Call of Duty

"Call of Duty gives you a great sense of what it would have been like to be a soldier fighting in WWII."

Call of Duty is yet another WWII shooter in a very crowded genre. However, Call of Duty manages to completely immerse you into WWII where no other game even now has managed to achieve that feeling at the same level that Call of Duty has.

Story:
Well in case you have been sleeping under a rock the past 100 years, Call of Duty is a game about World War II, which takes place in Europe. You play as the allied forces trying to re-capture key areas of Europe where the Germans have taken over. There is not much character development in Call of Duty but the story progresses quite nicely, ending obviously where the Germans lose the war and Russia retakes the Red Square.

Gameplay:
Call of Duty has three different campaigns where you play as three different groups of the allied forces, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia. You begin the game in the American campaign and progress through where you finally end up in the Russian campaign. Each campaign is relatively similar to the other, besides the fact that you start with different weapons. Something I found slightly disappointing with Call of Duty was that most of the time during the missions you will run out of ammo for your weapons and will be forced to use German weapons. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because the Germans have some pretty good weapons but the game loses some of its authenticity when for all three of the campaigns you are required to use a lot of German weaponry.

Most of the missions you will partake in involve you running around shooting at many German soldiers, while completing specific mission objectives, most of which being destroying anti-tank or anti-air weaponry. However there are certain other types of missions such as where you are in the back of a truck shooting at Germans who are chasing you in their own vehicles and these missions are pretty fun. There are also infiltration type missions where usually you alone or one or two other soldiers will go with you to infiltrate an enemy position and retrieve documents or destroy weaponry which would be a key asset to the Germans army. Sometimes these missions are kind of unrealistic though since one or two guys in reality wouldn't stand much of a chance against a large number of German soldiers. There are even a few rescue missions which are kind of neat and one of them requires you to complete it within the time limit, but it's not to tough.

What makes Call of Duty's gameplay so great is the fact that it is one of the most immersive WWII shooters out there. It has wonderfully captured the intensity of war and you really feel like you are actually there with your fellow soldiers trying to defeat your enemies.

Graphics:
Call of Duty is a pretty good looking game, obviously now in 2006 there are games which graphically look quite superior to Call of Duty. However, Call of Duty remains a very good looking game, especially when you compare it to any of the current generation consoles and many other PC games it still is quite an impressive looking game. The only thing that Call of Duty seems to be lacking is proper rag doll physics as usually when an enemy falls from somewhere it seems like it was a scripted event or they only fall down when they are right beside an edge, but it doesn't look entirely natural. Still Call of Duty has some very nice looking graphics, and the player models and weapons look very good.

Sound:
This is one of the best aspects of Call of Duty. The voice acting is superb and the script is nicely written. The music adds a lot to Call of Duty and helps immerse you into the battles, especially towards the end of a mission where you have been holding out against German forces while you are ridiculously outnumbered but have managed to survive. The game has some suspense music as well which usually plays during the infiltration missions which adds some nice intensity to the situation at hand.

Value:
Call of Duty comes with an awesome campaign which is pretty long, and it also comes with a full fledged multiplayer mode. The multiplayer however is not entirely exciting, although it does seem quite popular. I was personally never really able to get involved in Call of Duty's multiplayer because it didn't really appeal to me much, although the single player of Call of Duty was absolutely fantastic. I would highly recommend that if you are looking for a fun WWII shooter online and you really enjoy Call of Duty would be to make the investment in Call of Duty's expansion pack United Offensive. The reason for this is because I actually found United Offensive's multiplayer much more exciting. With the inclusion of many vehicles and new weapons, for multiplayer it is a must have for Call of Duty fans. Call of Duty's multiplayer is fun but unless you are really obsessed with the WWII genre you may not find the multiplayer entirely exciting.

Score:
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Value: 8
Tilt: 10

Overall: 9.0
Call of Duty is a great World War II shooting and manages to stand out in an overcrowded genre. If you are looking for a great game that wonderfully captures the intensity of WWII than Call of Duty is the perfect game for you. Call of Duty is highly recommended for fans of the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/15/06