Customer Reviews

Call of Duty: World at War

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I am tired of World War II shooters. They clutter the market and a lot of them just aren't that fun, in my opinion. This game is an exception to that. The Wii version is basically the same package you would get on the other consoles but I'll be the first to say is the PS3 and XBox 360 versions of this game are superior on pretty much every front that I've seen. In fact, much of my review could be applied to the other versions of the console. My roommate owns the XBox 360 version and it pretty much wows me on every front. If you have the choice, choose one of the more powerful versions, but I'm not disappointed with the Wii version, with only a few exceptions.

Call of Duty covers multiple campaigns in the WWII. At this point I've played about 33% of the single player campaign and several well-spent hours on multi-player. I'm hooked. The game is very well presented with quality cut-scenes and video with old-school WWII footage. Sound is well done and the graphics are very complex, although textures tend to be low-res at times. Some people have complained about the frame rate, but I honestly have not seen any serious frame rate issues. Control is very well done, accurate, and smooth and offers a variety of control schemes to select from, but I prefer the default controls. The game supports the Wii Zapper, which I own and really have no intention to try. It isn't that the game's support for the Wii Zapper peripheral is bad, but more that I think the Wii Zapper is a plastic hunk of junk.

The story focuses on the Pacific theater and German theaters and players will play as a US Marine for part of the game and a Russian allied soldier and sniper in the other part. The Pacific theater portion of the game is fairly formulaic and tells a generic story about a marine which doesn't do much to engage me in terms of story, but the Russian half of the game has gripped me. I was actually disappointed when I switched back to the Marine simply because the Russians had much cooler dialogue. That, plus Russian accents are pretty much rockin', even if people do associate them with communists... not to say Marines aren't cool either, because they are quite awesome too... I digress. What's nice is seeing something a little different.

Like every other WWII shooter out there, this game wallows in a palette of brown, grey, red, and other "World War II" colors. The Pacific campaign has frequent patches of jungle vegetation, which is surprisingly complex. The Russian campaign is more focused on urban and rural combat in a traditional European setting. Levels lead the player along a fair amount and don't give you a lot of room to stray, though some areas do feel more open than others.

Multi-player is probably one of the strongest aspects of this game and will provide a lot of replay value. Up to eight players can compete in death-match and team death-match. Sadly, there is no capture the flag, defend the hill, or anything like that, but what is offered is very solid. In multi-player you can earn experience, level your character up, and gain upgrades. There appear to be a lot of things to unlock, especially if you can complete all of the challenges. In fact, just attempting to complete all of the challenges will probably take someone at least 20 hours. Once a group of players are brought together to play, the game keeps you together until you decide you want to leave the group. This is nice, because there is no need to wait for several minutes between matches just hoping to find players. I really like the multi-player. Except for one thing. FRIEND CODES! Yes. Friend Codes are back and as much of a pain as ever. Please Nintendo, just abandon the friend codes concept, because it really hurts online play. Also, there is no voice chat. I recommend using Ventrillo or some other internet chat service if playing with friends.

The Good:
+++ Quality FPS controls. The pointer controls are smooth and accurate.
+++ The game is not bogged down with gimmicky Wii-waggle controls, a problem many other Wii FPS titles suffer.

+++ Excellent sound effects. Battlefield explosions sound nice and squad members chatter back and forth.
+++ Decent story line split across two campaigns.
+++ The Russian levels are simply awesome and full of atmosphere.
+++ Best online play offering that any Nintendo Wii title has delivered so far.
+++ The game is challenging, even on the easiest level, but also provides a good checkpoint system.

The Bad:
--- Mission objectives are sometimes unclear in single player.
--- Cliched Marine heroes storyline that's been done over and over. The story feels forced, although the voice acting is well done.
--- Friend codes. They're not friendly, nor fun.
--- Limited multi-player modes when compared to the other consoles.

