Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360)

Call of Duty: WaW puts you mainly in the perspective of two men. The first man you'll play as is Private Miller of the U.S. Marine Corps as he is captured on the Makin Island. Just before you are executed by the Japanese, you are saved by Sgt. Roebuck (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) and other Marines. After escaping the island, Miller then joins with Roebuck's unit and helps them repel the Japanese from Japanese controlled islands. The other character you play as is Private Dimitri Petrenko of the Red Army. As his unit is executed by German forces and he is the last alive, he and injured Sergeant Reznov take revenge by sniping the German commander Amsel. Three years later they reunite and battle on the Eastern Front against the Germans. The story is much more dramatic than Treyarch's last effort, and some of the moments in WaW are incredible. The game could have done with more cutscences to add dramatic effect, but what's here is great.

There are also some major issues with the Artificial Intelligence. They aren't terrible per say, as they do an excellent job of killing you (especially on the harder difficulties) as they take cover and throw grenades 100s of yards at your feet. Not terribly realistic I know, but it's intense. What hurts the game most with the A.I. is that they do some of the most stupid actions of this year. The issue is that when they lock onto a target, they only fire at that target and even when they're dead, they still keep firing. And whenever you see a two A.I. controlled people fighting in a melee confrontation, it's horrible as they just stand next to each other as if they're squad mates. It hurts the realism, though when grenades are being thrown 100 yards, you have to question if there was any realism to begin with. And sadly, this affects both enemy and friendly A.I. which is a shame.

With going back to WWII, the game also has the same WWII weapons we've come to expect. There's the Thompson, M1 Garand, MP-44, and the Colt. 45. There are some interesting and exciting new weapons added to the mix though. The most explosive of the bunch is the Flamethrower, an exciting new addition to the series which is a brilliant weapon. As you burn the area down to its last shrubs and fry enemies to a crisp, you find yourself immensely satisfied. And it makes its impact, as there's a whole level dedicated to using a flamethrower and other levels where you can use it.

You should take note about the major differences in the two campaign sides in terms of gameplay. The American side of things feels a bit more gung-ho while the Russian side starts with more tactical precision but too boils down to simply killing everyone. In a way, this is a slight bit disrespectable to the people who fought in the war, as the men who fought to protect our country probably didn't get in as many of these Rambo-esque situations. It does make for very exciting action, but not very deep action. You do need to make use of the crouching feature to avoid gunfire (especially on Hardened and Veteran) but for the most part is seems to be about going to one place, killing everyone there, and moving onto the next location once the invisible wall has been removed.

On campaign co-op you simply play through the levels, but on competitive it keeps each player's score of kills and revives and the winner gets the Blue Ribbon achievement. There's also a co-op mode where you fight off Nazi Zombies (a nudge to Left 4 Dead maybe), which is awesome. Co-op also adds experience to the biggest meat of CoD5-the multiplayer.

Yep, the best multiplayer experience of, well, ever is back and in WWII this time. Sorry to sound like an advertisement, but it's true. Call of Duty 4's multiplayer innovated with its ranks and prestige system with immeasurable rewards. Most of the modes from CoD4 are present. This includes team deathmatch, Free-for-all, Capture the flag and search & destroy. Most of the modes also contain a hardcore version of the mode where there's no HUD and bullets do more damage. It certainly ratchets up the tension. The best of the new modes is War, which is a Capture the Flag style mode where you must capture multiple flags as you pass through enemy territory. I personally enjoyed this mode most because of its tactical depth, exciting fights it created and unique style of play. The maps are intuitively well designed; the perk and ranks system is still fantastic and you can even pilot vehicles now. If there's one area where CoD: WaW tops previous games it's in its fantastic multiplayer.