The first details of Call of Duty: World at War have been revealed, plucked straight from the pages of Xbox 360: The Official Magazine (#35), which is dropping through subscribers' letterboxes in the UKright now.
The fifth game in the CoD series, which is being developed by CoD3 studio Treyarch, ditches the number subtitle and expectedly returns to WWII - but the developer stresses it's not the same theatre we've seen a million times before.
It all takes place in the Pacific theatre (and partially in Russia's advance into Berlin) says OXM, which all in all was a much grittier and darker conflict that the one in muddy Belgium fields.
Treyarch has had a full extra year over CoD3's development to make World at War - and it's using the excellent CoD4 engine, which is plenty of reason to be excited.
"This is a scarier Call of Duty than we've ever seen," Treyarch head Mark Lamir says in the mag.
To help simulate the different style of warfare used by the Japanese, Treyarch has completely re-tinkered the enemy AI in World at War. Instead of taking cover and flanking in traditional European battle strategies, the Japanese hide in trees, sneak through the overgrowth and scrabble, katana in hand, in violent suicide attacks.
"We figured out early that the Imperial Japanese fought in a different way that was full of suspense," creative lead Rich Farrelly tells OXM. "From that point we started to skew the game in that direction."
Excitingly, for the first time in Call of Duty's campaign 4-player co-op is supported over Xbox Live - and it supports meta game perks as in CoD4's excellent online mode.
You'll find loads more details and first screens in the UK version of this month's OXM.
Jun 9, 2008
