War is a nasty business. It is a stark monstrosity orchestrated by the higher powers and played out by the man below. Death is a prerequisite and for those that live to tell the tale, each conflict throughout the world’s bloody history has spawned forth many a tumultuous tale. Yet, whoever said war was pretty?

Game developers, that’s who. With real-life conflicts ever the playable folly, series’ such as Brothers In Arms and Medal Of Honor have all showcased the spoils of war through engaging titles, but none have really shown true grit. Call Of Duty: World Of War puts to rest this notion. Blistering forth with mud-caked intent, this instalment in the series unleashes a baptism of fire upon the genre. Relentless isn’t the word for this primordial blast.

A tough gaming experience through and through, World At War is a vast departure from Modern Warfare’s tech-heavy skirmishes, but is all the better for this. A different beast altogether, returning developer Treyarch really has pulled off a coup. Dwindling in sandbox territories this outfit has mostly been dedicated to Spiderman’s next-gen adventures. Taking a break from web slinging, the work put into World At War has paid dividends, really building upon its competent yet basic efforts on Call Of Duty 3. Put simply, the FPS engine has been ramped up, the stakes raised and real-world settings cranked up to levels of absolute immersion. Unflinching, maybe, but kudos to Treyarch for taking this franchise into domains perhaps too dark for some.

And what better setting is there to portray the chaos and brutality of war than the Pacific. Taking players through a dual narrative, it is this Asian game opener that peels back the eyelids and forces a feverish grasp on the control pad. Waking up in a ramshackle hut the horrors of a jungle prison dawn on you the moment a ferocious Japanese general slices a fellow captive across the jugular. Repulsion soon turns to pure exhilaration as Allies storm the camp, kick-starting the real-life battle of Makin Island. Ducking through the ensuing chaos you take control as scattershot rifle bursts soon subside into precise aiming and COD’s ever-familiar controls relay to the senses. As this night-time dust-up ends, preceding missions show what World At War is really about. Ignore the OTT and sometimes bestial nature of your ironic/moronic fellow soldiers and simply revel in the hard-edged journey this game takes you on. With all goals predetermined and missions singular, Treyarch has seen fit to make both the battles varied and surroundings that tad more interactive. Take the flamethrower. Thrust into clammy palms by your baying pals, latter assaults see your marine charging through makeshift bunkers spewing forth deadly flames. This isn’t for morbid enjoyment, the fear this thread of the game elicits from you forces this pre-emptive tactic –Treyarch just can’t help but hurl countless foes your way, rendering this an experience never far off being kinetic in pace.

Coming from all angles, duck and cover is hardly a safe bet; constant flanking and the omnipresent threat of a dreaded Banzai charge is never far away. Relying on wits and a splatter of luck trekking through each impromptu battleground or mounted attack breeds unknown results. Settle down with your rifle and pick off impending Japanese soldiers from afar or exhale, grab an automatic and throw yourself into the fray. A gung-ho style rarely pays off in the controlled mania Treyarch has created, but there’s nothing quite like coming out of a particularly scattershot ruckus and still finding yourself on you feet, rattled out of bullets and suffering the POV of fuzzy low health. To top off the brutality even the last ditch employment of a melee attack has been switched from clunking rifle butt to a lethal knife jab – a gruesome blade-on-bone finisher if we ever saw one.

Casting you into numerous battles, the Pacific campaign varies itself well with all locales gorgeously rendered and permeating in detail. Ignore claims from its creators of more interactive terrains – propagating fire dynamics and occasional preset explosions solely lending to this claim – and take pleasure in roaming through assorted terrains. The cavernous mission ‘Relentless’ is a notable spectacle that forces closer combat, while the superb airbourne gun rush, ‘Black Cats’ is a frantic treat. By the time you reach hard-as-nails ‘Blowtorch & Corkscrew’, an ascent up a long grassy hill will have you begging for a return to chilly Berlin and the adjacent Russian campaign.

Striking another victory in its war chest is the game’s employment of contrast. Building on COD3’s convoluted Polish, British and Canadian campaigns, the vengeful toils of Ruskie soldier Petrenko serves to expand on World At War’s gameplay enhancements. A less random affair than the Pacific campaigns, beating sunshine paves the way for smog and gloom as the first mission sees – in a concurrent narrative echo – you waking up battered and bruised amid the rubble of Stalingrad. Taking to your feet alongside faithful elder comrade Reznov, revenge upon the Germans is at first taken in a controlled and stealthy manner. Picking off surrounding SS grunts with a shared sniper rifle sees these two disgruntled survivors clambering hollowed-out buildings and taking down unknowing foes. Using the cover of roaring fighter planes overhead, this introduction to the Red Army campaign settles in nicely to the dark themes of blood lust and revenge surrounding this story thread. In fact, so involving is the plight of the Russian’s uprising from near decimation, the road to Berlin steadily pumps your heart rate as you draw ever closer to a scarily difficult climax. Settling more into the traditional COD style of gameplay, duck and fire will be greedily utilised during ‘Their Land, Their Blood’ and ‘Blood And You’ with a differing selection of sharp-aimed weapons unlocking a new avenue of gory kills. Gurgling throat shots and limbless bodies tumbling from shattered buildings both feature in this graying storyline. With vengeful shouts roaring from your comrades as you mount an assault on the enemy’s capital, this bleak campaign segues to light as a vehicular mission aboard a near indestructible tank (depending on the difficulty) plays out to carefree yet bombastic effect. Tearing through hillsides and village outposts, this mechanised romp – like the Pacific air attack – ends far too prematurely. But keeping you in tune with the Russian’s drive to really strike at the heart of the Nazi regime, ‘Ring Of Steel’ stands tall as the game’s centerpiece mission. Stooping through a long abandoned asylum, the sheer insanity of war is summed in these dilapidated surroundings. Soaking up the fear of your comrades, an atmosphere of horror manifests as Germans jump out from every corner and licking flames erupt in a split second. Gifted more places to show off your now ultra-precise aiming this mission gives you the choice to either run and gruesomely gun, or duck behind an upturned hospital bed and dispatch from a back-up position. It’s a veering departure from everything else this campaign thread has thrown at you, but for sheer clammy exhilaration this sequence will have you riveted.

From leading charges to playing the long game, World At War draws its strengths from creating an almost calamitous backdrop to fight against. Yet the game’s esteem is raised through the sense that despite the surrounding mania, the dynamics are in place to give the gamer a feeling of complete control over his/her fate. Building on COD4’s already roaring gameplay engine was most certainly the right decision, yet it’s the injected mood of doom this game has received that separates it from its predecessor. Some will question the developers’ inclusion of ‘moral moments’ in the game, but executing on the order of your general or inflicting the more ghoulish a kill on your enemy purely serves to accentuate the horrors many have suffered in times of war. Not helped along by a pop trashy introduction to each mission, the darker deeds of this game lead you to be reviled rather than chanting in the chest-thumping tones of Team America speak – try to find an FPS that forces you to exude that much of a moral conscious we ask you.

Take morals and a twinge of over-familiarity out of the equation and this dual firing shooter is the grandiose success all were hoping for. Modern Warfare may have whipped up a storm, but this raw-edged addition to the series shows that Call Of Duty is still on the cutting edge of shooters, no matter how caked with blood the blade may be.