Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360)

This shooter series returns to the second World War, but with its modern sensibilities intact.
11/25/2008 11:02 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

When you consider that they all seem to follow a formula -- one modeled aesthetically after "Saving Private Ryan" -- it's not surprising that some people have grown tired of World War II first-person shooters. But Call of Duty: World at War is not your father's WWII FPS (assuming your father worked on the first three Call of Duty games, most of the Medal of Honor series and all of the Brothers in Arms games).

As with all games in this series, World at War casts you as different Allied soldiers on various fronts from this historical conflict. But because it uses the same engine as Modern Warfare, World at War keeps that game's decidedly action-movie bent. Granted, it never gets silly or over-the-top like a Schwarzenegger flick from the '80s, but it also doesn't have the somber tone of "Saving Private Ryan," "Band of Brothers" or any of the other touchstones of the genre. Instead, the battles are messy and harried, and often set up or turned on their heads with the dramatic situations or (sometimes literally) explosive moments you only find in film. Heck, they even got Jack Bauer and Commissioner Gordon to be your commanding officers.

This has led to one unfortunate choice on the developers' part, however. Rather than only use a cinematic, classical score like every other game in the genre, the soundtrack adds some classic rock guitar riffs, which just don't work with the game's late-'40s setting. (The level introductions are also inappropriately modern -- not that they ruin the game or anything, but they're weirdly out of place.) But you can turn the music off, thank god, without killing the audio in the cut scenes. Nothing makes me hate everyone and everything more than when I turn off a game's terrible music and then get the silent treatment in the cut scenes.

Sorry, where was I? Oh, right, World at War. You're not just fighting the Germans this time out; you're also fighting the Japanese, and the Japanese don't fight like the Germans. They launch sneak attacks, hide in trees, and will often run at you like maniacs. Because of this, you'll find yourself playing more cautiously, and with your thumb just itching to hit the knifing button. This also leads the fight through some island jungles, a welcome respite from the bombed-out European cities of most WWII FPS games (though you'll see some good examples of those, too, when you're a Russian soldier beating the Germans back to Berlin).

Otherwise, World at War feels a lot like Modern Warfare, and that's a good thing. It has the same great controls (and same great control scheme), as well as the same great visuals. Oddly, the latter game's penchant for snapping you onto a target when you hit the left trigger to use iron sights isn't as pronounced in World at War. But it still works well here, and it's optional if you think you're too good to use it, so consider this more of a notation than a complaint.