The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Monk]

Call of Duty: World at War.

(sigh) I really wasn't looking forward to playing this game's single-player. In fact I dare say i bought it for one (AND ONLY ONE) reason, which was the multiplayer. But before I can unlock the Nazi Zombie mini-game I have to finish the game (you win this round Treyarch..) What can i say though? After Modern Combat two years ago, the fps community got knocked on its back end as the CoD franchise, which had been faltering after two lack-luster titles, completely reinvented itself with perhaps my favorite shooter of the modern era of gaming. It introduced an innovative Multiplayer model with super weapons and unlockables, gadgets, levels and challenges. In a word, it was fun. How would Activision follow that? They got Treyarch to release a copy+paste WW2 Shooter. Innovative.

I'll just get the pink five-hundred pound hippo out of the way first, this game just isn't fun. You play each mission on a rail, shooting your way through terrible AI and doing your best not to notice that you could be playing something else. Really, I just wanted to get to the end of this game to play the Nazi-Zombie mini-game, and i think the game figured that out when i popped it in because it just was not fun. The AI was horrid, the hit detection (at times) seemed to go completely hay-wire and not register headshots, and to top it off the pacing is, in a word, schizophrenic.

To give you an idea what I mean about the pacing, you'll play two American missions, then you go play two soviet missions and so on. By the time you adjust to being in one theatre you're violently ripped into the other. I know what they were trying to do, they were trying to emulate Modern Warfare, the huge difference is that in Modern Warfare the two campaigns were tied together by a main narrative. In WaW the two campaigns are as different as you can imagine and the sudden changes from one theatre of operation to the other completely disjointed what little attachment I had with my not-faceless comrades.

The plot is the typical WW2 shooter where your comrades, with the exception of four (two for each campaign.) are a complete faceless affair. Call of Duty helped set itself apart with amazing visuals and some overall decent characterization, but unfortunately Treyarch has not followed Infinity Ward's example and made even your CO (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland of all people!) a complete dull affair. How in the world did they make Kiefer Sutherland dull?! The game is a shameless "war is great, no wait it's bad... did i mention it's kinda great" flipflop featuring psychotic comrades who will murder their enemy in wanton hatred. After finishing the single-player, the Live! community looked like atea-party in comparison.

The last blow to my sanity comes in that, while the multiplayer is generally really fun many of the maps just feel too large. Playing yesterday morning before class I spent an agonizing 30 seconds running aimlessly around a map looking for something to shoot before getting snipped. That said, the Multiplayer is pretty fun, my main complaint is that since it's WW2 us gadget freaks who loved all the unlockables in Modern Combat will be sorely disappointed. Your potential arsenal isn't anything to laugh at, but lots of the weapons feel the same. All of the single-shot rifles feel the same as the next, for instance

My recommendation? If you're deadset on another shooter for your 360/Ps3/Wii, then WaW will offer up some impressive visuals and a very fun Multiplayer mode (not to mention Nazi Zombies when you finish the campaign). If you have to own this, then plow through the campaign once and never look back. Maybe i'll even see you on the battlefield. Dismissed!

Devil May Cry 4 next post.