Call of Duty: World at War

"60 million lives were lost as a result of World War II. It was the most destructive and deadly conflict in human history."

- Treyarch

Call of Duty: World at War, also referred to as Call of Duty 5 or simply World at War, and abbreviated as CoD: WaW or WaW, is a first-person shooter game produced by Treyarch, and is the first game in the "Black Ops" timeline. It was released on November 11, 2008 in North America and on November 14, 2008 in Europe. It was announced on December 2, 2007, and on June 6, 2008; the 64th anniversary of D-Day, Treyarch announced it would be named as "World at War" and it would take place in the Pacific theater of war as well as the Eastern Front.

It was released for all seventh-generation consoles as well as home computers. It is the first Treyarch game to be released on the PC and it has a double development cycle of Treyarch's previous game, Call of Duty 3 and was in development from late 2006.

The game's first trailer was released on June 21, 2008, and can be viewed here. The gameplay for Call of Duty: World at War remains the same as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The game was re-released in the Call of Duty: The War Collection as part of a bundle. It was also made available on the Xbox One via backwards compatibility on September 27, 2016.

Campaign
There is one campaign in the game divided into two: the American campaign and the Soviet campaign. The Soviet campaign is returning after having last been present in Call of Duty 2. There is no British campaign in the game, making World at War the only major Call of Duty set in the Second World War not to feature a British Campaign or a British playable character. It features both a solo and co-op campaign, however both are the same except that co-op is played with multiple people and certain missions are unplayable.

Summary
The American campaign is set in the Pacific theater on the islands of Makin, Peleliu, and Okinawa. The Soviet campaign is set in the Eastern Front, mainly in Nazi Germany. In the American campaign, players take the role of Pvt. C. Miller as he fights alongside Sgt. Tom Sullivan, Cpl. Roebuck (later Sergeant), and Pvt. Polonsky. In the Soviet campaign, players take the role of Pvt. Dimitri Petrenko as he fights alongside the merciless Sgt. Viktor Reznov and the merciful Pvt. Chernov. In the American campaign, players, for the first time in a Call of Duty game, fight against the Japanese Imperial Army. Most combat takes place in jungles, where ambushes are likely. Combat also takes place in small mortar pits, ridges, beach heads, Japanese trenches, and small villages. Bunkers are a common sight in the American campaign, usually causing heavy casualties. In the Soviet Campaign, players fight against the German Wehrmacht during the push towards Berlin. Combat takes place, at first, in the ruins of Stalingrad where the player is mainly a sniper. After that, combat occurs in farmland and forests of the German town of Seelow, and finally Berlin is assaulted and close quarter fighting becomes a common feature. The last mission of the Soviet campaign sees the Red Army capture the Reichstag and the player planting the Soviet Flag on top of the building.

Plot
The story begins on Makin Island on August 17, 1942. American Marine Private C. Miller watches the torture and execution of his team, and is about to be executed himself before being rescued by another squad of Marines, led by Corporal Roebuck and Sergeant Tom Sullivan. They assault the Japanese on the island, replicating the Makin Island raid. The Battle of Peleliu is then replicated. After breaking through the Japanese lines on the Peleliu beach, Miller destroys two Type 97 Chi-Ha tanks with rocket strikes, allowing the American tanks to advance. At the end of the mission, Sullivan is killed by a Japanese officer with a katana. Roebuck is promoted to Sergeant and he and his squad make their way through the Peleliu swamps to launch an assault on a Japanese-held airfield to disable anti-aircraft guns. During the assault, Miller acquires a flamethrower to destroy a bunker and a bazooka to destroy the Chi-Has positioned at the airfield.

Meanwhile, the Battle of Stalingrad is held on the Eastern Front on September 17, 1942. Russian Private Dimitri Petrenko regains consciousness in a blood-stained and body-filled fountain, just as German troops execute his comrades. When they leave, Dimitri meets injured Sergeant Viktor Reznov, another survivor, who tells him of his mission to kill German general Heinrich Amsel, who is responsible for the massacres. After killing German soldiers in their way and dueling an enemy sniper, Dimitri follows Reznov through buildings and streets and they meet up with the remainder of Dimitri's unit, who are about to assault the General's communication post. During the assault, Dimitri provides overwatch with Reznov and aids the remaining Red Army soldiers as they recapture the post, managing to kill Amsel as he flees. Dimitri and Reznov jump into the Volga River and escape the pursuing Germans after killing Amsel. The next mission takes place three years later, during the Battle of the Seelow Heights near Berlin. Dimitri has been captured by German soldiers in an abandoned house, but is saved when the Red Army attacks the house; he is re-united with Reznov and introduced to his right-hand-man Pvt. Chernov. The Soviet troops advance through German lines and Dimitri aids them with a Panzerschreck until they reach and wipe out a German camp

Then the campaign jumps back to the Pacific Theater. After pushing further inland on Peleliu, Miller and his unit take out enemy mortar crews so their tanks can go inland. They then proceed through the Japanese underground tunnels to attack the artillery-filled Point, one of the major Japanese strongholds that had destroyed many landing boats when they first landed. This allows American ships to advance, and Peleliu finally falls into American hands.

