We Love It's Guide to…
Fight through World War II as U.S. and Soviet soldiers, then take on zombie waves in a first-person shooter with vehicle combat.
Released 18 Nov 2008
Survive Zombie Waves
Fight Pacific Ambushes
Battle From Tanks
Call of Duty is back, redefining war like you've never experienced before. Building on the Call of Duty 4®: Modern Warfare engine, Call of Duty: World at War immerses players into the most gritty and chaotic WWII combat ever experienced.
Developed by Treyarch · Published by Activision









The campaign follows U.S. Marines in the Pacific and Soviet soldiers in Europe during World War II. You take the role of an ordinary soldier facing Japanese and German forces across two distinct fronts.
Play through a sequence of first-person combat missions, using firearms and other weapons against enemies who attack with ambushes, charges, and cover tactics. Missions also include vehicle and airborne combat.
Beyond the solo campaign, the game features a co-op campaign and class-based competitive multiplayer with customizable classes, perks, weapon upgrades, rankings, and tanks. Its separate Zombies mode centers on surviving waves of undead.
Players often praise the campaign’s grim World War II atmosphere, its two-front setting, and memorable characters, with some especially enjoying its varied missions and intense combat. Zombies is another recurring highlight, valued for its tense survival play and replayability, including custom maps. Many reviews also report difficulty creating online profiles or accessing multiplayer and co-op, while some criticize the asking price; these issues are not described consistently by every player.
| Platforms | Windows |
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| Age ratings |
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| Players | 1–64 |
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| Other modes |
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| Multiplayer | Call of Duty: World at War includes online competitive multiplayer, online co-op campaign, and Zombies co-op. The official description states the campaign supports up to 4 players online. Competitive multiplayer is class-based and includes infantry and vehicle combat. Reviews also report custom servers, modded Zombies, and community-supported multiplayer due to online profile and security issues on the Steam version. |
| Multiplayer & mods | The game is moddable. Reviews describe extensive custom Zombies maps, modded Zombies, bot mods, and community clients such as Plutonium that restore or improve multiplayer access. Mods and third-party tools appear to be important for current multiplayer play on PC, but the provided official text does not define formal multiplayer mod support rules. |
| Controller required | No |
| Content notices |
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| Metacritic | 83/100 View on Metacritic |
| Website | Official website |