Call of Duty/World At War/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Since they saw fit to introduce Japanese enemies and new environments in this game, why did they have to recycle the Soviet scenarios from the previous games? Couldn't they at least have an epilogue mission set during the battle for Manchuria?
    • I don't recall fighting for Berlin in previous Soviet campaigns. Then again, I never played 1 or 3, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
      • 1 ended with you entering the Reichstag and raising the flag on the balcony. It was the exact same scenario, though the level was less elaborate.
      • I assume because the Battle for Manchuria would have been extremely one sided like it was in real life, with really poorly trained and unarmored Japanese soldiers taking on the best of the best of the Soviet army. That and it took place after the atomic bombings so the ending would have been off. Though that still doesn't explain why they didn't include the Prague Offensive, the final offensive in the West for the Soviets or why they didn't include a British campaign with a final showdown in Italy.
        • Still, having the Soviets face the Japanese would be the one thing that would link the two campaigns thematically. It could have been interesting if the opening level of the game was set during the climax of the battle of Khalkin Gol and the final one sometime during the invasion of Manchuria. But Small Reference Pools and all that...
      • Maybe the invasion of Manchuria was such a Curb Stomp Battle because the Soviets had Dimitri?
      • Not to mention, Brits were in the PTO to some extent. Did they never hear of Burma?
        • Good points, there was ample opportunity to have fresh scenarios included. Perhaps something from Operation Bagration, or defending against the final Axis offensive in Hungary in January 1945. The WWII setting offers lots of untapped potential in terms of battles and settings, but game makers invariably keep recycling the same few battles and theatres over and over again.
          • I'm really hoping a future title features Burma or something similar for the Pacific Theatre. As for the Eastern Front, missions don't necessarily have to be from the end of the war. I'm pretty sure the Siege of Leningrad hasn't been in a Call of Duty game yet. Also, I think CoD3 had the right idea, letting you play the Polish and Canadians. Maybe a later game could also use more overlooked armies, like the Australians, Nationalist China, or the Free French or something.
    • Or perhaps the North African Campaign against Italy. As American or British forces.
  • How exactly did the ranking system work in the Red Army? Dimitri killed Amsel by himself (more or less), but three years later, he is still a private? What? Reznov talks of him as a god, but he is only a lowly private. Also, something else that bugs me in games like this...why do the privates always take point and lead the higher ranking people through the war?
    • This may be an aversion of Authority Equals Asskicking. In real life, privates often take point, especially in militaries that use casualty-prone tactics like the Red Army. That level in Call of Duty 1 where a Soviet sargeant is basically using you, the unarmed conscript, to draw machine gun fire so he can move from cover to cover safely? Realistic.
    • Likewise, being a great fighter or sniper doesn't guarantee you'll get promoted. Or that you'll stay promoted. You have to be able to lead and to fit into the military hierarchy. Maybe Dimitri gets into drunken brawls when he's off-duty and keeps getting busted back to private. He wouldn't be the first man with that problem. In that case, nobody would want him in charge of a squad, even though everybody wants him in their squad.
      • But wait...there was a three-year difference between the time Dmitri shot Amsel and the time when Reznov found him captured in the house. Reznov seemed pretty surprised to me; I figured that Dmitri was separated from Reznov and, sometime during the three years, was captured by the Germans.
      • Maybe his tendency to get captured is what's keeping him from being promoted.
        • You probably meant that as a joke, but it isn't as implausible as it sounds: Stalin was VERY paranoid about those who had been captured by the enemy, and a great deal of them, when "freed", went straight from the POW camps to the Gulag. If the Kremlin knows about this, Dimitri might be lucky to escape with his life.
          • Uh, have we forgotten that Dmitri NEVER SPEAKS? He couldn't even be promoted to the equivalent of lance corporal - how would he give orders to a fireteam? You don't get promoted to the position of general based on your killcount (Unless it's GFTB). He might have quite a few medals the player doesn't know about, though. Still, how many mute people can even get into the army? They probably made an exception for him just because of his sheer awesomeness. This would also explain why he's allowed to continue fighting after being captured (being just that badass).
