Treyarch: World at War and COD4 are "islands apart"
- Posted November 12th, 2008 at 07:09 EDT by
- 4,460 views
- 37 Comments
Speaking during an interview with Kikizo, Call of Duty: World at War Senior Producer Noah Heller has commented at length on comparisons with Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Developed by Treyarch and published by Activision, World at War runs on Infinity Ward's proprietary engine, which has prompted more ascerbic commentators to describe it as 'COD4 with a World War II reskin'. Heller acknowledged the debt to Infinity Ward - "Infinity Ward led the pack, established the franchise, created the brand" - but reminded gamers that Treyarch had made its own lasting contributions to the IP.
"A lot of different people have been involved in building up the Call of Duty franchise," he said. "The guys who worked on this game worked on Call of Duty 3, which while it wasn't as critically acclaimed and it was a much shorter development cycle, there were a lot of copies of that game sold. They worked on United Defensive, Big Red One - a lot of Call of Duty games."
Heller observed that a mere reproduction of COD4's gameplay in different clothes would be an insult to fans. "It's clear to us that gamers are smart. They wouldn't take just a World War II 'skin' on the existing Modern Warfare engine. You know, they need to be able to play against the Japanese and see the work that went into the AI, they need to be able to play with the flamethrower and see that blood, sweat and tears went into making that thing beautiful."
While they share a technological backbone, World at War and COD4 are very distinct at the level of design. "I want to be really clear - from a design perspective and when it comes to game content, they're islands... you know, islands apart," Heller insisted.
Nor has Infinity Ward intervened much throughout development. "You can't get good creative game design if you have too many fingers in the pot trying to muck about," Heller pointed out. "It's great to have the technology support and it's great to have the engine support, but you know, you would destroy that team if you had either team trying to executive produce each other, right?"
He admitted that Call of Duty 3 had left a little to be desired, but put that game's discrepancies down to a short development time. "I don't ask the game playing public to 'forgive' Treyarch for Call of Duty 3; it was a good game, and the fact that it took nine months to make... the gaming public shouldn't accept that, you know - they should say, "we want games that game developers had enough time to make.""
"We don't want them to forgive Treyarch," Heller concluded. "We want them to give them a second chance, and that's a subtle distinction, but now that Treyarch has had two years to make a game, I'm not going to draw comparisons to Infinity Ward, but what I will say is that I hope the game can stand head and shoulders against any game on the market - and certainly, I feel it's the best shooter this year."
Call of Duty: World at War launched yesterday in the U.S. for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS. The game hits Europe on November 14.
Comments
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gabriel1985
- 7:14am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 1
It's freakin amazing!!!! After Playing Gears 2 and Resistance 2 I thought nothing for the rest of the year could give me that satisfaction.But this did.
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hitman8062 |
hitman8062- 7:34am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 3
Is it better than resistance, because im getting either one but im not sure witch, most likely resistance
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a_stray_bullet10
- 7:50am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 4
hey forgot to mention how one sucks and one is awesome.
also. when he said blood sweat and TEARS went into making the game. i wonder if the tears were just them knowing they will never live up to the standard IW set with modern warfare. they really shot themselves in the foot with the WW2 setting
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Lunar_Chaos
- 7:55am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 5
I been playing this none stop! Must be my favorite game this gen.
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tadpole3159 |
faulkner8991- 8:04am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 6
"They worked on United Defensive"
United OFFENSIVE. not united defensive. united offensive is an expansion pack to the first call of duty
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GunTeng
- 8:09am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 8
lol...its the connection with COD4 that would prevent me buying a game like this...not the WW2 setting.
COD4 although having nice elements which set some standards for my own gaming tastes, was not a great game...especially with the limited online mode.
Trechard would need to look at where COD4 failed and correct that, otherwise their game will fail IMO. There is more to a game than visuals....at least there should be.
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The_Sorrow_Gamer |
The_Sorrow_Gamer- 9:14am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 11
its prettty good to b a WW2 game n im not lying
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kidkotic2001 |
hotshot2001- 10:15am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 16
I dont know why this game is not interesting to me dont feel that I need to play it I think part of it is that im tried of WW2 games we need to push this off and get modern wars you know current events or even a little in the future not crazy weapons like lazer guns and stuff like that but like COD4. I never felt the urge to buy or play this game I might rent it and see how it goes, other than that I dont think this game will be up to par with Gears 2 or R2. I played r2 and that is one of the ps3 best games yet.
