Hands on: Call of Duty: World at War MP Beta Test

We were lucky enough to get our hands on the beta test for Call of Duty: World at War and, from what we can tell, it will definitely present a real challenge to its Xbox Live rivals this holiday season.

However, before we’d even played the game, we had a few reservations about CoD:WaW.

Kill Streaks
Our concerns were quite simple – they didn’t have UAVs in WW2, or helicopters for that matter. That just leaves Airstrikes.  Would the Airstrikes remain? You’ll have to keep reading to find out.

Weapon Sights
What would  the game’s developer do about weapon sights to compete with Modern Warfare?  This was a concern that was echoed all across the Call of Duty community, and we’re pleased to announce this issue has been addressed and we’re impressed with the result.

Treyarch
The developers have endured a massive amount of criticism for taking on CoD:WaW because of how shamefully bad CoD3 was, both on and off-line, but people forget that Treyarch only had a year to develop CoD3.  They’ve have had two years to develop World at War and it definitely shows!

Not another WW2 Shooter
Yes, the main concern had to be “Oh no not ANOTHER WW2 Shooter!” A sentiment that was rife online and in a lot of the stores displaying CoD:WaW posters and adverts.  Well, this game is different but you’ll need to read the rest of the article to find out why.

When we received the key, we were confronted with an 800mb download which is pretty reasonable for a beta test.  When the download finished, we went straight into the game and had a quick browse through the menu which was identical to Call of Duty 4.  There were a lot of elements of CoD:WaW that reminded us of CoD4 but we’ll fill you in on these a bit later.  We jumped into Xbox Live and were confronted with a little over 2000 players online, so away we went!  There were five game modes to choose from:

War (16 Players)
War is a game mode where there are two teams who battle to control points across the map; each team starts with two points captured and a centre point which both teams must battle to control.  Once the centre point has been captured, you must attack the enemy’s next point.  The first team to capture all five points wins. 

We had a few games of this and found that if your team doesn’t work closely, you’ll be overturned VERY quickly – teamwork is a must!

Capture the Flag (16 Players)
The clues in the name… The objective of this game is to raid the other team’s base, steal the flag and run it back to your flag… simple? No, not really. If the other team steals your flag, you can’t capture it until your flag is returned and the flags are not displayed on the map if someone has it, this enables you to hide with the enemies flag until yours is returned.

Team Deathmatch (16 Players)
Kill, kill and kill some more – if you don’t know what this game mode is, you simply shouldn’t be playing games.

Pick-up TD (16 Players)
Same as Team Deathmatch but without parties.

Free For All (12 Players)
Straight up kill or be killed, all against all.

Each of the game modes are very entertaining and very time consuming – we spent four hours exploring game modes before we realised how much time we had spent.  A quick scan of the menus reveals that the full game contains all of the game modes from COD4, apart from Domination and Sabotage, but this is a beta and things could change!

The maps (Castle, Makin and Roundhouse) are quite simply breathtaking.  The colour palettes and sceneries for each map vary quite a bit, so we’ll run you through them one at a time.  Let’s start with Castle.

Castle
This is set in a castle in Japan and is a very large map with plenty of camp/ambush points.  Our favourite place to camp hide was in the gravel garden at the back of the map. Everywhere on the map has at least two points of entry, so flanking is the keypoint to this map.

Makin
Set somewhere on the pacific coast line and is a makeshift village of wooden huts and bamboo bridges.  Set at night time, this is a very stealthy map and, from what we can tell it, is very team orientated.  It’s possible to go through the water on the shoreline in this scenario and if you move slowly enough, you will be invisible to the naked eye.  We recommend that you use sound suppressors on this map in any game mode!

Roundhouse
Last but by no means least is Roundhouse.  We can’t yet tell if this is based in Russia or Germany but the feeling is very industrial.  From what we can tell this is a train yard/industrial site that has seen better days.  The best thing about this map? Tanks.  Both sides of the map have a tank which can be operated by 1-2 members of a team – one drives and shoots the main gun and someone can control the machine gun but you’re liable to be shot if you choose the machine gun.

All in all, it’s hard to find fault with any of the maps or game modes. 

Now, let’s address the combat.

Guns
The variation of guns is not that much different from any other WW2 game but the challenge of the unlockables means  this is a world apart from other games.  We choose to use SMG’s first and after 25 kills, we were greeted with Sound Suppressors (Silencers). 75 kills got us Apertures (Red Dot Sights but without the Red Dot – you get a black dot instead) and 150 kills got us an extra mag.  The same suit follows most of the weapons, so it’s identical to CoD4.

Perks
Most of the perks are identical to CoD4 but you get a 4th perk for your vehicle.  There are quite a few new perks but we’re not going to spoil it!

Grenades
Three Primary grenade types: Frag, Sticky (Tank Buster) and Molotov Cocktail – you wouldn’t believe the amount of fun we had with the Molotovs and setting people on fire!  Three Secondary Types: Smoke, Poison Gas and Flare – the Poison Gas disorientates people and the Flare completely blinds your vision.

Now for the fun part

Kill Streaks
Three kills nets you a Radar Plane – same as UAV.
Five kills will get you an Artillery Strike – same as Airstrike
Seven kills will get you… ATTACK DOGS! This is so much cooler than a helicopter! The dogs jump over the out walls surrounding the map and will maul anyone on sight – they can be killed naturally but only with a knife or a LOT of gunshots – the only way to evade these four legged beasts is to be in water or on-top of a jump spot.

Overall, we felt CoD:WaW was identical to CoD4. The main difference between the two was the time period of the game. 

CoD:WaW’s graphics were very smooth but a little less detailed than CoD4. We expect this to improve, and with the size of the levels, we can’t really complain about the odd texture. 

The sound was simply beautiful. The gun noise and footsteps are beyond realistic!  We look forward to playing the full game with a passion!