Call of Duty: World at War

Video Game
STUDIOActivision
RELEASED2008

In the last two years of World War II, Pvt. Miller and Pvt. Petrenko, two allied soliders, will fight to end WWII. In famous battlefields from Pelelieu to Seelow Heights, Call of Duty World at War delivers brutal action, intense sieges, desperate stands, and memorable characters. Using any weapons at your disposal, from Thompson SMGs, to Flamethrowers, to T34 tanks, fight back the evil of the Fascist Reich and the Japanese Empire in the fifth installment in the Call of Duty Franchise.

Knowledge

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Call of Duty: World at WarSource

PC Players Got Every DLC Map Pack Free

While Xbox 360 and PS3 players had to pay for each map pack, Treyarch quietly rolled out every single one of World at War's DLC packs - Zombies maps included - as completely free updates for the PC version.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

A Rhineland Trilogy Got Cut Too

On top of the scrapped British campaign, three separate missions set in the Rhineland were also planned and later cut, along with an American training level that would've mirrored the opening Saint-Lô mission from Call of Duty 3.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

Radiant Started Life as an id Software Tool

The Radiant level editor that Treyarch handed out with World at War's mod tools is actually built on id Software's GtkRadiant - the same lineage of tools used to make id's own shooters, repurposed here to let fans build their own custom zombie maps.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

World at War's Textures Outlived the Game

Plenty of World at War's original textures ended up recycled years later in Call of Duty: Black Ops II - the TranZit zombies map in particular reuses a noticeable amount of brick texture work straight from World at War's Town multiplayer map.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

Black Ops Almost Got Custom Maps Too

Treyarch actually planned to bring the Radiant mod tools back for the original Black Ops, but the plan got scrapped partway through - only a partial set of tools ever saw the light of day, which is why Black Ops never had a proper custom map scene.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

Splitscreen Co-op Came With XP Attached

World at War let two players sit on one console and play the campaign splitscreen, and unlike some later Call of Duty entries, both players earned experience points regardless of whether they were teaming up or going head-to-head in multiplayer.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

It Ran on the Modern Warfare Engine

Even though it's set decades earlier, World at War is actually built on the same engine as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, just retooled with period-appropriate weapons, enemies and environments instead of the modern-day setting.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

It Sold Over 15 Million Copies

World at War ended up shifting somewhere around 15.7 million copies worldwide, putting it roughly level with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and comfortably ahead of every mainline entry that came before it in the series.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

Four-Player Online Co-op Was a Series First

World at War introduced proper four-player online co-op to the campaign for the first time in the series, letting a full squad tackle missions together rather than the two-player splitscreen setups the franchise had leaned on before.

Call of Duty: World at WarSource

Custom Zombie Maps Need Four Separate Patches

Getting the PC mod tools fully working for custom zombie maps historically meant installing them in a very specific order - versions 1.0 through 1.4 one after another - with the community eventually building their own extra patches just to fix bugs Treyarch never got around to.