World At War (Call of Duty World at War (PC))

Member Name: agewills

Product:	Call of Duty World at War (PC)
Date:	14/09/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast paced, good ww2 action, lots of variety, very good graphics

Disadvantages: character animations arent as good as COD4

Call of Duty 5: World at War, is the fifth installment in the call of duty series. However, it is worth mentioning here that it is made not by the original developers "Infinity Ward" but by another company called Treyarch who were responsible for Call of Duty 3 as well as some other games. Those that know call of duty 3 will know it was a bit rubbish, to be blunt. So when i heard that these chaps were making Call of Duty 5, i was less than impressed. Infinity Ward have always done a better job with the series. However, I gave it a chance and I am glad I did.

My initial comment is that Call of Duty World at War is a more gritty, grown up outing than Call of Duty 4. I wouldn't recommend this game for younger players. The graphics are amazing and the gore is shocking sometimes. I have stuck mostly to the multiplayer to play with friends and when you get torn in half by a machine gun, have your limbs blown off by a grenade or watch an artillery shell smash your body to bits, the detail is quite intricate. I came across a corpse just last night, that literally had its guts hanging out. That's how detailed this game is. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

In this review, Im going to mostly ignore the single player, as I haven't spent much time with it. Not because its not good, just because i get more fun playing with my buddies online in multiplayer. So that's what I'll stick too.

The first thing i noticed about the multiplayer is the maps are a lot larger and more expansive than those in Call of Duty 4. For some people, that's off putting, but there are a nice mix still, of close quarter and open maps, so mostly, everyone is happy. Tanks have been included and are drivable, with one or two people. This is done brilliantly. Again, it varies on who you talk too, they are much like marmite. Some people loth them, others love them. Im somewhere in between. I rarely use them, but i do take great pleasure in blowing them up! The psychics there is something wroth mentioning. In order to kill a tank, you have to first destroy its outer protective plating. Side panels and skirts are there to stop just that. So you cannot just take it out with one bazooka rocket or satchel charge. It takes work. Panels come off and the tanks start to smoke. The effects there are first rate and the best I've seen in any game. If you are clever you can destroy the tracks and immobilise the thing, making it a sitting duck, but the drivers view is 3rd person (or 1st, its interchangeable) so you have to be sneaky.

Anyway, enough about tanks. Like Call of Duty 4, there are a large number of guns. Because of the campaigns in single player, the guns are mostly taken from that and since the British aren't featured, its mostly just American, German, Russian and Japanese guns because that is who you will be fighting for and against. In some instances (once you have customisable classes unlocked) this makes no sense at all, when Americans are fighting Germans and someone is running about with a Japanese or Russian gun, but if you ignore that fact and just concentrate on the fun, its all good. There are a large variety, with everything from bolt action rifles to heavy machine guns, flame throwers and bayonets. Stick with one gun and you'll soon unlock a variety of attachments for it. Silencers, flash hiders, scopes and bayonets, depending on the weapon. Perks too are also featured. Mostly they are the same as in COD4, but with new names. However some have been tweaked. "Last stand" as it was called, is now "Second Chance" which is an improvement in itself. When shot, you drop to the floor, half dead and fatally wounded. You can fire back with your pistol. If you can keep the enemy off you and if one of your team mates is using the same perk, you can get revived with a handy syringe of morphine. This brings in a nice team work element which wasn't available in Call of Duty 4.

Call of Duty 5 has superb graphics, the maps are better looking than in COD4 and the elements really stand out. The character animations of the soldiers aren't quite as good, but otherwise its superb.

Getting 3 kills in a row gets you a recon plane, which will show all enemies on the HUD
Getting 6 kills in a row without dying will get you an artillery stike to drop at your lesuire.
7 (or is it 8?) kills allows you to call in "the dogs of war" - nasty dogs to bite your enemies and get you kills. At first we all thought this element was daft, but since you get points for fighting off the dogs (+3 for every one you kill) we soon changed our minds. You never got such luxuries with the helicopters in Call of Duty 4.

Like the other Call of Duty games, COD5 is very fast paced, so if you don't have quick reflexes, you better learn quickly!

As well as a large number of maps, there are a good variety of game modes. On the server we run, we have a different mode every time a new map loads. This keeps the variety and interest peaked. Headquarters, Domination, Sabotage, Capture the flag, Search and destroy, all these modes are familiar to anyone who has played the COD series, as well as the standard deathmatch and team deathmatch.

If you prefer playing with your friends, rather than against them, Treyarch have included a very fancy and fun "Zombie" mode, where you and 3 friends can try to stay alive on a variety of maps, fighting off wave after wave of Axis zombies. That in itself provides hours of fun, not to mention the co-operative single player mode, along the same lines.

We've noticed an interesting trend in our community (of 350 members) whereby the older more mature members have migrated to Call of Duty 5 leaving the younger ones playing Call of Duty 4. I can't explain why but we just prefer it. It will be interesting to see what happens when the next instalment arrives.

Summary: Well worth the money and time!