Call of Duty: World at War

Hoping to expand on the success of Infinity Ward’s “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” Treyarch has continued the series with “Call of Duty: World at War.” The WWII shooter game setting is overused, but somehow Treyarch made it fresh. They accomplished this through refining ­Infinity Ward’s features, such as the online ranking system and multiplayer, moving the theatre of the battles, and ­introducing some amazing new features.

What I Loved

Detail: Every room you enter in the campaign has something new to look at, without any that are empty or repeated. This shows the effort the creators put into making this game realistic and how much they respect the series and the gamers.

Scale: Certain battles are huge; for example, the Blood and Iron level will blow you away with its size and the number of people shooting at you. This complexity takes time and effort to develop, not like simply placing 42 troopers throughout a level and letting them go. They programmed each individual trooper’s interactions with his environment and the player as he progresses through the game.

New Settings: The past Call of Duty games (except “Modern Warfare”) were set during World War II. Once again, the series travels back in time but introduces a new setting: the Pacific Theatre. This game shows the struggles the U.S. Marines had against the Imper­ial Army of Japan. It makes for a fresh setting and fresh tactics, as you have to deal with a ­severely entrenched Japanese Army that has no qualms about rushing at you headfirst.

Cut Scenes: These scenes ­between missions are amazing, showing a beautiful version of the experiences of troops, and how the mission is progressing. Actual video of the war is ­included, which is sometimes gruesome but connects you to the real history.

Realistic Deaths: When it comes to video games, I’m all about realism, and this game delivers. The gory effects make it even more jarring and realistic.

Multiplayer: Once again “Call of Duty” delivers with multiplayer. All Treyarch really did was update Infinity Ward’s version, but it’s still amazing. It encourages players to improve in order to unlock better guns. Treyarch added a plethora of new perks, weapons, and great game maps.

What I Hated

Enemy AI: AI, or artificial ­intelligence, is a major selling point in games today, and although Treyarch throws a lot of bad guys at you, they are about the stupidest bunch I’ve ever seen. The Banzai troops’ sole job is to run right at you, even though you can’t be attacked by more than one. So there are times when they’ll run past all of the troops in front of you and when they get to you, one will attack and the rest just keep running. Also some enemy soldiers don’t even shoot you when you get close to them.

Storytelling: Despite the scale, detail, and cut scenes, the story isn’t all there. The character you play is never given a face or a personality, perhaps in the hope that you’ll see yourself as him, but that doesn’t happen. The story is also very scripted, and parts are predictable if you have played a Call of Duty game before. Despite Trey­arch’s attempts to realistically represent this horrible war that taxed all nations, you don’t ­fully connect to it.

I rate it 8.5 out of 10.