Reviews// Call of Duty: World at War

I like the Japanese. I have visited their fascinating and beautiful land several times. There I have found their people to be friendly and polite, their food to be exotic and exquisite, their scenery to be awe inspiring and their rock and roll music to be deafening. But the latest Call of Duty game, World At War takes the user through a very different experience of the Japanese people.

The game starts in a tent on an Pacific island. As with previous games in the series, you are delivered into the thick of the action as your character witnesses his buddy being despatched in a way that appears to contravene the Geneva Conventions as I understand them. The Japanese soldier then turns his attention to you, but before he gets a chance to off you in similar fashion, the cavalry arrives. Not the actual cavalry you understand, these guys have probably come in an LCR(S) (a small rubber landing craft, for the uninitiated), but definitely not on horseback. But horses or no horses, your ass is saved and you have to make good your strategic withdrawal.

With that another Call of Duty game commences. It's very similar to the previous Treyarch episode. The intervening Infinity Ward game, Modern Warfare, was somewhat different, and this game feels more similar to Call of Duty 3. The Treyarch/Infinity Ward leapfrog development method means that we get a new CoD game every year, and they aren't rushed, but it also means that two divergent series may be developing in parallel.

Even though World at War is "built on Modern Warfare technology" which means on Infinity Ward's engine, it is a return to the World War II setting that all CoD games except Modern Warfare have shared. Using Infinity Ward's game engine means it looks lot better than Call of Duty 3 did – even though that was no dog. But the new game engine brings dynamic lighting and shadows, HDR lighting, and depth of field to the party and the result is simply stunning. It also has an advanced physics model with deformable cover, which means you have to be aware of what you are hiding behind, since it may hide you but not protect you.

Beyond this, the game is exactly what you'd expect from a Call of Duty game, it's an involving, immersive first-person shooter with a World War II battle setting. The action is drawn along by a compelling narrative and, rather than have long mission briefings that no one ever listens to or reads, your missions become clear from the chatter of your comrades or the instructions of your commanding officer.

One thing the Call of Duty series has excelled at, and which World at War does perhaps better than any game before it is to make playing a war game fun without glorifying war. The intro sequence includes footage that is pretty hard hitting, and this quickly helps dispel the myth of war as perpetuated by John Wayne movies.