World at War could be seen as something of a step back for the Call of Duty series, which shifted to the present day with last year’s Modern Warfare. Instead of re-using the previous game’s frenetic contemporary setting, World at War returns the first-person shooter franchise to its World War II roots.

In the game’s single-player campaign, players can serve in both the American and Russian armies, switching between them as the stories unfold. Events take place during the final days of the war, which means pushing towards Berlin as a Russian and taking Pacific islands from the Japanese as an American.

In terms of actual gameplay, World at War feels very similar to Modern Warfare. There are a couple of new weapons – namely the flame thrower and the bayonet – and a few new multiplayer modes (including a slightly silly one that sees you and your co-op partner defending a post against Nazi zombies), but if you’ve ever played a Call of Duty game before, you probably won’t find a great deal to surprise you here.

That said, if you have enjoyed Call of Duty titles in the past, then you’re very likely to enjoy World at War as well. It’s a highly polished game that offers tight bursts of excitement in its single-player mode and hours of potential multiplayer fun online. Graphics and sound are top notch too, and the game does a fairly good job of reminding players of the cold, harsh realities of war.

As such, World at War is definitely one of the series’ highlights, though we’d like to see Modern Warfare’s present-day framework developed next time, instead.