Review:
Times change, tastes evolve, and games must move forward to meet these new expectations. Infinity Ward, in their first game ever as a development house, is attempting to do just that. Many of the ideas found in Call of Duty may have been seen first in other titles, but have been honed down to a fine point in this one. If you're looking for a thrill ride that gives you heart problems, makes your ears flap for joy, and brings you as close to a World War II experience as you're likely to get right now (or would ever really want to get), this is your game. The small problems and relatively short length of the single player campaign can't darken the brilliant moments found throughout this sweet gaming experience.
Call of Duty will take players back to World War II, a period of history that has become extraordinarily familiar to gamers in the past couple of years. The trick had always been really bringing the feeling of that war and war in general to gamers. And setting players in the position where they were lone gunmen wiping out the entire Nazi threat just didn't do that. Enter Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. This was one of the first games to really put players in a position where they were part of a bigger group. That feeling of being just another soldier on a sickening dangerous battlefield was something that hadn't been experienced with such a profound impact before. Now many of the team members that were responsible for putting Medal of Honor into the hands of eager gamers moved along to Infinity Ward and began development on Call of Duty, hoping to push that same type of gaming experience to even greater heights. They are bountiful in their success.
While not every aspect of this game had me giggling like a schoolgirl, there were enough "$#!*!!!" and "Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!" types of moments to make me enthusiastically recommend this game to shooter fans. When you find yourself actually ducking your head in front of your computer screen as "bullets whiz by your ear," you'll know you've been fully sucked into an engaging experience. You'll play as a US, British, and Russian soldiers in that order through some seriously heart-pounding missions in campaigns that move through time from Operation Overlord to the final storming of Berlin.
The game begins in stunning fashion as you (playing the part of a US Paratrooper in the 101st) fall from the sky into France to begin hitting targets before the D-Day landings begin on Normandy shores. It's eerily quiet as you fall by yourself in order to place a beacon for other paratroopers to have a point of reference to drop on. After dispatching a couple of lone guards, you place your beacon and wait for the planes to fly overhead dropping their human cargo onto German occupied territory. As those aircraft cruise past, sirens begin to blare and anti-aircraft weapons start to thrum and light up the sky in the background. As more troops join you on the ground and begin to move towards nearby buildings, all hell breaks loose. Shutters open to expose MG42 emplacements while German soldiers take up positions in the houses to fire out on your advancing squad. The sudden eruption of gunfire is truly a moment to savor.
And this savoring of gunfire and sound is something that you're going to have to get used to while playing the game. Call of Duty's sound is among the best that I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing in a game; a veritable orgy of terrifying gunfire and explosions. Those ricocheting bullets and near misses and thuds when you or a teammate gets hit with a bullet are really what make you say "$#!*!!!" and duck your head like a buffoon at your computer. This game is LOUD! LOUD! And I love it. The sounds blends perfectly when your squad leader starts barking orders, but you'll never miss any of the heart-wrenching thumps of an 88 or the terrifying stutter of an MG42 emplacement, because that will play right along with it all. Gunfire is more than satisfactory, explosions make your head shake, and the yelling of allied and enemy troops will set you so firmly in this experience that you'll have to tear your hands away from the mouse and keyboard. The only weak points were some of the voice-overs. I understand why they were done in English instead of Russian, but I somehow wish there had been a choice for subtitle or English dub like they have for DVDs. Aside of that niggling point, the sound work in Call of Duty is impeccable
Graphically, the game is very solid. It may not have normal mapping and all of that new stuff that everyone seems so excited about, but it has style and crispness, great textures, good character models with good character faces, and some great lighting and explosions. The character animations in particular are fun to watch as soldiers run from place to place shooting, sometimes covering their heads, and making hand gestures to tell you where to go. One particular moment in the game, that Steve didn't even see when he played through, shows all of your fellow soldiers being jounced around in the back of a glider as it "lands" rather harshly. They all end up falling from their seats and laying on top of each other; it's a good, fun touch.
Through most of the game, you'll find yourself surrounded by friendly AI that support your actions and add a much deeper sense of immersion than I can remember seeing in any shooter to date. When you get the orders to flank left and hear your squad leader shout "Suppressing fire!" you had better get your butt moving. Because while your squad is firing away at enemy targets to keep their heads down, you'll be able to move into a much more effective flanking position. If you wait too long and run when suppressing fire isn't keeping the Germans from shooting... well then you're going to have problems.
