The entire world is burning, and two soldiers on opposite ends of the world are fighting a war for survival. In the Pacific, Private C. Miller of the US Marines survives capture by Japanese forces and then engages in some of the most iconic battles of the Pacific Front to drive back the Japanese. Meanwhile on the Eastern Front, Private Dimitri Petrenko narrowly survives the Battle of Stalingrad to find a worthy ally in the revenge-hungry Viktor Reznov, desperate to find and kill a German general named Heinrich Amsel.

World at War brings forth the advanced graphics engine of Call of Duty 4 to render the full scale of the brutality of World War II across two wildly different fronts, from the stifling heat of the Pacific to the freezing cold of Eastern Europe.