Back in Eastern Europe, Dimitri and Reznov pilot a T-34 tank, pushing through German lines along with the rest of the unit, so the Soviet troops can board a train to Berlin. Upon arrival, they engage German soldiers on the outskirts of Berlin, eventually pushing them out of the outskirts, commencing the Battle of Berlin. They then advance and fight through the city over the next few days, getting ever closer to the Reichstag. Dimitri's unit fights in apartment buildings and through the streets. After eliminating a German position in the streets, they reach the entrance to the Berlin U-Bahn, where three German soldiers are attempting to surrender. Reznov is unwilling to deny his men their revenge and gives Dimitri the choice of shooting them or burning them alive with Molotov Cocktail. Once a artillery barrage begins, they head into the U-Bahn to avoid being shelled and start fighting German soldiers around the platforms, until a surge of water fills the tunnel and Dimitri, unable to avoid the oncoming tidal wave, almost drowns.

After American gains Peleliu, the Battle of Okinawa occurs on the Pacific, where the Petty Officer Locke, in a PBY Catalina flying boat, takes part in a raid on three merchant ships. On their way back to base, another Catalina, codenamed Hammerhead, is destroyed by Japanese Zeroes, leaving Locke and his crew alone. The US fleet is assaulted, replicating Operation Ten-Go. Locke's PBY, the only PBY or plane near enough to come to immediate aid, works to rescue as many American sailors as possible by fighting off Japanese PT boats and kamikaze planes. With the PBY almost completely destroyed, more US aircraft arrive and drive off the remaining Zeroes. In the following mission, Miller's squad makes a ground assault on Okinawa, clearing out the Japanese from machine gun bunkers to allow American tanks to progress. With the battle almost won, the Americans storm Shuri Castle amidst mortar shelling and massive banzai charges. Once inside, they encounter Japanese soldiers surrendering. However, when Roebuck and Polonsky go to search them, they reveal concealed grenades under their clothes, at which point Miller is presented with the choice of saving either Roebuck or Polonsky. The remaining American troops arrive to assist the squad and engage the remaining Japanese soldiers in a battle in the castle center. After Miller calls in air strikes on two buildings, the Americans take Shuri Castle, crushing the last bastion of Japanese resistance in the Pacific War.

Meanwhile, Reznov drags Dimitri out of the U-Bahn to regroup with Soviet infantry. The Red Army then advances towards the Reichstag. During the assault at the Reichstag's entrance, Chernov is severely burned by a flamethrower, and is implied he dies of his wounds later. Reznov, Dimitri and the remaining Soviet soldiers enter the Reichstag, clear it of its German defenders, and reach the rooftop. After a final showdown on the top floor to reach the Nazi flag, Dimitri is shot by a dying German soldier in an attempt to stop him from planting the Soviet flag, but Reznov kills the German with a machete. Although wounded, Dimitri manages to plant the Soviet flag, signaling Soviet victory and ending the war in Europe.

Co-op Campaign/Competitive Co-op
A new feature in Call of Duty: World at War is to play the campaign with other players, in Cooperative Campaign and Competitive Co-op.

In Cooperative Campaign, players play alongside each other with the same objectives of the solo versions of the missions except with the added objective to keep the other players from dying and the additional benefit of extra support that comes from the other players.

In Competitive Co-op, players still need to keep each other alive and try to complete all the objectives but also compete for the highest score. Points are earned by killing enemies, completing objectives, etc.

In addition, both feature Challenges which can be completed to earn Experience Points for multiplayer to improve the player's rank. Note that these challenges cannot be completed in multiplayer, solo campaign or Nazi Zombies.

Multiplayer


Call of Duty: World at War has the same multiplayer features as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (i.e. Killstreaks, Ranks, Perks''). However, its ranking system is very different from that of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare''. For prestiging, the player will be rewarded with extra create-a-class slots and gamer pictures (Sgt. Roebuck gamer picture for prestiging for the first time and Sgt. Reznov for the 10th time). There are also co-op challenges that will give the player XP. Like in Call of Duty 4, class customization is unavailable in local offline multiplayer. Instead, players can only choose from ten default classes. Also, players are allowed to brutally Gib enemy soldiers, as in campaign.

