Breaking Point

"Everything that was asked of us, we've done. Every night we lay in a filthy foxhole praying the enemy won't slit our throats. Every day we spent crawling through the mud and dirt while bullets whistled all around. This is the enemy's last stand. When we take Shuri Castle we go home. All of us..."

- Sgt Roebuck

"Destroy Shuri Castle and Defeat the final Japanese Protection in Okiniwa"

- Single Player Description

Breaking Point is a mission in Call of Duty: World at War. It takes place in and around Shuri Castle on Okinawa island, Japan. Upon starting the level, the player will notice he has no ammo in his M1 Garand, but a parachute drop containing ammo and guns will drop, the guns are: Thompson, M1 Garand, M1919 and a Scoped Springfield. It is advised to pick up at least the Thompson, and then go to the main bag and pick up ammo. The crate has infinite ammo. After picking up some guns, you will wipe out some troops and descend into an underground building. After getting out of it, there will be a large firefight and after this you will have to destroy Japanese mortar positions. Use mortar rounds on tables scattered around the place and in the pits themselves to ease the work, but beware they are very, very powerful. After this, you will enter what resembles the multiplayer map Courtyard, and after this you will go into a large open field with the courtyard buildings and some sandbags, and this is where the real twist of the knife is.

The Twist
Some Japanese soldiers will appear to be surrendering, but it is trap, and as Polonsky goes to one and Roebuck goes to the other two, they lash out, and the player must save one of them. If you save Roebuck, Polonsky will die, and vice versa. Saving Roebuck is harder, as there are two soldiers, and a grenade is scripted to go off. When you save Roebuck, he is distraught at Polonsky's death and turns into what Reznov is, ordering you to show no mercy and kill all enemy soldiers, and after you call in the airstrikes on the buildings the surviving one of them will give you the other's tag, hinting that they don't deserve it and are extremely upset and feel guilty of the other's death, even though they couldn't do anything, but whatever the scenario it is extremely emotional.

NOTE : If you do save Roebuck you get the Xbox achievement/ PS3 trophy 'Guardian Angel.' On the Xbox it is worth 10 Gamerscore.

Tips

 * Use the mortar rounds
 * Pick up the M1919 and Thompson
 * You can blow up the hut with the machine gun, near the 3rd and 4th mortar pit, with a mortar.
 * When playing co-op, try to blow all destructible buildings with mortars. That gives you nearly 5000 points and 4x point boost for a short time.

Trivia

 * The supply bags are identical to the objectives for the attackers in Search and Destroy.
 * If you kill one of the soldiers up near the barbed bunker, another will run up and look over him, and you can freely wander the last battlefield.
 * You can also save Roebuck and Polonsky by cooking a grenade and throwing it towards Roebuck and quickly shooting Polonsky's attacker. You can also try shooting the soldiers before they grab Polonsky and Roebuck. It may take a few times, but is possible or simply use a mortar shell aim about the middle of the box when Roebuck and Polonsky are grabbed and throw it and they will usually survive.
 * The sniper shot that kills the soldier at the beginning of the level where you pick up ammo at the ammo drop will sometimes come out of midair.
 * In the building that looks like the one everyone snipes from in Castle (the tower at the Japanese spawn) there will a room there will be 2 Japanese Soldiers playing dead and a Type 100 and an M1919. If you enter it and get near the soldiers, they will get up and attack much like the trick in the first level, Semper Fi.
 * If you don't try to save Polonsky or Roebuck, Polonsky will push down and beat up his opponent and Roebuck will explode and die.
 * This is the last mission of the Pacific Campaign.
 * If Polonsky dies you can take his M1 Garand to use in the final battle but if Roebuck is killed you can't take his Thompson.
 * During the last battle a soldiers name is Schoonover implying that the game is soon over.(Though Schoonover can appear as the wounded soldier at the start of Little Resistance)
 * When you climb up the ladder out of the tunnel, you see a submachine gunner, but he actually has a Browning M1919, a machine gun.
 * The idea of throwing mortars without the mortar tube may have come from the war movie Saving Private Ryan, where two American soldiers use mortars as grenades against Germans
 * If you look at Roebuck's Thompson when he dies, it is in a quite irregular position
 * In the Wii version, the ending can sometimes glitch in the fact that even if you save Polonsky, Roebuck will hand you Polonsky's dogtags, despite the fact that you can clearly see Roebuck's body on the ground.
 * After getting above ground you notice that the soldier with the Browning M1919 is tagged as a submachine gunner and if you save him, he will carry it over his shoulder, with the barrel facing backwards.
 * Sometimes if Roebuck is killed his body will disappear before Polonsky even gets to him.
 * If Roebuck dies, Polonsky will hand you Roebuck's dogtags but if you enable the subtitles you'll see it says that Roebuck was the one who speaks. It is possible that the game was supposed to be set that Roebuck survives and Polonsky dies. This is highly unlikely however, as Roebuck's words are just an echo of what he says (for dramatic effect most likely) before the level begins.
 * One of the weapons in the weapon drop in the courtyard is a Scoped Arisaka instead of a Springfield.
 * It may be just a glitch but when Polonsky dies and Roebuck gives you Polonsky's dog tags if you look closly they read Roebuck. This could mean Roebuck kept Polonsky's but gave you his or the game developers only made the dogtags for Roebuck.