AI throughout the game is impressively solid. There were some moments where my buddies would step in front of my line of fire and get shot, but for the most part, they were very good about picking their positions and shooting at the right spots. Enemy AI was fairly smart in most occasions as well. They seem to like being alive and generally don't just run willy-nilly at you unless they've been put in search and destroy mode in which case they're looking to ferret out an entire building or area of enemies. You'll definitely see enemies try to advance on your position (especially in the defend missions), but will generally try to keep as low a profile as they can while doing this. They'll use cover, destroyed tanks, trenches, bunkers and buildings to stay as much out of sight as possible. They, like you, have the ability to peek around corners and fire to keep themselves as a small a target as possible. I can't tell you how nice it is to see both friendly and enemy units trying their damndest to stay alive.
The AI isn't without its quirks though. Sometimes, you'll see some of your own squad (presumably under the direction of some pathfinding AI or scripting) run right past a German only to get whacked on the head with a gun butt or shot in the ass unless you rush around the corner to protect them. It's a really odd occurrence, but something that seems to happen on both sides. The enemy AI also knows to come after you first. You'll see enemies change targets to you from time to time as well as wait in hiding until you in particular pop your head out. There was one instance in particular that annoyed the hell out of me where a German was hiding on the other side of a door that had swung out into a courtyard. He ignored all of the Allied soldiers that had already run out there, but when I came outside, he jumped out from behind it and made my skull a little softer. Now that's just not fair. I'm all for surprises, but when nearly my entire squad has already entered the area and there's no firing going on, I'd expect not to get attacked from behind the damn doorway.
There's a lot of scripting in the game, which I know is something that players were concerned with, but it does tend to blend in well with the gameplay. Deaths, for example, aren't always scripted. There are some missions that you could have three or more friends with you or none at all, depending on what they did and what you did to keep them alive. But you will be able to see certain things that will happen each time, no matter what that are triggered by your actions. For example, in that first mission I was describing, one of the buildings will only be bombed after you've managed to take down the MG42 gunner hiding within. But on the other side of the coin, some events that seem to be totally scripted at first won't always play out the same way. In the Pegasus Day mission, you'll have to defend an area against an onslaught of enemies (a great and difficult level) including tanks. If you quicksave right before one of these tanks rolls in, you'll suddenly notice that the tanks won't always come from the same direction, making things more interesting. Still, once you've played through the game once, you'll know where most of the enemies will come from and what will happen in each level. It's just integrated a bit better than the Omaha mission in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault where each of the soldiers would die in the same spot every time.
Regardless of scripting issues, Call of Duty is still an incredibly exciting game that will have you coming back for another go at a harder difficulty level after you're done simply because of the grace and pace most of the levels are designed with. Without a doubt, the best missions in the game are those that you are working with a large squad of friendly AI to complete a goal. Some of those that put you in more of a commando role, while done well, just don't offer the same kind of balls against the wall excitement. The pacing of some of these can get a bit slow as you creep from corner to corner trying to see the next enemy. There's a bit of a lull in these types of missions through the British campaigns, but things get back on track in the Russian campaigns a bit, although some of the running through the sewers and the same type of blown out buildings in Stalingrad makes you want to get outside into the open with your friends again.
Unlike most of the missions in Medal of Honor, there is usually some good connection and flow between levels in Call of Duty. While there's really not any story aside from the war itself or real character development, some faces will become familiar as they carry over from mission to mission. But while that connection exists, the game does tend to jump around a bit. The US campaign flows well right into the British campaign, but at the end of the British campaign, the transition seems abrupt. At one point, you're attacking an aircraft field, the next you're on a boat attacking a German Destroyer with very little reason why, aside from a couple of notes on the written briefing. There definitely could have been more visual and auditory briefings between some missions like these. The first time I was on the boat I had accidentally clicked to begin the mission before I was done reading so all I could think was "Why the hell am I on a boat all of a sudden?" The jump to the Russian campaign was understandably abrupt, considering how far apart each of the fronts of the war actually were, so I can't say I have a problem there.
One area that may disappoint some of you out there (it disappointed me a little) was the length. We've actually been having this "quality over quantity" discussion around the office as of late. It's hard to tell what anybody really thinks about how many hours it should take to get through a game. It depends on level of satisfaction, whether it makes you want to play through again, if there's multiplayer... a lot of things. So after finishing the single player game on Normal difficulty in 6 1/2 to 7 hours, I can say I was very satisfied with what was there, but kind of wished there was a bit more of it. I played through again on Veteran (the toughest mode), which took me about 10-11 hours. But that Veteran mode is really, really difficult in certain parts. Enemies get to be much better shots and there are no health packs. Thankfully, there are no horribly aggravating Sniper Town types of missions in the game and enemies don't seem to know where you are at all times. Overall, I'm satisfied with the length simply because the package was so good. Would I have been happier with a couple more levels or a little more time with the game? Yes. But that's like saying I'd be happier with an extra spoon of really tasty ice cream even after I had just devoured a cone.
