i bought call of duty: world at war (waw) recently because it was heavily discounted and i generally like games with a ww2 theme. i don’t really have a long history with call of duty games or know terribly much about the franchise. i played COD: finest hour on the original xbox and thought it was decent. i never played it all the way through. other than that, i have played modern warfare1 multiplayer…and that’s my total COD experience.

at this point i’m practically finished with the solo campaign in waw on normal difficulty. the gameplay is decent enough…i do think that if this game didn’t have a historical setting and feel then it would just end up being a so-so/boring FPS. the historical aspect of the game makes it really interesting and feel significant. i’d say the graphics are adequate but i’m not entirely sure if they’re good or bad during the time period the game came out. i really like the levels of ravaged russia and germany as they really depict the destruction and dreariness well. the pacific levels weren’t overly interesting to me because i don’t think there’s too much you can do with island scenery to draw you in.

the AI is simply okay. sometimes i feel like my fellow soldiers are doing alright then other times i catch them with an enemy mere steps away and they’re doing nothing. i’m for sure that your squad will not advance until you do. this bugs me for one reason…in some sections of the game the enemy is obviously infinite so there’s no way to completely clear them out before advancing. in such scenarios all you can really do is take visible enemies out and then run forwards to some cover (rinse and repeat). the weapons are fine. whenever i get stuck with a single shot rifle though i immediately look for a replacement. your squad members do get targeted in the game, but the game does seem to suffer from the same flaw? that every FPS has…the fact that you always seem to be the most urgent target for all enemy soldiers. now if i slipped out of cover and was the first soldier visible it would make total sense that all the enemies were targeting me. otherwise it does not make sense that i’m still the favorite target when i’m surrounded by my squad members. it’d be cool for a game to make this aspect more realistic however i guess the downside of making it more realistic is that the game becomes easier. seems like with some more tweaking there could be a nice balance.

the most annoying aspect of the game are grenades. enemy soldiers use grenades a lot and you’ll have about 3 seconds of warning when one is thrown near you to do something about it. if you’re in the direct vicinity of a grenade you will of course die. if the grenade is thrown 12 o’clock in front of you then you have a chance to throw it back. this is your best option but it’s not always possible. the second option is get away from the grenade which doesn’t sound like a big deal but it often is. if you’re prone or crouched you’re already moving slow and secondly the slightest bit of terrain difference in this game will block your movement. for instance, some small rocks, a crate, or a branch, will all sort of box you in and limit your mobility. and lastly, when you’re in a large chaotic firefight it’s very hard to notice the grenade warning at times. i died more often from enemy grenades than anything else and i really can’t stress enough on how often these things are thrown. this aspect negatively affects gameplay, however, maybe it is realistic? i’m not sure on what the statistics of grenade use of were in ww2, but i can surely see there being little warning and little time to react when one’s near you.

my favorite level so far was “black cats” i thought it was a lot of fun.

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