Ranks
Throughout the players experience in the multiplayer of Call of Duty: World at War, the player will go through a series of ranks. The ranks up to level 65 are listed on the right of the page. The prestige ranks are located on the left. As the player increase in level, the player unlocks new weapons, additional grenades, and perks. Once level 65 is reached, the player has the option to go into Prestige mode. While this does reset the players rank and all the player's challenge progress, it also works toward unlocking extra class slots for Create-A-Class.

Maps
World at War had 13 multiplayer maps plus a zombie map when it came out, a free multiplayer map was given later within a patch, and three map packs each containing three new multiplayer maps and a free zombie map resulting in a total of 23 Multiplayer maps and 4 zombie maps.

Weapons
World at War has a total of 30 weapons, with 22 primaries and 8 secondaries.

Killstreaks
Call of Duty: World at War has three killstreaks just as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare did, but the 5 and 7 killstreaks are different:
 * Recon Plane (3 kills): This functions the same as Radar from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, showing enemies as red dots on the player's mini-map.
 * Artillery (5 kills): Called in via radio, this is used to target an area of the map to be bombarded by artillery shells. It is similar to the Mortar Team in Call of Duty: Black Ops
 * Dogs (7 kills): When called in, multiple dogs will enter the map for 60 seconds and attack enemy players.

Vehicles
A major difference between the multiplayer in World at War and the multiplayer in the Modern Warfare games is the ability to drive a tank in some maps. Therefore, Vehicle Perks are included in-game. Tanks can be used for both Tank-based combat as well as killing infantry. However, areas tanks can access on maps are limited, allowing infantry to escape when an enemy tank is nearby. Another feature of the tank is the ability to switch position on the tank from either the main turret or a machine gun mounted on the top (this is not possible if another player is in the other gun of the Tank). While using the top machine gun, it is possible to crouch for added protection.

Tanks are relatively hard to take out. While most of time this may occur in tank-based combat (though tanks have enough armor that a driver can easily get out and get away before his tank blows up). The M9A1 Bazooka and the Sticky Grenade can be used to take out tanks from a more medium to long range approach, but this requires at least two players working together to take it out. Another option is using satchel charges to destroy the tank. This, however, either forces the player to get close to the tank (which is generally a bad idea as either the tank will see the player or might even run over them) or placing satchel charges, moving to another location where they can watch the charges, and then blowing them up when the tank rolls over them (this, however, requires good analyzing of where the tank more than likely is going to go). The difference between using Satchel charges and using bazookas and/or grenades is that a single player can take down a tank using satchel charges, but it is a little more difficult to get set up to even have the possibility of taking down the tank.

Character Skins
When using a certain class of weapon in Multiplayer, an appropriate skin is used to match the class of weapon. Each class and faction has a different skin. For example, when using a bolt action rifle, such as the Kar98k, Mosin-Nagant, Springfield, Ariskia, or the PTRS-41, a ghillie suit is equipped. Every country (USA, Russia, Germany, Japan) has its own unique ghillie suit.

Nazi Zombies
Call of Duty: World at War also features a new game mode, Nazi Zombies. After having completed the campaign, watched the credits(which can simply be skipped), or being connected to online, players can automatically start a game of Nazi Zombies in the map Nacht der Untoten. The player must defend against waves of Nazi zombies by buying new weapons, unlocking new areas, and boarding up windows. Boarding up windows or damaging zombies gives points which can be used to unlock access to new areas and buy weapons. Sometimes, zombies drop power-ups such as Nuke, Max Ammo, Double Points, and Insta-Kill. The 3 map packs have brought new content such as the Pack-A-Punch Machine that upgrades certain weapons, Perk-a-Cola machines that give perks to players for a certain amount of points, and a new enemy, the Hellhounds. A new Nazi Zombies map comes with every multiplayer map pack. Nacht der Untoten came with the game, Verrückt was in Map Pack 1, Shi no Numa in Map Pack 2 and Der Riese in Map Pack 3. The World at War maps were ported over in the Hardened and Prestige versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and feature Black Ops cold war weapons as well as some of the original World at War weapons (e.g. Kar98k, Thompson, FG42, etc.). The Rezurrection DLC made the World at War maps available for purchase.