  • Another thing about ranks and chain of command: In the shooting gallery mission, the commander of your flying boat radios Major Gordon for permission to attack the Japanese convoy. Assuming this is the same character mentioned and seen in the Marine levels, this raises the question: Why would a Navy pilot need the approval of a mid-ranking USMC officer in order to attack a convoy? Surely, it would be a matter for the Navy authorities in the region?
    • It's at least possible that the Navy pilot is assigned to a mixed Navy-Marine task force or combat team. Gordon might be his immediate superior.
  • Another thing on the PBY Flying Boat level. After a certain point, when you're firing the rear facing machine gun, a stray flak burst almost kills you and puts quite a few large holes in the underside of the airplane, large enough to quite clearly see out of. Now, when the flying boat is about to touch down on water to pick up survivors, you're ordered to close the rear hatch to prevent water from coming in, wouldn't that be useless since water will still leak in from all the holes in the back? Wouldn't landing cause the plane to sink?
    • Judging by photos of Catalinas on the water I found through Google image search, it seems like that section is far enough above the waterline that there is no real danger of flooding in calm seas. You probably would not be flooded and sunk if you left the hatch open, it is just a safety precaution.
  • Why does it seem like grenades are just magically attracted to you in Veteran mode? This Troper found that even if the mooks throw the grenades in the direction you are facing towards your allies, the frakking grenades come flying right back at you and land very neatly in your lap. So much the worse when enemies respawn - expect more than 4 grenades to surround you. Oh, and your allies like throwing grenades in your direction, too.
    • It's either grenade spam, or gunfire and grenade spam. Oh, and there was also a grenade magnet implanted in your body when you play on Veteran, FYI.
  • This Troper also found it weird when Pvt. Polonsky started an argument with Maj. Gordon. A freaking major. Being in the service, I know that this just doesn't happen unless one wants a one-way ticket out of the service...or jail time.
    • Considering how nonchalant Maj. Gordon is about this after Polonsky's rant, we can either assume they have a non spoken agreement that he allows his soldiers to vent in high stress environments, or he just doesn't care. Still extremely unprofessional on Polonsky's part, considering how much respect rank is given in the military.
      • I'm not historically astute enough to know if this is possible, but could Polonsky be a conscript? It would certainly explain some apathy towards military discipline; maybe talking back to officers is what he does instead of wearing dresses.
        • Yes, Polansky could certainly have been conscripted (or, more accurately, drafted). While WWII saw a heavier participation by volunteers and a willingness by conscripts/draftees to fight than the historical average, breakdowns in morale and discipline were hardly impossible.
  • This Troper doesn't claim to be an expert on how PBY Catalinas did their job, but it seems odd that in "Black Cats", Manta Ray and Hammerhead attack the Japanese convoy with nothing but guns, and destroy all of them. Considering the considerable load of bombs and torpedoes such planes could carry, you'd think that they'd use those. The only explanation I can think of is that since they were the Japanese equivalent of Q-ships (regular civilian freighters with hidden guns bolted on), they were unarmoured and did not require such heavy ordnance to destroy, but I'm not sure.
    • Judging from the dialog on how they seemed to stumble upon the merchant convoy, and the fact they were so close to an American fleet, I assume the PBY was either a search and rescue craft operating in the area in case of attack or a recon plane for the fleet. It explains why they only seemed to use machine guns and cannons, as that was the standard self defense armament. And 20MM cannons were pretty much the standard anti-shipping gun, as B-25 Mitchel's equipped solely with fifty calibur and 20MM cannons roamed Japanese shipping lanes and engaged merchant ships with guns all the time.
