Call of Duty World At War

The Call of Duty franchise is one that traditionally offers two things: A good single player campaign and one of the best multiplayer experiences you may ever play. With the release of the Call of Duty: World At War BETA last week, we decided to get some hands on time with the multiplayer to let you guys know what you’re in for when the full game launches next month.As you most likely know, Call of Duty & Call of Duty 2 was an epic success for developer Infinity Ward, at the time offering the best multiplayer experience since Battlefield 1942. 

 

However when Activision decided to sign a different developer onto the franchise mid-series, disaster struck. Treyarch, a studio who previously had made the [Below Average] Call of Duty Spinoffs on console, were signed onto the franchise to develop the odd numbered titles – A choice many Call of Duty fans [Including myself] resented. In late 2006 Call of Duty 3 launched containing hundreds of bugs, glitches and broken features. The game felt nothing like a Call of Duty title, which a lot of critics picked up on.Treyarch are now back with their latest title “Call of Duty: World at War”, this time being built on top of the Call of Duty 4 engine, releasing on November 14th. However is the COD4 architecture enough to save this game from the same fate Call of Duty 3 suffered? Let’s see...[The following opinions are taken from 15 hours of play be a legend of soccer hack time with the Multiplayer Beta]Everything you loved in Call of Duty 4 is mostly in World At War [Perks, Similar Weapon Types, Rank System, Leaderboards etc] so everything “menu-side” appears to have stayed the same. There’s one new addition to the game which I want to shake Treyarch’s hand for, called localisation matchmaking, where you’re given the option to only play with people from your country! Being a Brit, every room I enter I’m pretty much guaranteed to have either a bad Accent Impression thrown in my ear, or an assload of abuse from the American Douchebags that tend to populate a good portion of Xbox Live, so for me this has to be the best feature of the beta [It’s good to see they’re actually listening to us].

 

When you actually boot into the game you’ll notice that some things have changed, in some cases for the worst. The game is a good 10-20% slower than Call of Duty 4, and can feel a bit too slow at times, especially for a franchise that has a reputation for speedy gameplay. The speed of the game is one thing that might make hardcore players stick with the original game, the other is the addition of vehicles. The only vehicles in the beta are Tanks, and trust me when I say they’re solid mother fuckers. To give you a scope of how solid they are, Tanks take 6 Rockets or 4 Satchel charges to take down, god knows how many no72 Grenades. There really aren’t any “Skilful” ways to take down a tank, which is why Hardcore COD fans will resent this addition. Perhaps keeping the “Tank Mounting” from Call of Duty 3 may have been a good idea.Get ready for another Call of Duty 4 comparison, this time the games Animation. 

 

Call of Duty 4 was criticised for having the best animation in a video game, World At War is probably the complete opposite to that. The Animation is god damned awful, since when did the soldiers in the Pacific Theatre skip around like pansies? Every time I see someone running around, I just want to stab myself in the eye, it’s really that bad. When you’re looking at your gun in first person, things aren’t much better. When you run, the gun bounces so fast it almost looks like you’re Butt-fucking your gun [Fairly profusely, too].The visuals, unfortunately, aren’t all that. The overall look of the game can only be summed up to “Cheesey”. It’s just the way everything has a gloss, the lighting is poorly used and shadows need way more edge to them. 

 

The audio isn’t much better either, beefy rifles at times sound like cap guns and knife slashes sound like something from a bad Ninja Movie. You can really tell the quality of the game isn’t as high as Infinity Wards masterpiece.Putting all this to the side though, the game at its core is still immensely fun. For those of you that don’t nitpick at everything you see [like myself] will enjoy the game just as much as Call of Duty 4. It’s annoying that Treyarch haven’t really taken any big steps forward with the franchise, however I think that job lies in the hands of Infinity Ward and the next Call of Duty title due next year. Rounding this all up, if you liked Call of Duty 4 at a casual level, you’ll love this. However if you’re a hardcore gamer thinking about transferring over to Call of Duty: World at War this November, give the beta a go and decide for yourself.