This must have been a hard sell. You're dragged into an office and told you have to make a follow-up to Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the 10 million copy selling game of the year for 2008. You're told the franchise is going back to World War 2, that's a step back to the old inaccurate guns of WWII and a step away from the hi-tech accuracy and gimmicky Perk-laden goodness we all loved in COD4. You have 18 months to comply.
Welcome to the weary world inhabited by the team at Treyarch responsible for making a WWII follow-up to a hit game based around the tech of modern combat. Welcome to Call Of Duty: World At War.
The plus side is the team was given 10 months longer than when they made the so-so Call Of Duty 3 and they have the COD4 engine to use, ensuring all ground-up development duties have been taken care of. For World At War it's a case of focusing on the gameplay, improving the COD4 engine and selling WWII to gamers chomping at the bit to get back into the world of sniper rifles that can hit a nat's chuff at half a mile. Ah yes, the hard sell.
No more numbers "We've dropped the numbers from the name, this is World At War," says Noah R Heller, senior producer on COD5. "We want gamers to understand this is a new chapter in Call Of Duty and not a sequel," added Heller. The emphasis is on creating the new standard for WWII games and that means no number, it also means telling new stories - in this case the end of the war.
The game is split across two campaigns COD4-style, with play beginning in the Pacific before flipping back to the final push by the Russians into Germany and Berlin.
The demo I sat down with began in the Pacific theatre, my introduction to World At War was watching a fellow US marine have his eye burned with a cigarette before the Japanese commander slit his throat. Outside other marines were being shot. Then a crack team of marines burst in, killed everyone untied my hands and threw me a gun. I'm in the action, out for payback and all I can think is - Wow: that was intense. Wow: that was gruesome and gritty as hell. Wow: Treyarch have done it, WWII still rocks.
There's a distinct change of tone to this new WWII-set Call Of Duty. Where COD3 was like playing through a boy's own war story, complete with larger-than-life characters, stereotypical German soldiers who were ravenous for Allied blood, World At War is aiming for a more realistic, gritty feel. One scene following my rescue saw two US marines shoot a Japanese officer dead rather than take him prisoner.
Following the rescue, I was privy to a segment that showed off the new 'Japanese AI', enemy intelligence that mimics the tactics of the Japanese army in the Pacific. My unit was sneaking up a riverbed undercover of night, when suddenly a Japanese squad leapt from the grass, from trenches and tunnels and out of the trees slaughtering my squad. An officer put a man to the sword in graphic close up before control swung back my way and payback was on the cards.
It turns out the Japanese army didn't fight like us Europeans but would use cunning tactics to make every inch of an island a deadly event. Mazes of tunnels were dug, with covered hatches enabling them to snipe undetected. Some Japanese soldiers would lash themselves to trees for days on end on the off chance a US patrol would wander past.
Resistance fighters This is all reflected in the enemy AI and was evident in one section of World At War demoed to me. This was a large scale, open battle that saw the US forces attempting to take an airstrip overrun by entrenched Japanese forces. As I approached, Japanese soldiers sprung from the long grass, snipers fired from the palm trees and soldiers thought to be dead jumped to life and attacked from the rear.
Treyarch's Noah commented that players in the dev's offices had begun playing World At War in the same manner as real US troops would move through a battlefield; advancing slowly, scouring the tree tops for enemies and firing into the long grass to spook hidden enemies.
Backing up this gameplay is COD's latest weapon - the flamethrower. This enables you to burn trees, grass and almost anything on the battlefield. It was demoed to me in the game's new Co-op mode, with Noah and Treyarch's creative director Richard Farrelly teaming up to showcase the fiery death-dealer.
It looked a little cheap. Every step was met with a vicious burst from the scorching flamethrower, which instantly set everyone and anything on fire. Grass would burn, spread and torch trees; flaming enemies would run screaming into gun turrets and cause havoc. It looked all too easy and Noah admits that getting this balance right, especially for online, will be vital.
