The single player isn't that great, but the multiplayer provides lots of fun times.
In Call of Duty World at War you play as two different sides, the Americans and the Russians. As the Americans, you need to fight off the Japanese army and as the Russians you need to push the Germans back into the heartland of Germany. The story in World at War is not really that good, but it is enough to tell you what is going, if you haven't already heard it a million times.
Now the game play in Call of Duty World at War is identical to Modern Warfare. Once again you will be fighting wave after wave of enemies as the randomly pop out and keep coming until you move past an invisible line. That's the worst part about the single player; the rest is just another simple shooter. The weapons still feel good to fire, and there are some cool weapons like the flame thrower.
The thing that is different about World at War's single player is the feeling that you have playing. This time around it feels like you are trying to survive a bit more than just the feeling of running through a level shooting every thing and moving on to the nest place where you will do the exact same thing. When you are moving through a jungle in the game, you kind of feel a bit hopeless, and this feeling that the enemy is watching you from hidden locations. That is a cool feeling in this game.
A few things return from previous Call of Duty's. One thing is a tank level, and another is an airplane level where you are moving around from gun to gun shooting at airplanes and boats. There is also a level where you storm a beach. These levels are all pretty fun, but they are nothing new.
The new feature in Call of Duty World at War is the four player co op. This is pretty fun actually. It is pretty much running through the levels with some friends. The one thing I didn't like about the co op is though two of the levels can't be played with co op, and you can't get achievements for beating a level on veteran on co op, which defeats the purpose of bringing friends with you to help. Besides that the co op can be fun, but it is not something that you will want to spend hours replaying with your friends.
There is a new mode never seen before in a Call of Duty game. This mode is called Nazi Zombies. In Nazi Zombies, you defend a bunker from wave after wave of Zombies. You can have up to four people play with you. Nazi Zombies starts off slow, but after a few waves, it gets intense. My problem with Nazi Zombies is that there is only one map. If you want more maps then you will need to buy the map packs. But Nazi Zombies is a fun game mode, even with one map. You will get hours of entertainment out of it.
Call of Duty World at War is a nice looking. Jungles and battlefields look good, and you weapons look really realistic. One the down side this game is not nearly as polished as Call of Duty 4 so there are quiet a few glitches, such as when you blow some one apart, sometimes their body parts will get up and start dancing around. But this is a very good looking and will keep up with other shooters. The thing this game does really well is that it has some pretty cool set pieces. When things blow up, they blow up nice!
The sound in World at War is awesome. The sounds of war never sounded so good. Everything from bombs going off to guns being fired to soldiers yelling at each other sounds really good. There weird but cool thing about the sound is that Teryarch actually puts in a bit of metal music, which actually sounds good, especially since World at War is the darkest Call of Duty game. Very few games sound this good.
Call of Duty World at War does have a multi player mode. Think Call of Duty 4 with WW2 weapons, and bigger maps, and tanks, and dogs instead of helicopters after you get 7 kill in a row. This means that Call of Duty World at War has an awesome multi player. The maps are bigger which is a plus, and there are dogs instead of helicopters, which actually give you experience when you kill them. The bad thing is that the tanks are way to over powered. When four bazooka shoots and two sticky grenades don't kill a tank, then there is something wrong, especially since that is two lives worth of equipment. So the tanks suck, but the multi player maps have been improved and the level cap has been raised to 65. Overall, this is one of the best multi player experiences that money can buy.
Overall, Call of Duty World at War is not an amazing game, but it is a solid entry in the Call of Duty series. It is a lot darker and bloodier than any other Call of Duty game out right now. If you were worried that Treyarch making a Call of Duty game, then you can stop worrying, because, Call of Duty World at War is a great game to hold you over till Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2.