Call of Duty: World at War

aka: COD5, COD: WAW, Call of Duty 5
Moby ID: 37817
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Call of Duty: World at War is, like its predecessors, a straightforward military first-person shooter with authentic weaponry like the Thompson Sub Machine Gun or the Arisaka Rifle Type 99, and fairly linear but heavily scripted levels that put the player right in the middle of the action with several NPC-controlled team mates always on his side to aid him and add to the atmosphere. The objectives in these missions range from clearing houses from enemies to planting bombs or defend a position. And instead of using medipacks or something similar to heal himself up, the player just needs to get out of fire for a few seconds to regenerate to full health. New this time around is the co-op campaign for up to four players, allowing everyone to play through the whole single player together with friends.

The first campaign begins on August 17, 1942 somewhere on the Makin-Atoll in the Asian-Pacific region where Pvt. Miller sits in a hut and has to watch how his squadmates are brutally murdered by Japanese soldiers. But as one soldier approaches him and prepares for the killing blow, an American bayonet comes out of his stomach. Now the roles are turned and in the following operations Pvt. Miller, under the supervision of Sgt. Roebuck, stills his lust for vengeance by helping the American troops drive back the yellow menace in recreations of real missions like "Operation Watchtower".

The second campaign puts the player in the shoes of Pvt. Petrenko and begins on September 17, 1942 in Stalingrad. Lying in a pool of blood, watching how the Germans put one more bullet in his dying comrades, the private survives and under the helpful guidance of Sgt. Reznov begins his journey through the destroyed city to the main goal: killing General Heinrich Amsel.

The game also features a multiplayer mode similar to the one from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with the playtypes Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Search & Destroy in which one team needs to plant a bomb at one of two objectives and the other needs to defend both. The ranking system also makes a return. For every kill or completed objective the player gains experience points and levels up to unlock additional weaponry, attachments or abilities granting a higher accuracy and such. These then can be used to create up to five custom classes in addition to the five pre-defined ones (Rifleman, Light Gunner, Heavy Gunner, Close Assault and Sniper).

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Credits (Windows version)

732 People (657 developers, 75 thanks) · View all

Dedicated to
  • The veterans of World War II who sacrificed their lives for the preservation of liberty
Executive Producer
Senior Producer
Producers
Project Lead, PC Team
Associate Producers
Associate Producer, PC Team
Production Coordinators
Build Manager
Additional Production Support
Production Intern
Project Technical Director
Senior Director of Technology, Online
Technical Directors, Co-op
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 133 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 132 ratings with 3 reviews)

We don't need no water let the.........burn!

The Good
I have always enjoyed the Call of Duty series which left the Medal of Honor series in the dirt. This game has introduced a new moral aspect into the war game scenario and brings the true brutalities to the player. Frying a Japanese soldier with a flame thrower actually becomes quite disturbing after awhile and you actually begin to feel sorry for the poor buggers. This is what happened to them in many an instant in the Pacific war. Of course the Soviet Red Army was Brutal during there push into Germany territory, (which we see in the game play when throwing Molotov cocktails) after all the Germans had slaughtered over 20 million of them by this stage, so you definitely see a bit of payback, that's why half the German population fled to the American side, but enough of that.

What I really enjoyed seeing was the use of Tiger II tanks used in defense and ambush, and the way they move backwards when hit once by anti-tank weaponry, very authentic stuff, well researched in this instance.



The Bad
Being an enthusiast when it comes to World War 2 weaponry and equipment I found it a bit disappointing seeing burnt out Tiger II tanks in Stalingrad when they weren't even dream t of at that stage in the war, also the 4 engine bombers depicted in huge quantities, only a few condor bombers were used by the Germans the majority were 2 engined bombers..

The games use of unlimited allied support gets a bit much when your mates get shot up there is a constant flow of re-reinforcements and if you don't advance up the enemy is constantly re-in forced from nowhere.

There is a cheesy stage where you fly as a gunner in a plane, it seems unrealistic and spoils and otherwise realistic game, It also smacks of Pacific Assault, copy cat storyline where you also fly a plane, and also fight on Makin Atoll.

