Why World at War is better than Call of Duty 4

How Treyarch has laid the ghost of Call of Duty 3 to rest and come up with the best yet.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare wasn't just a new high for the Call of Duty series but for FPS games as a whole.

It was a slickly produced game with simple controls, high drama and some incredible missions such as All Ghillied Up.

So Treyarch has it all to live up to with World at War, especially as its Call of Duty 3 is considered the weakest entry in the series since it hit Xbox 360. So why is World at War going to be better than Modern Warfare?

  • Call of Duty: World at War feels like war

It's no secret that Treyarch has cranked up the levels of violence and gore for this fifth outing in the Call of Duty series.

Treyarch wanted to capture the feeling of war with this one and it's amazing what a difference such a small change has made. The shotgun now feels absolutely devastating, while the sights of soldiers pleading for their lives and blood shed around every corner really does make this feel like a war.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare felt like a clean, precise, well-organised war. World at War feels messy, chaotic, brutal and nasty. And you'll love it.

  • Call of Duty: World at War has more options

No, we're not talking about brightness or volume settings or any of that nonsense. We're talking the ability to play split-screen, system link, online, using Death Cards, multiplayer, co-op and so on.

Unlike Call of Duty 4, which was pretty much Complete-On-Veteran-Then-Pound-Multiplayer, World at War has lots of different ways for you to reinvent the experience and keep it fresh. You'll keep your disc spinning in your 360 long after the credits of the campaign have faded away and not just so you can hammer the multiplayer servers.

With Noah Heller already talking to us about Vampire and Sticks and Stones Death Cards, it remains to be seen what else is in there to help tweak the game, not to mention finding them all will take a while...

  • Call of Duty: World at War has co-op

This is the biggest addition to the series since... well, ever. Being able to play through levels in co-op, with either one, two or three buddies fighting alongside you, changes the whole feeling of World at War.

It makes it a much faster game because it's slightly easier, while the scoring system gives it an arcade feel. The fact that you only have a certain amount of time to revived downed team-mates, with a single death ending the game, means you have to balance being selfish and pushing ahead for points with hanging back and ensuring you're near enough to be revived if you run into trouble.

What's more, being able to play co-op online means you can always have someone at your side to grind through the teeth-grindingly tough Veteran difficulty, which makes it that little bit less frustrating.