Call of Duty

The Good
Call of Duty is a WWII FPS where you're controlling three soldiers: Martins, an American volunteer in the Airbone, during Overlord preparing the field for the people fighting on the beaches, Evans, a British Servant during Overlord, trying to defend a bridge before going in stealth missions and Alexei, a young Soviet during Stalingrad becoming one of the best snipers and taking with his unit the Reischtag at the end.

I remember playing a demo for Call of Duty on my laptop in 2004 because I needed some action and the Painkiller one was, well, lagging. So, I played the second mission and was surprised of the speed of the action. Luckily, I couldn't give orders and I don't think that I would have played this if you had to do actions in the same time.

So, here we are in 2008, with a work to write for the 18th August. But I need action. I've finished Delta Force 2 but I want some non-pixelised graphics. I'm hesitating between Operation Flashpoint or Call of Duty, which was offered in a Italian magazine. I choose the latter. I can understand Italian, so, it's not a real problem. After all, I've played Max Payne in this language...

The game begins with the tutorial for the commands. You're Martins, an American volunteer, in Captain Foley's team. After this, you don't have the time to breathe even if the beginning of the first mission is very calm. But then when your teammates (Elder, Sgt Moody and Cpt Foley among them) arrive, the Germans are waking up. They can kill you with their MG42, a fast chaingun and trust me, it happens very fast!

Martins is belonging to the Airbone who was preparing the field for the soldiers who would fight on the beaches in France. So, you don't live the hell that they lived but you are on your own hell. The first part of the campaign is coherent: you're beginning in Ste-Marie-L'Eglise but you have to run to a HQ for having orders with Moody and Elder in a epic battle where you're firing from a moving car. You have also tanks to destroy with Panzerfausts (rocket launcher). After that, you will be on a mission for destroying some canons. And you're finishing your campaign by freeing two British officers, one in a castle and the others in a camp with a timed mission of ten minutes.

You're playing an American, so, you'll fight with American weapons (M1 Garand, BAR, Thompson, etc.). As you know, you can only carry two weapons at the time (with the pistol and grenades) but if you're going out of bullet, change for German weapons like MP-40 or Kork something... and if you're lucky to find one with an optical lens, you'll be happy to snipe some Nazis. Anyway, it will be useful at the end of the third mission for killing Germans behind MG42. The advantage to change for a German weapon is that you'll find plenty of ammo on the corpses.

As a beginning campaign, it's easy but remember that you can be killed very fast and thanks to the medikit, you can really survive at it.

And then, you're switching to the British campaign.

Remember Cpt Price? The British Officer in the castle? Well, now, we're going back to Overlord. You're with him for defending a bridge against Nazis and particularly against Panzers. It's harder than the American campaign, particularly with the epic run in a truck or the fight against Stukas (planes) but you can survive.

Evans is transferred into Price's team after the heroic defense and begins secret missions, well more like infiltrating a dam alone and destroy everything or disguising as a German sailor and trying to do some harm to a German destroyer.

You will play with British weapons (Stern for example) but you will also have to destroy trucks with Panzerfausts or like I've said, Stukas with a DCA cannon if you want to stay alive after the mission with the Dam (beginning by the destroying of it, then running to an airport and finishing by the Stukas attacking).

For people having seen Enemy Behind the Gates or Stalingrad here in Europe, you will recognize the first part of the movie with the Red Army trying to reach the town in boats and with soldiers killing others because they're retreating... Or, the Russians don't want an escape. You don't have the choice to sprint without a gun (you're going by two, one with the gun, the other grabbing it if the teammate is dead). After that, you can fight with a proper weapon and trying to find a major in Stalingrad. You'll become a sniper. And surprise you'll be piloting a tank.

After the Russian campaign, you'll play Martins again, then Evans and finishing by Alexei taking the Reichstag in Berlin.

Alexei being a Soviet, he'll fight with their weapons: Mosin-Nagan, PK something, etc. You'll have to destroy tanks by piloting one and trust me, it's not easy. You can be easily lost when your turret is in fact in the wrong direction: you want to advance but you're going behind... But it's also an epic battle.

