Call of Duty: World at War

I was a big fan of the World War 2 games from CoD, so when I found they were making another go at them, I was interested to see what it was like.

As always, I started with the campaign. It covers areas of the second world war which many games have left untouched: the brutal, almost inhuman fighting with the Japanese which involves fire, fire and more fire, and the relentless conflict between Russia and Nazi Germany which required more endurance and pure resolve than firepower. I was impressed by the choice, especially in the Russian sections. So I got going. Unfortunately, I was not at all impressed for the first hour or two, in fact at that time I was considering taking it back to the shop already. There's simply nothing to it; endlessly repetitive sound samples of your comrades shouting - 'Miller, get that barrell. Miller, get that barrell. Miller, get that barrell' - the irritatingly mediocre graphics and the only occasional ragdoll. Very small amount of things really stand out and intensity has all but gone out the window. The campaign gets slightly better, and damn it I mean slightly. Russian battles are better but still live up to no promises. A disappointment to say the least.

Multiplayer is of course going to be the reason a majority of players buy the game since Modern Warfare just about blew the charts. For those, thankfully, this is NOT a dissapointment. To my (somewhat limited) knowledge of CoD4 multiplayer, just about nothing has changed negatively. Leveling system with perks, new weapons and prestige mode remains the same, and it is fantastic. No achievements to be earned which makes an achievement hoe like me sad, but you get enough of a feeling of achievement with the multiplayer challenges giving you large EXP boosts and a new gun for most level-ups. Lots of well-varied match types and all-rounded, even maps supply many hours of multiplayer fun, and I have yet to get bored of it. Good stuff here, very good indeed.

So it seems CoD: WaW is quite the one-trick-pony, which is very annoying for me personally seeing as I enjoyed Call of Duty 3 pretty much only for its campaign. Perhaps it's too alien compared to the classic Normandy campaign Saving Private Ryan stuff we're all used to, but I had hoped it would be pulled off in a particularly spectacular way, and Treyarch didn't deliver. However, for multiplayer fans this is a must-buy; as far as online play goes the game's brilliant.
I give it 6/10, the campiagn seriously weighing down its score.