Call of Duty

"An oustanding concept that lacks originality and is too short"

Ok Ok, yeah this game is great and I had a lot of fun playing it. But before I start the review I want to say something first. All these World War 2 games are starting to make me sick. Medal of Honor has always been about WW2 but come on people...once Wolfenstien came out all of a sudden ton's of WW2 style games have been made some good, some bad, some outstanding, and some we probably never knew existed.

As far as I'm concerned, RTCW is still the best WW2 shooter, MOH: Allied Assault came close to putting it down but no cigar. Then there was Battlefield 1942, I didn't even buy this game cause I heard it was basically multi player only. Then comes call of duty...and so I got the demo and played it and man....it looked good, plus it played fine on my old computer!! This is due to the fact that it's the quake3 engine although it looks great.

I will now get into the review and explain my tag line along the way.

Graphics
The fact that this is the quake 3 engine brings words like ''WOW'' and ''amazing'' to my mouth. Everything looks very pretty. From the details of the solders to the cracks in the walls of the blown-up buildings. And since it is quake 3 it will run fine on almost any machine. I have a 866mhz Pentium 3 with a Radeon 8500(128) and this game ran very smoothly at 1024*768 resolution, which is what I like to play at. The only complaint really is, just like in MOH:AA when you get up close and personal with a bush or tree, the leaves look a little pixilated. However, only someone like me would notice that but I still think its worth mentioning.

Sound
There are good things and bad things here. First, the general war sounds - alarms, German's yelling, buddies yelling, gunshots, bombs - all are done well. I did have some crackling issues during the more larger and louder battles. While this only happened under extreme circumstances, I have a sound blaster live 5.1 with Altec Lansing 5.1 speakers. A little budget nowadays I'll admit, but I shouldn't have ANY sound problems with those, I never have anyway.
The other issues I need to bring up are the voices. The American and British voices are done very well, except for some lack of mouth movement. However, Soviets/Russians speak RUSSIAN not English with a Russian accent. At least that was true last time I checked. You could argue that the developers wanted you to hear English because you play as them. Well that could be forgiven during the briefing you have at the beginning of the campaign, however during the game, there really isn't all that much dialog spoken, that your going to pay attention to anyway. And since the game has subtitles, this further helps my argument. I usually, even in the American levels, just read the lines as fast I could and then started to explore my surroundings. I don't think it would have been a great inconvenience to anyone if the Russians actually spoke Russian.

Gameplay
The controls are your basic WSAD controls so everything is fine and dandy with that. Here is were Call of Duty really shines. A huge emphasis is given to teamwork when it comes to the battlefield. And its done very well. Both the enemy and your teammates have pretty realistic AI, taking cover while reloading, setting up in a flanking position, etc. In fact its the first game in a while to have good teammate AI since Half-life! Although, while every other review seems to downplay the commando missions, which I will discuss in a moment, this isn't really the reason why the gameplay fails to live up to its potential. No, I think its because YOU are still the one who has to make the first move for your team to follow, YOU are still the one planting the bombs on all those artillery guns, YOU are still the one who has to do all these things. And believe it or not, the demo level(I believe the 3rd American level) is the only exception, and even that is pushing it. When the tank came rolling in it was up to ME to run across the field (giving up half of my health in the process) and grab the panzerfaust to blow the damn hunk of junk up.

This is what I mean about a good concept lacking originality. These kinds of levels are more about what WW2 was all about. But how about doing this same type of game and make it in the WW1 universe? Some trench warfare would be nice. And WW2 wasn't just the Americans and the British against the germs. If you must do WW2, then how about being a French solder while Germany first invaded France and then you can have a few ''commando'' missions with the French underground. Or better yet, how about you play as the Germans? Hmm? Then all those pathetic people who hate the French now solely because they didn't support us can have fun as well. (I always think of the other guy....)Hell, even doing D-day again but as a British solder might even be good, cause they assaulted a different beach.

To further argue my point about this game not truly being original, lets talk about the developers. This is Infinity Wards first game. Recognize the names? You should because they are all former 2015(makers of MOH:AA) employee's. See my point now? It feels to much like this game was what they wanted MOH:AA to be in the first place. Plus they also made a level that was inspired by a movie. In MOH:AA the d-day was clearly taken from Saving Private Ryan, and in this game, the first Soviet level is almost completely ripped off of Enemy at the Gates. While I don't think this bad(both levels are great), it just shows similarity of how the games were made. I think this would have been a much better game as a WW1 game. Actually, this was kind of what I was hopping for in the Enemy Territory expansion to RTCW, for its single player campaign (which was canceled and only multi player was made).

Story
Again this has some ups and downs. There is no real ''story'' in the American campaign. The first 4 levels or so are tied together, but then the story jumps to another area completely. The British campaign, although full of ''commando'' type levels, has a pretty realistic story. The first few levels are tied together, then you are promoted into the SAS for you efforts. And, of course, the SAS are the British commando's, so guess what you get to do? The Soviet campaign also has a good story to it, but its too ''open''. There are too many levels where its, ''due to lack of experienced solders we are making you...'' and fill in the blank.

Overall, there is nothing taking away from the fact that this is a fun and great game to play. I will surely play it again on a harder difficulty. I will even play a little multi player. But all these WW2 games that all center around similar events are getting a little boring. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault might be nice cause it will focus on a different front, thank god. Plus I can't help but wonder if they will every make an Aliens like game with Space marines instead of WW2 solders. I think that should be Infinity Wards next project.

I also can't tell if the game is just too short, or maybe I played it too fast. Time does fly when you are having fun, but I am one of the slowest players in any type of game, cause I love to explore! But those 24 missions sure when by rather quickly to me. Plus, going back to the lack of originality, most of the levels don't seem all that different than MOH:AA. And at least that game had some levels that made you feel proud to have completed, like the ''sniping level''? Sure it was a royal pain in the ass but once I got through it I was smiling at my accomplishments. Sad to say, that only happened once in this game, and that was the very final level. It actually might have something to do with the fact that the last level was more like what I was expecting in this game. You start out destroying the anti-tank guns, then when you get to the open area around the Berlin capitol building, you have to basically take cover and stay there until the tanks come. Then I found a tank and stuck with it. That, my friends, is a LEVEL. Infantry working with tanks, or vice versa, cause that's what war is. The only other level I was even remotely proud of finishing was the Stalingrad level, for very obvious reasons. Damn those Commissars!!!

In conclusion. If you have to choose between this game and Moh:AA, you have to get both. Actually MOH would be a better deal just cause of the expansion packs. But Call of Duty should be owned by anyone who like WW2 games. It just got a little too much hype and I think that did it harm, kind of like Armageddon. For the rest of you, this is a solid FPS all around with some great AI. You still might want to wait for it to become $30 instead of $50, but this game should be tried by everyone. So download the demo and load her up!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/04