ZechsMerquise on 07 December 2010
Before we begin the comparison it must be noted that I am primarily a Wii gamer and this comparison focuses mainly on the Wii versions of the games, although it does briefly examine other systems I played the games on and my thoughts on the differences. Due to this I have laid out this comparison starting with WAW which was the first online COD game released on the Wii. As Modern Warfare 2 didn’t come out on the Wii I have taken my impressions from both the XBOX360 version and the PC version.
Call of Duty: World at War
WAW was the first Call of Duty game I ever purchased. Not being a huge fan of WW2 FPS games I decided to purchase it due to the online mode and the lack of modern military shooters on the Wii at the time. To my surprise I’d never played a shooter quite like it. I remember entering boot camp and going into my first game on Castle and literally being blown away. Getting XP for kills, leveling up and unlocking new weapons, perks and equipment felt incredible. The sheer level of customization available had me investigating different combinations of the gear available.
Whereas previous online FPS games all seemed about racking up kills and staying ahead of the pack to ensure the win, this had far more depth. Whilst finishing first or seeing your team win was obviously a major reason to keep playing, leveling up became just as big of a driving force. Unlike other games with an experience and leveling system WAW never felt like a grind and reaching a new level was always well timed and felt very satisfying.
Customizing your character’s attributes was a major part of the game. The equipment, perks and weapons allowed you to play the game the way you wanted to play it. You could equip yourself to be a stealthy silent killer, who moved amongst the enemy unnoticed, or you could be a heavily armed juggernaut with a heavy machine gun blasting everyone that moved. The diversity of the different play styles bowled me over.
Eventually I settled on stopping power and steady aim as my core perks and generally stuck to sub machine guns – namely the MP40 with extended magazines. Whilst the Wii version only supported eight players, the maps available on the Wii were (with the exception of Cliffside) small and medium sized maps and everything worked well. I put in over 200 hours on WAW and really enjoyed it, it changed my perception of FPS gaming. No longer was an online FPS just about racking up kills, it was about XP, growing your character and customizing your setup.
What I also loved were the challenges. You earned XP for each kill and got bonuses for your performance in a game, but it didn’t end there. The game was full of challenges which on completion granted you bonus XP, these challenges were often linked to the number of kills you achieved with each weapon but some were for more exciting, like killing multiple enemies with one grenade.
The one thing that really made the matches more interesting was the inclusion of kill streaks. When you killed a number of enemies in a row without dying you were granted a series of bonuses. These were a spy plane, an artillery barrage and finally a pack of vicious dogs to tear down the opposing players. The addition of the kill streaks made staying alive even more important. In previous FPS games getting killed knocked down your kill to death ratio and granted your enemies extra points, but other than that you lost nothing for dying. Keeping your streak going and staying alive was now more important and granted you tangible in game rewards leading to a greater level of tension when you were just one kill away from that all important reward.
ALSO PLAYED ON: XBOX360
I also played WAW on the 360, bar the graphical differences I noticed that although there was a higher player count (12 as opposed to 8) the games moved more slowly. The Wii remote set up really played to the strengths of fast moving ‘run and gun’ players. I also enjoyed trying out the extra maps the 360 version had, although I found some of the larger ones far too big and spent a lot of time wandering around looking for people to kill. The other thing that was present in the 360 version was vehicles in multiplayer, I really didn’t like them or felt they fit the game that well. Whilst I did lament some of the missing maps on the Wii, I was quite happy to pass on the vehicles.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex
When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was first released the Wii missed out, hence the reason WAW comes first in this comparison. After WAW gamers began looking forward to seeing MW2 and hype for the title began to build, however there was no word on a Wii version. When MW2 was officially unveiled so was a version of the original Modern Warfare for the Wii. I was quite excited to play this after having spent such a large amount of the time on WAW and also having tried MW on the 360.
Modern Warfare Reflex was great. Treyarch had clearly worked hard to build on what they done with WAW. The game included all the content from the other versions – so no missing maps or game modes this time! They also managed to up the player count to ten, which was a pleasing addition. I actually preferred MWR to WAW and spent over 250 hours on the multiplayer alone. With so many maps and modes to experiment with the game was immense value for money.
