Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

WaW is a great game that deals with its setting really well with some great set pieces although on the lower difficulties it shows that this game has been designed mostly for the multiplayer experience, for the most part.

Clocking in at maybe 6 to 8 hours on normal difficulty which as many people will know settles on the shorter side, although that being said the game never becomes boring or bloated so the short story mode is easily accepted. The veteran mode offers a very high challenge but it starts to feel like it is bordering on cheap, rather than just being more difficult, and at times I even found it easier to sit back and let your team mates cop the flack, rather than charge in and use your skill.

The two main characters are serviceable although having two main characters intertwined makes them and the story more detached. It may have been better to split it into a Russian and a US campaign to keep consistency.

The voice acting is good and the sound effects are great, they really capture the frantic nature of war and nothing beats the sound of the cartridge being ejected for a Garland rifle. Music is a little understated but does a good job without over-powering the scenes.

Environments are nothing overly spectacular from anyone who has played any WWII games, the stock standards are there, beach landings, storming trenches, bombed out European Villages, green field battlegrounds. They look decent enough but at times it is hard to get over how clichéd they are, but given the amount of times WWII has been done you can give it some leeway. Weaponry is likewise, but being authentic is most important in historical games and they damn fun to use in any case.

Characters you are shooting repeat a bit too often, this is not so bad in the Russian campaign where you do not get so close to the enemies, but in the Japanese with all those close quarters combats it does start to become painfully obvious.

Multiplayer is where this game comes into its own and while comparisons to Modern Warfare are inevitable, it does a serviceable job. Some of the maps feel slightly imbalanced and give some plays no incentive not to 'camp' its reward system and almost RPG style of levelling and perks are enough to keep you coming back.

While it is by no means a perfect game and has the clichés of WWII games spread thickly on top (aside from the D-Day landing), it does a good job of telling a story with a few memorable moments. If you have never played a WWII game, this would be a great first one, for everyone else rent it and buy something a bit more original and memorable.