By now, you should know that Treyarch returned to a World War II theme for the latest installment of the hit first-person shooter series Call of Duty – and a fan of the era or not, you should be impressed with this title. Focusing largely on the war in the Pacific, the developers have roared back the PC platform with a vengeance, without sacrificing game play – instead improving it with well thought out and ground breaking enhancements.

Based on the framework used to power Call of Duty 4, the developers at Treyarch have reworked the game engine in its core principals, as well as adding some impressive modules not seen in the last release. A brief breakdown of the modified or new game engine elements would be: accurate core scaling, increased capacity of the physics engine, water processing engine, dynamic lighting, fire processing engine, an improved artificial intelligence handling module and a turbocharged 5.1 audio engine.

Mark Lamia, Treyarch Studio Head, explained that moving the focus of the theater of war from the European Front to the Pacific Front presented unique hurdles for the programmers in order to accurately portray the story that they wanted to tell. The way that the war was waged on the European Front was in essence balanced, in that the Axis and Allies forces basically fought the same way; battles were planned assaults and both armies utilized similar tactics and weaponry. On the Pacific Front however, the Allied forces faced an enemy that was at the time unfamiliar to them. The soldiers of the Japanese Army not only fought differently from a tactical standpoint (utilizing stealth rather than brute force) but also thought differently (Bushido code – ‘loyalty and honor until death’). The artificial intelligence received an overhaul and both the environments and weaponry had to be redesigned in order to immerse the gamer in the battles of a World at War.

Much of the environment will be destructible, and camouflage and cover can be destroyed as the battle wages, creating an evolving battlefield. Crafty players can hide in the dense foliage and take apart the opposing team from a well camouflaged position – unless the cover that they are hiding in burns away from self propagating fire.

Another great addition to Call of Duty: World at War is the reintroduction of vehicles in both the single-player campaigns and the multiplayer setting. With heavy armor playable in multiplayer, it could be conceivable that the game type Base Assault may in some capacity make a return. As well, multiplayer will have challenges in a similar fashion as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – allowing the player to level up and unlock weapons, perks and classes, as well as create personalized classes with customized weapons.

Weapons

United States
- Colt 45 (Confirmed: Screenshot)
- M1 Carbine (Confirmed: Magazine Scans)
- M1 Garand (Confirmed: Trailer & Screenshots)
- M1 Thompson (Confirmed: Trailer & Screenshots)
- Shotgun (Confirmed: Trailer)
- Flamethrower (Confirmed: Screenshots, Trailer, Interview)

Soviet Union (Russia)
- Mosin Nagant (Confirmed: Trailer)
- PPSh-41 (Confirmed: Trailer)

Japanese Empire
- Arisaka rifle (Confirmed: Trailer & Screenshots)
- Type 100 SMG (Confirmed: Trailer & Screenshots)
- Shin Gunto [Military "Katana"/sword] (Confirmed: Trailer, screenshots, …)

Germany
- MP40 (Confirmed: Screenshot)
- Raketpanzerbüsche 43 (Confirmed: Screenshot)

In general
- Bajonet attachements (Confirmed in the trailer/screenshots, but interview/podcast deny the actual "use" by player)

Perks
- Juggernaut (Confirmed by Treyarch in interview)
- Martyrdom (Confirmed by Treyarch in interview)
- Stopping Power (August issue of Xbox Magazine, thanks shawn12390!)
- Deep Impact (August issue of Xbox Magazine, thanks shawn12390!)

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