Call of Duty: World at War is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is the fifth main installment of the Call of Duty series and is the fourth entry in the series to be set during World War II. The game was announced by Activision in June 2008 and was released in November 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360, and Wii. Other games under the World at War title were published for the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2, featuring different storylines and missions. The game's story, told primarily from the perspectives of U.S. Marine Raider Private C. Miller and Soviet Red Army Private Dimitri Petrenko, focuses on the Pacific and Eastern Front theaters of World War II.
Development for World at War took two years and began after the release of Treyarch's previous entry in the series, Call of Duty 3, which was also set during World War II. The game is based on an enhanced version of Infinity Ward's IW engine, with increased development on audio and visual effects. Treyarch used the engine to make more parts of certain environments destructible and introduce limb dismemberment and realistic burns to character models.
Upon release, World at War received positive reviews from critics, with praise directed at its intensity and violent nature, though some critics felt it was too similar to past Call of Duty titles. Retrospective reviews consider it one of the series' best World War II entries, with praise for the campaign's depiction of the brutality of World War II and the introduction of the Zombies mode. It became one of the best-selling titles of 2008, selling three million copies in the United States within the first two months of its release. It also marked the beginning of the Black Ops sub-series, as characters from World at War were carried over into its sequel, Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010).
Gameplay Call of Duty: World at War is a first-person shooter. It features more mature themes than previous Call of Duty installments and is open-ended, giving the player multiple ways to complete objectives, but otherwise generally plays like previous iterations of the franchise.
The game features a variety of different weapons and technology from World War II. Players gain access to these over the course of the game, but may only carry up to two weapons in addition to hand grenades. Weapons and ammo from fallen foes or friendlies can be picked up to replace weapons in a player's arsenal. Players can also find weapons with additional attachments, including guns equipped with rifle grenades, telescopic sights, and bayonets. When playing the Wii version of the game, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk is used to aim at enemies with motion controls.
A character can be positioned in one of three stances – standing, crouching, or prone – with each affecting the character's rate of movement, accuracy, and stealth. Using cover helps the player avoid enemy fire or recover health after taking significant damage, as there are no armor or health power-ups. When a player has taken damage, the edges of the screen glow red. If the player stays out of fire, they begin to regenerate health after a short time.
The single-player campaign includes Easter eggs in the form of thirteen hidden "death cards", represented by playing cards attached to makeshift war graves. There is one in each level (barring those that take place solely in vehicles); collecting them unlocks cheats for Co-op mode, such as reduced enemy endurance and "paintball mode".
Call of Duty: World at Wars multiplayer experience features eight modes, including Team Deathmatch and capture the flag. It also features vehicles and squad-based elements. Another mode, Ground War, offers team play of up to 18 players.
Nazi Zombies
The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows versions of World at War feature the minigame Nazi Zombies. This is the first appearance of the "Zombies" mode in any Call of Duty game; the mode would eventually become a mainstay for any Call of Duty game developed by Treyarch. On completion of the final campaign mission, the first Zombies map, "Nacht der Untoten", will launch automatically.
In this survival mode, one to four players fight an unlimited number of waves of Nazi zombies (or, in the map "Shi No Numa", undead members of the Imperial Japanese Army), beginning with an M1911 pistol as their only weapon. Players earn points for killing zombies or repairing barricades in boarded-up windows. A player can spend accumulated points to expand areas of the map to access more useful weapons or purchase new weapons and upgrades. Zombies spawn in remote areas of the map and advance toward the players, routinely breaking the windows to enter and attack the players; if a player is attacked enough times, they fall and will need to be "revived" by another player in a certain time, or wait until the next round occurs to play again. If all players are damaged enough to fall, the game is over. As the game's DLC cycle continued, three additional Zombies maps were released, which added several new features to the mode. These features included "Perk-a-Colas", which are soda-themed upgrades, traps based on electro-shock therapy, and the "Pack-a-Punch" machine, which is used to upgrade weapons.
Plot
American campaign In August 1942, captured U.S. Marine Private C. Miller of the 1st Marine Division witnesses the torture and execution of his squad on Makin Island by the Imperial Japanese Army before he is rescued by a squad of Marine Raiders, led by Corporal Roebuck (Kiefer Sutherland) and Sergeant Tom Sullivan (Chris Fries), who then assault Japanese positions on the island. In September 1944, the squad participates in the Battle of Peleliu, now joined by Private Polonsky (Aaron Stanford). After breaking through the Japanese lines on the beach, Sullivan is fatally stabbed by a Japanese soldier, and Roebuck becomes sergeant. The squad fights its way through several Japanese positions, including mortar pits, and finally clears out a naval artillery post, allowing American ships to advance, and Peleliu eventually falls into American hands.
