Given that we’re one of the few sites that refrained from making early predictions that Call of Duty: World at War would stink, it would be very easy to pretend that the thought had never crossed our minds and consequently look an awful lot more composed than all those other reviewers who are frantically backpedalling now that they’ve played it and discovered that it’s one of 2008’s best games.
Thing is, we’d be lying. Sure, we may not have gone on record saying that World at War would stink, but we certainly thought it. To be fair, you probably thought it too. Even my Gran thought it would stink and she actually approves of setting light to foreign people.
Well, aside from World at War’s worrying love of flamethrowers, we really no longer have any misgivings about this game. It doesn’t stink at all. It features beautiful, sharp graphics that are packed with detail and work brilliantly with the water effects and realistically propagating fire. You get voice acting from Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman, and sound effects that will wring the best out of your speakers.
Beyond the incredible graphics and sound, you also get a compelling, frantic game in which you fight your way through two separate stories set in Eastern Europe and the Pacific atolls respectively, and when you’re finished with that you can check out the co-operative mode or fire up the online multiplayer version that lets you fight through a variety of maps against the internet’s most foul-mouthed, lightning-thumbed teenagers whilst earning experience points that can be spent on new skills and weaponry. You can watch our full Call of Duty World at War review here.