It has been nearly a year since Infinity Ward launched its smash hit that even Halo 3 has trouble keeping up with, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This game dramatically changed the Call of Duty franchise, raised the bar for wartime shooters and online multiplayer and even took and continues to hold the top spot of the Xbox Live leader boards. While Infinity Ward has already made a near-perfect game, it is now Treyarch’s turn to try and continue on with the success. We’ve played around with the Call of Duty: World at War beta and spotted some differences and similarities in the process.

Call of Duty 4 had an amazing single-player experience but the true glory and excitement was really in the multiplayer. People were a bit frightened when they heard Call of Duty: World at War would be returning to its World War II roots. “What’s going to happen to the perks?" They thought. "What about my UAV recon? What about my helicopters?!” But I can confidently say that Treyarch has successfully replaced and added upon these elements in a way that retains the WWII feel but at the same time offers the same gameplay and fun that Call of Duty 4 provided.

That being said, the core gameplay of Call of Duty: World at War is pretty much the same. Although, it’s tough to notice on first glance, but there are many things that Treyarch has improved from Call of Duty 4, most obviously the setting and art style. Another obvious change: new gameplay modes. Of course, we have our standard game types, but now we also have War, which is, if I were to describe it, a mix between Headquarters and Domination (from Call of Duty 4, but War was also featured in Call of Duty 3). In War, there are five set flags. Each team starts with two flags, and the flag in the middle of the map is up for grabs. Starting with the ‘middle flag,’ teams try to capture all five of the flags, one at a time. But once a team captures a flag, the other team can still retake it if they are good enough to fall back and capture their own flag first, which is now up for grabs.

We also have the self-explanatory Capture the Flag, but we are hoping there will be other new game types as well. But other then that, it seems like all of our favorite modes from Call of Duty 4 will be reintroduced, possibly with some type of hardcore mode like hardcore free-for-all.