Call of Duty: World at War

"Disgustingly bad."

Every now and then, gamers are presented with a game that has tremendous potential yet nothing more. This is one of those times. World at War for DS is a terrible title. Here's why.

Graphics

The environments are decent. They're moderately detailed and decently colored. However, there are far too many image glitches and blurred textures to say that they're anything more than decent. The gun models look surprisingly nice, and the animations are pretty nice for most of the guns.

The character sprites are terrible, however, and the shooting animations are nothing short of horrific. Really, I don't think any time was spent on making this game look good. The DS has to be capable of more. Over all, this game is incredibly ugly.

Controls

Aiming with the stylus would be easy if there was some kind of response. Sprinting takes half a match to activate and using iron sights is pointless, as you'll die because of a glitcher or because of a Springfield abuser before you can do any damage. Changing to your side arm is no easy task, and throwing grenades to the spot you want them is pointless, since grenades take half a match to explode.

Over all, truly bad and lacking of polish. It seems really rushed.

Gameplay

This is the only fun part of the game - the actual gameplay. There's almost no lag in this game. Why isn't it better than a 2/10? Because of the hackers, because of the glitchers, and because of the horrible online system.

You'll find several glitches at each of the game's maps. You'll find several players abusing these glitches whenever you try to play. You'll also find that these players abuse the Springfield sniper (which is glitched for a one hit kill anywhere but the head) so that you can't follow them into the glitchworld and kill them. The hackers are even worse. They'll glitch into a wall so that you can't headshot them and let loose an infinite amount of missile launcher rounds.

The 2v2 system is broken. You can literally stay behind the enemy's base and shoot them in the back when they spawn. There's no way to get out of a spawn kill if you and your partner die and the enemy waits behind your spawn area. The maps in general are nicely made and unique, but the spawn points are really stupid.

The weapons are terrible as a whole. The Type-99 is either a joke weapon or the stupidest idea ever thought of by man. The Springfield gets a 1 hit kill if you shoot your opponent anywhere BUT the head. Rifles can be rapid fired by pressing R and then L and then R again, thus allowing for broken rifle fests.

Disconnectors ruin any fast-paced gameplay. You'll hardly ever find a match that lasts until the end. The lack of a lobby system is also a failure. You have to search for online friends. What if you have more than 3 friends online? You'll randomly get assigned to 3 players. That is, if you even connect and finish a search. The online is really buggy. You'll often be told that no players could be found even though there are star icons that indicate that there are players available.

There's no form of communication in the game. You can't ask your opponent for a map pick or a mode pick. You can't discuss matches. You can't have a good time with the people you're playing with besides in the match, if it ever starts and if it's ever devoid of glitchers.

There are no perks, there are no weapon pick ups besides a sniper rifle pick up and a missile launcher pick up. Grenades are entirely useless. The graphics are decent at best. Honestly, I'm disappointed that such a title was released, as I'm sure the DS can produce much better image quality.

Final Thoughts

I gave it a 2/10 rather than a 0 because the gameplay was mildly fun. The concept was there. Yet the developers chose to rush this and make a quick buck by releasing it on the DS. What a failure of a game. Don't buy this. Don't even rent this.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 08/24/09

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