Gamers throughout the world are at war - and we're fighting a losing battle. With a constant barrage of triple-A titles assaulting us from every direction, and no sign of the onslaught abating, it's next to impossible to sample the delights that this legion of new releases has to offer. Our resources to purchase games are stretched to breaking point, we're suffering from hunger and sleep deprivation, and our social lives are in tatters. Yes indeed, the publishers have got us on the defensive, taking cover on our gaming systems at every opportunity - and we're loving every damn minute of it!

I think when we look back at the current decade, 2008 will be considered one of the best years in the history of gaming. Although there's every chance that the next two years will equal, or even surpass, this one, I can't recall a time when we've ever been so spoiled for choice - with the latest generation now in full swing, there's never been a better time to be, or become, a gamer. Of course, in war there are always casualties, and while every game that is anything less than great has already been mown down in a hail of stunning presentation and a salvo of deep gameplay, even the leviathan titles are at risk of being overlooked in the fight for your attention. One title that stands proud on the battlefield though is Call of Duty: World at War, rendered almost invulnerable by the armour of its predecessor's incredible popularity - thankfully though, Treyarch wasn't content to simply rely on the series' reputation for its prowess in combat, instead providing an experience that, both offline and on, is every bit as brilliant as, if not even better than, Call of Duty 4.

The decision to delve back into the exhaustively plundered history of World War II for this latest CoD release was a surprising choice. Many gamers, myself included, were despondent upon learning this news - we'd finally got into a modern era of assault rifles and attack helicopters, and it seemed like the series was taking a backwards step, forsaking one of the biggest reasons for CoD 4's success. However, the only way the series has gone back is in time, because Treyarch has taken the superb core gameplay engine and fantastically diverse online multiplayer system, enhancing its already stellar presentation and creating a range of new weapons, challenges and intelligently designed maps to enjoy.

The single player campaign of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was hailed by most as an adrenaline-fuelled adventure from start to finish that was a little on the short side but great while it lasted. The same is true of World at War; in fact, the set pieces here are even more spectacular, making this the most brutal and visceral recreation of the Second World War that I've ever experienced. The levels are fairly brief and there are only thirteen of them, but there's more incentive than ever for repeated play, thanks to the superb new co-op mode that has been introduced (more on this later).

The campaign starts how it intends to continue - with a hard-hitting moment and one hell of a bang. It's August 17th 1942 and on the island of Makin Atoll in the South Pacific, your character, Private Miller, has been captured. You are powerless to help as you watch your fellow prisoner defiantly spit blood in the face of his interrogator, who responds by stubbing out his cigar in the man's eye before his lackey slits his throat, splattering the wall with blood. It's the first of many shocking moments and Treyarch isn't pulling any punches in its gruesome portrayal of the realities of war. Just as you're about to suffer the same fate, Corporal Roebuck arrives, rescuing you and bombing the hell out of the beachside encampment, with burning structures collapsing all around you as you make your way through the night-time carnage to plant explosives in the nearby ammo dump. Gunfire rattles all around you and exploding grenades shower you with dirt and sand, causing your ears to ring and your vision to blur; bullets whistle past your head and thump into your body as you charge from cover to cover, pumping lead into your enemies, their blood spurting from their limbs, bodies and heads as they and your comrades fall, sometimes mortally wounded, sometimes instantly sent to oblivion by a fatal head shot, the cries of dying men on both sides of the conflict providing a mournful accompaniment to the scenes of carnage. After planting the explosives, you're wounded and dragged down the beach to a boat, watching the spectacular detonation as you speed out to sea, safe at last - but not for long.

Your next mission takes place two years later, when the US storms the white beaches of Peleliu Island on September 15th 1944, the troops loaded into ATV transports that splash through the shallow coastal waters. A damaged plane screeches by overhead, crashing into the sea beyond, as some of the transports around you are blown out of existence. Yours follows suit and time slows as you flail in the water, pulled onto the beach by one of the survivors. Radioing for a missile strike, you decimate the frontline defences, climbing a ridge to behold a scene of devastated tree stump and a few dazed survivors staggering around, who you quickly put out of their misery. Fighting your way through enemy territory, you arrive at an airfield where you must use a bazooka to take out some tanks, which explode in a shower of flame and black smoke. The next mission sees you trekking through a murky swamp, then you take to the trenches, using the awesome new flamethrower to burn out the Japanese, the flame effects and the resultant screams of the torched souls so realistic that they can be quite disturbing; not that you'll feel too sorry for them after you've been stabbed to death by kamikaze soldiers a few times, your only defence when you're down being to click the right thumbstick with precision timing.

