Call of Duty review

Game: Call of Duty
Platform: PC
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Developer: Infinity Ward

Reader review by gamefreak99

July 21, 2004

When Call of Duty came out, I didn't give it much thought. I hadn't really heard that much of it but a lot of people were talking about it. For some reason or another, I checked out some reviews of it. I'm glad I did.

Call of Duty is a game set in World War 2. You take the role of an American, Russian, or British soldier fighting Hitler and his Third Reich. The game starts off quite nicely; you've just been enlisted as a soldier and have to go through basic training. Now I know most of you out there already know all about this, moving, shooting, throwing grenades. It's not so much those aspects that get your attention but the flavor and feel of the game. There's enlistment posters (read: propaganda) tacked up and the drill sergeant talks as if you were an actual soldier during that time period. Another element that I like that adds flavor is the loading screens. They all feature a map or pictures of the area you'll be going into as well as a journal entry. Most of the time these entries boarder on the cheesy factor but they never really get on your nerves (and hey, it's something to do while it's loading).

I'm going to put this in simple terms: this game is pretty. While it's no Half Life 2 or Doom 3, the faces looks great, everything is sharp. As of yet I haven’t seen any bad, mundane, or generic textures used anywhere. All the people speak the usual phrases with mock accents (you must admit they voices are a bit less cheesy than other games like this though). The weapons seem realistic but I'm not a weapons buff so that doesn't mean a whole lot coming from me. The nice part is the weapons are actually different. The German weapons you can pick up aren't simply a Thompson with a different image; they fire in different spreads, different accuracies, and so forth. There's plenty here for whatever type of player you are; machine guns (full auto and semi), rifles with scopes, rifles without scopes; and yes, even a Panzerfaust.

Another nice feature is the ability to ''zoom'' with your weapon. By hitting the right mouse button it brings up the iron sights of your weapon giving you a slightly magnified view of what’s in front of you as well as a bead to draw off of (put the target on the tip of it, aim, fire). Of course if you're using a sniper rifle it's greatly magnified in a smaller area so that you can see far targets but not the whole picture. This leads to several interesting strategies; you can grab a rifle and pick off a couple guys in the distance, try to do it with your machine gun although it might take a couple tries, or go with a sniper rifle and hope you can find them all before they start heading your way. On top of this is the fact that you can only hold two main weapons at one time so you'll have to pick and choose.

The story in this game is great. It's realistic, that is, you won't be parachuting into Hitler's house with guns blazing. That’s not to say that you don’t meet up with action however. In the first part you play as an American force that is taking back small towns captured by the Germans. Once you take back one of the said towns you and some of your fellow soldiers have to get back to HQ for orders. In a nutshell you hijack a German car and race through the countryside with Nazis in waiting or pursuit. You act as the gunner for the car and many a fun is had. Later on you act as a part of the British Special Forces team and a Russian soldier who moves up through the ranks. A very memorable scene involves you storming Stalingrad to force the Socialist Pigs out and reclaim it for the Motherland. Think some of the opening scenes from Enemy at the Gates. All the action is tied together nicely, the tension is always high and scripted events help move things along. On top of that your objective always makes sense; you never have to run to Point X to pick up Random Object Y for Guy Z. Everything about this game is fresh and it feels like no other game I've played.

Being in a squad is a vital part of this game and thus the AI has a vital role in your enjoyment. You shouldn't be disappointed. Your fellow soldiers follow you, lay down some cover fire, duck behind obstacles, crawl in trenches, and are generally smart. I didn't run into any bugs or glitches on the unpatched game and that's saying something. The enemies seem just as smart as your soldiers but are obviously working against you instead of with you. They go down just as well as your fellow comrade, a bullet or two in the chest area will bring them down. There's no Soldier of Fortune-esqe limb realism (if you shoot their legs they won't blast off or anything) but it doesn’t detract. The difficulty is on par, on normal I had a bit of trouble on only one or two parts but it can be set to be easier or harder depending on your preference. The game saves at the start of every level and you can save or load at any time.

Multiplayer is also quite interesting. I've seen maps with 60 people and up and things can get quite hectic. There are several modes which should be familiar, Search and Destroy (think of the bomb missions in Counterstrike), Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Retrieval (get Object A, bring back to Point B without dying), and the like. Most of the maps in the game make an appearance in multiplayer and they all seem balanced and well thought out. There really isn’t a map you won’t want to play. Another blessing is the lack of idiots. I haven’t yet seen people bunny hopping and team killing like those I’ve met in Counterstrike. Multiplayer is overall smooth if you have a decent computer and connection and is overall very enjoyable.

On my P4 at 2.6 Ghz with a gigabyte of ram and a Radeon 9600 this game never dropped beneath 40 frames per second with all the settings maxed. I personally haven’t tested it on a lower quality computer but I’ve heard that it ran well on friends computers that were less than perfect. The game has never crashed on me and I never ran into any bugs or problems on the unpatched version but that may have been good luck (we all know how stable your OS is Mr. Gates…)

Overall this game is very good. I would rate it among the top single player shooters I've ever played and the multiplayer is more enjoyable than most games online or off. My only complaint is the game feels short. Now whether that is due to the programmers or me staying up late every day to play, I'll never know. This is a great game and if you like shooters or World War 2 in general, it won't disappoint.

Rating: 10/10

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