      • Uh, no. The "commerce destroyers" packed about a dozen .50 cals in the nose but they also carried bombs. The guns were mostly used for flak suppression and messing up anything above the waterline (Beaufighters had 4 cannon and 4-6 guns, but no bombs, they just straffed). Then you did an S turn and skipped a bomb into the ship to let in the water. Bismark Sea was the classic case. 8 merchant ships and 4 destroyers sunk in 2 attacks over two days (by about 60 odd bombers of mixed types and 100+ fighters).
    • Also, Catalinas don't have internal bomb bays, any munitions they carried (bombs or torpedoes, normally) would be on a pylon on each wing. They didn't really carry as much as you'd expect them to, but then, bombing wasn't strictly their hat. The "Black Cats" were known to go on extended night time raids where they'd bomb a Japanese base, then start making passes with the crew throwing hand grenades and whatever munitions they could stack on the bunks and fuse by hand, like improvised bombs and even their garbage, all to mostly just keep the enemy from getting a peaceful night's sleep. Ever blew over the top of an open beer bottle like a flute? Turns out, if you fling one of those things out the door of a plane in flight, it makes a seriously scary noise.
    • The machineguns on the Manta Ray and Hammerhead are capable of shreading through the thin armor on Merchant ships. Merchant ships aren't warships, they dont have 4" steel armor like WWII warships at the time. The amount of munitions a Japanese merchant ship resuppling the front carried would be an easy target of internal explosions.
  • For God's sake, just give each nation its own weapons and let them speak in their native languages all the time.
    • Each nation does have its own weapons, aren't you paying attention?
    • About the language thing—is it too hard to subtitle what the enemy's saying? Call of Duty: World at War is a much better game than say, Medal of Honor: Vanguard, but even Vanguard had blasted subtitles for the enemy phrases.
      • I'm pretty sure there's no subtitles because Dmitri and Miller don't speak German or Japanese, respectively.
      • I'd at least like an option for it after the game is beaten once. I just want to know what they're saying.
      • "There they are!" "Shoot at him!" "Fire in the hole!", and "Look out! Grenade!". There, I just summed up all of what they are yelling in a nutshell.
  • With Marines always boasting about how they "never leave a man behind", how come two Marines stay behind while the rest take the only boats off the island at the end of the level "Semper Fi" while the beach is still crawling with Japanese after the bombs go off?
    • If you take your time reaching the boats both soldiers will be killed by the advancing Japanese, so I assume it's merely an oversight since most people will immediately rush towards the boats and allow the two soldiers to live unintentionally.
    • Several soldiers were actually unintentionally left behind during the real-life Makin raid. They were captured and executed by the Japanese.
  • What bugs me is that the Sawed-Off Shotgun just isn't as fun to use as you'd expect it be. Killing Nazis is fun, double-barrel shotguns are fun...and yet I still end up wishing I had the trench gun instead. Oh wait, maybe it's because you can't fire both barrels at once like in Doom 2. That would've been awesome. Needlessly destructive and maybe a Game Breaker...but still awesome.
  • Why do all the German soldiers in the Soviet campaign look the same, except for when you storm the Reichstag? I don't know if my game was glitched or something, but every German soldier had the exact same appearance, with their tunic sleeves rolled up and all. But then you get to the Reichstag, and suddenly, there's variety galore. Why? If they had all these models of German soldiers, why did they just use one until the final two missions?
    • Possibly to imply that the Player Character has gone slightly insane during the war? I haven't played the game, but judging by the fact that the Germans only appear in the RUSSIAN campaign...
  • It's been established throughout the game that I am essentially an invincible god of war. Throughout the Soviet campaign, I have located enemy snipers by standing up and waiting for them open fire. I have personally slaughtered entire regiments of Nazis. Nobody advances until I do. I have been blown up, shot more times than all the targets at a shooting range combined, and apparently have Wolverine's Healing Factor. So, obviously, a single pistol shot from a wounded enemy is enough to kill me. It Just Bugs Me.