Call of Duty: World at War Limited Collector's Edition
The Call of Duty: World at War Limited Collector's Edition is a package containing Call of Duty: World at War, a canteen, which has its lid stuck on as the inside is lead, a metal tin in which to store all Call of Duty games, a week of double XP, a golden clan tag to promote the player's VIP status, and a code for unlocking the FG42 early. When the code is redeemed, the first heavy gunner slot for Create-A-Class will have an FG42. If the customer pre-ordered the game at Gamestop then the M1A1 Carbine will be put in the first slot of the rifleman class. As far as the advantages go for having bought it, the high-end weaponry gives one an in-game boost. In fact, the FG-42 is unlocked well into multiplayer, and the M1A1 Carbine is the last unlocked weapon.

Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts
Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts was a version of this game that was made for the PlayStation 2. It is similar but has toned-down graphics. It includes two American campaigns and a British campaign, while removing the Soviet campaign. The original version of this game lacks an extra American campaign and a British campaign, although it includes a Soviet Campaign. Final Fronts also does not feature Nazi Zombies.

Call of Duty: World at War (Nintendo DS)
A version of Call of Duty: World at War was made for the Nintendo DS. It includes the Pacific campaign, the Soviet campaign, and a British campaign. The American campaign tells the story of Rook, a new member of the USMC, as he participates in the effort to defeat Japanese forces and take over Shuri Castle, the British campaign features Dawkins of the SAS, as he assists in pushing German forces back towards Berlin, and the Soviet campaign allows the player to take control of Dimarkurato, a private of the Red Army, as he participates in the Battle of Seelow Heights and assault the Reichstag.

Differences from previous Call of Duty games

 * Compared to past Call of Duty games, Call of Duty: World at War is much more serious: there is minimal humor in the game, and the atmosphere is very dark with themes of hatred and vengeance. Even the menu music, also used in Vendetta, is quite unsettling. This is highlighted particularly from the words spoken by the singing woman in the menu theme at the beginning of 'Vendetta', which translate from German as 'Brave soldier, Brave soldier, die with me, die with me, die with me.'
 * Call of Duty: World at War is the goriest Call of Duty game to date. It is possible to mutilate and rip apart enemy soldiers, by blowing off enemies' heads, arms and legs. Ripping open the torso and seeing the ribs, and similar areas of the body is also possible with high-power weapons like the MG42, Type 99, FG42 and PTRS-41. Also, blood splatter is more realistic, and it is common to see the enemy in large pools of blood splattered everywhere. Much of this gore is not present in the Wii version due to graphical limitations. Blood is still present, however, and meat chunks appear when a soldier is shot in the head.
 * Profanity is much more frequent in Call of Duty: World at War, though not as frequent as in Black Ops and Black Ops II. Words like "fuck," "shit," "bitch," and "bastard" are all much more common in the American campaign. Even in the Soviet campaign, the soldiers often use profane terms in their own language, like "yebar" (ебарь, "fucker"), "svoloch" (сволочь, "bastard"), "мudak" (Мудак, "asshole"), and "chyort" (чёрт, "damn"). When playing with the Marine Raiders in multiplayer, if the player or his team wins, he may hear "Outstanding Marines! Out-fucking standing! We kicked ass!" When profanity is off, swear words are not omitted; however, the sentences are changed to not include swearing. For example, Sullivan says "Tojo's at home in this shit" When censoring is on, he says "Tojo's at home in this muck." However, at the beginning of Little Resistance, when Sullivan normally says the "plan's gone to shit," the latter two words are simply omitted, although the words are still mouthed.

Trivia

 * Originally, the game was going to be titled Call of Duty V (Call of Duty 5).
 * During the first seconds of the game intro, it is possible to notice that they used Requiem Dies Irae of Mozart and then it blends to the Nazi Zombies round change music a.k.a. Treyarch theme.
 * If the player shoots off an enemy's head they will still scream, even though they lack a head.
 * Sometimes, if the player gets wet, small drops of water will be shown on the screen, as if the player was wearing glasses.
 * Any time the player takes too long to move, kill, or destroy an objective, grenades will be thrown at them constantly, especially on Veteran.
 * This game seems to have undergone a huge overhaul before it was released, because the presence of a sticky grenade and deleted British weapons such as Sten, Bren and Lee-Enfield possibly indicates that a British campaign was to be present. The Mod Tools also feature code for three missions at Rhineland and three missions in Holland.
 * In the South Park episode "The Ungroundable", the young students in computer class are playing Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer on the map, Castle.
 * At first, Call of Duty: World at War was banned in Japan for strong, gory violence and cruelty against Japanese soldiers, but the ban was later lifted.
 * As seen in localization strings, there was Weapon Camouflage in game. The types were Reich, Siberian, Royal, Yankee, Rising Sun, Blood, Golden and Prestige, but they were cut.
 * The PC variant of the game was given all DLC packs in free updates, rather than having to be purchased like its console counterparts.
 * Furthermore, the PC version has no achievements.