World at War servers, aka “are we back in WWII AGAIN?”, aren’t known for their originality.  The return to the most overused conflict in history generated feelings strong enough to drive Activision to utterly destroy the concept of numbering by announcing “CoD 4: Modern Warfare 2″.

CoD 5 servers exist, however, because the game itself is an enormous amount of fun and does add a few critical elements to the multiplayer mix.

1.  Tanks

Tanks are awesome.  Ask anyone, as long as they’re male.  They’re conspicuously absent as playable elements on CoD 4 servers, possibly because even the most gung-ho anti-terrorist can’t quite justify deploying Abrahms in the average urban operation.

In World War II, however, they were liberally sprinkled over the battlefield and add an even more direct rock-paper-scissors dynamic than artillery:  An infantryman encountering an unexpected tank is in for a very short-lived surprise.  Charging across an open plain is no less suicidal for armour than it is on foot, but as long as the tank stays within the buildings it can massacre very-briefly startled grunts left and right.

King Tutankahmun? Less dead than this infantryman right now.

What most would-be Wittmans forget is that the “use” key can get you out of that tank as quickly as it got you in.  When you hear “enemy recon” you stop driving all-conquering armor are suddenly the biggest, slowest target on the battlefield.  The only people not fleeing before you (behind frustratingly solid cover) are those with heavily explosive perks in slot 1, out to ruin your entire day and score one of the multiple anti-tank challenges and some sweet XP into the bargain.

You still won’t abandon tank - because obviously, you know, TANK - but you’ll actually have to start worrying about those amusing little ants that scurry about the place.  Beware satchel charges on the ground and make sure to keep the round in the barrel until you check if there are any bazooka’s in range.  If anyone tries to get fancy by running in close: remember that your turret can’t swivel fast enough, but you can still back over him when he’s behind you.  Killing AND humiliating - tanks are favorites for very good reasons.

In either case, climbing onto the machine gun post is trading your life for that of a firework - fun, possibly lethal, but incredibly visible and amazingly short-lived.

Enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't.

2.  Dogs

The loyal dog - man’s best friend.  Unfortunately you’ve been trying to kill that man for about half an hour and now Fido’s on his way to rip your throat out.  If you hear the barks getting louder, try not to panic.  Note that this is only possible because it’s a game.  In a real world situation with five hundred pounds of multiply-growling death coming at you it’s brown-uniform time.  Get yourself into a corner and watch for the incoming canine-to-human-death-missile.  You have ONE chance to melee and then you’re dogmeat.

3.  (Sort of) Old time weapons

World at War servers feature all kinds of authentically rendered antique firearms, though they’re bizarrely reliable and accurate - while we appreciate the characteristic ‘ping’ of an emptied M1 Garand, the modern gamer won’t accept “dying because the weight of a full magazine pulled the clip out of their Thompson”.  (Unfortunately the original users didn’t get to complain about such things after the fact.)

The alleged "view" from a scoped BAR

The old-school hardware means that many weapons have a radically lower rate of fire than their Modern Warfare server colleagues, and those which can keep up are about the same size and reload speed as a school bus.  A particularly bad offender is the BAR, which blocks most of the screen when scoped and takes slightly longer to line up after turning than a quadruple-amputee hippopotamus.

Did I? I CANNOT TELL BECAUSE I CANNOT SEE!

The priority remains the same as on any Call of Duty server: aim first, shoot second.  And do so extremely quickly.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Call of Duty 5: World At War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.