Call of Duty:World at War
Call of Duty. The name evokes images set in WWII that involve massive, intense firefights, as well as Russian, British, American, ()Canadian and Polish soldiers. In this, the fifth game of the franchise, you alternate between a Russian in the last days of nazi germany and an American in the last months of the war in the pacific.
CoD:WaW is without a doubt somewhat unique amongst other WWII FPS games. It has a far different tone than any other WWII game out there, as well as different settings. It can be great fun at times, but at others it can enrage you to the point of crushing your controller with your hands. In this review i'll explain why, providing the pros and cons along the way.
First of all, the gameplay. The gameplay is pretty fun, but they failed to do anything outstandingly new with the formula, so you have very similar "supress and advance" tactics like the ones Modern Warfare had, the same cover system, the same sniper system, the same everything.
And on the subject of the sniper system, i think its not donne well enough. I know from experience by playing lasertag that holding your breath does not steady your shot much, and that concentration does.
Anyway, you have a huge assortment of weapons, from the typical American Thompson M1A1 submachine gun to a future-esque Ray Gun(Yes, a ray gun. They put it in as an easter egg. picture--> http://i33.tinypic.com/116j81c.jpg)
You have lots of gameplay modes, like the much awaited co-op mode. Also, once you complete the single player campaign for the first time, you get the Nazi Zombies mode.
You heard right, "Nazi-Zombies". In nazi zombies, you, either alone or with other players(up to 3 more i think) have to survive in a building under siege by endless waves of brain-thirsty zombies.
Left 4 dead much?
They try to brake through wooden barriers(and through a wall in a room at wave five). You can repair the barriers(and the wall) if they suffer damage. Every time you kill a zombie, you get points to buy new weapons or go to the next room(3 rooms in total).This mode can provide great fun for hours non stop, that is if you survive that long. However, you don't get a real sense of achievement and you don't have any rewards for surviving longer.
Then you have the multiplayer mode, which is the same as Modern Warfare's, which is to say, completely awesome. to know more about just google it up. you can make your own class and give it bonusses.
Now for the difficulty. This game can either be cakerun easy or brakebutt hard. The easy difficulty is just...easy. If you go on the normal difficulty, expect the game to be slightly hard. On hardened, god dammit this game can be hard! It's bassicly hell on earth for veteran difficulty, which is what makes me proud to be one of the people who completed it without suffering a nervous breakdown. What makes the game so hard is the stupid AI. Often the friendly AI will push you out of the cover you're in leaving you out in the open and at the mercy of the enemy. Always, no matter what, on hardened and veteran, the enemy always score head shots, all the time, and always always throw grenades perfectly even though it would be impossible for a person to have a good enough sense of space to do throws like that. This is especially dominant in the level "Burn em' out"
Burn em' out is the game's hardest level and it's centered around clearing japanese mortar emplacements, usually with a flamethrower. this level is extremely hard since the enemy are perfect shots and never miss with grenades. Dammit, these guys should be on a baseball team!
Now for the graphics. This game is the goriest WWII game ever. Nuff' Said. It bassicly has the same graphics as Modern warfare, but it is way different in the violence department. CoD has never had anything remotely resembling gore until WaW. Sometimes you may think they're overdoing it, but that's until you remember that the veterans actually saw stuff like that. Limbs rip off as you riddle a german with machine gun fire, a japanese soldier screams and screams as you burn him to death with a flamethrower until you pull out your pistol and stop his suffering. Enemy soldiers reach for the bloody stumps of their limbs with their eyes wide open and blood pours out of a japanese soldier's chest when you stab him with a bayonet. He watches his own chest being ripped open, moans and finally drops to the ground.
World at war has a level of violence yet unheard of in WWII FPS games.
Also on the subject of graphics, you have the game's loading screens. Usually people don't give a sh!@ about loading screens, but these are worthy of note. Everything transitions perfectly, interesting facts always pop up everywhere. Did you know that on okinawa the chance of survival were 1 out of 5?
The psychological effect this game has is far different than other ones that evoke a propaganda "hero" image. This game is dark and violent, the mood only being amplified by the music. The music evokes different emotions than other games. Brothers in arms' music is somewhat sad, Medal of Honor's is downright patriotic, this game evokes fear. You never see that in a video game. The way the characters act is not the steriotype'd "Hey fellas i got one!" Kinda thing. The different characters on your side don't cheer triumphantly when they kill someone, if they say anything at all, you can tell they kill out of hate or nescecity(badly spelled?).
The two sergeants are highly charismatic and distinct. In the american part of the campaign, Sergeant Roebuck is gritty and moody, while in the russian campaign Sergeant Reznov is vengefull, bloodthirsty and patriotic. You also have two privates who reccurr throughout both campaigns. For the americans, you have Private Polonsky, who is kinda useless, only muttering the occasional word. Then you have Private Chernov for the russians, who is constantly scolded by Reznov for being unwilling to kill. Chernov has a much bigger emotional impact due to his dissagreements with Reznov about killing germans who are surrendering.
I'd say the game has great value, and has high replayability. There is a variety of strategies you can use. For example you could ask yourself "Should i use a smoke grenade and sneak around the sides?" or "Should i engage them close up with my shotgun or stay around back and snipe them?"
The achievements you can get on the 360 are pretty hard. You get most of them by completing levels on veteran. You can also get some wierd ones, such as killing three enemies with a single bullet, killing a germain general at sniping distance with a pistol, playing an entire level using only meelee and grenades, and so on.
Overall, i'd give this game a 9/10.
The gameplay deserves an 8/10(-2 for difficulty)
the graphics deserve a 10/10 for the realism.
The replayability and game modes deserve an 8/10 since they are original
And the emotional impact deserves a 10/10.
Review at a glance:
Pros:
-Realism
-Grit
-Weapons
-Emotions
-Sound
-Massive Fights
Cons:
-Extremely Hard
-Occasional graphic glitch
-ENOUGH WITH THOSE GRENADES ALREADY!
-AI uses aimbots.
, thogh you should not take points off for being so hard because that is what most of the people asked for. the only thing that truely bugs the hell out of me are those freaking grenade throwing fanatics! There is this one part of Burn em Out that you haave to go underground, there is no excape! If the shooting from out of nowhere doesn't kill you the 5 grenades that constantly fly at you will! Except for trying to get up the steps in Berlin into the HQ or whatever that is the hardest part of the game.
Originally Posted by DaLeGiOnArY
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