    • Which is why your fate is ambiguous. You don't exactly fall over at the end of Reznov's speech at the end and you are apparently well enough to stand. Coupled with Reznov's assurance that you will live (though that could be bravado), really, there is no clear evidence that Dimitri dies from the pistol shot.
      • A single 9mm pistol round is highly unlikely to kill an adult human male, unless it hits something important. (Or medical aid is not given at all and they bleed out.) Judging by the angle and the way you're limping, it seems like you got shot in the gut. You'll be fine.
      • This is usually where someone says "Gameplay and Story Segregation".
      • Technically, Reznov directly says that he'd '...make it through it. [He] always [does]'. Petrenko's death is about as implied as Soap's. Regardless, with Black Ops out... he's alive.
      • There's a lot of that in this game. In the marine's mission when the first sergeant guy gets stabbed and dies at the end, I heard the Japanese guy screaming "bansai" and immediately knew what door he was going to pop out of, and when he did, I emptied a whole Garand clip into him point blank before the scripted stabbing even happened.
  • The fucking Vendetta sniper battle on Veteran. Every other German in the whole damn level dies from 1 shot to the face, this asshole takes 3. He also can tell exactly where you are at all times (a luxury you don't have) and can kill you with one shot to ANYWHERE. I know it's supposed to be challenging, but this is cheating bastard level hard.
  • In the Soviet mission "Their Land, Their Blood", at the start, there's several things about it that bothered me. For one, Dimitri is being held prisoner by 3 German soldiers, but for some reason, his rifle is on a table right next to him, easily within reach. Why would his rifle be loaded and right next to him if he's a hostage? Secondly, there are 3 Germans, all with submachine guns and automatic rifles, and your guy was reaching for a slow-firing bolt action rifle, but when you start, you find that Dimitri apparently had a Tokarev pistol on him the whole time that they didn't take either. So why was he reaching for a gun that would just get him killed when he could have shot all 3 of them in the back of the head in like 2 seconds immediately after waking up?
    • Also, IRL, Soviet troops would have immediately executed Dimitri as a traitor for allowing himself to be taken alive. It doesn't matter how badass he is, Stalin denounced his own son as a traitor after he was captured.
      • Not necessarily, sometime Stalin put such men in Gulags instead of killing them outright. Plus, the war was almost over and too many men had died on the Russian side by then that any man willing and able-bodied enough to fight would be called upon in the push towards Berlin, even a captured man like Dimitri. Besides, Chernov and Reznov were the only people who knew he was captured as they are the ones who stormed the building he was captured in and rescued him, they weren't under any obligation to reveal to command that Dimitri had been captured if they didn't feel like outing a friend.
      • Stalin was also known to take deserters and former POWs and make them into units who's duty it was to be cannon fodder and perform the worst jobs. With Reznov in for his injury, Chernov for his cowardice, and Dimitri for his capture they all could have been part of a unit meant for suicide missions and taking it to another level of Badass that they survived!
  • This troper was exceptionally annoyed that this entry in the CoD series, which was originally founded on the idea that "It took more than one country to win World War II" (and the fact it is subtitled "World at War") has decided to forgo including a British campaign. I mean, I know that the SAS play a pivotal role in the Modern Warfare spin-off, but it just seems like wasted potential. Playing a British soldier at Dunkirk would be very interesting. And why do they completely ignore the Free French? Or even the myriad of resistance groups? Those would add a unique and interesting spin to the series as well. Only playing Americans and Russians in the main campaign just seemed...lazy.
    • Every other main Call of Duty game to date has featured a British campaign. Having only a Russian and American campaign is a breath of fresh air by comparison.
    • Hell, taking a chance at playing a German campaign would be very interesting. Just because you play a German soldier doesn't mean you are going to be gassing Jews with the click of a mouse...
    • There was originally going to be a British campaign. The PlayStation 2 port actually has it and there are game files that people fished out for the Lee Enfield, Bren and Sten. I just assume the fact Activi$ion make them pump it out at roughly the same time every year meant they didn't have time. Pity.
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