And the gameplay? Well, it's a war FPS, so don't expect to have the time to planify a strategy. Follow the orders and everything will go as smooth as it can.

Lock, load and shoot... Yes but don't forget to duck. Because the Germans are firing at you and I can guarantee a fast death if you aren't careful. You don't give orders but you have objectives, represented by a star on the map. And they're varied: destroy Panzers, rescue Price, cover Moody, take documents, etc. You can also use the MG42 if required, you can place explosives (and run for cover), you can also use Flack (cannon), etc. It's easy to play Call of Duty. Once you've understood the commands, it will a piece of cake except with the whole tank driving.

AI is very good, particularly when coming to the enemy. They can duck, throw grenades or fighting with their weapons in a hand-and-hand battle. Anyway, you don't have stupid soldiers coming directly to you, giving you the easy way to kill them.

Graphics are very nice and I was surprised by the quality of the night missions. Anyway, you can recognize easily your allies or your enemies. The places are also very well designed: to a completely destroyed Stalingrad to a French village in fire without forgetting the dam or the destroyer.

Weapons are also well modeled, when having a Thompson or a M1-Garant or a Mosin-Nagant in my hands, I didn't felt a difference with the ones used in Vietcong, the FPS taking place during the Vietnam War, even when clicking on the right button for a better aim.

Soundtrack is very good. Voice acting in the Italian version was very good and I have to say that the sounds were also immersing you into the battle. I'm wondering if it was like that at the time but it was stressful to hear a Panzer arriving or a mortar exploding.

Music is very good. You have the impression to be into an heroic drama movie, like in Star Wars for example. I loved it.

With four difficulty modes and a multiplayer one, Call of Duty can be very long. And its replay value is high, so expect days or weeks of intense pleasure.

The Bad
Well, as I've stated, you can die very fast if you aren't careful: don't run in the line of fire of a MG42 or you'll be on the ground in a matter of seconds... unless you're in God mode. Remember also that you can be under friendly fire and that if you kill a fellow soldier, you'll be seeing game over.

Allies AI is another matter. Yes, it's good but not as a good as the enemy one. I mean, your friends have a tendancy to let themselves in the line of fire with the exception of scripted people like Foley, Moody, Elder, Price, Waters, Makarov... So, yes, if you're only with two comrades and that they fell under the enemy fire, you'll be on your own after.

Another negative points is that tank driving, disorienting you easily. I've explained that previously: if your turret isn't in the same direction as the front of the tank, you'll be trying to position you in the right one, even the command Space who will center the turret isn't as easy to use. If you touch your mouse, the positioning stops. And it's the law of Murphy: when you have to do that, you're under the enemy fire (Panzers or Germans soldiers).

I must also say that some parts of missions were very very difficult, like the assault on Stalingrad or the beginning of the second mission in the American campaign. Anyway, you will find a way to be victorious (there is a god mode you know if you're tired to die).

Another thing which can arrive is a script error. I don't know if it was because I was playing with god mode in a mission where I was frustrated to die or if it's a bug that can happen sometimes.

The Bottom Line
Call of Duty is a fast-paced FPS set in WWII and I can guarantee some pleasure by trying to be an hero. Anyway, graphics and soundtrack are very good despite having some years and the gameplay is easy to understand. Enemy AI is good, much better than the Allies one (except for Foley, Moody, Elder, Price, Ingram, Waters, Makarov and the sergeant in Stalingrad).

If I recommend CoD? Yes. Even if I've played it in a different language than English or French, it's pure pleasure.

The Good
Medal of Honor took the crown for World War II-themed first person shooters and held on to it for a good while, but it's time for the EA title to step down and let Call of Duty take its place.

Call of Duty is essentially a better version of Medal of Honor. The basics are all the same, and there's not too much in Call of Duty that wasn't at least partly implemented in Medal of Honor -- Call of Duty just does it better. Not to say Medal of Honor was bad, it was just time for an upgrade, I think. And boy does Call of Duty pull through.

