so you're stuck with your weapon of choice, handgun, and either of the long range weapons you use. You can only carry 5 grenades, and you'll have to be happy with that amount, since you can't replenish them unless you die.

Another major fault with online is the most horrendous spawn killing ever seen in virtually any shooter. While this problem occurs in 2v2s only, many people seem to pick that mode even if spawn killing is a huge problem. Players will virtually spawn in the same area over and over again, with the rare switch. Enemies can wait behind a spawn point and pick the opponents one by one. Of course, if both teams are experienced, spawn killing can be avoided by changing the spawn time and by defending one another after death. While this mends the situation a bit, the ability to do a 2v2 even if 3 people are present is quite damaging, since 1 person will obviously be left alone, resulting in a guaranteed headache.

The most damaging fault with this game's online is the friend's list and friend's lobby. The friend's lobby fails at doing anything. In order to set up a game with a friend or friends, a player must search to see if any friends are on. Once a search is finished, someone will be designated host. This system is quite annoying due to the uncertainty of the online or offline status of the friends. The search takes a long time, and often times, there won't be any available friends. The worst part of this is that you can only have TEN friends on your friend's list, further reducing your chances of getting a friendly match with people that won't disconnect or spawn kill.

For people that are able to post on forums, this problem can be mended quite easily. However, glitchy searching usually destroys any chance of friendly games, since players will often find themselves unable to find anyone, even if they clearly see the active star for friends.

Online stats are easily uploadable to the specialized website for CoD: WAW stats. The game keeps track of a nice number of stats, so this is a plus for stat freaks.

: Overall :

This game is a very fun game that all DS owners should own if they wish to have an extremely replayable experience. Online is fun when playing on random and great when friend games work, and as the number of players increases, so will the level of intensity and enjoyment. This is the start of something that can be incredible. Get the game, and don't let the few flaws turn you off.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08

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