The campaign switches between Private Miller and Private Petrenko, a Russian whose story begins in Stalingrad, lying amongst a pile of bodies, with German patrols shooting anyone who is still moving. You and a soldier named Reznov manage to escape, and what follows is a hugely tense stealth mission, as you play cat and mouse with a sniper, dodge German patrols and flee through a burning building with German flamethrower troops closing upon you, in a race against time to assassinate a key German general. Two and a half years later, it's April 1945 and you're now in Germany, fighting through some rural settlements before taking the fight into the city streets as you close in on their headquarters and Germany's final defeat. In one mission you take control of a tank, laying waste to vehicles, structures and soldiers, with your cannon and mounted flamethrower, while a US mission sees you in an attack plane, switching between four gunner seats to blast a supply convoy of ships and its armed patrol vessels out of the water, as well as defending your own fleet from an aerial assault. The first person view as you run back and forth through the aircraft is immersive to say the least.

Every single part of the campaign, whether you're in the thick of battle or moving to prepare an offensive, feels like war. Each level is graphically stunning in its own way, be it the foreboding swamps, the pastoral locales, or the devastated, war torn cities and towns. There's no holding back on the gore either; grenades blow arms and legs clean off as men fall quivering to the ground, blood shoots out from skulls as bullets impact, and soldiers scream as they spend their last moments on Earth in a blaze of burning agony. The shaking screen and the cacophony of the battlefield enhances the compelling atmosphere, with the orchestral soundtrack adding to the grandeur of the large-scale action or the tension of the calm before the storm. The story is presented in a similar style to CoD 4, with levels introduced by some real war footage clips and a montage of slick 3D graphics that chart the progress of the war, narrated by Roebuck and Reznov, the former of which is voiced by none other than Kiefer "Jack Bauer" Sutherland. Voicing a game character isn't easy, but Kiefer delivers one of the best performances I've ever heard in a game, acting with real passion and emotion, often shouting his lines as though he was really in the midst of a battle, rather than sitting in a studio behind a microphone. I could swear I heard him say "Tell me where the bomb is, now!" and "Chloe, you've got to trust me on this!" a couple of times, too...

Criticisms will no doubt be raised against the campaign - it's extremely linear, with your only real choices being the weapons you use (from a limited selection of whatever's to hand) and occasionally an alternative route to your objective, handily shown on a radar style display. However, I'm tired of hearing how every single game needs to be open-ended and give you unprecedented freedom; World at War forsakes this notion, playing to its strengths and providing a scripted, cinematic experience that's packed with stunning set pieces and dramatic moments. It feels like an interactive version of Saving Private Ryan, a movie quality experience where you play the starring role.

The innovative co-op mode, for up to four players via split screen, system link or Xbox Live, injects real longevity into the campaign, offering both co-operative and competitive play. The former is simply you against the enemy, and if one of you goes down then the others have about thirty seconds to revive them before the mission has failed and it's back to the last checkpoint. The competitive mode meanwhile awards points for every kill and team-mate revival, so while you still have to work together, you need to be greedy and steal the most kills while avoiding a hail of enemy gunfire, if you want to come out at the top of the scoreboard. Adding further incentive, a host of challenges, such as killing enemies with returned grenades, getting head shots and kills with a range of weapons, and dozens more, offer XP to help you increase your online rank; rewarding your multiplayer rank with co-op challenges is nothing short of genius and it should be more than enough reason to guarantee the campaign's longevity, especially given how much fun it is to team up with friends or strangers and work together to get through those fortified enemy lines. Speaking of which, while there seem to be a few instances of endlessly respawning enemies, they're not half as severe as they were in CoD 4, meaning that, for the most part, the enemies are finite and stop flowing after a while, allowing you to progress without having to keep gaining ground.

However, despite the new co-op mode greatly extending the appeal and longevity of the action packed campaign, it's the multiplayer that will keep you coming back to World at War for the next year and potentially beyond. As with CoD 4 (which is still hugely popular), this is a shooter that just gets everything right; the map designs, the feel of the weapons, the intuitive controls, the range of tactics you can employ and the diverse choice of modes to suit your mood - it's all sublimely conceived and implemented, resulting in a highly addictive and enjoyable experience; you'll play for hours at a time and still have to drag yourself away through sheer force of will so that you can fix your dinner or snatch a bit of sleep (or write a review of the game!).

