WEAPONS

Bolt Action Rifles are your sniper type weapon.  The Springfield rifle is first which comes with a scope.  There are only 2 Marksman Challenges which unlock a bayonet which replaces your knife strike for greater reach and a rifle grenade.  The second available is the Arisaka which does not come equipped with a scope, you have to unlock in the first of three challenges.  This weapon is not a one shot kill and may be better left to Hardcore matches.  I could see the value of forsaking a scope in Hardcore for a rifle grenade instead.

Rifles are your assault class weapon, they each have 3 Marksman Challenges which unlock a silencer, Aperture Sight (a monocle like glass sight-think red dot), and a Telescopic Sight (ACOG).  You begin with the SVT-40 a semiautomatic weapon followed by the German Gewehr 43 which is more accurate but deals slightly less damage.  For all weapons that unlock it, the Aperture Sight makes firing on target so much easier it is ridiculous.

SMG’s are close combat full auto death dealers, they have 3 challenges also unlocking a Silencer, Aperture Sight and a drum magazine.  You start with the trusty Thompson and then unlock the MP40 which has less accuracy, range, and rate of fire but delivers more damage and this feels the superior of the two.
Shotguns are back but only one is available at Level 11, the M1897 Trench Gun.  A pump action shotgun which unfortunately has too short a range just like COD4’s variants.  Unlockables are a Front Grip and a bayonet.  Bayonet on a shotgun? I can’t wait.

Machine Guns have a great new feature in the form of an unlockable bipod which at certain walls and ledges in the environments allow you to turn into a fixed MG as found in COD4 maps Overgrown & Backlot.  Here they become extremely accurate and deadly only limited by your ammo, so go easy on the trigger.  You have to unfix the weapon to reload so time that wisely.  The first MG is the Type 99 which has an iron sight that allows long bursts on full auto easier than most.  You can unlock a bipod and bayonet for this weapon.  Next weapon is one of the best in the game to this point, the BAR.  Its iron sight is very easy to manage, you can pulse single shots effortlessly and is very solid at range as well.  No bayonet unlock is available for this one.

One disappointing feature in the Expert Challenges is the absence of custom camo, completing the required amount of head shots rewards with XP only which is a bit of a bummer ‘cos I loved my Red Tiger M16 with a zealot like affection.

Some of the Grenades work a little differently from its predecessor, you have the standard fragmentation grenades then progress to No.74 ST (sticky grenades) which will stick to an enemy on contact rendering them unable to retreat from the blast.  The last of the lethal grenades is a Molotov cocktail which isn’t that effective in reality, as you’d expect it explodes on impact so it has to be spot on to get a kill unlike the standard frag grenade.  Special Grenades available are your standard Smoke, Signal Flare which works like a Flashbang and Tabun Gas which blurs your vision and renders you useless if you are in its detonation radius.