First of all, the graphics are great. Not just great, they're astounding. There is one particular level in which you are escaping German forces on the back of a truck, and I found myself getting killed too often because I was enjoying the beautiful scenery. The amount of detail in the level design is absolutely wonderful -- particularly the assault on Stalingrad in the Russian campaign. Absolutely beautiful.

Level design is this game's high point, I think. There are smallish details that really make the levels great, such as multiple entrances for certain key areas, or VERY wide-open places with multiple paths to take you to where your destination is.

I haven't played a first person shooter that touched me at all emotionally in quite some time, but this game comes quite close during certain moments. A level where you have to defend a bridge, I'm down to next-to-nothing health, tanks are bombarding the place, I'm holed up in a bunker, I've no ammo for anything but my meager pistol, German troops are attempting to take the bunker...I sit down, I wait for my demise...and then some epic music starts, and I look out the window to see American tanks have come to save the day at last! The British take the bridge, I step outside to see the corpses of my comrades as well as the enemy. Combined with the music, the great graphics, that was truly a great point in any game I've played recently.

Your allies are more competant than they were in Medal of Honor. They'll take cover, provide cover fire, suppressive fire, and they'll come to your aid when you need it. You can also do the same for your allies. And you can dive! I don't know about you, but any game in which you can literally dive for cover is fricken awesome. I found myself diving perhaps more than necesarry...

Playing this game felt like a real World War II movie. All around you something is happening, whether it's planes flying overhead fighting or bombing, or your allies in combat, sieging a tank, opening the hatch and throwing a grenade in, or a grenade going off nearby sending you to the ground in a dull haze, your reality coming back to you in the scream of a mortar shell. And that's just the miscellaneous stuff -- the scripted stuff will blow you away.

I also liked the ragdoll in this game. It wasn't overly focused, like in Max Payne 2 or something, but it's still there. It's quick and easy, and you seldom see an arm sticking through the wall or something like that.

The sound was also absolutely incredible. When the battles start up, you won't be able to hear a damn thing over the gunfire, and when it's over you can hear the battles going on far away, in other parts of the village or city or wherever you're fighting. I loved it.

The Bad
Unfortunately, while the AI is more competant than in Medal of Honor, that doesn't go very far. It's sort of like receiving a gunshot wound instead of a stabbing wound. One might be better, but that doesn't make it good. Your allies will provide cover fire, and all that, but they still can't hit the side of a barn and too often you'll find them abandoning their cover to get shot right in the open. There are times when the AI can impress you, but those times are too spread apart.

Considering the game's boast on how "one man didn't win the war" and all that stuff about team work, you sure do a lot of commando type stuff. I think there's really only one level in which you're alone, but even when in a squad you do a lot of stuff solo. Fact is, I found my allies just slowed me down, really. They would draw the fire from you...sometimes...but that's really all they're good for. There's no medic or anything to patch you up or anything really USEFUL about them.

You can look down the sight of your gun for a more accurate shot, but I didn't think this was any more accurate than just aiming the gun and firing. It was less accurate, in fact, as you lose the crosshair and instead get the gun's crosshair, which is darker and less easy to follow. Plus, when firing an automatic gun while looking down the sight, it's just pointless. Some guns were just too accurate, such as the tommygun. Someone explain how I was able to get five headshots in a row from firing a tommygun at the hip with the crosshairs as spread out as they were? And why can't I pull the same stunt while actually aiming?

The game is too short. If it were longer, or had some levels that were perhaps out of battle (such as talking to your comrades in a bunker or something like that) it could have added so much to the characters you played, so much to the immersion.

The Bottom Line
The best World War II shooter so far. Play this game, let yourself be immersed in the game. If you don't search out the flaws, and just let the game take you away, you'll be in for one hell of an experience.

The Good
First of all I have to say that I generally don't like "realistic" games - flight sims, Counter Strike and its derivatives, Delta Force and its ilk... I just don't get the same sense of fun and satisfaction that I do from other, fictional games, and the realistic games are also usually extremely frustrating. Well, I'm happy to say that Call of Duty delivers on all fronts: fascinating, satisfying, technically impressive and (almost) flawless in gameplay.