I will say one final thing about this game. It is violent, which should be obvious since it's about WWII. The language is crude and even vulgar at times, probably accurately representing the things you would hear or say on a battle field. People die, and a lot of them die very horribly. This game is not appropriate for children and was rated Mature for a good reason. I strongly urge parents to reconsider any decision to purchase this title for their younger children.

To sum it up, Call of Duty: World at War is a quality first person shooter. The Wii version lives in the shadow of it's PS3 and XBox 360 brothers, but is still a great game. This is probably the best all-around FPS title available on the Wii at the time of this writing. Buy it on any console and have some fun saving the world from facism.

Single Player:
It has a great story that is very mature but well scripted. It is also quite challenging on the harder difficulties.

Mulitplayer:
This is where the game shines. All the perks, classes, attachments, upgrades, levels, leaderboards, stats are in there which is great. Plenty of maps that are varied both in terrain and style. No waiting for games and I haven't experienced any lag yet. I couldn't find the awesome filters and searches that MOHH2 had but the quick match has worked flawlessly for me so far.

Controls:
There are a good amount of options that let you adjust and fine tune both normal and 'down the sights' camera controls and bounding boxes. The cursor is responsive and smooth.

Finally the game just plays great. The single player is fun and gets you some practice for the multiplayer. The hit detection online is good and the graphics are much better than most games. If you like online FPS then stop reading and go get the game.

9.0 Presentation
I actually really like how the present the story and explain the history with real footage and good scripting.

8.0 Graphics
They did a great job creating open jungle levels and big multiplayer maps. The guns look really nice as well
as many other textures.

8.0 Sound
Great gun and bullet sounds as well as explosions. Some of the foreign voice acting could have been better but no complaints.

9.0 Gameplay
Single player is fast and intense. Multiplayer is addictive and rewarding. Controls are varied and responsive. Most importantly, it is FUN!

9.0 Lasting Appeal
I can see myself playing online for quite some time. I also noticed that there are already many many people playing this game so the more the merrier ;)

8.8 OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

This game is apparently highly addictive (to my husband). However, there are a couple of caveats on the Wii version - 1) control seems a bit awkward, 2) the dogs are obnoxious, 3) it is sometimes hard to hear orders, and 4) 2 player mode (the second player can only "help" and has no free motion ability). This actually works b/c I am not going to devote hours like (ahem) certain people playing this game. Another plus is that the 2nd player can come and go at will without affecting the main player, which I guess allows us some contact. Online play seems to be the way to go and provides a richer experience, however it is a drain causing connectivity issues for other users (e.g. me, innocently watching apple tv). If you have a newer D-Link router, there is a patch available for this game that helps slightly. We get about 2.8 Mbps upstream and 500 Kbps downstream - there is no lag with accessing networked drives but streaming video from the computer while playing this game is a no-go. I'm trying to keep my sense of humor.

The Wii may not have the horsepower of the PS3, but it does have have the motion sensing remote and numchuck, which in theory make controlling a FPS as good or better on the Wii as the FPS system of choice: the PC. Unfortunately, many Wii games are hard to control or have ridiculous Wii-waggle BS thrown in and don't realise the little console's potential. I'm here to tell you Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is not one of those hastily ported PS2 games with dumb Wii gimmicks thrown in.

The game controls beautifully with the numchuck in one hand and the wii remote in the other. I don't have a zapper gun and I wouldn't worry about it if you don't either. The game is suitably difficult so that even an old school gamer like myself who has played plenty of Call of Duty's and other FPS's finds it challenging. The Presentation is good. You won't mistake this for a PS3 game, but it doesn't look like a PS2 port. The graphics are well done if not cutting edge.

You can find other details from the numerous reviews or do a search of Youtube for a video, but the bottomline is Call of Duty for the Wii is fun. Sure, if you have a fast pc, then you should play FPS's on it, duh, but if you like to sit back on the couch when you do your 1940's style fragging and the Wii is your console of choice I can whole heartily recommend Call of Duty World at War.

