Call of Duty

"A near perfect gem, with only a few scratches"

When I had first downloaded the Call of Duty demo, I was blown away. When I played this game, it had been an experience I had never seen before in a World War II first person shooter game. I was extremely pleased with the demo that I immediately decided to purchase the full game. I was again amazed by the full retail version; however there were a few things that I felt could have used some improving.

Story 10/10
The story varies since you play as American, British and Russian, so you get to experience different nation’s roles in World War II. This game is obviously based on history, so that instantly deserves a 10/10. You should be familiar with World War II, but if not, I will run through it. The year is 1944, and Hitler's uprising must be stopped. You take control of 101 Airborne Private Martin in the American Campaign, and you must prove to your captains that you are a worth soldier. In the British Campaign, you get to fight on the epic Pegasus Bridge as Sergeant Evans. Lastly, you also get to play as conscript Alexei, a peasant drafted from Stalingrad to help the battle.

Graphics X/10
I did not give this a true rating because the graphics of a game depend on the max. Ability of your computer. However if you ran this game on Extra settings, the graphics are absolutely amazing with the amount of detail that is placed into the models. Face expressions on the characters are great, and their mouth's move correctly with speech. Environmental textures are outstanding as well and really capture the feeling of World War II. The sky is very well done, the ground and building textures are great, and water effects are one of the best I’ve seen yet. This game also uses the Quake III engine, which means it wouldn't be a huge demand to run this on your PC.

Gameplay 10/10
The overall gameplay of this game is amazingly entertaining. If you are familiar with the popular World War II FPS, Medal of Honor then you will remember that in most missions, you ended up taking on a bunch of Nazi soldiers, alone. That’s not the case in Call of Duty, and is based on a more squad approach, as the quote says, ''In War, No One Fights Alone.'' One thing I've noticed is that sometimes you do go on solo missions, but usually sometime during the mission you are aided by some sort of ally. As stated in the story, you get to play as 3 different nations: American, British and Russian, each engaging in exciting missions, creating a total of 24 epic missions.

American Campaign
Here you play as Private Martin where you create groundwork for the D-Day invasion. Most of the time you are with a small squad of about 8 people, where you must recapture a town, engage in a daring car escape, and save captured captains.

British Campaign
You play as Sgt. Evans where you defend Pegasus Bridge, and set explosives on Eder Dam to disable anti-air guns. While the British Campaign has a few squad missions, this is where you do a lot of solo missions; this could be a disappointment to some looking for a large squad based game.

Russian Campaign
You play as conscript Alexei, a peasant drafted into battle. You get to play as the legendary Battle for Stalingrad, and the recapture of Red Square. Prove yourself to your generals to be upgraded to Tank Commander! After you get bogged down from the solo missions in the British Campaign. The Russian Campaign hits you HARD with a huge battle at Stalingrad, which it the climax of the entire game.

Controls 10/10
I found the controls very responsive and easy to use. One realistic touch is that moving crouched or prone makes you move slower than you would do standing up (obviously). Also the heavier the gun, the slower you move. So the biggest and most powerful gun may not always be the best approach against a guy with a machine gun moving really fast. CoD also took an approach to balance out Moving Shooters to Still Shooters. Most people in FPS games move around while shooting, to make it harder to aim, while it's only making THEM harder to aim at YOU. When you move, your shots get much less accurate than a guy sitting there aiming at you. So it's up to you what you want. Accuracy over Movement, or Movement over Accuracy.

Sounds 10/10+
Sounds in this game are as amazing as the gameplay. If you have a large speaker collection for your computer, prepare to be blown away with the full effects of the sound. With EAX on, the sound comes in the actual direction a gun or sound was made in. For example, a gunshot from the left side would make the bullet sound like it came from the left side of the speakers, and right for right, center for all the speakers. This was a great experienced and made me feel like I was right in the heat of the battle. Gunshots and other sounds are also very well done, and I’d expect them to sound like they do in real life.

Multiplayer 8/10
Many people have a mixed bag for Multiplayer mode, saying Battlefield 1942 is a better World War II online combat game. Call of Duty does not have any drivable vehicles, which I am actually thankful for, but some other elements is what caused me to give this a solid 8. There are a lot of maps in which snipers are littered all over the place. This can be a problem in CoD, is an overwhelming amount of snipers in certain maps. Maps that are huge, or contain large vantage points, are usually the ones that have 80% of the team as snipers. This can become difficult to do anything without dying instantly, and overall takes the enjoyment of infantry combat from the game. There is an even balance of Close Quarter Maps, and large maps. However how they are placed is quite bad. It's usually a series of Close Quarter Battles, then a set of incredibly large maps. What the game is worth, though, Multiplayer is probably what you will play most in CoD. On a quick note, this game may be a Dialup-Killer! An ability in CoD is to set ping levels at which only players with low ping may join. Broadband hosts may feel obliged to keep it Broadband Only, which may be a problem in the future for dialup users.

Replay Value 8/10
Once you beat the game, there is not an incredible amount to do after it. You may want to try to beat the game on a harder difficulty, or relive a certain moment in the game you enjoyed. Which the game does keep a record of Auto saves. After you do all that, it's multiplayer that will keep this game going

Recommendations
This game isn't much like most WWII shooters where you are typically alone, so if you want games sort of like this, try out Vietcong, Battlefield 1942 or Day of Defeat

Buy or Not Worth the Time?
For any PC game that is around, look for a demo that you can try out first. If you like it, then by all means get it. I first heard of CoD from a GameFAQs ad, and decided to test it out. Which is another point to read GameFAQs Ads ^_~. To sum it up, if you like World War II, FPS Shooters and Squad Based Games, you'll love Call of Duty.

Final Words 9/10
This game was well worth the buck for me, and is something really different than most FPS shooters. I definitely think you should try the demo. The only things that kept this game from the top were some problems in multiplayer, and some annoying solo missions. Other than that, like the title said. A gem with only a few minor scratches.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/03