It's actually incredible to me that this would go on to be one of the most underrated Call of Duty games in the whole series, especially when this game did so much for the franchise. I think the main thing that turned people off of this game was that it was another WWII shooter that came right after COD4 which was one of the first really well done modern warfare FPS games and people naturally were craving more of that, especially when you consider the fact that prior to COD4 every COD game was a WWII shooter, not only that but that particular genre of FPS's was pretty common in the early 2000's so to say that people were probably pretty tired of those kinds of games would be an understatement. Not me though, for me WWII is one of the most fascinating parts of history, so no matter how many movies or video games come out about it, I'll probably still be interested. That being said, this game also introduced some new mechanics as well as carried on some mechanics from the last COD game which I feel really made this one stick out. First off, being able to use a knife as your last minute melee attack was really helpful especially since it was a one hit kill. Secondly this game took place mainly during the Pacific theater of WWII between the U.S. and Japan who fought viciously and were not your typical soldiers, they were known to fight to the death and never to surrender, no matter the cost. You also had to deal with a lot of soldiers who would disguise themselves and hide in plain sight which made their ambushes difficult and intense, you also often had to deal with bonzai attackers who would utilize the bayonetts at the ends of their rifles, if you failed to take them out it'd be an instant death for you. That doesn't even begin to get into the amazing story of the Russian campaign, in most COD games at least back then there were different armies you fought with so the second one in this game was a Russian soldier fighting against Nazi's, starting off in the devastating battle of Stalingrad where you sneak your way around the city using a sniper rifle, all the way to the Russian assault on Berlin. During this campaign you meet one of my favorite COD characters, Viktor Reznov, a brave if not a bit extreme Russian soldier who aids you from the beginning. There is also a younger soldier named Chernov, who criticizes Reznov's extreme ways, which often involved killing any sort of Germans they came across, even soldiers who had their hands in the air to surrender. On the American team you have a small platoon of U.S. soldiers who fight their way from the battle of Pelieleiu (I really hope I spelled that right) to the battle at Okinawa, one of the final battles before the U.S. dropped the two atom bombs, the American campaign is definitely less exciting but it includes a character voiced by Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer on the show '24') so that's pretty rad if you ask me.

While the games multiplayer is probably dead seeing as it's been 13 years since this game came out (sheesh, I'm getting old) it was definitely an enjoyable experience and again included many aspects that were originally put into COD4, such as custom classes, being able to add sights to your weapons, perks, etc. It wasn't really anything new but rather more of the old and as I remember it was still plenty of fun. The real show-stopper here though, was nazi zombies mode. This was a brand new "Survive as long as you can" mode where you and 3 other friends are locked inside a building where there are nazi zombies trying to break in, your job is to make sure they don't by watching all the windows and ensuring that they stay boarded up as well as keeping yourself and your fellow comrades alive for as long as possible. There's no real way to win this mode as far as I know but it's still a ton of fun and was a game mode that was included in many of the COD games since, though it is often forgotten which game it came from.