I got into the BETA too.
Overall I'm very impressed.
The graphics are very similar. There are a few improvements here and there. The overall sharpness of the graphics seem to be improved. I remember reading that COD 4 runs slightly under 720p - maybe they have fixed this now. It seems generally a tad smoother, which is quite something because COD4 was smooth anyway!
The gameplay is almost exactly the game. The lobbys, leaderboards, perk and gun selections, the HUD, the shooting, aiming, using streak rewards are all exactly the same as COD4. In place of nightvision the button now reveals the whole map, rather than you pressing the start button to view it before. The guns are a little more complicated to use, as expected since the guns are many years old. Because some are so bad (like bolt-action rifles without a scope), you feel some other guns are very over powered. All the sub-machine guns, especially the MP40, seem to completely obliterate people at closer range. All longer range weapons, which is quite a lot, seem to be nearly useless at their range or way too slow. And this isn't help by the pistols being a lot weaker than COD4's, so quickly switching to pistol is out of the question. The sniping is good though - it seems more responsive than COD4's and is more like they were in COD3. Shame most of the shots take 2 to kill someone, even with Stopping Power.
The maps seem a little more open and sophisticated than COD4's - you can be shot from many angles. In COD4 you'd have a perfect gun choice for a particular map, but it's a little more complicated now. I'll have to keep playing and see how it goes, since of all the 15 or so weapons unlocked in the BETA only 3-4 are useful IMO. Some others are good (like the Gweyer 43), but the clip is waaaaay too short.
There's a few niggling problems. The spawns seem too random. I have been spawn killed at least twice already, and this is on larger than usual maps with only 12 players! The hit detection is a little worse than it is in COD4. I've hit several people with a sniper shot and it's gone straight through them. The grenades seem a little weaker. I know some people hated getting killed by grenades in COD4 all the time, but if a grenade lands near you know you don't die unless you're pretty close to it... The Cocktail grenades are weak too - unless you do a direct impact, it doesn't really kill anyone. The fire damages you a little, but that's it. A normal grenade is more effective.
Overall, it feels like an almost complete game already. It's just as stable as COD4 too - it must be using the same netcode. I can't wait for the full game... especially since you can only get up to level 11.
