The latest offering in the Call of Duty series returns to the roots of the franchise with Call of Duty: WWII. The PC multiplayer open beta is currently in process, and I wanted to share my first impressions.

The open beta includes five multiplayer game modes: Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, War, and Mosh Pit. Mosh Pit is a combination of game modes that includes the newly released Kill Confirmed mode. Kill Confirmed involves collecting the dog tags of your or your team’s victims, and simultaneously denying the other team from capturing dog tags. It certainly adds an interesting dimension to multiplayer.

War is a completely new mode, and it is a lot of fun. It is described as “narrative-driven,” as the current objective is all that is given to each team. From there, the narrative unfolds as the teams make progress. Winning comes by either one team completing the objectives or the other team defending until the time runs out and reinforcements arrive. There is a great back and forth feel, and it helps actually concentrate players into a team effort. It would be really great to see these scenarios be chained together into multiple missions based on the outcome of the previous mission.

The progression system of ranks and divisions (classes) makes for an interesting unlock system. Unlocks are not just determined by rank, but also by experience gained while playing a particular division. Although other games have done similar things in the past, the way it is integrated in Call of Duty: WWII helps infuse the WWII atmosphere throughout the game. Clearly the designers thought about keeping the theme going through as many aspects of the game as possible.

There are some balance issues and tweaks that need to be made. There are some issues with occasionally lag and the hit boxes sometimes seem a bit generous, although that may be lag related. As for balance, a few weapons seem a bit overpowered at time, for example, the sniper rifles seem to grant one shot kills over a large portion of the body, instead of the more traditional upper chest and head. There have been frequent patches, so it seems that the developers are definitely putting effort towards improvements during this open beta.

It is also clear that anticheat measures are not fully in place at this time, but I would not let that dissuade you from playing. There is still plenty of fun to be had, even though you are going to see some sketchy things here and there.

Overall, the multiplayer game play is fun, and I would encourage anyone that is interested to jump in and give the PC open beta for multiplayer a try. The current open beta runs through October 2, but I would expect that there will be a few more open beta weekends before the November 3 release date.

I am looking forward to the cooperative modes and single play story. Overall, it looks like Call of Duty: WWI will be a lot of fun and well worth the price of admission. I have already placed by preorder through Steam. You can find my Steam profile here, and my Steam group, Asper’s Lounge, here.