Developer: Treyarch

Publisher: Activision

Release Date: Nov. 11, 2008

Systems: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3, PC, PS2, Wii, DS

ESRB Rating: M

Official Web site

0:00 I was prepared to like this game after playing a bit of the excellent Call of Duty 4 (different developer, I know). But this post on Joystiq has changed my expectations a bit.

0:01 This minute spent downloading a downloadable update that's available for download. DOWNLOAD!

0:02 After downloading yet another update (that's a first), we're on to the title screen. Through some gray fog, I can see pith helmets sitting on bayonets sticking up out of the ground. The music is Silent Hill-style creepy.

0:03 Graphic content can be set to "reduced" or "unrestricted." This makes sense, but calling it "unrestricted" just makes it sound so ... DECADENT!

0:04 "WARNING -- Call of Duty: World at War contains graphic content and historical footage which some players may find disturbing. Player discretion is advised." Yeah, I got that impression from the Joystiq post...

0:05 The selectable difficulties are Recruit, Regular, Hardened and Veteran. The last of these says point-blank: "You will not survive." Well that doesn't sound like fun! I'm just a Regular guy.

0:06 Quick vignettes of happenings in the war, compete with grainy video, tinny radio and stylized map animations. Emperor Hirohito, 1937, Indochina, U.S. demands withdrawal, Japan loses 90 percent of oil supply, Pearl Harbor attacked. Roosevelt's "Day that will live in infamy," military manufacturing, aviation production, government physicals, and Average Joe becomes a soldier! A map shows the Japanese Makin Atoll. "Little more than sand, trees and a small Japanese military base." A recon team went in a week ago, but has not called in. "For all we know, they might be dead. If what little we know about the Japanese is true, it might be better if they are." Ouch for the WWII-era Japanese!

0:07 Aug. 17, 1942. Hey, that's my negative 40th birthday! "You think because you say nothing, you are strong?" says a scary-looking interrogator. Private Pyle is bloody and being beaten to my left. "Don't tell 'em a fucking thing!" The interrogator puts out a cigarette on his face, then a private slits his throat! He comes over to do the same to me, but Roebuck comes in and knifes him in the back. "We're gonna make 'em pay for what they've done."

0:08 I'm given a gun, and it's escape time. A bunch of explosions light up the beachfront shacks and we're running down the sand. I shoot down one guy, then get blown to kingdom come by an unseen grenade. "You got killed by a grenade. Watch for the grenade danger indicator." Good advice if I've ever heard it!

0:11 I survive the now-grenadeless beach run and pick up a nicer semi-automatic to replace my pistol. It's near-impossible to tell who's a good guy and who's not in the darkness, so I just fire at everything that moves.

0:14 The game has become a bit of a shooting gallery as we sit behind some cover and take out guys streaming out of nearby huts. Speaking of cover, taking it seems a good way to revive health, no matter how many bullet hits I take. Just like in real war!

0:15 Off the beach and into the woods to meet up with another squadron. I'm liking the lighting effects... it's a cool blue evening. I also like the realistic sights and kickback on the guns, and the convincing soldier animations. "This place creeps me out," says one of my teammates. "Tojo's at home in this shit," says another sensitive soul.

0:18 Another grenade gets me. This time I saw the indicator and hit the "throw back" button, but too late ... it explodes about a foot from my arm. Funny how this kills me instantly, but all the bullets barely slow me down, as long as I take cover.

0:20 This time I succeed in throwing the grenade back, which helps clear out the attackers. Then my squadmates do most of the cleanup work while I cower behind cover. I'm ... just fine with that, actually.

0:21 "I want to get through this quick and clean. You hear me? Quick and clean!" I'm glad you said that, sergeant ... I was gonna go slow and messy if you hadn't.

0:22 We come upon some dead G.I. Joes when a flash grenade turns the night bright white and we're ambushed by dozens of Japanese from under leafy camouflage. I shoot first and ask questions later, which seems to work. My squadmates divert a lot of the fire, but still I have to go for cover quite quickly.

0:23 And another grenade does me in. They should rename this game Call of Duty: Watch Out for the Grenade!

0:25 I get past the first wave of soldiers, just in time for another grenade to take me out.

0:27 The ambush has lost some of its impact the third time around, especially since I know exactly where to stand for the best cover and when and where the waves of Japanese will come out.

0:28 I get a little farther this time thanks to some clutch grenade-seeing skills, but I completely run out of ammo for my semi-automatic. I try to reach for a bayonet, but I'm pinned down by turret fire and a squadmate is blocking my access to protective cover. D'oh!

0:29 Grenade.

0:32 Grenade.

0:35 Finally worked my way to the next checkpoint, after avoiding four grenades! We put a hole in a barrel of gas on the back of a truck and then send it down the way into a building. Kablammo!

0:37 Thrilling! Roebuck tells me to plant charges in an explosives bunker. We have to carve through a bunch of enemies to get there, then run out to the boats before the explosion. On the way down the beach I'm hit with a concussion grenade, slashed within an inch of my life, then dragged to the boat by Roebuck. As we sail away on our rafts, the whole island goes up like a powder keg. Groovy.

0:39 Peliliu Island this time ... we're supposed to take an airfield in Sept. 15, 1944. By now we're now known as "the old breed."

0:40 "All right, keep it together and we'll get through this in three days." That's ... a long time! We're driving towards the beach on some sort of aqua-Jeep.

0:42 Kamikaze attacks and gunners on the beach cause carnage all around us. Our jeep gets stuck on coral and sent flying into the water by an explosion. Sullivan saves me this time and yells about a new plan to attack the defenders behind the treeline.

0:44 I have some trouble calling in the necessary airstrike. No one told me I have to look at what I'm targeting! Meanwhile, KABOOM!

0:45 "Rocket strikes can now be used on the enemy at will." Um, OK, let's do that as much as possible, then! I follow a tank behind the treeline and get taken out by what must be a headshot.

0:47 Grenade.

0:48 Grenade.

0:49 I send in an air strike, but it misses the target. Headshot.

0:50 Headshot.

0:51 I take out a bunch of enemies with a well-targeted airstrike this time. Then get taken down by a bunkered turret.

0:52 I finally figure out that I'm supposed to take out the bunker with the airstrike. A big explosion sends everything flying. The remnants are easy to mop up.

0:53 A dude just lunged at me with a bayonet. I have to stab him in the neck before he can stab me. I get 10 Gamerscore points for the "Close Shave" Achievement.

0:55 I am a lean, mean, grenade-avoiding machine!

0:56 An enemy is climbing a tree for a better shooting perch. I take him down as he clambers and he falls gruesomely.

0:57 An ambush from the tall grass! I get hit in the back with what's apparently a deadly blow.

0:59 Another bunker attack. Despite two airstrikes, a headshot does me in.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Not right now.

Why? It's well-made and thrilling at points, but with Fallout 3, Gears 2, Resistance 2 and the Killzone 2 beta on my shelf, I'm getting sick of shooting things.

This column is based on a retail copy of the game purchased by Crispy Gamer.

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