Games for Lunch: Call of Duty: World at War
In a nutshell: All the fun of World War II, now with more grenades!
11/11/2008 6:38 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3
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!
