The most fierce and realistic WW2 FPS to date!
When you first play this game, you expect class, it's the Call of Duty series, what else can you expect? And my expectations were exceeded, the first scene of the campaign is both gruesome and awesome, there's no other way to put it, it scraps the tutorials of previous CoD games, making way for possibly one of the best openings in gaming history! You play as a Private Miller, tied up in a PoW camp with a battered and bruised friend beside you. His pain is increased further by a bit of torture. It was so bad I almost felt the pain for him! Now getting a lit cigarette shoved into your eye might seem painful for us, but back in WW2 it might of not been that bad... I said 'might'. After this it all goes a bit over-board, but not in a bad way. The Japanese soldier inflicting this pain on the poor lad stops and talks to the American prisoner, problem with that being he speaks his native language. So to make matters worse, your mate spits in the enemy's face, to which I immediately applauded! However for some reason the Japanese dude doesn't take to kindly to this and orders his comrade to slit his throat, which his does, to more applauding from me. The tempo of the game is set right here, the graphics, the torture and the pain, all there in the two minutes. Now for the reason I didn't give it a ten, which you must be asking yourself by now. Well here it is: It's the story, it doesn't have the same feel as the Modern Warfare one, you don't feel for the characters in the same way. We all loved Gaz, and hated seeing him die, we bonded with Captain Price, and thanked him for the pistol. And you know why this was? Because they were way more talkative and friendly, not the odd 'Plant the explosives Miller' or 'Shoot, NOOOOW!'. That's boring. However it does reclaim itself in one way, the fact you get to play as the Russians. Sergeant Reznov is the only character you do actually feel for in this game, his war hardened face, his commanding voice and his accent make him an instant Call of Duty legend. So this is why World at War is just that 0.5 off a full 10. It's because of the feel of the storyline, the way you could imagine you were actually there in Call of Duty 4 was the main selling point for me, however this sequel doesn't quite cut it... in the American campaign, the Russian one gets a 10.
Call of Duty: World at War
Gameplay/Control: 10/10 - The same feel as all CoD games
Graphics: 10/10 - The most realistic fire I've ever seen in a game!
Multiplayer - 10/10 - As always
Story - 9/10 - Read about 3 quarters of the way down for why