The Bottom Line
If you are a fan of WW2 first person game then this is a must, the realism and effects are very good.

However I do feel that the WW2 theme has now been totally exhausted unless someone is brave enough to decide to make a German perspective first person game, during the Blitzkrieg era

Windows · by Thekwane Black (30) · 2009

Poor Nazis are executed by brutal Soviets, while heroic Americans eliminate the Japanese kamikazes

The Good
This installment was my first experience in 'Call of Duty' series, and maybe something is repeated in the game, I don't know. The game is a solid action. You are always in the center of events, and you should act quick. Such approach puts whole of you in the action, and you can't stop playing. Auto-saves at checkpoints also allow you to do not stop the action.

Voices of Gary Oldman (as Sgt. Reznov) and Kiefer Sutherland (as your American mate), I guess will be also the advantages, but I didn't hear them, because played in localized Russian version. The voice-overs in it are also great.

The graphics, physics, the plot are great. Except the way it is shown. Physics, when grenade is blown near you s great. It shows that you are very confused, but you can shoot and do some actions even in such state. The "Black Cats" level, when you are a gunner in multi-gun Navi airplane, is a very nice and even sometimes melodramatic, when you have to choose either to save a sailor, who cries for help, or to eliminate another Japanese boat, who wants to eliminate your plane.

Music in the game is modern and it is nice and atmospheric.

The Bad
The most unclear moment in the game is a way Soviet soldiers are shown. In credits you will not see any of Soviet (Russian, etc.) consultants, but who did consult the developers on Soviets action then? In Stalingrad your protagonist shoot the Nazis in 10 meters with sniper rifle. Why? Also during all other episodes on Eastern front inhumanity of Soviet soldiers in German land is shown in sadistic way. I guess, that somebody wants to pervert the history. Seeing the events in Berlin, you may think that Nazis are poor lambs, who always want to live peacefully, and bad Soviet soldiers are coming to execute them. Nazis are defending and sometimes are crying, but Soviets are attacking brutally anyway and killing Nazis in cold blood. In real life, my grandfather took Berlin in 1945 heroically, and he had a medal for it, and I can't approve the way Soviets are shown. It is a shame.

The next illogical thing that quantity of your soldiers are unlimited as well as quantity of enemies. They all came and came, when you are staying in the same position, but when you'll progress further, the situation is changed. Defenders disappear and where is their source?

The next illogical and unreal situation is a way Tank battle is shown. Ok. I'm very glad that it is Russian tank is a main subject of such battle, but it is absolutely unreal. With one tank you eliminate all surrounding tanks, infantry, etc. The armour of the tank is self-regenerated and it is absolutely fantastic.

The next situation is grenades throwing. I laughed at its implementation. Sometimes it is even absurd. You may not only throw the grenade back to the enemy, who throws it to you, but also throw it to your friend to throw it further. What your friend will think of you, if he can't throw it in time? :-) I have a proposition. What if to integrate grenade throwing and baseball? You throw the grenade as a ball and your friend uses the rifle as a bat, for example. I guess it will be funny also.

But such issues are not influenced on the gameplay hardly, anyway.

The Bottom Line
The game is very nice action game, which Single-player campaign may be passed in 1-2 days. Action is non-stop, sometimes unreal, and is flown on Pacific and Eastern fronts. Soviets are shown as brutal attackers, but it is a way the developers want to show them. Different attributes and skills may be achieved and assigned to your player in non-single player combats to differ the experienced players from rookies. The game is recommended to all, who likes the solid non-stop action in FPSs, accompanied by NPCs or your friends.

Windows · by POMAH (66433) · 2008

Not Merely Another WWII Shooter

The Good
Call of Duty, the shooter series whose title has become a household name for games, seems to either make or break when they release a new installment. World at War is not just another run-of-the-mill whoop the Axis and win the war with fanfare and cheers shooter. WaW attempts to capture the feel of being on the battlefield in visual, audible, and interactive experiences. The Wii is the perfect platform to place the hopes and prayers of freedom-loving people across the globe in your hands, literally.