To begin with, the graphics are absolutely astounding. Admittedly the machine I played this game on is quite monstrous (AthlonXP 2800+, 1GB memory, Radeon 9800XT), but at 1280x960 with everything maxxed out only once or twice did the frame rate even hickup (which is more than can be said for other contemporary games). The game looks beautiful: character animations are terrific, physics are realistic (no ragdoll physics, but I don't think they're worth the bother anyways); grass is grass, trees are trees, bunkers are bunkers, the weapons are clearly and accurately rendered; everything looks as it should. No cut corners, no savings in polygon count, lighting is gorgeous - right on target!

Although the game is quite short (about 8 hours net, finished it in a couple of days), it has - much like a good WWII movie - a sense of epic proportions. The missions are huge, varied and never boring or repetitive; there are no pointless "infiltrate with stealth, die if you are discovered" missions, no tacky mission to "obtain the Enigma" or other such crap: what you do get is packed, tight, hardcore action. You get to use practically every relevant weapon (from Luger pistols to Flak guns), drive a tank, take up shotgun while attempting an insane escape from a German-controlled area of France, desperately defend a bridge and fight off the Germans while awaiting reinforcements, commandeer a boat, infiltrate a dam and sabotage power stations, display the Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag... I'm getting out of breath here. The variety and immensity of the missions is simply astounding. The sheer adrenaline rush you get running with a Kark rifle, shooting down Germans while mortars blow up all around you is simply impossible to describe.

Both friendly and enemy AI is very good - far better than I expected, really. The enemies always try and take up hiding places, snipe at you rather than run blindly, jump at you from behind corners... if they're close enough they run and hit your with their guns (as in a melee attack), and they generally cooperate, which is rather impressive. Fortunately the friendly AI is no slouch, and you can almost always trust your comrades to do their job properly and gun down enemies.

Also, the automatic saving system works very well, requiring almost no (quick)save/load of any kind during the game.

... oh, and did I mention that the game never gets old?

The Bad
There's very little I did not like about this game, which is actually a very rare thing for me. I would rate these shortcomings as little more than nitpicking, but they're worth mentioning...

Some scenes in the game are frustrating. Not necessarily difficult, but simply annoying; for example, while infiltrating an airport the player gets to sit in the back of a truck and shoot down enemies. Usually that would have been a really cool scene, only it took me about 3 times to figure out why my truck kept blowing up - turns out that a German with an RPG was standing on a truck somewhere I would never have bothered to look. Realistic may damn well be, but no fun at all. Afterwards you get to fight off Stuka planes with a flak gun, only you are constantly shot at from a nearby roof, and for some reason your comrades are completely ineffective against them - which means you have to both shoot down planes and fire at snipers continuously. In another scene you sit in a Russian zodiac, get yelled at by a sergeant and finally shot at from an airplane; although there's no chance in hell you'll know what to do at that point, if you don't crouch at the right moment you get your head blown off and have to sit through the sergeant's lecture all over again (which is very annoying). Luckily there are very few such issues with the game.

The second thing I didn't appreciate is the music... it is a particularly awful attempt to duplicate the musical style Hans Zimmer coined in The Rock and Crimson Tide, with two exceptions: the first being that this style has got really old, and instead of inspiring it gets really annoying. The second is that in this particular instance, the music is way over dramatic, uninspired at best of times and generally mediocre. I really wish they'd do the soundtrack differently. A thought: various classical pieces put together in appropriate scenes (Beethoven's 9th, Mahler's 2nd... the options are limitless).

Finally, although this game has probably the lowest bug count in recent memory, I still encountered two or three bugs that really ruined my day, at least when at one time I had to reload my game because I literally got stuck between a tree and a rock and could not move.

The Bottom Line
A technically, cinematically, and historically impressive game: a great deal of fun for any gamer, and a very engrossing experience for history and movie buffs alike. Who knows, maybe playing this game will give people a little taste of what it's like to be a soldier and make them think twice in the future... we can only hope.