The perks were more or less the same as in WAW and again stopping power and steady aim were a must. I again settled on sub machine guns for my main classes with the P90 and MP5 being my weapons of choice, this time the silencer was my chosen attachment. With this being set in the modern age the range of weapons seemed far more exciting than those found in WAW, with automatic assault rifles replacing the single action rifles found in WW2. What’s more you could customize your weapon with camouflage which was a nice touch.
Whilst I preferred MWR to WAW, the games can be seen as quite interchangeable. The perks, killstreaks and leveling system are virtually the same. Which you enjoy the most will probably be determined by whether you prefer historic or modern combat as the back drop for a game. However it must be said that MWR stands above WAW on the Wii due to fact it is a more complete and comprehensive package. The extra modes and the greater diversity of the maps on the Wii version really made it stand out above its predecessor. What’s more the selection of maps feature some of the best I’ve ever played in an online shooter and the large maps on MW were not quite as big as the large maps on WAW so the fighting was more condensed which lead to better more action packed games.
ALSO PLAYED ON: XBOX360 and PC
The differences are much smaller between the versions this time as the Wii version has all the maps and modes available just with a slightly smaller player count. Again the movement in HD versions is slightly slower and more cautious compared to the run and gun style of play that is fostered by the Wii remote. Also, you will find a lot more people using LMGs on the Wii than on the 360!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (played on XBOX360 and PC)
Sadly this game never made it to the Wii and probably never will. After MW and WAW it was a bit of a shake up for the franchise. Whereas WAW and MW were very similar MW2 changed a lot of what we knew and loved. The game introduced new perks, cut old ones, brought in death streaks and massively overhauled the system of kill streaks. The level of customization was taken to the next level and so were the challenges. The new equipment, gear and weaponry that were introduced really brought new dimensions to the game.
Whilst MW2 retained the level of polish that was found in the previous titles I simply didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous games. The idea of customizing your kill streaks was great, no longer were you fixed at 3, 5 and 7 – you could change your load out to suit you. However this brought its own set of problems to the table.
The problem with the system was that like in other games, kills from kill streak rewards helped build toward other kill streaks. What’s more the dogs in WAW and the chopper in MW were quite easy to defend against; but some of the higher streak rewards in MW2 were not. This could lead to some very frustrating and unbalanced games where one good player could literally dominate a map off his kill streak rewards whilst barely having to leave his ‘campsite’.
What’s more Infinity Ward had cut certain perks which helped lesser players and had previously evened the field. Both martyrdom and juggernaut were cut and added in as death streaks which were available once you had died three times in a row. Whilst I had my fair share of frustration dealing with both aforementioned perks in WAW and MW I understood why they were there. Once they were cut it left lesser players almost completely at the mercy of more experienced ones.
Whilst I’m certainly not suggesting that lesser players should be given cheap ways to get kills, I do think people play games for fun, and as match making often pairs completely green players with seasoned veterans there does need to be some balancing features. Another major issue with MW2 was the fact stopping power was still included despite juggernaut being cut. Whereas previous games offered the balance of one player having more powerful bullets and another having more health, MW2 did not.
Another gripe I had with MW2 was the maps. Whereas the maps in WAW and especially MW were superb, I felt a lot of the maps in MW2 were slightly unbalanced and lacked the finesse of the maps in earlier games. Infinity Ward had clearly tried to take the complexity of the maps to a new level, but this seemed to simply increase the number of the campers and reduce the open flowing combat found in earlier entries in the series.
Whilst this seems like a very negative take on MW2, I must say I still enjoyed it playing it a lot of the time. When MW2 worked, it worked as well as any other COD game, it was just when it didn’t work and frustrations built up it was far more frustrating, broken and unbalanced than previous entries. The sad thing with MW2 is that compared to earlier entries in the series, chances of encountering one of those terrible games was much, much higher.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
One thing is clear right away from playing Black Ops, Treyarch have really tried to refine the COD series. The game clearly isn’t the revolution the original MW was, it’s a refinement, something that builds on the series strengths whilst trying to smooth off any rough edges. The great thing about Black Ops is the skill is back in the player’s hands and the game is more about who you kill than who your kill streak rewards kill.
