My Call of Duty: World at War Beta (X360) Impressions

[SHMUPGurus]

So, a few days ago, I was able to get my hands on a key from FilePlanet to enter the beta. I was pretty excited to try it out, since it was another Call of Duty game... ya know! Before I start to dig in the details, I want to say this: It is Call of Duty 4 with a few other cool things and in a World War II setting!

First of all, I want to talk about the three available maps in the beta. There's a big circled train yard map with two tanks (more about vehicles later), a japanese shrine that is built on a mountain, and finally there's a dark swamp area with huts (kind of like in the new Rambo movie, hehe). The first map is good for sniping, and the tanks are good for the few seconds you'll be able to use them! The second map is interesting since it reminds me of that certain map in Halo 3. You can just stay in one place with your allies (up in the shrine, or just in that other house on the other side), and you defend your base basically! The third map is just too damn fun, and dogs appear very often because everything is so enclosed to each other (and I like action!).

Second of all, talking about enclosed combats, well they appear more often in this game, and I really like that IMO. I didn't see a lot of ''campers'' other than in the first map I talked about, and it makes the experience way more fun! Also, dogs replace helicopters, and they can be very helpful to find your enemies since they run everywhere. I haven't really tried all the game modes, because I'm a sucker for Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch! I'm sure the other modes work as they should anyways. The guns are WW II guns, nothing special here. If you like old gun models, then you'll be satisfied. They look more powerful than future guns though, which is quite funny... The first sniper owns by the way (1-hit kills this time around, even if you aim at the body)! ;)

Third of all, some new perks are very interesting. I like that certain perk that lets you reset the grenade timer when you pick one up on the ground. It destroys the purpose of martyrdom, hehe! There are also a few vehicle perks, and you can have 10 custom class (you unlock the last 5 by getting to certain levels). Vehicles are a good addition to the Call of Duty world. There were only tanks in the beta though, and they are very powerful, but they don't last for too long if there are a lot of RPG users in a certain match!

Finally, since it's a beta, some things still need to be tweaked. There's a certain rocket launcher that is just too overpowered in my opinion (looks like a blow-rocket). It shoots way too fast and the explosion radius is too big! Let's not talk about the artillery (replaces air strikes)...! Also, in the train yard map, there's a certain way to go under the map... And it sucks getting killed by them ''haX0rs'' that abuse this glitch.

Overall, the experience looks solid (and better than CoD 4 in my opinion), and I can't wait to get my hands on the game for the single-player as well.