I played COD:2 on the Mac, and really liked it and loved multi-player, so I thought I'd get this for the wii. I am not at all a huge gamer, and this is the only game I'm currently playing.

It's so-so. The single player campaign mode is very rigid. There is no freedom to deviate from the script, but that was the case in COD:3 on the wii as well. There are also things like invisible walls, so you can't go in certain directions, even though it looks like you could.

On full-mature mode, there is strong language and more graphic violence. I turned that down, and it's better. I realize some want that "immersive" effect, but it's just not for me. Glad there's some control over that.

The controls are not super fluid. In some ways better than COD3 (COD3 had too many jeep-driving adventures, which I didn't like) and fighting hand-to-hand is better in COD:WaW than COD3. It seems more responsive, and I'm not dying as much (there was one scene in COD3 where a German jumps you, and you have to time moving the wii controllers just right, and it always seemed random. That kind of nonsense seems to be gone in WaW. You have a chance to win now.)

I'm less frustrated with WaW, but also not quite as entertained (maybe because I've already played two other CODs).

Finally, I've abandoned the campaign half-way through for playing on-line. This is much more fun, but it too has some issues. When you are connected to a good game, the controls can be really good for a wii on-line game. Very responsive, etc. When you have a bad connection it is VERY glitchy. You are on a balcony and then suddenly on the stairs, and the guy you are shooting at is now in mid-air, and suddenly 5 yards to the right etc. But, if you get on one of these bad-signal games, you can duck out and it will find you a new one.

I am really enjoying the on-line portion, but here are a couple of negatives to consider:

1. the dogs are just dumb (if someone on your team shoots 7 people in a row without dying, they can call out the dogs on the other team). They are nearly impossible to stop, very quick, and always seem to spin around you instantly to chew you from behind. Also, they kill you quicker than someone standing 20 yards away pooring a machine gun into you. You might take 5-6 hits to die. With the dogs, it's two chews and you're dead. A real irritant. When I stop playing and move on to something else, it's usually because I've just played a couple of matches heavy with dogs. I get so fed up, I just quit.

2. The maps are too small, which makes the kill rate very high. A couple of maps have a few snipe posts, but mostly what everyone ends up carrying are high-rate machine guns for weapons, because everyone is just too close to each other and interactions are too frequent. Taking careful and thoughtful aim is an invitation to get machine gunned by someone else.

3. There are limited modes. For instance, there is no "capture the flag" mode. Only team or individual death-match. COD2 on Mac had this great (IMO) multi-player on-line mode, where everyone was limited to bolt action rifles on a huge map. You had to creep around stealthily and you got one shot on a player. If you missed, you were reloading while they took their shot. And, because it was every person for themselves, while you're reloading someone else might be firing at you. Very tense, very fun. COD:WaW is more like run around with the trigger squeezed.

4. I am an intermediate skill player. There's very little room for this skill level. You are either playing boot camp with the noobies (but you graduate from that pretty quickly) or you get tossed in with the super-experts and get shredded. A third (middle) level of experience would be nice.

So, in short, this game is so-so. If you need a gift idea, it's a worthy gift. If you are buying it yourself and don't HAVE to have it right now, wait for the price to drop. It's more like a $30 game.

In order of preference, I prefer COD:2 on Mac best and then there's a sizable drop-off to COD:Waw on the wii, and then a very sizeable drop off to COD:3 on the wii.

I may try Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 wii as I hear the controls are better, and that is a $30 game. I might even recommend trying that one first, if you are stuck between these two, as $50 feels like overpaying for this game.

<edit> IGN has some reviews that include direct comparisons to Medal of Honor: http://rr.wii.ign.com/rrobj/wii/object/14222041/. Those reviewers indicated multi-player w/COD5 is better than MOH, so maybe I'll just stay put. Also, I've learned a bit more about the multi-player. The level-ups (which I wasn't aware of) helps make the multi-player portion even more interesting.