In April 1945, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Locke, in a PBY Catalina, takes part in a defensive operation alongside a U.S. Fifth Fleet taskforce, who are being attacked as part of Operation Ten-Go. Locke's crew works to rescue American sailors while fighting off Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo boats and Zeroes. They themselves are saved by a squadron of Vought F4U-1Cs that drive off the Zeroes just as the damaged Catalina runs out of ammunition.
In May 1945, Miller's squad assaults a Japanese position on Okinawa, the offensive culminating with an infantry attack on Shuri Castle. There several Japanese soldiers appear to surrender, but reveal concealed grenades when Roebuck and Polonsky attempt to search them; Miller is presented with the choice of saving either Roebuck or Polonsky. After airstrikes are carried out during the fighting, American forces capture Shuri Castle, eliminating the last bastion of Japanese resistance on Okinawa. The saved marine gives Miller the dog tags of the one who was killed.
Soviet campaign In September 1942, Red Army Private Dimitri Petrenko of the 62nd Army awakes during the Battle of Stalingrad, in a fountain filled with corpses and wounded men, as he watches German troops execute his comrades. Injured Sergeant Viktor Reznov (Gary Oldman) enlists Dimitri's help in his mission to kill German General Heinrich Amsel, responsible for numerous war crimes across the Soviet Union. Over the course of the hunt, they link-up with other Soviet soldiers, who make an assault on Amsel's position. Dimitri and Reznov provide overwatch for the Soviet soldiers when they attack the post, managing to assassinate Amsel as he attempts to escape. Their position discovered, Dimitri and Reznov flee into the Volga.
In April 1945, during the Battle of the Seelow Heights, a captured Dimitri is saved from the Germans by the advancing 3rd Shock Army, which includes Reznov and Private Chernov (Craig Houston), who is reluctant to be wrathful towards the enemy as Reznov ordered. Dimitri, Reznov and other Soviet troops fight through several German positions and take part in a vehicular engagement using a T-34-85 tank before boarding a train to Berlin. They fight their way into the city and then enter a Berlin U-Bahn station, advancing through the tunnels and engaging their defenders in close quarters, until the Germans flood them in an attempt to eliminate the Soviets.
Reznov drags Dimitri out of the U-Bahn station and they take part in the Red Army's advance towards the Reichstag. During the assault at its entrance, Chernov is burned by a flamethrower and left to die. Reznov, Dimitri and the many Soviet soldiers enter the Reichstag, clearing it of German defenders, and finally reach the rooftop. Dimitri is shot by a German, whom Reznov brutally kills with a machete. Although wounded, Dimitri plants the Soviet flag, signaling Soviet victory and ending the war in Europe.
Development World at War was announced on June 23, 2008, by Activision, who confirmed that the game was to be released in fall 2008, and that the series would revert to its customary World War II setting. The game took about two years to make, twice as long as Treyarch's previous entry to the series, Call of Duty 3. The game is powered by an improved version of the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare engine, with several improvements made to the physics model. Environments are more destructible and can be set on fire with the flamethrower, whose fire propagates. Dismemberment, as well as realistic skin and clothes burning of the characters, were added. Exakt Entertainment assisted in porting the game in this engine to the Wii, while Arkane Studios assisted in the creation of levels for the multiplayer mode under the direction of Austin based studio Certain Affinity.
Not long after, Treyarch released the modding tools for Call of Duty: World at War. These tools were the same ones used to create all the other Call of Duty series games, but with slight changes version to version, which can be downloaded online. Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman were cast as voice actors for the game. Sutherland voices the narrator and squad leader of the American campaign, Sergeant Roebuck, while Oldman voices that of the Soviet campaign, Sergeant Viktor Reznov. A full-sized replica PBY Catalina was constructed for motion capture use.
Audio The music for Call of Duty: World at War was composed by Sean Murray. He had worked with Brian Tuey, Treyarch's audio director, on True Crime: New York City, the sequel to the first True Crime: Streets of LA. Murray said Tuey "knew [he] would bring a fresh approach to Call of Duty: World at War". Adam Levenson, the audio director of Activision, was called in to help them. Murray said that he wanted to make the music more fun and intense, but also "a specific musical path that follows the psyche of the gameplay".
The new technology of occlusion, which changes the sound made by nearby object depending on objects blocking its path e.g. walls, was added to World at War. The game has various levels of "muffled" sound depending on the objects it travels through e.g. a more muffled sound through a thick wall compared to a slightly muffled sound through a thin short wall. For the first time in a Call of Duty game, players are able to tell the difference between someone walking next to the player and someone walking above or below the player, as well as telling the difference between a shot fired in the distance and a shot fired close by, but behind a solid object.