About the game
Call of Duty: World at War is a 2008 first-person shooter developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is the fifth main installment in the Call of Duty series and the fourth set during World War II. It was announced in June 2008 and released in November 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 and Wii. The story follows U.S. Marine Raider Private C. Miller in the Pacific and Red Army Private Dimitri Petrenko on the Eastern Front.
It plays like earlier entries but with more mature themes and more open objectives. The player carries two weapons plus grenades and can pick up weapons from fallen soldiers, including guns with rifle grenades, telescopic sights and bayonets. Standing, crouching and prone stances affect movement, accuracy and stealth, and health comes back with cover. Weapons include a flamethrower, and the campaign can be played in co-op.
The PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows versions include Nazi Zombies, the first appearance of the Zombies mode in any Call of Duty game. One to four players hold out against endless waves of zombies, starting with an M1911 pistol and spending points on doors, weapons and upgrades. It unlocks after the last campaign mission and became a mainstay of Treyarch's games.
Development took about two years, twice as long as Call of Duty 3. The game runs on an improved version of the Call of Duty 4 engine, with more destructible environments, fire that spreads, limb dismemberment and realistic burns. Kiefer Sutherland voices Sergeant Roebuck and Gary Oldman voices Sergeant Viktor Reznov. Sean Murray composed the music.
It came out in North America on November 11, 2008, in Australia on November 12 and in Europe on November 14. A collector's edition with a stainless steel canteen and a metal tin was made for Windows and Xbox 360 only. Map Pack 1 reached PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 19, 2009, and Map Pack 2 and Map Pack 3 followed in June and August 2009.
Reviews were positive. Critics praised its intensity and violent nature, and some felt it was too similar to earlier Call of Duty games. It sold three million copies in the United States in its first two months and 15.7 million copies by November 2013.
Retrospective reviews count it among the best World War II entries, with praise for the campaign's picture of the brutality of the war and for Zombies. Characters from the game carried over into Call of Duty: Black Ops, which started the Black Ops sub-series.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 85 out of 100 (PS3). Individual reviews: Game Informer 8.8/10, GameSpot 8.5/10, GameTrailers 8.7/10, IGN 9.2/10, Official Xbox Magazine 7.5/10, Official Xbox Magazine UK 9/10, X-Play 4/5.
Extra content
Three map packs followed in 2009. Map Pack 2 and Map Pack 3 carry their own trophy lists.
- Makin Day (free update): A daylight version of the Makin map, plus bug fixes and more detail in the stats display
- Map Pack 1: Three multiplayer maps (Nightfire, Knee Deep, Station) and the Nazi Zombies map Verruckt
- Map Pack 2: Three multiplayer maps (Banzai, Corrosion, Sub Pens) and the Nazi Zombies map Shi No Numa, with 10 trophies
- Map Pack 3: Multiplayer maps and the Nazi Zombies map Der Riese, with 10 trophies
Good to know
- Nazi Zombies launches by itself after the last campaign mission is completed, and it is where the Zombies mode started.
- Sony lists six disc IDs: BLUS30192 (North America) and BLES00354, BLES00355, BLES00357, BLES00404 and BLES00457 (Europe). The latest patch for every ID is 01.07, except BLES00457 at 01.08.
- Patches are about 96 MB to 175 MB depending on the ID. The North American patch is about 175 MB.
- Three base-game trophies need online co-op: Blue Ribbon, Get Your Left Foot Wet and Get Your Right Foot Wet.
- The collector's edition with a canteen and a tin was only made for Windows and Xbox 360.
- The trophy list has 65 trophies: 45 in the base game and 10 each for Map Pack 2 and Map Pack 3. Map Pack 1 has no trophies.
Made by
Director Corky Lehmkuhl, Producer Pat Dwyer, Designer David Vonderhaar, Artist Colin Whitney, Writer Craig Houston, Composer Sean Murray.
