10/12/2022
Call of Duty: World at War is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It was released for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 in November 2008. It is the fifth main installment of the Call of Duty series and returns the setting to World War II. The game is also the first title in the Black Ops story line. World at War received ports featuring different storyline versions, while remaining in the World War II setting, for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2. It was the first game in the series to feature the zombies mode featured in later sequels. A Windows Mobile version was also made available by Glu Mobile.
Developer(s)
Treyarch
Publisher(s)
Activision
Director(s)
Corky Lehmkuhl
Cesar Stastny (Microsoft Windows)
Producer(s)
Pat Dwyer
Daniel Bunting
Dave Anthony
Marwan Abderrazzaq
John DeHart
Designer(s)
Jeremy Luyties
Jesse Synder
Programmer(s)
David King
Artist(s)
Colin Whitney
Brian Anderson
Writer(s)
Craig Houston
Composer(s)
Sean Murray
Series
Call of Duty
Engine
IW 3.0
Platform(s)
Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 3
Wii
Xbox 360
Release
NA: November 11, 2008[2]
AU: November 12, 2008[1]
EU: November 14, 2008[3]
Genre(s)
First-person shooter
Mode(s)
Single-player, multiplayer
The narrative for the campaign mode focuses on the Pacific and Eastern Front theaters of World War II, involving the United States, Empire of Japan, Soviet Union, and N**i Germany. It is told from the perspectives of Marine Raider Private C. Miller, US Navy Petty Officer Locke and Red Army soldier Private Dimitri Petrenko, and is based on several historical battles. The multiplayer component of the game contains various game modes and a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons and rewards as they progress, similar to Call of Duty 4 and repeated in many following Call of Duty entries. Vehicles, in the form of tanks, that players can control appear on certain multiplayer maps. The game also contains downloadable content called "map packs", which can be purchased online. A new feature to the series was the addition of a cooperative mode, which supports up to two players locally and four players online, as well as the introduction of the Zombies mode.
Development for World at War took two years and began after the release of Treyarch's previous title, Call of Duty 3, which was also set in World War II and was their first title they developed for the series. The game is based on an enhanced version of the IW engine developed by Infinity Ward with increased development on audio and visual effects. Treyarch utilized the engine to make more parts of certain environments destructible and introduce limb dismemberment and realistic burns to character models. The game was announced by Activision on June 23, 2008.
World at War received positive reviews from critics, with praise directed at its intensity and violent nature, though it received criticism for its lack of innovation. It was also a commercial success, selling 3 million copies in the United States within the first two months of its release, becoming one of the best-selling titles of 2008. It also marked the beginning of the Black Ops subseries, as characters from the game were carried over into its sequel, Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010). The Xbox 360 version of World at War became backwards compatible on the Xbox One in September 2016.[4]
