Call of Duty: World at War

I finished it (the single player game) this weekend, and it was the usual Call of Duty experience, lots of chaos being channelled through picturesque and cinematic areas. Obviously the graphics have been touched up, and there are some truly stunning locations, where you just want to sit back and watch rather than actually take part and miss the beauty of it all. The final push to the Reichstag building in Berlin and then the conflict inside it was very atmospheric. The usual gun and drop mechanism was mixed up slightly by the inclusion of Banzai charging japanese troops, who would usually come at you from an unsuspecting angle, or they would climb over obstacles to get that bayonet into you. Countering this required quite precise timing with the right click stick, to perform a knife in the neck saving blow. It did seem a bit hit and miss, to hang your ultimate safety on a very visually discrete command and a very twitchy mechanic. However, in the heat of the battle, when the japanese where thick, you actually found yourself gunning some, turning and stabbing and slashing others with the right click stick, and if you initiate the blade based combat the kill window seemed a lot less picky, than if the bayonet was to come poking at you. So ultimately, if they were getting near, I'd be slashing away frantically anyway. And if any bayonet managed to get through, my stick clicking was already happening so I usually made the tight window and was rewarded with the neck stab. The complement the banzai chargers, and there was an awful lot of them, in most arenas you found yourself in the pacific - the Germans had alsations, snapping speedy hounds of death - luckily they were few and far between in the campaign, but they can be dispatched with a few hurried shots, or again another right clicking life saving throat grab when they open their jaws to bite. The same tactic I used on the banzai chargers worked for the dogs, slash and stab them before we get to the throat bit. Camo decked Japanese soldiers jumping out of ground traps like funnel web spiders were indeed a nice touch to the action, and certainly made you more apprehensive about moving forward in the undergrowth. I think at the end of it all, the extra level of intimacy in combat worked, adding more panic to the gun blazing, when you have to break of your aim, and start slashing, to shrug the blood off your face and resume your salvo.

There were gunnery positions in the usual windows, AA gunning on a flying boat, with swappable positions which made it all the more exciting to have to physically move around inside the aircraft and switch to other positions. There was a tank section or two to add to the mix, although the Russian tanks seemed very stubby and a bit flighty and didn't really feel like the huling tank beasts they should, but then perhaps we've been spoilt a bit with tanks in games recently. The weapons were the usual stuff, with the addition of a flame thrower that actually did feel like a flame thrower with range, rather than just a vestigil torch. Filling bunkers and tunnels with flame was very satisfying indeed. As was sniping German flamer's gastanks and watching the ensuing carnage burst all around. I was a bit saddened that they deemed to drop the british side of things, but I guess they just wanted to juxtapose the closing war in the pacific with the closing war in europe and to add another army might dilute the symmetry. The stylised story animations were well done - imagine an MTV styled quick blow by blow account with silhouetted iconic images, Dad's Army Arrows and actual footage of people being shot dead - the voice talents of Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman were excellent. Molotov cocktails were also included and implemented with satisfying flame spread, commplete with zippo lighter and burning rag.

Overall the thrill of the ride was as good as Call of Duty gets, nothing that special in terms of ingenuity, but what was present was a rollercoaster of WWII combat with interesting situations and locations. With the multiplayer game providing longevity - seemingly faster paced than CoD4 - but with the same sort of perks progression - perhaps CoD5 will provide a stop gap for WWII enjoyment until CoD6 comes a knocking? So, enjoyable, but only if you like a) Call of Duty franchise, b) WWII and c) Shooting/Stabbing Japanese and Dogs.