The stunning visuals of the campaign spill over into the multiplayer, with many of the key locations providing the foundation for the thirteen maps. Cliffside's South Pacific setting features a spectacular backdrop and a waterfall, a generally open level with a smattering of buildings within which to take cover and snipe, and narrow paths to sneak around its edge, while Roundhouse takes place in a ruined train yard, with severely bombed structures and wrecked carriages surrounding a central building and a walkway to survey the carnage from above. Seelow is the sniper's best friend, a vast rural map split by a ridge in its centre, with cornfields and an enclosed railway line for cover and a number of houses to camp in. Courtyard and Dome are smaller maps for close-quarters action, the former a maze of walls with a raised walkway set around its border, the latter more open with an upper level for picking off foes. Castle is a Japan-based level with intricate architecture and blossoming trees, where a range of structures provide useful vantage points for picking off foes as they charge across the open ground, and Makin is a night-time, beachside locale, populated by wooden shacks and corrugated metal fences, with a sniper tower and an open area to the north. Outskirts is one of the most visually impressive levels, a decimated rural village with well over a dozen bombed out buildings to hide in and a central tower from which to rain down fire on the tanks that patrol its streets (yes, tanks!) The likes of Airfield and Downfall are visually stunning too, both sprawling maps with varied sections, Airfield with its plane wreckage and Downfall with towering ruined structures surrounding you.

Each map is as well-designed as the last, with plenty of vantage points if you want to camp but none where you're ever truly safe from an attack from behind; most have multiple levels too, allowing you to sneak below ground through a tunnel or head to the upper floor of a building for a better view. With the amount of destruction that each location has suffered, you always feel like you are in a war zone and every building has suffered blast damage that provides extra points of access.

The range of weapons that you have at your disposal to use within these maps is diverse to say the least, with each of the five classes - Rifles, Bolt-Action Rifles (for sniping), Submachine Guns, Machine Guns and Shotguns - having two to five weapons on offer. While some classes are harder to master than others, no weapon is too overpowered; it's entirely possible to take down a machine gunner with an SMG or rifle, and shotguns only need one shot to the upper body or head when up close. There is a range of weapon attachments too, such as mufflers, flash hiders, scopes and even rifle grenades. Speaking of which, the frag grenades can still be cooked, allowing for precision throws that explode at the exact moment you desire, while the sticky grenades are great for damaging tanks and hilarious when you stick them to a doomed soldier. You need to be accurate with the new Molotovs but a direct hit means instant death, while gas grenades disorientate you, causing your vision to blur and speed to reduce as your hack and cough, and signal flares cause a few moments of blindness to aid your assault. Throw in the bazooka, the manually detonated explosive satchels and the lethal bouncing betties, motion-triggered grenades that spring from the ground and blow your legs off, and you've got a huge arsenal with which to deal death to the other team.

Kill streaks are rewarded as before; three in a row brings in the recon plane to show the enemy positions on your HUD map, five gives you an artillery strike to launch and seven allows you to send in the dogs! The artillery strikes are frighteningly visceral as the shells shriek down, throwing up dirt and shaking the screen all around you, booming in your ears. The dogs, which replace CoD 4's helicopters, are also a lethal instrument; they charge around the level savaging the opposing team, with two bites all that is needed for a kill. They cause real chaos, allowing you to move in for the kill while your foes are trying to fend off the canine assault. These aren't the only new addition to the game though, as tanks have been added to some of the larger maps. They're cumbersome and heavily armoured, so when inside a tank you're invulnerable to anything but explosives, which weaken the armour until the tank has taken a few hits and blows up - you can always bail out before that happens, though. The main turret fires lethal, high velocity shells that deal instant death with a direct hit, while the machine gun can mow down soldiers with ease, although you're vulnerable to head shots when using it. As with everything else in the game, the tanks are a powerful weapon but by no means unbeatable, so they add even more diversity without giving too big an advantage to the players who use them, and both teams start off with one or two tanks, which respawn shortly after they are destroyed.

Beyond the standard fare of Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Domination (which features three bases to capture and hold to accumulate points), World at War again offers a range of modes, such as the strategic Search and Destroy, where two teams take turns in bombing or defending one of two targets over a series of short rounds. With only one life (no respawns until the next round), play is much more cautious and tactical in this mode. Sabotage is team deathmatch with a twist - there's one bomb that you must plant in your enemy's base and defend until it explodes, but both teams can see the bomb on their HUD, even when it's carried by the enemy - so if you pick up the bomb, expect to encounter heavy resistance! Headquarters, my personal favourite, is a frantic race to capture an HQ and hold it for up to a minute; once you have the HQ under your control, your team no longer respawns, adding an extra level of strategy without meaning that you have to sit out for too long. As soon as the HQ has been destroyed, everyone respawns and the next one appears, with the first team to reach the score limit winning the day.