The first major overhaul is that for the first time kills from kill streak rewards do not count towards your streak. You can’t simply bring out a sentry gun and wait for it to unleash your attack chopper for you. If you want to get higher level kill streaks you must go out and earn them yourself. This changes the game a lot and forces players to get out there and be more aggressive if they want to reap the higher rewards. As a Wii player who had to put up with players getting the chopper in MWR only to kill themselves, release it and wait for that chopper to earn another one, this is a great improvement.
Stopping power has also been dropped. This is only one perk but alters everything quite radically. No one goes into any game with ‘better’ bullets or increased health – instead the playing field is totally leveled in that regard. Because of the lack of stopping power and juggernaut the perks are far more interchangeable and the best choices are far less obvious. I actually spent a long time experimenting with different perks before finally settling on three that at first I had disregarded. They have also cut the death streaks, but I found them quite pointless anyway and very little help as by the time you got them you were already in a sizeable mess and taking a thrashing!
Another huge change is that you don’t unlock things just by leveling up, now you buy weapons and equipment with COD points (CP). This again allows players to customize weapons how they want to, rather than having to complete challenges to unlock the attachment you want, you can choose to buy the one you want right away, with better equipment costing more CP.
As I have only played the Wii version, I can only comment on the Wii kill streak rewards, which obviously lack the Valkyrie Rocket, Chopper Gunner and Gunship. I found the kill streak rewards to be far more balanced but also they all had a way to be defeated or evaded which wasn’t beyond even the casual player. This removed a major level of frustration which I found present with several streaks in MW2. What’s more you don’t see the top level streaks being brought out quite as often and you never get the horrible situation of the skies being filled with enemy aircraft as you did in MW2.
Finally the maps themselves seem to be similar to those found in MW and WAW. They aren’t as complex as the ones found in MW2 and that I feel that is a good thing which encourages movement around the map rather than camping. It’s too early to tell whether I will regard any of them as classics in the way I see maps such as Asylum, Upheaval, Vacant, Downpour and Crash. But one thing is for sure, I certainly don’t find any of them as frustrating as I did the worst of the bunch in MW2.
Whilst so far this seems like an overwhelmingly positive take on Black Ops, there is a slight sting in the tail. Whilst I’m really enjoying it, and I feel it has the best online multiplayer of any COD game to date, it does lack a certain spark. When I first played WAW I was blown away, it changed my perception of an online FPS. Whilst Black Ops has bettered WAW in almost every way, it doesn’t have that WOW factor that I experienced when I first began playing online in WAW.
Call of Duty: World at War
WAW was the first Call of Duty game I ever purchased. Not being a huge fan of WW2 FPS games I decided to purchase it due to the online mode and the lack of modern military shooters on the Wii at the time. To my surprise I’d never played a shooter quite like it. I remember entering boot camp and going into my first game on Castle and literally being blown away. Getting XP for kills, leveling up and unlocking new weapons, perks and equipment felt incredible. The sheer level of customization available had me investigating different combinations of the gear available.
Whereas previous online FPS games all seemed about racking up kills and staying ahead of the pack to ensure the win, this had far more depth. Whilst finishing first or seeing your team win was obviously a major reason to keep playing, leveling up became just as big of a driving force. Unlike other games with an experience and leveling system WAW never felt like a grind and reaching a new level was always well timed and felt very satisfying.
Customizing your character’s attributes was a major part of the game. The equipment, perks and weapons allowed you to play the game the way you wanted to play it. You could equip yourself to be a stealthy silent killer, who moved amongst the enemy unnoticed, or you could be a heavily armed juggernaut with a heavy machine gun blasting everyone that moved. The diversity of the different play styles bowled me over.
Eventually I settled on stopping power and steady aim as my core perks and generally stuck to sub machine guns – namely the MP40 with extended magazines. Whilst the Wii version only supported eight players, the maps available on the Wii were (with the exception of Cliffside) small and medium sized maps and everything worked well. I put in over 200 hours on WAW and really enjoyed it, it changed my perception of FPS gaming. No longer was an online FPS just about racking up kills, it was about XP, growing your character and customizing your setup.
What I also loved were the challenges. You earned XP for each kill and got bonuses for your performance in a game, but it didn’t end there. The game was full of challenges which on completion granted you bonus XP, these challenges were often linked to the number of kills you achieved with each weapon but some were for more exciting, like killing multiple enemies with one grenade.
