Call of Duty: World at War (Hands On)
We test out the multiplayer – is new enough?
Tags: Call of Duty: World at War Categories: Previews, Xbox 360 Previews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Oct 22nd, 2008
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When you have a monster hit on your hands like Activision does with the Call of Duty franchise, the first instinct is to make another one as quickly as possible. We finally got out hands on the multiplayer beta and after vetting it for a few days side by side with its predecessor, we can proclaim it “Another Call Of Duty Game” – which is neither good or bad, but that in itself is saying something.
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If you need a little perspective on Call of Duty: World at War, it’ predecessors battle with Halo 3 for the top spot on XBL for most played games. Previous games have been contenders for game of the year here at Dignews. I was one of the disappointed players who winced when it was announced that the next Call of Duty game would be a return to World War II action. Although the action has been moved to the Pacific front, how many times can developers go back to that well?
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I have gotten over the scenery change, and have learned to like the new levels. These are huge levels, and they lack that weapons class specific design of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer maps. These maps are huge and made for multi-tiered battles. There are three maps on display, and while they are all big there is some difference between them. The first is a swamp with a connected series of bamboo buildings, this is about as tight as it gets. It requires a bit of stealth to avoid being picked off by a window camper. There is a lot of shadow here, and it doesn’t show off the improved graphics. It does show that this isn’t simply a new map and weapon pack though. The next map is a bombed out Imperial Palace, this is by far my favorite of the map packs. With indoor and outdoor combat and plenty of places for snipers to hide out, this map is varied and intense. The last map in the series is a train yard, This is the only of the three maps to feature the new vehicles.
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The new weapons are the biggest disappointment. There are huge balance issues, and the single shot rifles are pretty much useless. Although there were problems in the last installment, this game repeats the same mistakes. The machine guns and their little cousins the sub machine guns are the only things worth suiting up with. Unless you want to go the sniper route, and that mechanic has been improved by a thousand fold. The over swaying reticule has been reduced to a slight sway that keeps some of the difficulty without being overpowering. Most of the perks return, along with new perks for the vehicles.
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COD: World At War isn’t going to be the huge hit of its predecessor. That’s a tough act to follow. Sure it will be a good game and successfull, but this isn’t as “new” as we had hoped. I think that if you have exhausted multiplayer on the fourth installment this might be worth a cursory glance. Co-Op and vehicles are enough to draw some players in, but I’m not sure that the new setting is fresh enough to keep players interested.
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Tags: Call of Duty: World at War
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Oct 22nd, 2008 and is filed under Previews, Xbox 360 Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