Besides, when you add on the delicious helping of multiplayer chaos, things get much more bearable. Multiplayer comes with a few different types of play. There's the standard deathmatch and team deathmatch, which players will enjoy quite a bit on these very fast paced maps. But there are also three different modes of play that are a bit more interesting. The first of these is Behind Enemy Lines, which sets a number of players (depending on the server size) as Allied players scattered across the landscape. The rest of the players (severely outnumbering the Allies) will be Axis. Every time an Axis player kills an Ally, that Axis player turns into an Ally. The longer a player stays alive as an Ally, the more points earned. Even more points are given for killing Axis players while on the Allied side.
The last two types of games are for teams. There's Search and Destroy, which like the name implies, challenges one team to plant explosives and destroy one of two objectives, much like Counter-Strike has been doing for years. The second is Retrieval, which challenges one of the teams to find and pick up an object and get it back to the retrieval zone, much like Return to Castle Wolfenstein did so well. Both of these types of maps are played like Counter-Strike so that you only get one life. You die, you're out until the next round.
I've had the opportunity to play all of these missions over the last week and they're all a lot of fun. Levels feel good for the most part, weapons are balanced well (I had thought the Russians might have the weakness because of the lack of choices, but I love that PPSh sub-machinegun and the Mossin-Nagant is a very powerful, if slow, rifle) and players just hopping in for a bit of fun and those more serious teams should have a blast. Some levels seem to have almost too much going on, but I think they just take a while to get used to and learn the lines and good hiding places.
One of the interesting parts of all of the multiplayer modes is the Killcam. When you're killed in a game, the Killcam will actually let you look through your killer's eyes for the few seconds before that person killed you. You'll be able to see where you are thanks to a big white arrow hanging over your position in order to see how your enemy snuck up on you, or sniped you, or just owned you in general. I really like this addition; especially it's implications in keeping camping to a minimum.
Technically speaking, the game has run well for all of us here, with little to no problems. There is one thing that potential buyers might want to be aware of before purchasing this title. We have been hearing that the game has some problems with ATi cards. After hearing this, we made sure to check it out on those cards as well, but are totally unable to verify this as the game ran well and had no problems on our Radeon 9800 Pro set-up. If you do have any problems, we're hearing that they may be with the Catalyst 3.8 drivers. But as I said, we've seen no problems and we even have 3.8 drivers... so go figure, maybe we're just charmed.
Closing Comments
You have to love a game that glues you to your seat and keeps you interested. Call of Duty did just that. I still think it may be a bit on the short side, but all other considerations outweigh that particular problem for me. I've played through the game twice and loved it both times as well as had a lot of fun with the multiplayer over the last couple of weeks.
My complaints, aside from the length, are pretty negligible in terms of the experience as a whole. This really is a thrilling piece of software that action fans should grab a hold of and love fiercely (just watch out for paper cuts). Get ready to cuss, get ready to shoot, get ready to die, and get ready to fight the Germans back into their house. Duty is calling and you had better listen to it soldier.
Another Take
from Steve Butts
I agree with Dan that the few commando missions seem a bit superfluous and out of character when considered against the rest of the game. As with Halo or Medal of Honor, my enjoyment of Call of Duty was highest when I felt like part of a battle. Sure, there's room for individual heroics but Call of Duty clearly puts the player in the combat boots of one soldier out of many. Better still, you're not the one in charge so you won't need to worry about directing the members of your squad.
This sense of open-ended, cooperative warfare can be hampered a bit by the game's tighter, more linear spaces. At its best, it's about moving through open environment and finding good cover that provides a nice view of your enemies. At its worst, it's about peeking around the corner of yet another hallway. Though the levels set in buildings provide a nice change of pace, I found the rail shooter segments broke up the action enough to do away with the more traditional Counter-Strike approach of the restricted levels.
But even in its weaker moments, Call of Duty is still damned satisfying. We talk a lot about the cinematic qualities of our favorite games. Careful pacing, convincing dialogue and a comprehensive visual presentation can make bring some games close to the level of interactive movies. The emotional context of the battles is quite strong here and the consequences of your own successes and failures are readily apparent and meaningful.
Till now whenever I've been yearning for some offline classic WWII shooter action, I've found it in Medal of Honor. Thanks to Infinity Ward, there's a new place to get my fix.
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