The Pacific, Stalingrad, the mud, and a horde of zombies to close out the evening.

World at War has a profile built on violent contrasts. Controller in hand it sits very high: ahead of 93% of games. Fun follows, ahead of 68% of titles, and the soundtrack edges past 78% of games, on few votes, to confirm. People would even take it to a desert island, ahead of 82% of the rest, which makes sense with a zombies mode that never runs dry. But two lines collapse. Attachment only clears 18% of games, and the wish to rediscover it for the first time drops to 8%, right at the bottom. That is the tension: people love holding it, they have no desire to live its story again. Art direction only edges past 17% of titles, no shock for a war game that is deliberately grey and filthy.

Next to the sleeker, more spectacular modern Call of Duty entries, this one stays the most brutal, and above all the one that launched the mode people still boot up.

So, who is it for? For you if you love dry, punchy gunplay, co-op that lasts and waves that keep climbing. Much less if you want a game that leaves a lasting mark somewhere other than your fingers.