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HANDS ON - CALL OF DUTY WORLD AT WAR Posted by Alec Hilton on Oct 19, 2008 18:05 (Oct 19, 2008 18:05) |
Treyarch have once again come into procession of the Call of Duty franchise, taking over the reigns from Infinity Ward. The critically acclaimed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was one of the best games of last year with millions of people still playing the game online, even now almost a year after the game was released. Like the previous game Treyarch have released a multiplayer beta on the 360 to test out the game’s online functions with a large group of people. We at Wonderwallweb have been lucky enough to get a coveted place on the trail.
Enough of the introducing, I bet your more interested in the how the beta plays than its history. Those who have heard anything about this new instalment of the franchise will know that the amazing engine from COD4 is the basis of this game as well, but that isn’t the only thing that is being reused. Almost the entire multiplayer mode has been lifted from COD4 and given a new setting and a different weapon set but the core of the gameplay is completely the same. Now this really isn’t a bad thing to be honest, is it? How good the multiplayer component is, is clearly shown in the fact that people are still playing COD4 online.
 As I said the setting is, of course, back to the good old World War II days, but instead of the muddy fields of Europe, it’s the Pacific Theatre that gets the Call of Duty treatment. So no more bouncing bullets off helmets of Germans then, or at least for the most part as part of the game does have the Russian push into Berlin. In the beta there are just three maps to explore, the good thing is though is that each map is from a different section of the game. The first map that we came across was a map called Makin, this map includes a beach side wooden hut village. The Makin map seems to have been designed for the sneaky snipers among us, set at night and dimly lit meaning that there are plenty of areas for you to hide in and snipe at the enemy. As you can guess this is a snipers paradise, every facet of the map is levelled at the sneakiness of sniper play from the watchtowers in the north of the map to the dimly lit huts clustered in the south. There is plenty of scope if your play style is not that of the sniper, though unfortunately you will die a lot though. The mid ground in Makin is perfect for the mad bloodbath that some COD4 matches have become know for.
The Second map that we encountered is called Roundhouse which can only be described as a bombed out and abandoned train yard, this map offers the best mix of play type. You can take to the walkways high above and sniper targets as they make a break from the substantial cover or you can take the close quarters combat route and stalk the ground level. There really is so many ways in which you can tackle this map it’s unbelievable.
While on the Roundhouse map we also got to try a new feature of the game out, which is the inclusion of vehicles, in this particular map there are two tanks to play with, which at least evens things up if you are playing a team match, you wouldn’t want to be in the team without a tank after all. Vehicles do change the dynamic of the game slightly, it’s not like if you or your team have a tank then that amounts to total victory. Tanks are not invincible, only two det. packs or two bazooka (more on these later) hits and the tank is dead. But things do feel different, if you are hit by a shell then your soldier is instantly dead, no questions asked which makes sense and if your hit a couple of times by the top mounted machine gun then yes you are dead also. The tanks do have unlimited ammo, which does square some of the balance in their favour but since the main canon takes time to reload and the machine gun has to cool down, this balances out the game nicely.
The final map that is playable is called Castle. This map is a large Japanese medieval castle that seems to be a staging point for some sort of attack or a defensive point. This is the best map of all of them, purely because of the fact that it offers the most varied terrain with grassy areas but also built up towers and storage rooms. The Castle map also offers the best play for players who enjoy close quarters combat and using short ranged weapons. The main part of the castle is tunnels, allowing for some furious action. If you have spent most of your time on COD4 with the shotgun on some of the more enclosed maps then you should be at home with this map.
As I mentioned earlier the bazooka and the det. pack are just two of the new sets of perk based weapons available to your soldier. Perks offer the same kind of bonuses that were in the offing for COD4, so if you have the juggernaut perk then you will take more damage. A lot of the perks also make a return from COD4, so if you’re a long term player of the game then most of them will seem like déjà vu. A new category has been added though to give you an extra edge, as I said before you have vehicles now so… yep, you’ve guessed it you have vehicle perks. These perks can be something simple like better greasing on your turret so that it moves around quicker to something like a better cool down rate on your machine gun. As if there was any doubt but the prestige system has returned as well as the challenges. The beta is currently capped at Level 11 although there is a promise that it will be expanded.
As you can imagine the change of environment has sent the weapons back a few decades. The weapons are of particular familiarity if you have played any of the other games in the series before Modern Warfare. Guns aren’t the only weapons that have made the change in time though, grenades have too. The best thing about the grenades is that they have been changed to suit the inclusion of vehicles. We now have sticky ones that are designed to maximised damage to tanks, these aren’t quite powerful enough to destroy a tank out right but they do leave the tank very vulnerable to a second attack. My personal favourite use of the anti-tank grenade is to stick it to an enemy soldier then watch as they run away from the grenade indicator only to be blown up anyway sometimes taking a colleague with them.
 Another feature that has felt the effect of the rewind in time is the kill bonuses, they do make reappearance in COD5 and to great affect I add. In Modern Warfare you had things like the UAV which would enable you to see every enemy on the map, you could call in an air strike and an attack helicopter to rain down fire on the enemy. These bonuses have been replaced by the contemporary World War II equivalents, like to replace the UAV there is a recon plane that can pin point targets on the map, this works much like the UAV in all respects but the name. Instead of an air strike you have an artillery strike again working in the same principle as the air strike, but you have three volleys from three artillery batteries. Finally we have attack dogs, like the attack helicopter these dogs roam the battlefield killing any enemies that appear in their sights. Luckily they do share one other thing with the helicopter in that they can be killed.
The similarities with Cod4’s multiplayer are everywhere and why shouldn’t they be, the multiplayer was as near to perfect as you can get in a multiplayer FPS game. So it makes sense to have the next game in the series take that success and run with it, and run with it they do as Treyarch have made a near enough solid game even more solid and possibly even more fun to play. If the beta is this good, then bring on the full game.
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