"Call of Duty: World at War takes place in the Pacific," a Treyarch representative began as we sat down for a World at War demonstration during the recent Games for Windows: The Big Picture press conference.

"This was a challenging project from the very beginning," he continued. "You can't just take the German soldier AI and expect it to work properly for the Japanese. A lot of research was done, work with military advisors, and we spoke to a lot of people about how, exactly, the Japanese fought the Americans in the Pacific. A lot of research went into creating these Japanese tactics. Some of the Japanese sat in trees and waited for days for Americans to come along. Once they did, the Japanese would shoot to wound, maybe shoot them in the leg, and wait for him to scream for his buddies. Once his comrades came over, the Japanese picked them all off. There's a lot of things like that that you'll see here."


Similar brutality was witnessed as our hands-off demonstration began. Lamplight cut through the shadows of a small hut where Japanese prisoners waited on their knees, hands tied, for inevitable death. Soon enough, an American soldier entered, crouched down before the prisoner closest to the entrance, barked a few harsh words, then slashed his throat, splashing blood across the wooden walls. The character made his way over to where World at War's protagonist was positioned, said something incomprehensible due to the ongoing press conference's noise level, freed him, and led him outside.

The character didn't have long to relish the silky soft sand, swaying palm trees, and beautiful moonlight -- gunfire rang out almost as soon as he emerged from the hut. Falling in line with fellow soldiers, the pack made their way deep into a nearby jungle, shooting at anything unfamiliar that popped out of the vegetation.

"The Japanese were basically the most ruthless enemy we faced during World War II because they fought to the death, and they deployed very different tactics compared to what we used, a lot of guerrilla warfare," explained the Treyarch rep. "The American reaction to such tactics was to kill every single person, but if you kill an officer, essentially all that information that he had is gone, lost. So the American government started offering incentives to bring people back alive, because whenever the American would fight they would kill everyone, even in situations where a surrender might have been possible in theory.


"This is based off of historical recounts from what really happened," he continued. "If the Germans knew they were going to lose, they would stop and surrender. The Japanese had a very different code; they felt it was an honor to die for their emperor, so they would fight literally down to the last man. It's a very different style, very different type of enemy when compared to the Germans."

Dying Japanese soldiers dropped their weapons to the ground as the Americans advanced, which were promptly scooped up by our hero. "We're also featuring authentic Japanese weapons," said the Treyarch representative. As you go along [through the game], you'll be able to pick up..."

Like Japanese assassins emerging from the shadowy trees, another Treyarch rep appeared and whispered a few words into our guide's ear before vanishing just as quickly. "Well, oops, I guess I can't really talk a whole lot about that right now," our guide said with a laugh. "But they're there, they are authentic, and you'll be able to pick them up!"

Though certainly a different setting than Call of Duty 4, World at War's high level of aesthetic polish was easily identifiable. "Call of Duty: World at War is using much of Call of Duty 4's technology," our representative confirmed, "but Treyarch has gone in and added some of our own touches to the engine, our own spin on things. The good thing is we were working with what was an established base, and that allowed us to go in there and add things we wanted to add. On top of that, anyone who is familiar with Call of Duty 4 should be able to jump right in."


Call of Duty: World at War may be Call of Duty 4's successor, but don't confuse it with the inevitable Call of Duty 5. "World at War is definitely its own beast. We wanted to separate World at War from the core Call of Duty games. We didn't want people to walk in thinking, 'This is Call of Duty 5.' The idea is, there are still so many different stories that can be told, either in World War II or elsewhere. We didn't want to make World at War a sequel to a game. If we started adding numbers, we would change players' expectations. Instead, when you play World at War, you have an entirely different set of expectations."

As our brief preview concluded, the Treyarch rep pointed out that even though the level had been played solo, World at War's campaign can be completed with friends, a first for the Call of Duty games. "Another feature we're really excited about is cooperative play. World at War features four-player co-op play on PCs and consoles, and if you're on a console, you can play a splitscreen mode. We've really sunk a lot of time into the co-op mode. We didn't want it to just be World at War's single-player mode with more people. There is a player perk system that comes from Call of Duty 4's multiplayer, and of course we've added our own twist to it. There are also special co-op achievements, and those will be found in the PC and console versions."


He paused, then grinned. "There will be flamethrowers. Did we mention the flamethrowers?"

Look for Call of Duty: World at War to heat things up later this fall.