Call Of Duty 4 Beta- First Impressions

Well I have spent a few hours testing the Online Beta of Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox 360 system, and I have to say based on those few hours alone I am prepared to pre-order the game now!

While we seemed to have a total overdose of World War II games over the last few years, Call of Duty always seemed to be one of, if not, my favourite games, and changing it’s focus from WW II to modern day combat seemed a risk in my mind, but now after playing the Beta my feelings are that to continue the series on, it was indeed necessary

First thing you notice while in the game is the pace. COD 4 seems to move a whole lot faster than the previous games. The graphics are gorgeous, and surprisingly I have not experienced any frame rate issues at all. Call of Duty 4 simply looks great!

Weapons are a lot more accurate than previous games, which is realistic, but makes you think how you dealt with all that pesky recoil in the previous titles. The beta features several classes, all with a unique layout.

COD 4 puts in place a ranking system based on Experience Points, much like Battlefield 2142. By killing and assisting, you gain more experience points, and also unlock skills and challenges. Challenges are a way to gain more XP. For instance once getting to a certain rank, the M16 challenge became available, which if by killing 25 people with the M16 I will gain 100 XP.

Another feature that becomes unlocked is the create a class mode. This allows you to make your own class with the desired skills and kit and save it, so when joining a game you don’t need to change your setup all the time.

While it’s only a beta, it is extremely stable, and the Xbox Live servers are obviously handling it well because I haven’t experienced lag at all.

Call of Duty 4, get your hands on it ASAP! I’ll write another report after some more hours with my new favourite game 🙂