Breaking Point

From the Call of Duty Wiki

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Heart of the Reich
Breaking Point
Shuri Castle as it is now.
Game
Call of Duty: World at War
Character
Private Miller
Team
Marine Raiders (A branch of the United States Marine Corps)
Weapons
M1 Garand(0+0) and other weapons picked up later in the supply drop field.
Place
Shuri Castle, Okinawa
Date
May 29th, 1945
Enemies
Imperial Japanese Army
Multiplayer map
Courtyard, Castle

"Everything that was asked of us, we've done. Every night we lay in a filthy foxhole praying the enemy won't slit our throats. Every day we spent crawling through the mud and dirt while bullets whistled all around. This is the enemy's last stand. When we take Shuri Castle we go home. All of us..."

— Sgt Roebuck

"Destroy Shuri Castle and Defeat the final Japanese Protection in Okinawa"

— Single Player Description

Breaking Point is a mission in Call of Duty: World at War. It takes place in and around Shuri Castle on Okinawa island, Japan. Upon starting the level, the player will notice he has no ammo in his M1 Garand, but a parachute drop containing ammo and guns will drop, the guns are: Thompson, M1 Garand, M1919 and a Scoped Springfield. It is advised to pick up at least the Thompson, and then go to the main bag and pick up ammo. The crate has infinite ammo. After picking up some guns, you will wipe out some troops and descend into an underground building. After getting out of it, there will be a large firefight and after this you will have to destroy Japanese mortar positions. Use mortar rounds on tables scattered around the place and in the pits themselves to ease the work, but beware they are very, very powerful. After this, you will enter what resembles the multiplayer map Courtyard, and after this you will go into a large open field with the courtyard buildings and some sandbags, and this is where the real twist of the knife is.

[edit] The Twist

Some Japanese soldiers will appear to be surrendering, but it is trap, and as Polonsky goes to one and Roebuck goes to the other two, they lash out, and the player must save one of them. If you save Roebuck, Polonsky will die, and vice versa. Saving Roebuck is harder, as there are two soldiers, and a grenade is scripted to go off. When you save Roebuck, he is distraught at Polonsky's death and turns into what Reznov is, ordering you to show no mercy and kill all enemy soldiers, and after you call in the airstrikes on the buildings the surviving one of them will give you the other's tag, hinting that they don't deserve it and are extremely upset and feel guilty of the other's death, even though they couldn't do anything, but whatever the scenario it is extremely emotional.

NOTE : If you do save Roebuck you get the Xbox achievement/ PS3 trophy 'Guardian Angel.' On the Xbox it is worth 10 Gamerscore, and on the PS3 it is a Bronze trophy.

[edit] Tips

• Use the mortar rounds.
• Pick up the M1919 and Thompson.
• You can blow up the hut with the machine gun, near the 3rd and 4th mortar pit, with a mortar.
• When playing co-op, try to blow all destructible buildings with mortars. That gives you nearly 5000 points and 4x point boost for a short time.

[edit] Trivia

• A fun way to kill the ambushing Japanese soldiers at the start of the game is to get grenades and throw them all at the green where the soldiers are firing from. Once you run out of grenades, pick more up from the supply drop and continue throwing them. To make the green look like there's just been a forest fire there, do the same, except use the smoke grenades. However, the smoke grenade idea is not a good one, as when you have to get to cover, the smoke covers the whole screen and blocks your vision. You might just end up getting killed.
• The supply bags are identical to the objectives for the attackers in Search and Destroy.
• If you kill one of the soldiers up near the barbed bunker, another will run up and look over him, and you can freely wander the last battlefield.
• You can also save Roebuck and Polonsky by cooking a grenade and throwing it towards Roebuck and quickly shooting Polonsky's attacker. You can also try shooting the soldiers before they grab Polonsky and Roebuck. It may take a few times, but is possible or simply use a mortar shell aim about the middle of the box when Roebuck and Polonsky are grabbed and throw it and they will usually survive.
• The sniper shot that kills the soldier at the beginning of the level where you pick up ammo at the ammo drop will sometimes come out of midair.
• If you don't try to save Polonsky or Roebuck, Polonsky will push down and beat up his opponent and the grenade will explode, causing Roebuck to die.
• This is the last mission of the Pacific Campaign.
• If Polonsky dies you can take his M1 Garand to use in the final battle, but if Roebuck is killed you can't take his Thompson.
• During the last battle a soldiers name is Schoonover implying that the game is soon over (Though Schoonover can appear as the wounded soldier at the start of Little Resistance).
• When you climb up the ladder out of the tunnel, you see a submachine gunner, but he actually has a Browning M1919, a machine gun.
• Said marine is holding the machine gun one-handed.
• The idea of throwing mortars without the mortar tube may have come from the war movie Saving Private Ryan, where two American soldiers use mortars as grenades against Germans
• If you look at Roebuck's Thompson when he dies, it is in a quite irregular position
• In the Wii version, the ending can sometimes glitch in the fact that even if you save Polonsky, Roebuck will hand you Polonsky's dogtags, despite the fact that you can clearly see Roebuck's body on the ground.
• After getting above ground you notice that the soldier with the Browning M1919 is tagged as a submachine gunner and if you save him, he will carry it over his shoulder, with the barrel facing backwards.
• Sometimes if Roebuck is killed his body will disappear before Polonsky even gets to him.
• On the Wii version, and possibly on other consoles, at the part where Roebuck bursts open the door to meet the soldiers pretending to surrender, you can jump out of the window on the left of the door and go down to the surrendering soldiers even before your squad comes to them. The are seen waving their hands in the air, as scripted, but shooting, knifing, bayoneting or grenading them will not kill them.
• If Roebuck dies, Polonsky will hand you Roebuck's dogtags but if you enable the subtitles you'll see it says that Roebuck was the one who speaks. It is possible that the game was supposed to be set that Roebuck survives and Polonsky dies. This is highly unlikely however, as Roebuck's words are just an echo of what he says (for dramatic effect most likely) before the level begins.
• If you dont call the planes in after so time, live grenades will spawn around you, causing you to die.
• One of the weapons in the weapon drop in the courtyard is a Scoped Arisaka instead of a Springfield.
• It may be just a glitch but when Polonsky dies and Roebuck gives you Polonsky's dog tags if you look closely they read Roebuck. This could mean Roebuck kept Polonsky's but gave you his or the game developers only made the dogtags for Roebuck.
• This is the longest mission in Call of Duty: World at War.
• Starting with the sniper attack, then going to the trench, coming out and suffering a major Banzai attack, attacking the Japanese in the Castle area, going to the mortars, breaking into the Courtyard, fighting into the main building, going down to another cave and fighting the Japanese, the twist attack and then the largest Banzai attack in Call of Duty: World At War.
• This mission has the most automatic Banzai Attackers in the entire game.
•  This is another mission to acquire the Rough Economy achievement. When you enter the underground Japanese trench, there will be 2 men talking in the same line of fire, and another man patrolling. If you time it right, you'll get the achievement without dying.

Campaign levels of Call of Duty: World at War
America	Semper Fi · Little Resistance · Hard Landing · Burn 'em out · Relentless· Black Cats · Blowtorch & Corkscrew · Breaking Point
Russia	Vendetta · Their Land, Their Blood · Blood and Iron · Ring of Steel · Eviction · Heart of the Reich · Downfall
Nazi Zombies	Nacht der Untoten · Zombie Verrückt · Shi No Numa · Der Riese