I used to never like playing CoD(Call of Duty)games, this one changed my opinion. I was at a friends house playing campaign, I fell in love with it. I heard it was good, but never expected to be like this! Bought the game the next day.
The game has the whole WWII theme. Good choice I think. During the game you switch between two different soldiers on two different armies, fight at two different places. The first character you are introduced to is Pvt. Miller, a marine of the U.S. armed forces fighting in Japan. Pvt. Miller had been M.I.A. at the time you first see him. He and his comrades were being tortured. (Yes it is bloody) Yet you are saved just in time from an incoming crew who's mission was to find you and the rest of your troop. The other soldier is Pvt. Petrenko, a soldier for the Red Army(Russia when they were communist) who is fighting the Nazis. At the time you see him first he is on his land(big part of getting vengeance)left in a pile of dead. As you arise, because you have only been wounded, you see a Sergent named Resnov. From there you play your War as both the Red Army and the U.S.
Actual game itself is amazing, yet brutal. Wide variety of guns. I can't exactly think of how to explain the combat scenes, so you'll just have to see for your self. I can explain the brutality though. When you throw any grenade that successfully blows up under someone, the body flies up, with maybe a detached limb or two with bloods flying in all directions. Or if someone get shot by a piercing round, such as a sniper, blood sprays out of the wound. I think the MG machine gun(or any gun that has a chain, such as a Browning) and flamethrower. While shooting the MG, I saw body parts were being blown of the man whenever I hit. Sometimes, when you only shoot of an arm or leg, or both, the man can still live on the ground and shoot back while in his last stand. The flamethrower is brutal, just not as much I think. While using it, I saw the people who got "flamed" stop shooting, scream, and run around, then finally dropping to the ground with one last "umpf". I know this is probably what the gun did in real war, but it is still brutal to see it. This is why I recommend turning down the gore in the options of the main menu for some of you who can't take it (I think it's called graphic violence in the options).
RECOMMENDATIONS
Do NOT recommend for: children under 13(of course with parent approval with the ages of 13-17) and squeamish people(people who can't take gore, I believe)
I do recommend this for: People who can take gore, people who enjoy first person shooters, people who like watching&playing WWII things, or maybe even someone who is curious about the game.
Media > Games > Xbox 360 > Call of Duty: World at War > All Reviews
Call of Duty: World at War - 8 March 2009
overall: 9 fun: 10graphics: 9plot: 9
Returns to WWII while maintaining the feel of COD4 - 3 January 2009
overall: 8 fun: 9graphics: 9plot: 7
Call of Duty: World at War represents a mix between the classic Call of Duty World War II games and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare by attempting to bring us the best of both worlds. Although the game has returned to the World War II genre (a strange but certainly not damaging move), it still maintains the gameplay aspects that caused critics to rave about the previous game in the series.
The latest Call of Duty game once again tries to put the gamer in the shoes of a typical Allied soldier during the war, allowing us to play as American Pvt. Miller in the Pacific and as Russian Pvt. Petrenko in Eastern Front. The campaign alternates between the two characters' stories to create cliffhangers and add perspective. Great voice acting by stars such as Gary Oldman and Kiefer Sutherland show that Call of Duty 5 is going all out this time. Easily, the campaign is the highlight of the game (as it is with most Call of Duty games, in my opinion).
The campaign takes about 6-7 hours to complete and has a lot of replay value. I've found that there are much fewer glitches with the gameplay (no more shooting through walls or lucky potshots across half the map), so that I might even be able to finish the game on Veteran difficulty this time. I was surprised to find that COD5 still finds new ways to make the same old genre interesting. Although there were many cinematics and features similar to the previous games, the improved graphics (they finally figured out how to do lip-synching correctly!) and slight modifications still make them bearable and practically unnoticeable.
The best part about the campaign is that it can now be played in co-op mode. Online, up to four players can run around reviving wounded teammates and creating a whole new system to beat the game on Veteran difficulty. The split-screen allows for only two players, but is still a lot of fun.
Another great addition to the co-op mode is the new bonus "Nazi Zombies" game mode, where up to two players offline and up to four players online can work together to fight off waves of stumbling undead Nazis. This is great eye candy and will keep the gamers that obsess over high scores occupied for many long nights. I, however, am not one of these gamers, and I am one of the few who will tell you that the game gets boring after a few tries when the map starts to feel stale and the waves of zombies start to feel repetitive.
Although the online co-op gives Call of Duty the best replay value of the series in terms of the campaign, I found that the multiplayer aspect of the game was somewhat lacking. Don't get me wrong, if you liked the multiplayer in Call of Duty 4, I'm sure you won't have a problem with this one. The addition of tanks and swapping the attack chopper for attack dogs as a kill streak bonus definitely spice up the game play. My problem with the multiplayer in the last two Call of Duty games is that weapons and perks have to be unlocked by playing a lot. This is unfair to gamers like me who don't have much time to spend playing games. I really hate jumping into a game and finding that all of the opponents have the good guns with special scopes and attachments and the good perks while I am still using the default character classes. This is my complaint, but I'm sure it is not an issue for most gamers.
Call of Duty 5 was able to keep alive the tradition of providing great gaming experiences through its improvement of graphics, improvement of weapons and balancing, and addition of online co-op. Even though the genre has returned to World War II, a lot of the gameplay still attempts to copy the features of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. In a sense, this was an attempt to give us the best of both worlds. Personally, I preferred the games before Call of Duty 4 came around and kind of wish that we had returned completely to the way things were before Modern Warfare. However, it seems that the new multiplayer experience is here to stay whether I like it or not. People will be playing this game for a long time, and I would recommend buying this game as a very safe addition to anyone's collection.
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