Call of Duty: World at War

It's easy to be jaded about World War II shooters, but Treyarch makes a convincing argument to stay excited with World at War. The game is packed with a deep amount of gameplay to appeal to every type of player, from those who want to experience a gritty single-player campaign to those who like to play with their friends to those who just like to play multiplayer. This is a solid, confident shooter with plenty to offer the casual and hardcore alike.

It's easy to be jaded about World War II shooters, but Treyarch makes a convincing argument to stay excited with World at War. The game is packed with a deep amount of gameplay to appeal to every type of player, from those who want to experience a gritty single-player campaign to those who like to play with their friends to those who just like to play multiplayer. This is a solid, confident shooter with plenty to offer the casual and hardcore alike.

Call of Duty: World at War isn't a perfect FPS on Wii, and when it all boils down, you can find a better controlling game - one with a slicker framerate, too - in EA's Medal of Honor Heroes 2. What you won't find in Heroes though, or in any other Wii FPS to date, is a package that's this cinematic, this intense, this character-driven, unapologetically brutal, or as varied and intense as World at War. Treyarch has had its hands full in trying to deliver a game that could push out from behind COD4's shadow, and while that main battle is unmistakably happening on 360 and PS3 as a main battlefield, the team still took the time to deliver a seriously impressive first-person shooter on Wii. Multiplayer is a bit thin on modes, but what's there works very well, and is a blast to play. Control isn't dead, as smooth, or as twitch-responsive as we'd like it, but it holds its own, against the bulk of Wii FPS offerings to say the least. The single player campaign is extremely impressive, housing some great missions with lots of variety, the most elaborate challenges and locales we've seen on the system thus far, and some seriously impressive tech, be it in the smoke that dissipates from flamethrower blasts, the slow-falling ash in the forests of Europe, or the filtering like that creeps through the jungle canopy in Japan. The game still houses some pretty basic World War II colors and locales, but among the greens and browns lay some impressive chunks of scenery to check out, and battling across, under, and through them is a blast. It could be quite a while until we see wartime shooter with as much attention to detail, cinematic flair, or open battlegrounds as World at War. Or then again, it might be just around the corner with Infinity Ward's official Call of Duty 5.

It's easy to be jaded about World War II shooters, but Treyarch makes a convincing argument to stay excited with World at War. The game is packed with a deep amount of gameplay to appeal to every type of player, from those who want to experience a gritty single-player campaign to those who like to play with their friends to those who just like to play multiplayer. This is a solid, confident shooter with plenty to offer the casual and hardcore alike.

”’Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PlayStation 2 – PS3 version reviewed.”’