So I’ve played Call Of Duty: World at War (herein refered as COD: WaW) for the total amount of of almost 24 hours. Not straight mind you. And I’ve got to say I was pretty disappointed by the game.

Don’t get me wrong, I think its a good game. A fun game at times even.Call Of Duty 2 was awesome, if a simple entry into the next-gen gaming arena. Then came Call Of Duty 3 which built upon the existing game adding classes and vehicular elements. However it didn’t catch on in terms of multiplayer as matchmaking for online play was horrendously slow and lag was a huge issue. When a game comes out, its has to impress greatly in this aspect or it hits the bargain bin quickly.

Then came Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Taking the Call Of Duty franchise out of WWII it turned the franchise on its head dramatically mixing up game play elements for multiplayer with an original single player story that rocked.

Pic courtesy of G4TV
Note: Not final cover for release.

Call Of Duty 4 wasn’t without its faults. some guns were improperly imbalanced, notably the M16. And the perk juggernaut and the m203 AKA "Noob Tube" were just ridiculous. Prestige mode was a bore as there really isn’t any incentive to starting all over besides a shiny new medal icon, whoop-de-doo.

Now came COD: WaW. Bringing it back to WWII, many gamers let out a collective groan. Many believed they were finally out of the WWII era of COD. I enjoy WWII so for me this wasn’t a drawback. Since I knew that Treyarch was using the COD 4 engine, I really had high hopes for the game. As development got further on, I was excited even more as a lot of the same COD 4 elements were making it in the game, even being expanded upon.

Then I finally played the game.

And like I said, its a good game, fun at times. There are even some things expanded on wonderfully in WaW such as some perks adding abilities like the Second Chance perk when instead just of having a chance to take out opponents while down, if another person has the perk they can revive you. Kinda like a medic. also the "noob tube"– which in WaW is the rifle grenade– won’t travel across the map as it has a defined detonation time. But so many things are broken.

Broken Single player:

1. Especially on harder difficulties, enemies for the most part focus on you ignoring even a fellow soldier of yours standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him. this happened in COD 4 as well but not nearly as much.
2. Where’s the story? Its WWII, ripe with stories to tell, yet all I do is bounce from Russian soldier to Marine Raider with nary a story element pulling it together besides Kiefer Sutherland yelling something cool and "we’re doing this now." same on the russian side.
3. Short. horribly short. I-didn’t-even-know-that-was-the-end short.

Broken Multiplayer:

1. Many weapons unbalanced.
2. No real ranking system so players maxed out in their level play with players at levels considerably lower. Lobby reserved for players level 0-8 invaded by those who surpass level 8 as well as those who make a party. WTF?
3. Juggernaut perk is completely ridiculous. Thought it sucked in COD 4? well here it is even worse since a lot of weapons aren’t balanced. Even stopping power perk can’t stop juggernaut. Only the lame use that perk.
4. Maps have holes in them where devious players can go under the map and shoot legs off, etc. only to get their dogs, hold a grenade, die, and do it over again. I report you if I see you doing that. COD 4 had its glitches but these are horrendous.
5. being knifed from 10 ft away. How? Not even the killcam can justify the majority of knife kills.

I can’t say anything about co-op as I haven’t tried it out but I really don’t want to play the campaign (single player) again as it felt like such a chore.

All Treyarch really had to do was paint a pretty WWII picture over COD 4. I like the enthusiasm in the efforts to expand perks and other gameplay elements and yeah the game looks great but ultimately the game fails in its gameplay.

I’ll continue to play it because its new and prestige mode does have incentive this time around opening up another custom class spot.

So I ask you, why can’t Treyarch make a great game?