Call of Duty: World at War

Format Xbox 360

Developer Treyarch

Publisher Activision

Genre First Person Shooter

5 Comments

This is a scarier Call of Duty than we've ever seen," announces the head of Treyarch, Mark Lamir. "The direction for the team was to make the best game they could, and as they were doing this they created a grittiness that quite frankly made some people very uncomfortable."

The developer behind Call of Duty 3 intends to explore some of the darkest corners of WWII with the fifth game in the series. According to creative lead Rich Farrelly, taking the series to the terrifying battle for the Pacific gives the game more in common with the survival horror genre than traditional war movie influences.

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Infinity Ward's COD4 brought the series into the modern age and saw phenomenal success, shifting over eight million copies. Now, by tackling darker themes and pitting you against a new, seemingly alien fighting force, Treyarch hopes to defy suggestions that the WWII genre has had its day. "We've had some great success working on WWII, but we knew there had been a lot and people didn't want to play the same game again," says Lamir. "We've been making these games for a long time now, but the team is going to settle for nothing less than creating the best work of our lives."

One of the biggest cards in its favour is a two-year development cycle, in contrast to COD3, which was completed in just 11 months. At that point in time, Treyarch also felt the burden of having to not only port the game for Wii, but also create an entirely separate version, COD: Big Red One for Xbox and PS2.

Realising that was too much to repeat, the developer now has separate teams for every port, with the Xbox 360 version acting as lead. Lamir also talks of the benefits and graphical fidelity offered to them by working with the COD4 engine.

The game certainly has a sharper look and visceral edge than any WWII game to date. As one of the few areas of the war not previously covered in a COD title, the Pacific conflict might seem an obvious choice, but there was more to the decision than just different looking environments.

"We figured out early that the Imperial Japanese fought in a different way that was full of suspense," says Farrelly. "From that point we started to skew the game in that direction, in every detail from the music to the way we set up encounters."

Our first demo of the game, a level titled 'Maken Raid' spells this out with a bullet. The scenario begins with the particularly brutal torture and execution of a US POW by a Japanese officer. We're not spared any of the horrors of war as the man has his throat slashed with a katana blade as the player is tied up and powerless to help his friend.

It's shocking stuff, and immediately shatters our expectations of the relatively gore-free series. Moments before the player shares a similar fate, a squad of US Marines intervenes on a secret rescue mission. The squad known as Carlson's Raiders cuts the player free before going on a vengeful rampage through the Japanese camp.

There are some similarities with the first mission of Modern Combat (the cargo ship) not least because both take place under cover of darkness and both explode from near silence into all-out carnage in an instant. As the Raiders launch their attack, a couple of the game's new features are brought to the forefront.

First, the game expands on the concept of being able to shoot through cover by forming visible holes in the bamboo huts. With enough bullets, the player causes enough damage to one of the walls to create a hole big enough to walk through. This pales in comparison though, compared to another of the game's most notable new features - flamethrowers with propogating fire. As the marines torch the village, you can see scenery crumbling and an impressive lighting model, which almost makes the devastation look beautiful.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that once the raid was over and the bodies lying cold on the ground, the tension would free up a little. It doesn't. The survivors are forced to beat a path through the dense tropical undergrowth. The player seems to become enveloped by his surroundings, thanks to some incredibly detailed graphics and close to 96 channels of audio, many of which are ambient jungle noises. The sensation is geniunely frightening because you're never sure where the enemy could appear from.

According to the game's military advisor Frank Kearsey, a Gulf War Veteran and advisor at West Point, the Japanese were masters of guerrilla warfare. Although they started the campaign using volatile tactics like the Banzai charge, huge losses made them swing dramatically toward the element of surprise.
"The Imperial Japanese were unlike any fighting force in modern times. You had to completely throw out the old rule book," says Lamir. "The traditional combat seen in Europe did not apply here."

As Carlson's Raiders break out into an open area, the grass is already strewn with corpses, although that's at least the way it seems. It was a common tactic for the Japanese to play dead and lie in wait for unsuspecting marines. "This scene was actually inspired by the movie Aliens. We wanted to make you feel completely surrounded," reveals Farrelly.

