I had a chance last night to play the beta of Call of Duty:World at War. First impressions were not bad, but everything is going to difficult comparing anything to Call of Duty4:Modern Warfare – which is such an awesome online experience.
I didn’t play much, just a couple of games of TDM, there are three maps available – this is a beta after all, and the ranks only go up to 11. In the RTM there are 65 ranks and (?)prestige's, perks etc to be had. As this is set back in time the UAV, Airstrike and chopper are gone and are replaced by spotter planes, artillery and dogs. If anyone has played the single player mode of CoD4 they will remember the dogs and they are as much a pain in this one as choppers are in 4 – though you do get points for shooting them.
There are additional slots for custom classes, 5 at first but more once you prestige, so all those people who haven’t taken prestige in CoD4, will now have to decide whether to take it in this game for the added benefit of the custom slots.
There is the opportunity to look back at stats and view stats of people in the lobby. Stats are also broken down by game type, if you prefer one game type over another this will give the leaderboard a different look.
Within the beta there are a few game types but looking through the leaderboard filters it looks as though there are quite a few hardcore modes including Headquarters which is touted to come out on CoD4:MW soon (www.fourzerotwo.com)
The maps may be small but I found it quite difficult to guess friend or foe – which leads to the obvious result. You can turn off the icon or customize it above your teammates heads.
You can set the locale for which the lobby so those people who experience lag a lot may find helps.
Would I recommend it – the jury is still out on that one. Will I play it more – no, still a CoD4:MW player working through the 6th prestige and will keep going.