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chilledbreeze7
- 10:22am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 17
Just not sure whether to get this or not, although the screen shots look pretty impressive.
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Paranoimia |
Paranoimia- 11:22am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 19
I wasn't sure about this, but I am now. I just can't bring myself to play through yet another WW2 game, so now matter how good it may be, I'm going to pass. Roll on R2, KZ2 and CoD6. Please, developers... let's let WW2 go now, eh?
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dra6190
- 11:22am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 20
its not a bad game but da multiplayer isnt as good as da 4th. if you notice you respawn with you teammates. this isnt really a good thing because da respawns are horrible sometimes i respawn in da middle of a gun fight and when you go off by urself you are more likely to run into 2 or more people at once. and the vehicles are a bit much. the maps are too big so there are times that im jus runnin around lookin for people for a good minute. i love resistance 2 i jus wish they made da competitive mode better its a lot like halo in the way dat you need 2 empty a clip on someone for them to die
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Crack-Head
- 11:30am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 21
omg yes, got it today, ordered it from play and i guess they sent it too early. its a good game from what ive played so far. and its got good music to make yu wanna kill even more enemies ! yea - havnt played multiplayer yet tho but will later on
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ironflag55555 |
ironflag555- 11:38am GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 22
this world war 2 will never get put to rest, why would you go from good to bad ? sorry but i have no intrest in this game what so ever.. il stick to socom until better games come out kz2
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bilbo_bobbins |
bilbo_bobbins- 12:05pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 23
@22 and all the others that say the same....
Stop copying what the idiots go on about all the time.. there is nothing wrong with WW2 games, infact it's probably better than modern games because there should be more tactics involved. I bet those who say its stupid going back ww2 will end up buying the game after the really good reviews from people.
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ryuken
- 12:33pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 24
COD5 is very cool, besides the flamethrower there are some dope guns in the game that I thought they made up for a second. like the one with the bannana clip facing stright up that zooms in real nice when you aim and it takes fools out quick. The game looks great plays great and its good fun killing, I recommend it. btw R2 is awesome but I'm pissed that I cant collect all the weapons like in the first one....lame.
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xxIvErx
- 12:52pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 25
Even though that guy is saying that WaW is not just "COD4 with a WW2 reskin", from watching the gameplay to me it still looks like COD4 in just a different environment. I want developers to really work hard on making a good game in order for them to get $60 from my pocket. Treyarch is just playing it safe by using an engine that has gotten many praises. To me it's COD4.5 not 5. So I'll pass on this one...
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ironflag55555 |
ironflag555- 1:00pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 27
@23 bibbo bobins........everyone is entitled to there own opinions so dont get ur panties in a bunch idiot
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Hyourinmaru |
DAT1AZNPAN- 3:14pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 28
lets just say it's up there with r2 and cod4 but it's not as good as cod4 and r2 if r2 and cod4 was a 10 cod5 would be a 9 or 9.5 i played it it's good but the air streak is gay n the dogs are dumb cause they're just distractions and while the dogs distract the player to shoot them ur teammates can kill em n basically steal ur kill
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Axe99
- 3:23pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 29
I find it a little frustrating that everyone slams Treyarch for COD3 - sure, it wasn't COD4, but it was a decent, enjoyable game. Indeed, I think anyone who slams COD3 should be looked in a room with Haze for 24 hours and see if they hold the same opinion when they leave!
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Denali2 |
NEJI64- 5:49pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 32
@23 its a reason why peope are mad its been what 5 -10 other wars since WW2 and thats the U.S alone. now if they show the two bombs droping that ended the war (well it for the U.S) then i might buy it. if i wanna play a game with flame throwers on them i would play ''WARHAWK''
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evilmonkey501 |
evilmonkey501- 11:04pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 35
Did you like cod4? Then you will like this game. 1010. I like it better than r2, and almost as much as cod4 which is an 11/10 in my book...
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Stev-o |
kingboy941- 11:41pm GMT - November 12th, 2008
- 36
sure the graphics are good in this game but still the only thing that this game that other WWII games haven't had is that little flamethrower.Im not gonna get a game just for a flamethrower,even though im not gonna get this game i would probably choose this game over resistance 2
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I_AM_LEGEND246 |
Cilldealga + IAMLEGEND2468- 5:19pm GMT - November 15th, 2008
- 37
one word. SAVAGE. definetly worth picking up a copy of. I agree with 26 and 27 :) :) :P :P =) =)
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