WAW:WTF

Well, I realized that no one on my FL was playing COD4 anymore, so I sucked it up and bought WAW yesterday.  I only have about 2 hours into it, but I'm really on the fence.  It is odd to purchase a new game and feel so familiar with it immediatly.  That is just good sense on Treyarch's part though after the success of 4.

I haven't nailed down my indecision yet.  The maps are ok, with good amounts of cover...unless it is a freaking huge map.  Those seem to be the two map types of the game.  Small and exceptionally large.  Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased that there is a fairly decent map list out of the box.  It can be annoying to find a hedge row that magically stops you, that's probably my fault for not memorizing the maps yet.  At least in 4 there was a table, wall or something in the way that made it obvious that you had found the end.

I tried my hand at some free for all to get rolling last night.  since it uses most of the small maps I found that I would spawn 3 feet away from someone else spawning.  As an experiment, I ran in circles around a truck after I spawned once, only to find that someone else would spawn behind it every 2nd time around.  Nice.  The game also felt much faster paced than COD4.  Again, it could have been the level size....but on more than one map it felt like the crazy, crackhead play of Unreal Tournament.  Spawn, die, spawn die.

Guns seem to be moderately balanced.  As long as you have a sub gun that is.  I haven't messed with the rifles much since the other guns are fully automatic and seem to drop people from most commong map distances.  I will say that the LMGs will probably see a lot of action since they don't run out of ammo within 2 sec.  It does seem like people die more quickly though, which is a good trade off for the tiny magazines.  One minor nusance that I have noticed - The bouncing bettys -  As if the claymores in COD4 were not bad enough, now everybody and their mother is putting these at the top of every staircase, around every corner, around every spawn area.....just freaking wonderful!

The tanks are an interesting touch.  I haven't driven on yet, but they seem easy enough to avoid.   The first few times I saw the tanks I tried to get behind them and pull the guy out and steal it.  Apparently you can't do that....pity.  It would be interesting to have transport vehicles too, similar to Halo.  Maybe in COD7.  I really hope that this game grows on me since I dropped the money for it, but it will likely take some time.   I don't know if it is the dark color palatte, the goofy looking guns or the Duke Nukem looking hand on some of the SMGs buy It just doesn't seem as polished as 4 for some reason.   Maybe I'm wrong though. We'll see.