Each of these modes is well-conceived and excellent fun, offering something for everyone, with the big new additions coming in the form of War. A tug of war style battle, War features five locations spread across the map, with the central one neutral when you begin. You must stay in proximity to the central location to capture it, then you move onto the next one in the sequence, then the final one, which is deep in enemy territory. The result of this mode is a back and forth battle where the tide can turn in a matter of moments; you might be capturing the last location when the enemy makes a comeback and you find yourself holding them back from your last location a few minutes later. Add in the Hardcore modes where there's a limited radar and increased weapon damage, and a mode that offers Team Deathmatch and War for up to eighteen players, and you've got a wonderfully varied range of game types to enjoy.

The last element to the incredibly deep combat of World at War is the return of the perks, split into four categories this time, with the fourth being a vehicle perk. Old favourites like Martyrdom (drop a live grenade when you're killed), Stopping Power (increased weapon damage), Deep Impact (increased bullet penetration for shooting through certain surfaces), Extreme Conditioning (sprint for longer than usual, extremely handy for modes like Capture the Flag and Headquarters) and the much-loathed Juggernaut (which makes you harder to kill), all return, along with a number of new ones. Shades and Gas Mask protect you from the effects of the signal flares and tabun gas grenades, while Toss Back allows you to reset the fuse of an incoming grenade to throw it back at the enemy (grenades are still indicated on your HUD to help you avoid their deadly blast). Last Stand meanwhile has been revamped - now called Second Chance, when you're down, with only a pistol and a knife to defend yourself, anyone else with the Second Chance perk equipped can revive you, if they can reach you before you pass away. Vehicle perks include reduced overheat on the machine gun turret, faster reloading of shells, faster tank speed and being able to control the machine gun while driving.

The barracks also make a welcome return, with a huge range of challenges that grant you extra XP to help you rank up faster. Almost everything is locked when you first venture online - most of the modes, weapons and perks are gradually earned as you level up. Although entirely optional, the XP incentive of the challenges encourages you to experiment, meaning that there's always a diverse selection of weaponry and perks being used in each match - you never quite know what you're going to come up against. The challenges include everything from launching recon planes and getting kills with airstrikes and dogs, to killing whilst crouched or prone, defusing a bomb, killing using a muffled weapon, blowing up tanks, killing with the tank's barrel and machine gun, and many, many more. Every weapon also has challenges for getting kills and headshots, too. Attempting to achieve these challenges might cause a dip in your performance when you change to an unfamiliar weapon, but you adapt and become a stronger player in the end, with yet another string added to your bow - and you might just discover your new favourite gun in the process!

All of these elements - the challenges, the weapons, the perks, the vehicles, the support you can call in - combine to create one of the most diverse experiences you will ever have online, and the custom classes allow you to entirely define this experience. Need to destroy that tank? Then choose a class with satchels or a bazooka, a sticky grenade, and perhaps Juggernaut or Flak Jacket and Extreme Conditioning. Want to sneak and snipe? Then Bouncing Betties to cover your back, Camouflage to remain off the radar and Iron Lungs to hold your breath longer for precision shots might be the way to go. The game isn't perfect of course - there are a few glitches here and there, sometimes you feel a bit cheated when you could have sworn that your aim was true yet the other guy didn't die first, and there is the occasional bit of lag - but the game engine is very stable, the online play is consistently reliable, and the lobby and party system are just as intuitive and friendly as ever.

Call of Duty: World at War has entrenched itself on the battlefield, with no intention of becoming a casualty of the current gaming war. Its fairly brief but dramatic and adrenaline-fuelled campaign has been greatly enhanced by the excellent co-op mode and XP incentives, while its multiplayer is every bit as good as CoD 4, making this arguably the definitive Call of Duty experience thus far. As with its predecessor, the stellar graphics and sound, the intelligently designed levels and maps, the diverse arsenal and the way you gradually unlock new weapons, perks and challenges as you climb through the ranks, allowing you to tailor your preferences and playing style to the current match type, make this one of the most well-conceived and diverse online multiplayer games to date - and when you combine this variety with a game engine that's smooth, accurate, and very polished, you've got a game that's utterly compulsive to play, one whose longevity will outlast most of its competitors. Indeed, while other games are dropping, bullet-ridden, to the ground, drawing their last, rasping breaths, World at War will doubtless be pushing forwards, taking no prisoners in its campaign to emerge triumphant when the dust of 2008's bombardment of winter releases has finally settled.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).