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Call of Duty: World at War (PC)

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Average rating -

Rating: - Disappointing in comparison to the previous games in the series

After playing the earlier COD games, I was keen to have a crack at the latest one. To say that the gameplay is linear would be an understatement. It's not so much a game as a guided tour of world war 2. Even on the hardest difficulty settings it's not particularly difficult and you're walked through every step of the level, which is hugely frustrating.

And, as with most FPS games set in WW2, the developers clearly forgot that the British were actually involved in the whole debacle just a tad.

Rating: - Realistic scripted warfare

I just want to make it clear from the start, I haven't played the multiplayer on COD5, so anyone wishing to know about it please check out a different review. This focuses entirely on the singleplayer mode.

Also, this game was running on max graphics. I had no problems or crashes whatsoever.

I bought this game on the strength of COD4's multiplayer. I hadn't played the campaign for COD4 (until I completed COD5, anyway) so I had no unreasonable expectations. I normally shy away from World War 2 games since in the past I've found them boring, repetitive and very badly done. I thought I'd give the WW2 FPS sub-genre another shot, as this was toted to be extremely realistic. Well, I was in for a disappointment.

So, let's get started with the game. During the main campaign, you take turns playing as an American soldier and a Russian. I can't help but feel that a lot of the emotional impact in the American plot would have hit heavier if it didn't seem to rely on the fact that an American was playing the game. But this happens a lot in games recently (at least in my opinion) when sentiment tries to reach for patriotic values that I don't possess, being British and all. However this is subjective, so I won't go into it.

The American side of the campaign was poor. It was filled with constantly respawning enemies, repetitive terrain, and obnoxious characters. The respawning enemies are really, really irritating. They keep on coming and coming until you pass an invisible line in the ground (and once you play for a while, this becomes painfully obvious). The enemies will NOT stop spawning until you do this, at least from my experience. Also, if you don't pass said invisible line then your teammates will just dig in, or charge forward in an apparent attempt to mimic the Japanese banzai charges but in this case they fail horribly and just die, constantly. The AI are no help whatsoever. And, since you apparently have a huge sign on your head that says shoot me in Japanese, you are constantly taking all the flak.

Now I'm not saying the game is too hard, it isn't. I just thought we'd moved on from this incredibly obvious evidence of scripting. For me, the American campaign, and the later missions of the Russian campaign, just turned into a game of hide behind cover, charge over the invisible script trigger line, run back, shoot, cover, run over invisible line and so on and so forth. It killed the sense of immersion and ruined any chance at realism the game had. If it wasn't for this incredibly annoying feature, the game could have been so much better.

But oh well, there are some good points. When the game decides to stray from the repetitive push through enemies behind cover formula, it excels. The sniping missions in Stalingrad were a breath of fresh air and reminded me of the movie Enemy at the Gates. And the scene where you are in an aircraft turret, while a fleet is getting destroyed around you, actually managed to evoke a sense of horror for the atrocities of war and the waste of life. But aside from those two small moments, the game was flat. Even the time you get to control a tank was dull. But tank battles have never really been my thing, since all they amount to is strafe, shoot, strafe.

The guns are the same old fare for a WW2 shooter. I wasn't a big fan of the Japanese one-shot rifles, and I found some of the heavier machine guns to be a tad unwieldy, too. But it's the past, what do you expect? At least you get a bayonet!

Anyway, I could go on and on nitpicking the small details about this game that are just a let down (like the flamethrower, which didn't look too good and was just no fun to use), but that wouldn't be much fun, would it? Overall, the game was still worth a playthrough, and could have been a lot worse than it was. I'm giving it three stars (barely).

Rating scale: 1 Star - Terrible, 2 - Mediocre, 3 - Good, 4 - Very good, 5 - Perfect.

Rating: - unable to load

unfortunately the game spins round, unable to play, unlike my first couple of call of duty which had no problem!

Rating: - Not Quite Call of Duty but Good Fun

When I opened the box I had images of CoD Modern Warfare only better...my expectations weren't exactly met. Something about the feel of the game wasn't the CoD I was addicted to. Having said that, as a part time gamer and mega fan of CoD, I still enjoyed it a lot...but still feel it wasn't an authentic CoD experience. The best comparison I can think of is the difference between the original Star Wars Trilogy and the Prequels.

Rating: - Okay but.....

I have to confess to a degree of deja-vu. Technically and visually this is very good, but it didn't add anything to the franchise. Still linear, still intense, but still more of the same. You play either a GI fighting the Japs or a Russian fighting the Germans. Most is infantry work, but a couple of diversions into tanks (not great, the tank handling made it feel like a hover-car) and into a plane as a gunner (fun but too short and easy). The Jap campaign is the hardest with the enemy leaping out of hidden traps behind you, but I felt no major 'wow'' factor with any aspect of the game. I had just finished the excellent Far Cry 2 which allowed total freedom of movement, so going to such a linear game might have been a mistake, but it just felt too obvious and more of what we have had before.

Call Of Duty has had some great moments, but perhaps needs a refresh and a re-think. This is okay, but not much more then that.

I don't play multi-player, so my reviews relate to single player only and played on 'normal'.

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