Pete_LeGrant January 18, 2009 PWNage 134 views Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

So, I’ve been playing Call of Duty: World at War. I’ve been doing a little of everything. I’ve played gobs of multiplayer, I’ve interviewed Juggernauts to see what their favorite things are, I’ve pondered the mysteries of perk choices, I’ve played a tad of zombie mode, and I’m also working through the campaign by myself on Veteran mode.

Treyarch’s conception of the Veteran difficulty is deeply flawed. The game’s programmers seem to think that the best way to make a game harder to to make your fellow soldiers as stupid as possible. At one point in “Burn em’ out” there are:

• a tunnel ahead of you that leads to a big room full of enemies, some of whom run down the tunnel towards you
• one enemy above that tunnel
• a bunker on your left with three guys in it.

What do you do? You BBQ the three dudes on the left with your flamethrower. While you are collecting grenades for the assault on the main tunnel, your homeboys Polonsky and Roebuck (that dynamic duo) are apparently too busy thinking about Betty Grable to notice the enemy that is 3 feet above them blasting them in the dome with a Type-100 submachine gun:

Polonsky will even continue to watch the bunker you have just completely cleared out with your flamethrower, just as some dudes come barreling down the main tunnel towards him screaming “BONZAI!” Polonsky, however, won’t turn around, because his eardrums are totally destroyed from the grenades, howitzers, etc., or he’s still thinking about Betty. So, he lets the enemy moonwalk past him to stab you with a bayonet.

Once you have BBQed these guys for Polonsky, Roebuck kicks back and dreams of Greta Garbo this time, while you go down the tunnel.

Now, there’s a Japanese soldier down there who can pop up and snipe a dime three times from 2000 yards out with a submachine gun, but that doesn’t deter our platoon. You have to pop some smoke, otherwise your brainwashed-by-Treyarch American soldier will rush in there, one after the other, ready to get his head blown off by said Japanese sniper. And he’ll do it. Ridiculous.

You will need 4 smoke grenades, 4 frags, and a lot of patience to get past this main room. My advice: stay to the right. You’ll see.

What’s the punchline? Treyarch thinks that WWII could be won with an army full of complete morons. Sure, you beef up the enemy when you try to make a game hard. But are our robot allies THAT stupid, all of a sudden? Come on, Treyarch–that’s just weak tea. You get 4 thumbs down from me for failure to make the American soldiers more aware, more concentrated on their work.

The game is fatally unrealistic in the decisions the soldiers are supposed to be making.

PBBBT.