NOTE: I AM REVIEWING A WII GAME, SO ALL OF MY RATINGS SHOULD BE READ IN THE CONTEXT OF A LOWER END CONSOLE.

Call of Duty is a solid title on almost all consoles, and World at War doesn't disappoint.The graphics are, of course not as good as the Conduit, but they're still pretty sweet for a Wii game.Call of Duty: World at War is a WW2 shooter with a two part campaign, the Marine Raiders and the Russian army. The Marine campaign is set in the pacific theater fighting the Japanese, and the Russian campaign is set in a urban area fighting Nazi Germany. The Marine part of the game is slightly cliched, and it plays a lot like most any other WW2 game(Call of Duty 3, Medal of Honor games etc.) , although it also has a lot of differences, like the jungle setting, the use of flamethrowers, and cool vehicle play, which makes it fun, if a little boring it times.The Russian campaign is set in the same old WW2 urban environment, but it's still very interesting.

The online play is AWESOME(and addictive), with a huge variety of weapons, perks, and interesting maps.One thing the online mode lacks however, is different game modes, like Capture the Flag, War, and others.Also the Wii version is missing maps. you won't see Roundhouse, Airfield and more, but you still have a decent nine selections.Kill streaks are good, as always, and friend codes are...interesting.

That's it for the overview, here's the ratings.

--Campaign:
-Gameplay: 8.0/10.0 Good, not great.
-Graphics: 8.0 Good for a Wii game...
-Framerate: 9.0 Very good.
-Sound Effects: 9.0 Very good.
-Weapons: 8.0 Pretty good.
-Controls: 8.0 Nice n' smooth.
-A.I.s: 9.5 Great!
Overall: 8.5 Very good.


--Online:
-Gameplay: 9.5 Awesome!
-Weapons: 9.5 Awesome!
-Perks: 9.5: Awesome!
-Maps: 8.5 Very good.
-Kill Streaks: 9.0 Great!
Overall: 9.5 AWESOMESAUCE!

Total: 8.8
This is a great game for the wii, one of, if not the best first person shooters on the market.

My husband and I bought this game for my 9 yr. old son, because for Christmas he demanded that he have Halo 3 for an EX BOX. We read that this was very comparible. Well, come to find out, my husband has not been able to put this game down in 3 weeks!! I like the choice to cut out the bad languages, because at times my son will play with it with dad. He likes Halo 3 much better, and I guess because Halo 3 is more in the future--- aliens.... fantasy..... Call of Duty is more real--- War....

this is and awesome game for my Wii. I am just a novice but will get the hang of using the controls. that is what I am having the problem. I concentrate more on the use of the control action that I get getting killed. but that is okay. I love the game. I am having so much fun with it.

I love this game.

It is very fun and the online is addicting. The online ranking system is brilliant and gives players and incentive to keep playing for a long time to come. This version may not have everything the HD version does, but what is intact is fun and well made.
That graphics are OK. Nothing is really exceptional about them and at times the game looks rather bland and ugly. The frame rate drops during times of intense action to very noticeable lows and sometimes hinders the gameplay--this mostly happens in the campaign, however.
Despite these flaws, the overall package World at War offers is very satisfying and well worth the money. For Wii-only owners who are fans of FPS games or who yearn for something different from the deluge of mini-game dross, World at War is an excellent choice.

This game is amazing. Even on the Wii, the graphics are pretty good. Multi-player online is fun, campaign is fun, everything is fun. So many weapons. The gameplay is realistic. From deciding whether to burn some Germans alive or kill them humanely, to thrusting the wii remote forward to counter-attack a Jap Bonzai guy (guy with stick with blade that screams bonzai!{kinda creepy}) and stab him in the neck. I highly recommend getting this with the Wii Zapper if you don't already have it. It makes it very realistic and helps with controls.