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| Call of Duty PC review | |
| developer | Infinity Ward |
| publisher | Activision |
| author | Marcin |
| date | Dec. 9, 2003 |
| graphics |   |
| sound | |
| gameplay | |
| value | |
| reviewer's toast | |
| overall | |
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Chromehounds
NA Review by Marcin
Oblivion-The First 3 Hours
PC Quicktake by walTer
Comic Quick Takes January 25, 2006
Feature by Mike
Seems like everywhere you turn there's another World War II game trying to catch your attention. Silent Storm, Hidden and Dangerous II, the everlovin' Medal of Honor franchise (now, in a twist of gruesome fate, on the GBA!), FPS, RTS, RPG - you name it, there's a WW2 game for it. Call of Duty is the Medal of Honor type - mission, objective-based first person shooter where you go up against ludicrous odds in a battle to save mankind from the evil fascist oppressors.
Call of wha?
Call of Duty has a few neat twists that make it a rocking game. Twist one is the ability to only carry two weapons. Like Halo, Call of Duty's weapons actually mean something - some weapons are slow to fire but extremely accurate, some exist only to throw a lot of lead at the enemy, and some are extremely specific in purpose - for example the sniper rifle or the tank busting Panzerfaust. Choose carefully.
Another twist is the game's tagline: "No one man won the war alone." Throughout the game you will team up with other troops from your side, who will provide cover fire or request backup. If a scenario includes reinforcements, you will be constantly surrounded by many friendlies, all with fairly clever behaviors. They will take cover behind turned over vehicles, around corners (and peep occasionally to take a potshot at an enemy that's doing the same), underneath window sills; they'll charge simultaneously as game objectives change, and they'll even swap locations with other teammates. They'll do their best to keep up with you as you traipse through the levels, and their best is pretty damn good! Pathfinding is not a problem. Keep in mind that the enemies will do the same to do you in.
The final gameplay twist (combined with the above two) is the heavily objectified gameplay. By that I mean there are constantly objectives for you to accomplish, often changed by what the game throws at you - and you will be thrown at constantly. This keeps the game interesting, brisk and at a high level of adrenaline throughout each mission.
Infinity Ward packaged three separate experiences of World War II; you will fight as an American grunt along other well-equipped grunts, be given orders and secure outposts behind enemy lines. You will go in alone as an SAS agent, mine bridges and sabotage battleships, with little to help you except your wits. Finally, you'll see the bleak conditions of the Soviet front, as you scamper, weaponless, under heavy enemy bombardment. Each theater ups the scale of enemy resistance, and by switching your perspective, the game keeps you occupied.
Audiovisuals
The game's graphics are a little dated, but the sheer amount of action on-screen offsets this quite well. Perhaps the worst looking are the drive 'n shoot levels, as it's quite obvious this engine wasn't meant for either vehicles, or overly large levels - they tend to be blocky. Fortunately there's only a couple of those, and once again the action tends to keep you focused on the explosions rather than the environs. Overall, there just isn't a whole lot of detail in the game, but the feeling of bombed-out, wartorn Europe is still there.
Sounds are fantastic. From the distance-altered gunfire to the orders given in-game, to the earth-shattering blasts of artillery, everything is topnotch. You can easily tell weapon-types by their sound, and the mounted machine guns are especially hair-raising with their extremely rapid harshness.
Some issues
I've already mentioned the shoot'em up portions of the game - since the control of the mission's progress is taken away from you completely, dying here will mean you'll replay the exact same bits over and over. While fun the first time, it gets boring really, really fast. It is also here that the scripted nature of the game becomes awfully apparent - everything happens the exact same way every time.
This is also prevalent through the rest of the game, although your squad's help and the ability to move about on the map masks it somewhat. Even so, you will find that if you've gone the wrong way, you'll be in a little island of quietude - no enemies will come to find you and gunfire behind you will cease as the bad guys hide, waiting for you to come back. Likewise, if you go the right way, there will be waves upon waves of baddies waiting for your emergence and running into your gunfire in assaults of ludicrous hopelessness (this feels especially silly when manning a mounted machine gun). If you die, the cycle repeats in almost exactly the same way, lending the game zero replayability and making you painfully aware of its shortcomings. No AI here, just timely reactions to your progress.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer features of Call of Duty are on par with any other mostly-single-player FPS game like Medal of Honor, and play much like CounterStrike's deathmatch mode. Just like Medal of Honor, the excellent WW2 maps, weapon restrictions and a semi-realistic damage model (you know, that headshot thing) keep things interesting enough - but ultimately it's obvious that the single player campaign is the focus of CoD. Of interest is the Behind Enemy Lines gameplay mode, where a few Allies stand off against a horde of Axis - but gunning down an Ally turns you into one. It's a neat take on the classic game of "tag" - with guns.
Conclusion
Like Max Payne 2, the game funnels you along from action hotspot to action hotspot, so awareness of these issues is fleeting and hardly relevant to the sheer enjoyment of taking down enemies and successfully securing checkpoints through house-to-house fighting. The three-in-one (American, British, Soviet) approach also helps distract the player by offering new, completely different environments. You really will be fighting in the fields, and in the streets - and surrender is definitely not an option.
The firefights are pleasing, if occasionally formulaic. Take down a bad guy manning the machine gun, wait for another one to come out to man it, take him down, repeat. Through the sound effects, nice visuals and some chatter on your side, the effect ends up working quite well. If you fancy a bit of light WW2 action, pick up Call of Duty. Like a Holywood action thriller it's pleasing, just not very involved.