Building on the Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare engine, Call of Duty: World at War thrusts players into the ruthless and gritty chaos of WWII combat and challenges them to band together to survive the most harrowing and climactic battles in both the European and Pacific theaters.

World War I (also known as WW1 or The Great War) was a global conflict featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty: Black Ops III on the Zombies map Origins. The player will not be able to fight in the war, because Zombies have overrun the map.