After Call of Duty 3, many longtime series fans — myself included — were skeptical at the prospect of future Treyarch-developed titles. Call of Duty 3 disappointed a lot of players — especially when Call of Duty creator Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out just a year later and blew it out of the water. Call of Duty 3 didn’t bring enough to the franchise to make it feel like much more than a generic retread of Call of Duty 2. This time around, though, Treyarch hits us with a solid game, taking several cues from Modern Warfare and crafting something that manages to stand on its own as the most visceral Call of Duty to date…even if it’s still a few paces behind Infinity Ward’s offerings.

The war-torn cities of Europe and the jungles of the South Pacific never looked so good: From the between-level loading screens to the actual in-mission visuals, World at War looks well on par with Modern Warfare. Not that I’m surprised, since they share the same engine — which flexes its power to display lush jungles and destroyed cities, as opposed to shantytowns in a fictional Middle Eastern country. And while this is the best-looking World War II shooter I’ve ever played, beautiful settings are only a small portion of what makes the game so striking

While this mode left an indelible presence in my mind, the multiplayer — against other players, at least — still isn’t good enough to warrant players moving on from Modern Warfare. I can’t quite pin down what it is, but as someone who’s put hour upon hour into both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Modern Warfare, I can’t help but feel like World at War’s versus multiplayer is missing some important component. I don’t think it’s the arsenal — as they’re the same great weapons from the first two Call of Duty games’ multiplayer modes — so perhaps it’s the blend of the setting and the painfully obvious similarities to Modern Warfare. The blatant replacement of flashbangs with flares and the inclusion of a perk system also cloned from Call of Duty 4 make the multiplayer feel like an adaptation rather than an evolution.

Versus multiplayer may be strangely lacking, but cooperative play still offers plenty of action. Competing with friends in single-player levels for kills (or even just playing through the campaign with another person) adds a lot. Moreover, the awesome new Nazi Zombie mode pits you and a team of up to four players against legions of the living dead. Fighting wave after wave of progressively more difficult zombies and worrying about purchasing weapons with points earned from kills — all while trying to maintain and repair your defensive structures — doesn’t entirely make sense in a Call of Duty game. But it’s so fun that I honestly couldn’t care less about why it’s here — I’m just happy it exists. So even if you don’t really dig the competitive stuff, you can still enjoy the game with friends.

World at War may not represent the best of Call of Duty, but it’s far from the worst. The single-player’s a solid step forward from Call of Duty 3, and the cooperative multiplayer should give the game some legs…but I just wish competitive multiplayer had grabbed me the way Modern Warfare’s did. I think anyone skeptical about whether Treyarch could improve upon their last iteration will be pleasantly surprised; World at War brings all the ugliness of humanity in wartime to the forefront, and it manages to find refreshing — and satisfying — new stories to tell.

System requirements:
> Microsoft (R) Windows (R) XP or Windows Vista (R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
> Microsoft DirectX (R) 9.0c (included)
> Intel (R) Pentium (R) 4 3.0 GHz or AMD (R) Athlon (TM) 64 3200 + processor or better supported
> 512MB RAM (1GB for Windows Vista)
> 256 MB NVIDIA (R) GeForce (R) 6600GT or better or ATI Radeon (TM) 1600XT or better
> 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
> 1.5GB of free hard drive space
> To MP matches, a 2Ghz dual-core or better processor is recommended.
> Broadband connection and service required for Multiplayer Connectivity

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