The Award Winning 2007 Game of the Year comes to Wii

13th Nov 2009 | 1,723 views 

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User Score
9.0

Presentation - 7.5
Gameplay - 9.0
Value - 9.0

Let's get this out of the way. Yes its 2 years old. There. That is done. Now we can talk about how the game plays on the Wii. As a frame of reference, I own the PC version of this game so I will use my experience from that to compare and contrast.

 

 

I will be honest, I have not put enough time in. But what I have played of singleplayer I will say is pretty good. The "FNG" level is great for getting acquainted with adjusting your aiming, understanding how to swich to scope, and learning other basics of the game. Not having played the singleplayer on the PC version I cant really comment on how it compares. The early levels are pretty good and some really cinematic cutscenes that draw you into the story. Its interesting that the game uses the same elements to create a sense of urgency as have done in previous COD versions. For example, in the Russian mission (WAW) as Vasily you are running through a building that is being bombarded with bullets/artillery. You have to dodge falling burning beams and such. In COD4, the first level has you similarly rushing off of a sinking ship with hatches blown inward. Once again you are dodging out of the way.

 

Now I dont have a problem with this type of story element. Its just interesting that some of the formula hasnt dramatically changed. Of course WAW came after COD4 but if you look further back in the COD series, you will see that the formula hasnt changed that much.

 

 

The presentation on MWii is pretty good. It is ridiculous to compare them to the HD consoles or the PC directly but it is fair to compare them to similar games of the genre. MWii has better lighting overall compared to WAWii. The models are much better and texture resolution is much improved. The textures also have more lighting information baked into them. For example, the bricks have proper highlighting or the trees have highlighting on their bark all without being blurry. Environments are pretty moody and are well balanced when it comes to color. SFX look pretty good overall. The large billows of slowly ascending smoke look really good. The smoke trail from RPSs looks good as well. Ambient FX such as rain and debris blowing in the wind are great atmospheric elements. Character animations look much improved over WAWii as well. Especially the "death" anims. The game looks pretty similar to the PC version when it is set to its lowest setting. There may not be as much grass or polygons in some of the models. Upon starting a multiplayer match (which I will talk about later) I couldnt help but smile as the familiar levels looked pretty close to their PC counterparts.

 

The bad. There are some texture resolution inconsistencies throughout the game. Some large objects have blurry textures while some small objects will have crisp textures. Some FX seem to animate at slow framerates. A few times I would notice the grenade smoke animate slowly. During singleplayer I noticed during the first mission that when you are leaving in the helicopter, the whole ocean is black or missing. There are some slight framerate issues when there is quite a bit of stuff happening on the screen. Unfortunately aliasing is still an issue. Aliasing is the "jaggies" that people refer to. Realize that I am playing on a 46" LCD HD 1080p TV using Wii component cables. Though aliasing is still an issue, it is significantly improved over WAWii.

 

 

All of the sounds from the original are intact. The weapons sound great, explosions, voices are all there. The ambient SFX are there as well from the falling rain on the Cargo ship level to background noise. Music is well done.

 

 

The menu system is the same as it was for the PC version. Though the multiplayer menu is different for the fact that matches arent found in servers like PCs but similar to console matchmaking. Thankfully MWii now has a vastly improved invite system. WAWii had invites popping up during matches right in the middle of the screen. This was very frustrating and caused many unfair deaths. In MWii you see the invite off center of the screen then you can go to the pause menu to find the invite. Friend codes are still needed if you want to connect with your friends. Of course this is not needed to play an online match.

 

The class system, is again, the same as the PC. Personally I found the Class menu in WAWii easier to navigate than I can in MWii. All the game modes are in and unlockable as you play more.

 

Many will complain that Wii Speak is not supported in MWii. I for one dont use voicechat when playing online games. It seemed more appropriate when playing a game like Ghost Recon that is slower paced. Wii Speak wasnt used in WAWii and I didnt miss it.

 

The customizable controls are great. There is more than enough control over how you adjust the camera, cursor, reticle style, button layout,etc. I am still experiementing with settings. Its a vast improvement over WAWii. In fact, MWii has fixed what another FPS game with customizable controls had problems with. If you set your Dead Zones to the smallest they can go there is no "jitteriness".

Gesture controls are back if you want them. If not then you can change it. I prefer playing FPS games without. Some weapons/equipment are now accessed with a combination of left D-pad and the analog stick. This takes no time to adjust to.

 

 

This is where the game shines. Unlike WAWii's slower paced strategic gameplay, MWii's modern weapons and levels have a faster paced action. 10 players is more than enough for the pacing of how the game plays (in my opinion). There are quite a few modes that allow for more than just team deathmatch as in WAWii. The only real difference that I can notice from PC to Wii is the framerate. PC ran at a faster FPS but the Wii version still clips along at 30 FPS. I have had little to no lag online. Any lag that I have had was due to my connection. 16 maps to play on keep you entertained with enough variety. These maps are designed really well. Some are multi-leveled while others are flat with few places to get on top of and snipe. They have been faithfully reproduced from the PC version. One complaint I would have is that Treyarch could have included some form of communication system. While I dont care for voicechat, there are systems like MOHH2's preset commands. I felt these worked the best and prevented the audio from becoming a screaming match. Hands down Multiplayer is the number 1 reason to buy this game.

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