Here’s a lie: This past weekend, I played Call of Duty: World at War (Activision) so much that my eyes bled. Here’s a bit of truth, however: I did play the World War II title on Wii until my right hand twisted into a claw of aching cramps and I fell asleep with the sounds of imagined trench warfare ringing in my ears.
Let’s back up a bit. I’m not a big fan of video games. Don’t play ’em too often. And I’m not very good at ’em (unless they’re set on ‘crazy easy’). But Call of Duty had me at its epic TV spots. Or maybe I was just suffering from Xbox 360 envy, and taking out Kamikaze fighters was my way of compensating for being unable to play Gears of War 2. Whatever the case, my first 15 minutes immersed in World at War were insanely frustrating and went something like this: Take two steps, fire gun, accidentally kill friendly soldier, get blown up by grenade, repeat. I cursed the title furiously until somehow I managed to reach my first objective. And then I was hooked.
World at War‘s shining achievement, as least for a novice gamer like myself, is its ability to draw you into the action by promoting a heightened sense of accomplishment. Raiding an airbase or defending a barracks against a Japanese counter-attack actually feels really good thanks to kudos from your fellow soldiers. And once you’re moving through the game, there’s always a strong feeling of forward momentum. Catch some sniper fire in your dome? No worries–thanks to numerous checkpoints the game loads back up close to where you died, without the action slowing down or the adrenaline cooling off. This, obviously, helps a ton with the learning curve because you’re able to attempt tricky maneuvers without much fear of failure. The addictive online multiplayer mode has much of the same pace, rewarding consecutive kill streaks with recon planes, artillery assaults and attack dogs and piling on accolades, promotions and bonus weapons based on good performance.
Packed with filthy language, intense violence and graphic combat, World at War is easily the darkest and, frankly, the most fucked up game on Wii. It’s not necessarily the amount of violence but rather the manner in which it occurs. Captured soldiers are burned with cigarettes, heroes are senselessly gutted and just wait until you’re pinned to the ground by an enemy and left with a knife to the neck as your only attack. That said, the blood and gore definitely seem to be toned down for the Wii version. Aside from chunky splatters and blood-red shading on wounds, nothing ever gets too graphic–though the gurgling sound of a throat slash might haunt your dreams for weeks.
The game’s graphics are impressive, but with obvious limitations based on the system’s inability to run in HD. Character models are drawn beautifully. But environmental textures often get chaotic and pixelated. And I noticed that occasionally soldiers glitch out when going over obstacles. In the midst of a Banzai attack, a Japanese soldier attempted to bayonet me while floating above my head. Not cool, dude. We got a few rules here. And the law of gravity is definitely one of them.
My main gripe with this game harks back to my opening paragraph. World at War is fairly brutal on your hands and wrists. Although it’s great to escape the confines of a directional pad for a first-person shooter, unless you have a Wii Zapper, there’s really no super-comfortable way to hold the Wii controller while aiming accurately at the screen. Hand cramps, kids. This shit is not a joke.