The one thing that really made the matches more interesting was the inclusion of kill streaks. When you killed a number of enemies in a row without dying you were granted a series of bonuses. These were a spy plane, an artillery barrage and finally a pack of vicious dogs to tear down the opposing players. The addition of the kill streaks made staying alive even more important. In previous FPS games getting killed knocked down your kill to death ratio and granted your enemies extra points, but other than that you lost nothing for dying. Keeping your streak going and staying alive was now more important and granted you tangible in game rewards leading to a greater level of tension when you were just one kill away from that all important reward.
ALSO PLAYED ON: XBOX360
I also played WAW on the 360, bar the graphical differences I noticed that although there was a higher player count (12 as opposed to 8) the games moved more slowly. The Wii remote set up really played to the strengths of fast moving ‘run and gun’ players. I also enjoyed trying out the extra maps the 360 version had, although I found some of the larger ones far too big and spent a lot of time wandering around looking for people to kill. The other thing that was present in the 360 version was vehicles in multiplayer, I really didn’t like them or felt they fit the game that well. Whilst I did lament some of the missing maps on the Wii, I was quite happy to pass on the vehicles.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex
When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was first released the Wii missed out, hence the reason WAW comes first in this comparison. After WAW gamers began looking forward to seeing MW2 and hype for the title began to build, however there was no word on a Wii version. When MW2 was officially unveiled so was a version of the original Modern Warfare for the Wii. I was quite excited to play this after having spent such a large amount of the time on WAW and also having tried MW on the 360.
Modern Warfare Reflex was great. Treyarch had clearly worked hard to build on what they done with WAW. The game included all the content from the other versions – so no missing maps or game modes this time! They also managed to up the player count to ten, which was a pleasing addition. I actually preferred MWR to WAW and spent over 250 hours on the multiplayer alone. With so many maps and modes to experiment with the game was immense value for money.
The perks were more or less the same as in WAW and again stopping power and steady aim were a must. I again settled on sub machine guns for my main classes with the P90 and MP5 being my weapons of choice, this time the silencer was my chosen attachment. With this being set in the modern age the range of weapons seemed far more exciting than those found in WAW, with automatic assault rifles replacing the single action rifles found in WW2. What’s more you could customize your weapon with camouflage which was a nice touch.
Whilst I preferred MWR to WAW, the games can be seen as quite interchangeable. The perks, killstreaks and leveling system are virtually the same. Which you enjoy the most will probably be determined by whether you prefer historic or modern combat as the back drop for a game. However it must be said that MWR stands above WAW on the Wii due to fact it is a more complete and comprehensive package. The extra modes and the greater diversity of the maps on the Wii version really made it stand out above its predecessor. What’s more the selection of maps feature some of the best I’ve ever played in an online shooter and the large maps on MW were not quite as big as the large maps on WAW so the fighting was more condensed which lead to better more action packed games.
ALSO PLAYED ON: XBOX360 and PC
The differences are much smaller between the versions this time as the Wii version has all the maps and modes available just with a slightly smaller player count. Again the movement in HD versions is slightly slower and more cautious compared to the run and gun style of play that is fostered by the Wii remote. Also, you will find a lot more people using LMGs on the Wii than on the 360!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (played on XBOX360 and PC)
Sadly this game never made it to the Wii and probably never will. After MW and WAW it was a bit of a shake up for the franchise. Whereas WAW and MW were very similar MW2 changed a lot of what we knew and loved. The game introduced new perks, cut old ones, brought in death streaks and massively overhauled the system of kill streaks. The level of customization was taken to the next level and so were the challenges. The new equipment, gear and weaponry that were introduced really brought new dimensions to the game.
Whilst MW2 retained the level of polish that was found in the previous titles I simply didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous games. The idea of customizing your kill streaks was great, no longer were you fixed at 3, 5 and 7 – you could change your load out to suit you. However this brought its own set of problems to the table.
The problem with the system was that like in other games, kills from kill streak rewards helped build toward other kill streaks. What’s more the dogs in WAW and the chopper in MW were quite easy to defend against; but some of the higher streak rewards in MW2 were not. This could lead to some very frustrating and unbalanced games where one good player could literally dominate a map off his kill streak rewards whilst barely having to leave his ‘campsite’.