While marines were taught to deal with surprises, nothing could prepare them for the heavy psychological toll levied by their enemy. "Their bizarre bushido code, which was honour to them, stopped them from surrendering," says Kearsey with a heavy voice. "They had a tenacity, a viciousness... there's never been a sense of reconciliation with the veterans we spoke to."

Blow 'n' screw
One of the most fascinating revelations is that many first-time players have been seen adopting the real-life tactic of 'blowtorch and corkscrew' without realising this was common practice with real US Marines. This technique involves setting fire to undergrowth and grenading foxholes to eliminate hidden foes.

Although the life expectancy of a flamethrower operator was shockingly brief, it's a weapon you won't want to be without in this game. It's based on the flamethrower design and handling from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a game on which Farrelly was lead level designer. As previously mentioned, the weapon is excellent for toasting the scenery, but it works even better against enemy infantry.

In another demo level, Treyarch demonstrates its power by torching a field full of camouflaged soldiers. The cacophony of screams that follows is truly horrible, and this scene is made more shocking as you watch the enemies' skin melt off. "The only thing you don't get is the smell of burning flesh," says Kearsey.

Depicting this level of violence couldn't have been an easy choice to make. Lamir responds: "The team felt from a game perspective they needed to approach these themes and they didn't shy away. Activision has supported us. It's scary for everybody to do something different, but that's what we're doing. Redefining it."

"We are very mindful of being respectful when it comes to portraying that," adds Farrelly. "It's not just gore and violence for its own sake, but reflects what veterans have told us and the actual history."

Squad tactics
This game is full of surprises. We already knew that multiplayer would be a big factor, but Treyarch is also adding a four player co-op mode. This can be played using four consoles over Xbox Live, or two consoles each with split-screen.

"Co-op is something people have wanted in Call of Duty for a long time," says Farrelly. "We've been waiting for the technology to be able to handle that. It's just a natural fit to have three guys alongside you playing as a squad."

The co-op campaign looks to be identical to the single-player game, although will include a similar scoring system to the Modern Combat metagame. This means that you'll be constantly earning points which can be used to unlock special co-op perks. Alternatively, you can transfer the points over to multiplayer and unlock perks and weaponry there instead.
Of course, classic tactics such as distraction and flanking work brilliantly too.

In the demo level we see one player attracting the attention of a tank while the other player climbs on top and throws a grenade down the hatch. Frag grenades and incendiaries have a different damage effect on vehicles like this. Much like COD3, vehicles do play a big part in both campaign and multiplayer, although it's much more focused. In multiplayer, there are vehicle-specific levels and game modes, meaning that you can opt out of them altogether if you prefer to keep your boots on the ground. In the campaign, certain vehicles have entire levels dedicated to them, most notably the PBY Catalina search and rescue plane and a dramatic aerial raid on some Japanese aircraft carriers.

Enter the Russians
The battle for the Pacific wasn't the only defining moment of the end of WWII. The invasion of Germany by the Soviet Army was of equal importance, and Farrelly tells us that this will also be a major chapter in World at War. "The themes of brutality in the Russian campaign hit on how war brings out the darker side in people, the good guys or the bad," he says. "We show what that deep sense of revenge and hatred motivates them to get to Berlin."

While we played as the Red Army before in COD2, this time the Nazis are on the back foot and fighting with more ferocity. They're desperate to defend their final strongholds like Seelow and Berlin at all costs. This could mark the first time in the series characters are fighting for bloody vengeance rather than honour.

With two extraordinarily hard-fought campaigns in the mix, World at War easily has the potential to be the most devastating Call of Duty yet. It's certainly the most shocking and suspenseful, which is no small achievement. For Treyarch, it's foremost about making a great game, but in doing so they're learning that WWII still has tons of potential, and some of the most brutal and intense battles of all time. In Lamir's words: "That was actually the kind of scary shit they encountered."

Ben Talbot