About a year ago, Infinity Ward burnt a DVD and sent it off to manufacturing. Little did they know that this said DVD would become one of the biggest and best games of 2007 and shoot their Call of Duty franchise into the stratosphere. Fast forward twelve months and you have to feel a bit sorry for Treyarch. They have the experience but surely no one could live up to the hype and absolute epic feeling that Call of Duty 4 had. How could they ever match the infamous Sniper level which to this day we feel is the best moment in gaming for a long time? Well they’ve done it. Against the odds COD WAW is a fantastic game that is worth your time, even though it’s set in World War II yet again.

Call of Duty: World at War tells two very different stories. You have the US Commando fighting in a team to take the pacific, and the young Russian trying to survive a German massacre in the middle of a harsh winter. These two storylines could not be more different and this is one reason why WaW, despite being in the played out World War II era, works. We get a new perspective on the war while treading along a familiar path as well.

Historically accurate, the stories tell the US war in the pacific and the taking of Berlin by the Russians. As you might expect this leads to missions in dense jungle as well as German cities, each offering new challenges and different styles of play. We have to admit when we heard that WaW was heading back to the most infamous war of all we were disappointed, but this game proves you should never judge a book by its cover (or in this case a game by its press release).

This is one of the most brutal sequences of missions seen in a war game and this game has definitely earned its mature rating (previous CODs have fallen in the T category). You will see bodies dismembered, harsh fighting tactics (such as the Japanese booby trapping fallen US soldiers), and kamikaze fighters just to name a few. They said the pacific war changed everything and WaW proves this true. The Russian side of the game is closer to the COD we know and love however we have to chip Treyarch here a bit for trying to copy COD 4. Rather than come up with their own amazing sequences, they have tried to piggy back on Infinity Ward’s success with the most obvious of this being another sniper sequence like that in COD 4.

When Treyarch did step outside the box of COD 4 it comes off amazing. The last three missions of this game are epic to say the least. COD 4 was a war of technology, COD WAW is a war of attrition with hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers being thrown at each other, with bombs and fighter jets passing over. You also get an emotional attachment to the soldiers if you immerse yourself and many moments in the game will have your mouth dropped to the floor.

There are some areas where the game falters however; the first being that it is clear Treyarch has tried to ‘rip off’ some of COD 4’s amazing mission structures. While this was to be expected, it has been proven that the COD engine can produce some amazing sequences and it is a shame that Treyarch didn’t try harder to come up with something original. Also, the game is short. You can clock this in a matter of hours if you are good enough.

Chances are like us however you will, after a few missions, put it down only to pick it up the next day. It is not a game that we can see many people powering through in a day because, to be honest, the missions do not vary themselves enough to keep you enthralled in one session. We finished COD 4 in a day and COD WAW in about 4 days. We did notice that the objectives appear to be more ‘realistic’ - rather than dropping a bomb and running, you throw the bomb in, run away and press a button. Small, but it adds to the immersion.

The other side of the table, multiplayer has once again continued Call of Duty 4’s trademarks. You start off as a grunt and as you play more and more games your persistent character linked to your PSN name builds experience and gains access to more guns and more perks. Technology has been replaced with animals with hunting dogs awarded after 7 straight kills and it does seem to work although not quite the satisfaction of a fighter jet or helicopter raining bombs on the enemy. It also very much maintains the structure of ‘go to point A then point B, blow something up and proceed to point C’. Treyarch have tried to put a few vehicular missions in as well but for the most part they remain forgettable.

Visually the game is quite impressive carrying on the good work from COD 4. We hardly saw an engine falter or frame rate drop throughout the game even with huge explosions and many characters on the screen. The characters can sometimes move in a particularly weird manner but overall they impress, especially the flame thrower which can be used to light almost entire levels on fire.

We are surprised at Call of Duty: World at War’s ability to keep us enthralled and somehow it seems refreshing to head back to the second World War yet again. It is a nice filler until Infinity Ward release the next iteration of the series in 2009. To the doubters, World at War has proven you wrong. Treyarch has pulled it off and we’ve said it before and we’ll say it here again – at the very least, the last 3 missions are must play gaming.