Yup you read it correctly, and nope I didn’t get the symbol the wrong way around. I’ve been coming to this conclusion gradually over the last couple of weeks and months: Treyarch’s World at War is the far superior game to Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, and I’m here to tell you why.

Single Player Experience

Both games feature compelling and absolutely enjoyable single player games that are capable of testing the mettle (and patience) of even the most skilled FPS player.  From storming beaches in World at War to blasting through the favella in Modern Warfare 2, neither game gives an inch in terms of pacing or gameplay. What gives W@W the edge in this area is that without a doubt it has the superior storyline (admittedly using locations and events from history to add a layer of authenticity). For much of Modern Warfare 2 I had little idea what was going on, other than knowing that I needed to shoot the other guy in the face before he had the chance to do likewise to me. As for the scene in the spacestation? Ridiculous at best.

Combine the poor storyline with a single player experience that is far too short and you can begin to see why in this area that W@W is the winner in this little duel. Oh, and did I forget to mention the ability to play through the campaign in co-op mode with friends, surely this feature should be a given in this type of game? Not so in the case of MW2.

Ok, so things don’t look too good for MW2 so far, but maybe it’ll manage to turn things around when it comes to the multiplayer. After all, that’s the area in which Call of Duty games are managing to dominate at present so surely it must represent the highpoint for the game.

Multiplayer

1 – Zombies vs Spec Ops

This one may be too close to call. In W@W’s corner: 4 player co-op on large levels with awesome enemies and cool environments both to explore and use against attackers. In MW2′s corner: 2 player co-op on short but sweet levels featuring well thought out teamwork essential play. I don’t think that I could pick one over the other at present, but I would qualify that by saying that the constant stream of zombies DLC made a great addition to the experience of W@W and therefore if MW2 hopes to better this then DLC for spec ops is an absolute must.

 
 
 

2 – Glitches

Even the most fanboyish of all fanboys would have to admit that both games have suffered from potentially game breaking glitches in their multiplayer modes. Getting shot from underneath maps on W@W was one of my biggest gripes with that game, but loopholes like the care package and javelin glitches in MW2 are no less annoying. The fact that in my opinion sees Treyarch’s game come out on top here is the much speedier response time of the developer in dealing with these glitches.  Infinity Ward just haven’t been quick enough in patching problems and as a result it’s another point to W@W.

3 – Levelling

Everyone loves levelling up in Call of Duty games. The excitement of unlocking and then trying out new guns and perks is a central component in the addictiveness of the multiplayer portion of the games. Prestiging then takes this onto the next level, allowing experienced players the chance to prove themselves all over again.

The problem that MW2 suffers from is that this levelling process just takes too damn long. They either need to increase points gained during matches or decrease points required  to rank up. The rankings system in W@W was as close to perfect as any game with an EXP based system has come, giving a steady flow of new unlocks. In MW2 there’s just too much time between anything exciting happening as far as levelling up is concerned.

I’m sure people will accuse me of just being rubbish at the game and as a result of being unable to rank up fast enough, I would ask those people to look at my online stats before making such accusations: I’m not bad at the game, I just got bored of nothing unlocking for ages and gave up. This sort of thing was never an issue in W@W.

4 – Hardcore Modes

The hardcore game modes in W@W are some of the most intense playlists in any online game, providing a generous portion of tense, nervous excitement. I’ve spent far too long playing them and have enjoyed every minute of it. The best thing I can say about hardcore in MW2 is that it is broken beyond belief, and barely worth playing at all. To be fair though, in my opinion that is partially due to…

5 – The Weapons and Perks

I’m sure that this will be a controversial point, but the weapons in W@W take much more skill to use. Hardcore mode in MW2 is ruined by heartbeat sensors, thermal sights and the like. Yes, there are perks that can be used to cancel these things out but if the only point of your set up is to cancel out that of someone else, then why bother including either? The trouble is that matches boil down to games of scissors, paper, stone depending more on what set ups people have than their levels of skill or tactical planning. Yes, this is present in W@W to some extent, but it’s taken overboard in MW2.

6 – Kill Streaks

MW2 killstreaks, especially at the lower end of the scale, really do cater to the lowest comon denominator. The airspace is all too often cluttered with planes and helicopters, getting cheap kills for players who had to get relatively few kills in order to unlock them.  Other players have little chance to fight back, unlike in W@W where killstreaks are harder to earn and even the dog killstreak, as strong as it is, gives players a chance to survive. As for the tactical nuke? If someone is good enough to go on such a superb killing spree as to be able to deploy the nuke then do they really need to be given several more absolutely free kills?

Hopefully I’ve made my point strongly enough: W@W is just a far more enjoyable experience than MW2. I could spend some more time trying to convince you by talking about how it has better maps, how party chat made online a much better experience and how getting booted to the lobby happened less frequently than it does in MW2, but if you’re not convinced by now then you probably never will be. In any case it makes little difference to me as I’m done with both games and am busy looking forward to Call of Duty: Vietnam, which hopefully will put them both to shame.