I have to admit, after enjoying the distinct lack of in 4: Modern Warfare, I was more than a tad sceptical when I heard that had decided to take the series back to the forties. I enjoy a good WWII as much as the next man but there'd been something refreshing about CoD4's relocation to the modern day and I wasn't sure I wanted to go back. It was pleasing, then, that booting up the beta of Call of Duty: World at War revealed that not much has really changed after all.

The single player game in WaW will shift the focus from war torn to the American's battle against the Japanese in the Pacific, and the Russians fight against the advancing German forces on their doorstep. The three maps available in the beta aim give a decent idea of how those two very different battles will feel. Castle is set in and is full of wide open courtyards and confined corridors, while Makin takes place in and around a Japanese fishing village full of swampland and huts. Roundhouse finishes things off making use of a ruined industrial yard and is the only map to feature player-controlled tanks which automatically makes it great fun.

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There are five game modes on display too, Capture the Flag, War and your basic Deathmatch which comes with two team variations (one that includes player defined groups and one which doesn't). War is the only mode that should really need explaining and is a territory-based affair that sees each team battle to take control of the map, one checkpoint at a time. It's a lot of fun and can lead to some epic back and forth as the tide of the battle turns.

Much like CoD4, you're able to upgrade your weapons and abilities as you gain multiplayer XP for kills, objectives completed and mere participation. The more XP you earn the higher up the military ranks you move and each new level unlocks new upgrades. New abilities adding to the mix in WaW include 'Shades' which gives you some protection against the bright lights from flares, and 'Flak Jacket' which helps restrict damage from grenades. On the weapons front you can now augment your guns with scopes and bayonets as well as sawing your shotgun in half to add a little extra punch.

Talking of the weapons, the one genuine niggle to be found is that they don't seem completely genuine in their implementation. While some of it could well be a lack of skill on my part it does seem that more scattershot guns have an unnerving accuracy at times and the post death replay you're shown often leaves you wondering if such pixel-perfect running kills would really be possible with WWII era technology. Perhaps it was a beta 'thing'?

Continuing the CoD4 theme, the mid-game rewards for going on killing sprees make a reappearance too although the pack of attack dogs you earn from a seven kill streak feel slightly out of place. The XP system itself is still something I'm a little unsure of; the theory behind it makes sense, and for those who put the time in its rewards are obvious. But for the new, or more gamer, it does serve to artificially widen the skill gap making the first few hours something of a war of attrition while you earn some of the upgrades.

It's possible that for some the fact that World at War's multiplayer seems very much to be CoD4's multiplayer in different clothes will be seen as a bad thing. However, it seems a little unfair to ask for the wheel to be reinvented each time for the sake of it, especially when it's a damn fine design in the first place. Viewed as a stand-alone thing like this in a beta it does feel a little like a WWII-modded CoD4 but that certainly isn't a bad thing, and as part of the whole WaW package it'll no doubt fit in just fine. The shift to the Pacific theatre of war makes a pleasant change from crawling around French farms and as expected it all looks and sounds stunning. Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong with the single player side of things Treyarch look like they've done a great job of convincing the doubters, me included, that WWII was worth another look.

By Paul Newcombe