Online potential COD4 sung online. It changed everything. So handily using the COD4 engine means everything you and I loved about playing online will be retained for World At War, including Perks, team modes and old-school set-ups. Noah was being coy about the Perks system for World At War, after all these are WWII weapons, but upgrades such as powerful shots, mid-mag reloads on the M1 Grand and new grenade classes (Molotov cocktails) will be on offer.
Interestingly, Treyarch are pushing the idea of a vehicle-based online mode. There will be specific maps and Perks created just for skirmishes involving tanks, jeeps and armoured cars. This is something of a gamble, especially considering the game's limited development time. It's debatable whether online vehicle combat will add anything to the series over being a niche side event.
The second campaign is set at the end of the European war as Russian forces pushed into Berlin. This looks to resemble the tightly contested street skirmishes of COD4. Expect something similar to the Middle-Eastern stages of Modern Combat with a smattering of new weapons, including the return of the fire effect used in the Pacific campaign with the introduction of Molotov cocktails and combustable environments to make use of.
There are still some niggles - the respawning enemies return and could ruin the new AI system, WWII weapons simply aren't as sexy (or accurate) as modern tech and this is a return to known ground. Still, I'm glad that there was something unexpectedly exciting about my return to WWII.
sounds like it wont be to bad probably (almost definantley) wont beat cod 4 but hay at least itl make a change to boring old nazis and sounds qutite adult il thin il bye it
They make the game terible. They just keep runing out of the house I'm trying to clear.
Oh you mean just like cod4 then, c'mon guys i loved cod4 but get real for a moment. The respawning enemies are also there in cod4 and the up close and personal action is pretty much the same as it was in cod2, and at least that game had more than about five levels and were also not repeated.
The thing is, if you go back and play cod2 the weapons are no less accurate than in cod4, and if everyone has the same 'so called more accurate weapons' then there is no advantage, level playing field and all that.
This must have been a hard sell. You're dragged into an office and told you have to make a follow-up to Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the 10 million copy selling game of the year for 2008
That isn't strictly true. They started making WaW before CoD4 was even half way finished.
The game is split across two campaigns COD4-style, with play beginning in the Pacific before flipping back to the final push by the Russians into Germany and Berlin.
Again this is nothing new they've been doing this since CoD1 released 5 years ago.
There are still some niggles - the respawning enemies return and could ruin the new AI system
This has been in every CoD game including CoD4 and indeed it is getting old. Wave respawn in single player games like this should be a thing of the past.
As much as I want to like this game, I don't think their marketing has made it look nearly as exiting as they did with COD4. I'm going to have to wait a few weeks after the release before considering a purchase.
cant wait for this game looks like it will be good even though its goin back to ww2 av no even got cod4 yet but av plyd it and if this is anything like it it will be amazing goin 2 gt cod4 nxt week a bit late likes
They make the game terible. They just keep runing out of the house I'm trying to clear.
Oh you mean just like cod4 then, c'mon guys i loved cod4 but get real for a moment. The respawning enemies are also there in cod4 and the up close and personal action is pretty much the same as it was in cod2, and at least that game had more than about five levels and were also not repeated.
have u played cod3, ok so theyve got cod4 engine, but if treyarch weren't a rush through job theyd of made a similar game 2 cod4, n vehicle's dont work cod3, ill rent it, if i am wrong hands up. just the fact its ww2 an treyarch again makes me wonder!
The one thing I am having doubts about is the addition of vehicles. I am new to the COD franchise and only ever properly played COD:4 I think the addition of vehicles could make the game more hectic online and alot simpler to kill, eg. Running people over. It will also take away some of that tension you get in games like headquarters where you have to sprint across the map to capture the objective, wondering if the enemy is already capturing it. I know this will be a good game as the COD:4 engine has been used to make it but i still have my doubts it will surpass its predecessor. I hope tho I am proven wrong and I am made to eat my words.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
