cod: world at war

I've lost count of how many times I've stormed the Reichstag.

Not literally, of course - I don't think the current German government would appreciate me running in there firing an MP40 and sticking the soviet flag on the roof - but in terms of playing games I've done it quite a few times.

In this case it was as part of Call of Duty: World at War, which I mentioned briefly at the end of yesterdays post.

I'm a big fan of the CoD series. There are some moments and missions that really stand out as things I remember from my gaming history. It's always managed to hit a great balance between enjoyable missions and keeping a good representation of the actual conflict.

In this case, there's a newish element, in that the American missions are centred around the war in the pacific. You play a marine as they try to take the various Islands leading up towards the Japanese mainland.

It means lots of jungle fighting, but more than that it means having to deal with Banzai attackers.

CoD has always had attack dogs in it, and they've always been my least favourite element, because if you let them get too close you're almost certainly dead. You can shoot them of course, but once in close range you have to try to time your attack to grab their throat - it was always bloody tricky.

The Banzai guys are quite similar - they pop out of hidden ditches or come running over the top of walls or down trenches and you have a very short time to shoot them before they're on you and stabbing you with their bayonet's or whatever.

Once you get the hang of it they're a bit easier to deal with than the dogs, but no less heart-in-the-mouth scary.

What else?

Well they ramped up the blood-and-guts. CoD: Modern Warfare was one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, and this is clearly using the same engine, so you get amazing visuals and almost life-like character models, but to go along with that they've increased the variety and nastiness of injuries that happen - so blowing people's hands off is a new one and people dragging themselves along the floor while bleeding out is another.

It certainly makes things pretty atmospheric I have to say, though perhaps not for the feint hearted, although you can turn the gore off.

Another great element is the graphics they've used to represent the story elements. They're very modern in style with swooping graphics showing maps of progress, and representing statistics and stuff. It's a really nice touch.

There's a great inclusion of genuine peril in the story-telling too - you get nearly killed on several occasions and it's initially difficult to tell that these are actually part of the story, rather than you just dieing again. It's very cleaver.

There are a couple of downsides, though.

As mentioned, the Russian mission pretty much retreads old ground - heading for Berlin. I mean, it's good to be back in good old Nazi-killing CoD territory, but it would have been nice to have something a bit different.

I guess part of the problem there is that the end of the War in the Pacific is a bit rubbish from a game play/climax point of view - they nuke Japan, rather than there being a proper invasion. So I guess they needed something with a proper 'end' and the Reichstag is a good, if obvious candidate.

But the real problem is it's too short.

If I'm honest, to me it almost felt like an expansion pack for Modern Warfare, albeit one with a complete overhaul and a different story, but still - it didn't feel big enough.

This was especially true for the tank and plane missions. CoD has had these before of course (indeed, again it could be a criticism that these don't really represent anything particularly new) but here there's only one of each - one tank mission and one plane mission and that's it. Before you'd at least get two or three missions, in order to form a proper narrative element. Here, they just feel like bolt-ons.

Don't get me wrong, though - I really enjoyed playing it, just I think having two afternoon's worth of game play, rather than one would have been better.