Although the accuracy of the WiiMote compared to that of an Xbox or PS3 controller is debatable, the feel is not. Nintendo's innovative system reminds us that war is not fought from lounge chairs. I recommend using the Wii Zapper with this game to increase stability and comfort. Yes, this does force you to get up on your feet if you sensor bar is in a high place; but once you do you won't want to sit down. (unless you've been playing for an hour) There are plenty of weapons to suit your killing needs from the measly Nambu handgun up to the powerful T-34 tank. Thankfully, this is not an army of one; your allies actually help fight the war and can be a valuable asset to victory.

The Wii is not known for its graphical capabilities, but WaW does justice and then some to those that it does sport. You will be surrounded by jungles brimming with trees and streams as well as war-torn German and Russian cities strewn with rubble. On one later level, your view can be obscured by flying paper trash. While not a bloody spectacle injuries are visible to an extent-especially the reward of a well-placed headshot.

The Bad
For games used to the button-pressing of other shooters, transferring to the Wii is a tall order. The largest hassle is the throwing of grenades, when you are required to twist your remote counter-clockwise to switch (for a millisecond) to a smoke grenade. It seems to be all but chance as to which grenade you toss. The Wii is definetly not the preferred platform for first-person shooters.

This game could've been received better if there had been more levels and more vehicle missions were added to supplement the T-34 driving. At my skill level it felt the game was terribly too short and I would have loved to see more.

I cannot comment on the online features as I have not used them.

The Bottom Line
If you are dedicated shooter player, or a fan of the Call of Duty series, then World at War should be in your collection. If you are new to to the realm of FPSs, then I recommend you look elsewhere and too one of the other consoles for your wants.

Wii · by Nick Slavin (9) · 2009

Discussion

Subject By Date
The way Soviets are shown POMAH (66435) Jul 23, 2009

Trivia

Dedication

There is an unfortunate grammatical error in the closing statements of the game:

"This game is dedicated to the veterans who sacrificed their lives..."

By proper definition a veteran is a survivor of a war, not one who was killed.

Film reference

At the beginning of the Russian campaign Pvt. Petrenko finds himself inside a fountain surrounded by enemies, before obtaining a rifle and killing several enemies. This scene seems inspired by the film "Enemy at the gates", where Jude Law does the same thing. Both in the film and in the game, the soldier's actions led him to become a sniper for the Red Army.

This is not the first time the film is referenced in the game series: the opening of the Soviet campaign in the first "Call of Duty" replays the opening scenes from the film almost verbatim, from the crossing of the Volga in barges under Stuka attacks to the first disastrous charge against the Nazis.

German version

In the German version almost all blood effects, all gore effects like cut off limbs and burning enemies were removed. Also missing are the zombie mode and several scripted events during the levels which show executions or killed innocents. All swastikas and SS runes were replaced with iron crosses. All video sequences are re-cut and swap certain scenes with other historical material, including all showings of Hitler. The German audio removes terms like "Nazi", "Wehrmacht", "Hitler" or "Führer". A detailed list of all changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German)

Inconsistencies

  • The flag-planting scene in Berlin is incorrect. The actual planting took place at night. It is likely the developers used the staged photo taken during the day as reference.
  • Tiger II tanks are visible during the 1941 Russian mission. However, Tiger II tanks did not enter service until 1944.
  • Pvt. Petrenko and Sgt. Reznov plant the Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag. This is in direct contrast to the original Call of Duty game which shows completely different soldiers planting the flag.

References to the Game

Actual scenes (as in not recreated for the show) from this game were included in the South Park episode The Ungroundable.

Technology

Most weapon models are re-used from Call of Duty 2. They were re-skinned with higher resolution textures, but the reload animations remain the same.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2008 – #4 Multiplayer Game of the Year
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • February 26, 2009 - Best PC Action Game in 2008* Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2009 - Nintendo Game of the Year
    • 2009 - Multiplayer Game of the Year

Information also contributed by piltdown man.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sicarius.

Additional contributors: Sciere, MegaMegaMan, Solid Flamingo, Neville, Big John WV, Cantillon, Chris Jeremic, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third.

Game added November 30, 2008. Last modified January 23, 2024.