What’s more Infinity Ward had cut certain perks which helped lesser players and had previously evened the field. Both martyrdom and juggernaut were cut and added in as death streaks which were available once you had died three times in a row. Whilst I had my fair share of frustration dealing with both aforementioned perks in WAW and MW I understood why they were there. Once they were cut it left lesser players almost completely at the mercy of more experienced ones.
Whilst I’m certainly not suggesting that lesser players should be given cheap ways to get kills, I do think people play games for fun, and as match making often pairs completely green players with seasoned veterans there does need to be some balancing features. Another major issue with MW2 was the fact stopping power was still included despite juggernaut being cut. Whereas previous games offered the balance of one player having more powerful bullets and another having more health, MW2 did not.
Another gripe I had with MW2 was the maps. Whereas the maps in WAW and especially MW were superb, I felt a lot of the maps in MW2 were slightly unbalanced and lacked the finesse of the maps in earlier games. Infinity Ward had clearly tried to take the complexity of the maps to a new level, but this seemed to simply increase the number of the campers and reduce the open flowing combat found in earlier entries in the series.
Whilst this seems like a very negative take on MW2, I must say I still enjoyed it playing it a lot of the time. When MW2 worked, it worked as well as any other COD game, it was just when it didn’t work and frustrations built up it was far more frustrating, broken and unbalanced than previous entries. The sad thing with MW2 is that compared to earlier entries in the series, chances of encountering one of those terrible games was much, much higher.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
One thing is clear right away from playing Black Ops, Treyarch have really tried to refine the COD series. The game clearly isn’t the revolution the original MW was, it’s a refinement, something that builds on the series strengths whilst trying to smooth off any rough edges. The great thing about Black Ops is the skill is back in the player’s hands and the game is more about who you kill than who your kill streak rewards kill.
The first major overhaul is that for the first time kills from kill streak rewards do not count towards your streak. You can’t simply bring out a sentry gun and wait for it to unleash your attack chopper for you. If you want to get higher level kill streaks you must go out and earn them yourself. This changes the game a lot and forces players to get out there and be more aggressive if they want to reap the higher rewards. As a Wii player who had to put up with players getting the chopper in MWR only to kill themselves, release it and wait for that chopper to earn another one, this is a great improvement.
Stopping power has also been dropped. This is only one perk but alters everything quite radically. No one goes into any game with ‘better’ bullets or increased health – instead the playing field is totally leveled in that regard. Because of the lack of stopping power and juggernaut the perks are far more interchangeable and the best choices are far less obvious. I actually spent a long time experimenting with different perks before finally settling on three that at first I had disregarded. They have also cut the death streaks, but I found them quite pointless anyway and very little help as by the time you got them you were already in a sizeable mess and taking a thrashing!
Another huge change is that you don’t unlock things just by leveling up, now you buy weapons and equipment with COD points (CP). This again allows players to customize weapons how they want to, rather than having to complete challenges to unlock the attachment you want, you can choose to buy the one you want right away, with better equipment costing more CP.
As I have only played the Wii version, I can only comment on the Wii kill streak rewards, which obviously lack the Valkyrie Rocket, Chopper Gunner and Gunship. I found the kill streak rewards to be far more balanced but also they all had a way to be defeated or evaded which wasn’t beyond even the casual player. This removed a major level of frustration which I found present with several streaks in MW2. What’s more you don’t see the top level streaks being brought out quite as often and you never get the horrible situation of the skies being filled with enemy aircraft as you did in MW2.
Finally the maps themselves seem to be similar to those found in MW and WAW. They aren’t as complex as the ones found in MW2 and that I feel that is a good thing which encourages movement around the map rather than camping. It’s too early to tell whether I will regard any of them as classics in the way I see maps such as Asylum, Upheaval, Vacant, Downpour and Crash. But one thing is for sure, I certainly don’t find any of them as frustrating as I did the worst of the bunch in MW2.
Whilst so far this seems like an overwhelmingly positive take on Black Ops, there is a slight sting in the tail. Whilst I’m really enjoying it, and I feel it has the best online multiplayer of any COD game to date, it does lack a certain spark. When I first played WAW I was blown away, it changed my perception of an online FPS. Whilst Black Ops has bettered WAW in almost every way, it doesn’t have that WOW factor that I experienced when I first began playing online in WAW.
