Call of Duty: World At War Beta Hands-On

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Call of Duty: World At War Beta Hands-On

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare lit the war game genre on fire last year, at least in part because it was set in the current day, not WWII, like almost every other. Personally, I wanna see a good Vietnam game. Until then, Matt has the pre-details on COD5.

Reviewer:
Matt
Categories:
Games

Reviewer: Matt Clement

Call of Duty: World At War Beta Multiplayer Hands-On

It's beta time again, and this time, it’s Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer. The beta features 3 maps as well as a slew of game types. Upon receiving my beta token and firing it up, I was quite pleased with the menus and the ease I had getting into a game. World at War feels a lot like its predecessor, although it's still different in many ways. The controls and combat style of the game are exactly the same. The biggest difference is that the game takes place during World War II. Some may feel like this is a rehashed setting, but it is actually quite cool what they have done with it.

The ranking system and perks are still there and just as addicting as ever. One major addition to the game is vehicles; the only one that is in the beta is a tank, although I’m guessing the full game will contain more. The vehicles also have perks, and it works quite nicely. Greased Bearings, Leadfoot, and Coaxial Machine Gun are just a few of the perks for vehicles. There is also the addition of Molotov Cocktails, Bazookas, Flares, and a 7 kill streak reward that “Unleashes the Dogs”, quite literally, instead of a helicopter. One thing I noticed while playing was the time it took for frag grenades to blow up. It seemed to take a lot longer for them to go off. In a way it was kind of a nice change, because I feel that grenades were too heavily used in the previous installment. Another new thing that was added was a more gory kill cam. When you get killed by a frag or blow up by a tank, you will occasionally see your solider lying dead on the ground, missing an arm or a leg. It is very reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan, and quite cool that the series is getting a bit more graphic, seeing as it is a war game.

One thing I was sort of disappointed about was the level design. The 3 maps offered in the beta are really cool, don’t get me wrong, but some of the textures are really bad and it doesn’t live up to the expectations I had. Also if you’re used to the advanced weaponry of modern warfare, this new game might throw you off at first; being a WWII game, the weapons are all old and from, of course, WWII. One thing I was worried about from the beginning was not having a red dot sight or something like it. However, once you progress to higher ranks you will unlock an aperture sight, which is just like the red dot in the previous game. In addition to all the new stuff, there is also a bunch of new perks, character models and audio.

From my time playing the beta I would say this game is very solid, any fan of the previous Call of Duty games will be happy with this new addition, and I’m sure the full game will contain enough goodies to make World at War just as fun as the previous titles.

Call of Duty: World At War

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