war

I admit, I’ve barely ventured into any other game besides Call of Duty: World at War for the past two months. I’ve racked up almost three days of gametime and I will be approaching my third Prestige by week’s end. But there’s something that’s been on my mind the entire time I’ve been playing. In the midst of the mortar explosions and bullets soaring past my head, I’ve noticed one key thing about Call of Duty: it’s broken. I can’t count how many times I’ve encountered another player shooting me from underneath the game map, or a player essentially sharpshooting me from across the map with a SMG. Now, I’m not ignorant, I know that most games come with their fair share of glitches and it’s not solely Treyarch that rushes out these games which in turn sell millions. It’s just never been so apparent to me how lazy and money-grubbing video game developers are.

It was actually my very first match in Call of Duty: WAW that I noticed a player underneath the map on Roundhouse. Granted he could only move across half the map, the majority of players were clueless as to how they were dying (ofcourse, Killcam explained it all). Out of the three maps released for the BETA, one was practically unplayable. However, I still had hope, as ten more maps would be released with the retail version. Imagine how surprised I was when, only a few weeks later, another under-the-map glitch was discovered on Castle. I began to lose hope very quickly. Call of Duty would succumb to the mass cheating population that comes with every online game. Treyarch eventually fixed the Roundhouse glitch, and players were safe for some time. But much to my own disbelief, another glitch was found on Roundhouse and players once again traversed the underground. It’s actually quite pathetic, that gamers need to resort to cheating in order to play a game. I’m really not sure what benefit they gain from cheating. Sure, they can bag some kills from under the map and maybe reach the tenth Prestige, but what does that actually prove? Along with the underground glitches we were also graced with the “elevator glitches”. Apparently certain parts of the map can push the player up into the sky and he will continue to defy gravity. I never cared much for this glitch, as I can still see the player and can easily take him out. Still, it is indeed an unfair advantage. Now, I’m not game developer but it would seem logical to me to remove any ground which a player can stand on underneath the map. I know in other games that if you somehow get under the map you will immediately fall to your death and respawn seconds later. How hard could it have been to implement this sort of behavior on the thirteen maps? Obviously now it would be much harder since this is the base in which the entire map is structured around. The only explanation I can come up with is laziness.

Onto the weapons. Any person who has played Call of Duty: WAW, will tell you that the best weapon to use is a SMG. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a big, wide open level or you’re on Dome, the smallest level in the game, a SMG will get the job done. And why wouldn’t they? Videogames aren’t sophisticated enough to incorporate physics into the gameplay, so bullets travel on forever. So basically, the job of a sniper rifle (which is to accurately hit targets over incredibly far distances) can easily be done with a SMG. Depending on the SMG, 3-4 bullets will take down an enemy, and since SMGs fire fairly quickly, 1-2 bursts of bullets will work. All but one of the sniper rifles in WAW are bolt action, therefore if the first shot is missed, your position has been given away and the enemy is most likely to retaliate and succeed in killing you. With SMGs however, silencers can be equipped, and they are fully automatic. It’s very common to see a player wielding a SMG to “snipe” a player with an actual sniper rifle. It’s because of this reason that SMGs make the perfect all around weapons, for running-and-gunning and for long distances. In other words, SMGs are horribly overpowered and definitely need some fixing. Even as little as lowering the weapon damage done at further distances could improve not only the unfair SMGs but the entire game. We’d no longer see people getting killed with pistols from across the entire map and SMGs controlling the game.

Ofcourse, there are a multitude of other glitches which make WAW just as unfair. One of these glitches involves the bouncing betties. These land mines will spring up from the ground and explode in the enemy’s face as he draws near. However, when a player is killed they are transported to the “killcam”. Killcam allows the player to see what the opposing player saw when they killed you, so that you can see what you did wrong and improve upon next time. If the successful player tries to plant a bouncing betty while the enemy is still in killcam (if a player plants a bouncing betty immediately after killing someone) it will detect the enemy’s presence and explode in your own face and killing you.

You may be reading this and wondering why I’m still playing Call of Duty: WAW and why, by the end of this article, I’ve surpassed three days of gametime. I’m not about to go on the official forums and start whining and complaining about how bad the game is, because it isn’t all that bad and I did pay over $60 for it. I’m not mad or amazed that Treyarch would release a product with so many faults because they have patched most of the underground glitches and they plan on continuing to fix the rest. I’d just like to say one thing: I’m disappointed in Treyarch.