Molotov Cocktail

The Molotov Cocktail is a primary grenade featured in Call of Duty World At War.

Call of Duty: World at War
In Call of Duty: World at War Molotov Cocktails are found throughout the Red Army Campaign as special grenades, unlike in Multiplayer where they are primary grenades. They are not in the Marine Raiders' Campaign because of the M2 Flamethrower. The Molotov is of good use in Nazi Zombies, again as a secondary grenade, where it can be found in the Mystery Box. When an enemy in regular campaign mode is hit with a Molotov, they will be incapacitated by the flames.

Molotovs appear as primary grenades in Multiplayer, and have a 3-Phase challenge, Bartender, similar to the other grenades. The Molotov Cocktail is unlocked at level 10. The player needs to hit a player directly to kill them with this weapon, unless playing in Hardcore mode where an indirect hit may also succeed. Molotov cocktails have a very long lighting time in comparison to the time taken to ready the other grenades, but to balance this they explode on contact and may be held while lit for an indefinite amount of time.

Like the other fire based weapons, Molotov cocktails may start fires on the ground which last for a short period of time. Many players will refuse to walk into fire which they see as a danger, even though it will not cause damage.

Power Argument
There was controversy regarding the low damage radius and range of the Molotov cocktail in the beta version of the game, subsequently both are increased in the retail version.

Currently, the Molotov cocktail lacks the power to kill with anything but a direct hit. Most players view the Molotov cocktail as a weak weapon, and indeed it has no practical advantage over fragmentation grenades. They both do the around same damage against tanks, however the Molotov can more readily combat tanks, as it explodes on contact, making it easier to hit the tank, but in this case the Sticky Grenade would be superior to both the Frag and the Molotov in terms of damage and ease of use. However, the Molotov has farther range of throwing, making it able to be thrown from very safe distances.The Molotov does not have to be a direct impact to kill if the Fireworks perk is enabled.

Many players view the Molotov as a hard-to-use-weapon that is ineffective to most players. Many players that play the Wii version of Call of Duty: World at War feel that it is even harder to use successfully because of the lag effect. In a large map, such as Hangar, the Molotov shouldn't be used, as there will be much larger areas to avoid its blast radius.

Another cause for complaints with the Molotov is that it requires more time to light it up and have it ready to throw than it does to pull the pin on a Fragmentation grenade (or use a Sticky Grenade). In a fire fight where precious seconds (and even fractions of seconds) matter, the considerable time it takes to light a Molotov and prep it for throwing can be deadly. However, it should be noted that while Fragmentation grenades can be unpinned and thrown more rapidly than Molotovs, they require several seconds to detonate, whereas Molotovs explode immediately. This does help to mitigate the longer time it takes to prep them.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Molotov Cocktails are seen in the singleplayer campaign, appearing in a total of three missions. It makes its first appearance in Vorkuta, where Russian prisoners use them against the prison's emplacements. Mason later uses a slingshot to launch Molotovs into three emplacements. There are an unlimited number of Molotovs at Mason's disposal, but if Mason destroys the three objectives with three Molotovs, the player will complete the Slingshot Kid achievement/trophy.

They make a minor appearance in The Defector and Rebirth, both used once against the player. In The Defector, a VC will throw one down from a window into the player's path in the compound. Walking into the fire will damage and kill the player. In Rebirth, Molotov's are used against Hudson's squad at the start of his part of the mission. Russian soldiers on a balcony will throw Molotovs at the Hudson's vehicle. This can be prevented by killing them, but they do no damage. If they hit, fire will appear on Hudson's vehicle.

Trivia

 * In the campaign mission Downfall the German Military can be seen throwing Molotov cocktails from the balcony at the Red Army, the player can snipe them.
 * If killed while holding a lit Molotov, the player will drop the Molotov where one has died, engulfing the location in fire. This can be used as a form of manual martyrdom and is a guaranteed kill against an enemy if one were knifed. Some players will even use this quality of the Molotov in an offensive way and "Banzai Charge" an enemy in an effort to get him to knife the player and thus incinerate himself.
 * In Nazi Zombies,when throwing a Molotov it has no sound effects.
 * If the player gets the Molotov on any of the Nazi Zombies maps (minus Nacht der Untoten), the character will make general negative comments. These comments are almost certainly related to the fact the Molotov is arguably the least useful item from the mystery box, since one can only have up to four Molotovs at a time, and even in early rounds they can do nothing more than turn Zombies into Crawlers. However, this can be useful to create downtime to fix windows and buy weapons and perks. Beware that they will replace Monkey Bombs if the player is using one.
 * As with the Flamethrower, Molotovs can be used to incinerate foliage on maps such as Cliffside, rendering those spots less suitable for Ghillie suit campers for the remainder of the game.


 * If one shoots a Molotov in an enemy's hand in multiplayer, it will explode in their hands.
 * The Molotov is considered to be the throwing knife of the game because it needs a direct impact to kill most of the time.
 * In the bottle it says Patton March.