Call of Duty: World at War Beta Impressions

While I wish I could have gotten into the 360 beta, but I'm fine playing the beta on the computer. The gameplay is basically the same as CoD4, with the addition of a few new features.
The biggest new feature I noticed is the replacement of calling a helicopter after getting seven kills in a row. Instead, you are now able to call upon some trusty hound doggies, but don't be fooled, I doubt you will ever hear the "crying all the time". In fact, these little bastards will chase down your opponents and take a bite or two out of them. I for one think this is a great new feature that adds more strategy, and is more exciting then just being gunned down by a helicopter.

Along with hounds, a few new perks have been added, as well as some new weapons and grenades of course. Oh! and lets not forget the addition of vehicles.
I for one prefer the CoD4 levels over the CoD: WaW ones, although I guess it's to early to judge since the beta only allows you to battle in three areas.

The 1st level I will announce is named "Castle". In this map you fight inside and around an olden time Chinese castle. This level, in my opinion, is the worst of the three, but if you enjoyed sniping your opponents in CoD4, then I'm sure you will be more pleased with this level than I.
The second map goes by the name "Makin". Here, you will battle on a beach, which contains three basic areas. 1st, the beach/water area. If you fight on the beach, expect to die often, since it supplies little cover. Whereas if you fight in the water, I'm sure you can get kills-a-plenty, since it offers you much more protection. The second area in this map is the forest. This are provides excellent protection (as forests often do) and is basically for guerrilla warfare. The last area of the map are the huts that you will find on the beach. Basically used as the sniping area of the map.

The last map, which is my favorite, is named "Roundhouse". This are is the 1st to introduce a vehicle (in this case a tank), which I find...very noobish to use. The tank seems to be overly powerful and seemingly invincible. Basically, whoever owns the tank will more than likely win the match. Moving away from talking about the tank, this area seems to be where many train tracks meet. It contains a few buildings, but mostly you will be fighting on the ground, hiding behind the seemingly endless amount of boxcars that are scattered throughout the level. The only thing that really annoys me about this level is that some areas provide to much protection, while others don't provide enough.

All in all, Call of Duty: World at War is looking pretty promising. The levels are average at best, but there's plenty more to come. Some new weapons have been added of course, as well as perks and grenades (but they're a surprise!). Of course, instead of calling upon a helicopter to do your dirty work, you now summon dogs to kill the enemies around you. The addition of vehicles seems somewhat out of place to me, Call of Duty just doesn't seem like the kind of game where you should be riding around in a tank. Not to mention that the tank is god-like. But, I can't complain, this beta has already drained hours of my life away, so I can't even imagine what the full game is going to do to me (yikes! its gonna be CoD4 all over again!). Hope to have the full game review after it's release on the 11th of this month.