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Call of Duty

LilPickle — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 03:35:55 +0000

More war at amplizine. We just can’t escape it.

Only the dead have seen the end of war. The game industry hasn’t even been looking for the end. We will always have an abundant supply of war games. This time around, it is yet another World War II game: Call of Duty. Is this the game to end all other WWII games? Well, it’s definitely a great game, but no one can stop the war machine from chugging along.

Join the Army, See the World, Meet Interesting People, Kill Them

You play as a number of soldiers in the Allied armies, fighting the forces of evil in the European theater. Prepare for missions through dangerous enemy territory taking out artillery, nabbing secret documents, infiltrating Nazi warships, defending Stalingrad, and racing for Berlin. I so get tired of repeating this stuff. How can you not know what a World War II game is about? Ever try reading a history book? You know… those things with sheets of paper in them?

Well, it’s no longer the most unique storyline, but that won’t keep you from having a good time in this shooter. Gameplay is so well balanced that you never get tired of doing what you are doing–you don’t just run from point to point shooting everything that moves. One moment, you’ll be making your way through war-torn houses, and then you soon find yourself under fire crawling through trenches. Just when that starts to seem a little drab, the game stays on top of it and changes to something new. This makes a game chocked full of memorable moments such as the car chase or your escape through the bulkheads and passageways of the battleship–but that doesn’t mean it’s simply a collection of high-action moments thrown together. The progression of events and the way Call of Duty involves you in them is nearly flawless, and that alone raises the rating to high marks.

The Technology of War

The graphics and sound design, though they are showing their age these days, are well done but not stunning. It’s kind of unfair to compare Call of Duty to its sequel, but because of the timing of our reviews, it can’t be helped. The graphics, I have no problem with seeing as how technology changes so fast with regard to them, but the audio design I feel comfortable with pointing out. Compared to Call of Duty 2, the audio here sounds flat and not nearly as sophisticated. All too often the importance of audio design is overlooked, and these two games are great examples. Call of Duty doesn’t create the same kind of moving atmosphere that 2 tries for, and I believe it is solely because of the sound’s flatness. Thankfully, Call of Duty is such a great experience gameplay-wise that the lack of perfection in the audio design isn’t even a problem. I’d only have to punish the game if it thought it could get away with just beeps and boops. But there are some cool, big names for voice actors in this game, namely Jason Statham and Giovanni Ribisi. Bonus points for that.

Making Friends Through War

There is a rather decent multiplayer in Call of Duty as well. I honestly don’t play it, but from what I’ve seen, it is popular and fun enough for people to be playing it 3 years later. Plus, I’ve seen many entertaining battles on Arena when G4 was still concerned with video games, so it can’t be all bad. But just as with Call of Duty 2, I want to rate this game based solely on its singleplayer experience. The fun enough multiplayer is just a bonus.

Make the Other Bastard Die for His Country

If you somehow avoided the hundreds of WWII games that have come out since 1995 and suddenly gained an interest in the genre, then this is the place to start. It is a fully rounded and fun shooter that should only be missed if you’ve got a World War II game hangover. I have no problem rewarding Call of Duty with our highest marks and giving it a 5 out of 5.

Call of Duty 2

LilPickle — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 03:14:04 +0000

Duty needs to learn to stop calling all the time or just leave a message.

So the other day I got this call… it was Duty, again. He was saying I had to go fight in some war they’re calling dubya dubya 2. I said, “You’re crazy! I already shot those damn Nazis so many times before. How do they keep coming back?” But I never got an answer because that asshole hung up on me. I sat there for a minute thinking of what I should do. Eventually, I wistfully started to put on my ass-kicking boots, grabbed my Thompson, and headed for the door.

Frag the weak, hurdle the dead

The Greatest Generation is once again in the fight for justice, morality, and their very lives in Call of Duty 2. Just as in the previous CoD, you play as everyday soldiers in the British, Russian, and American armies in the European theater against the Nazis. I wonder what my lifetime Nazi killcount is up to by now–I mean I’ve been killing Nazis since B-17 Bomber back on Intellivision. A tenth of a million sounds close enough.

If you’ve played any WW2 game… no wait, if you’ve even heard of WW2, you can pretty much predict what kinds of things you’ll see in CoD2. Assaulting this bunker, defending this position, calling in artillery, and jumping on a mounted machine gun are the typical situations you’ll find yourself in. But there are a few special segments that interrupt the run-of-the-mill stuff, such as commanding a tank or manning an AA gun. You’ll win the war with the two guns you are allowed to carry, but you’ll also find yourself occasionally switching them out for the weapons scattered on the battlefield as things get hairy. And you’ll never be alone in the struggle as friendly squads are everywhere supporting you.

Where’s the beef?

If Call of Duty is considered the first perfect World War 2 shooter, what can they possibly do for a sequel? I mean we’ve seen every mission and locale already from the hundreds of other games, and they weren’t all bad. The WW2 game cash cow’s teats have got to be chafing and sore by now.

Well fear not (or at least not too much), Call of Duty 2 delivers when it comes to a unique experience. Though it isn’t original, nearly everything about it is extremely well done. Mmmmm, well done cash cow… From the sound of Messerschmitts and P-51s roaring overhead, to the adrenaline rush you get when taking cover from a hidden MG nest, you will be completely immersed in this game.

Is it hot enough for ya?

The graphics, though sluggish at times and not entirely tweaked, can be breathtaking. Even the smoke looks like they spent at least a week crafting it. The audio design is spectacular and adds more to the experience than anything else. Battlefield 2 should be ashamed of itself after hearing this game’s sound (I said I’d never let that game forget). And then the scripted sequences are perfectly planned and well executed. The tanks rolling overhead with you in the trench immediately below them is suspenseful, but crawling through the pipes when stray fire pierces the metal all around you is even more dramatic.

New gameplay changes really help create such a powerful atmosphere. Long gone are the days of searching for medpacs because you no longer have a health meter. CoD2 takes more of a Halo approach by not allowing you to take too many hits in a short time. This allows you to focus more on the battle and never leaves you in a difficult spot with only a sliver of health. Plus, those damn Nazis can be quite fierce, making you play smart rather than Rambo-ing it. Smoke grenades and cover are your best friends (especially the dead cow variety of cover), so tactics are emphasized.

Now for the dirty of the so called “dozen”

Who programmed this fucking A.I.? The enemy seems to think you are a general, and your friendlies must think you have blanks in your cartridge. What happened to “no one soldier wins a war,” or “there’s no I in team?” Don’t expect to be able to run in the open–even if you bait the Nazis with friendlies–because they always drop everything to shoot at little ol’ you. A battalion could be between you and the enemy, but they’ll bother to shoot at you first. So when you get a chance to return fire, you are determined to make them count. Nope, Pvt. Dickweed thinks it’s more important for him to get a look than it is for you to shoot the guy he wants to see. It never fails, too. Just as you are about to take a shot, some goofus gets in the way. I’m normally good with ff, but because of your generally limited point of view looking down the sights, and the massive part of the screen that it takes, you don’t have any warning for the impending stupidity. And if that isn’t the problem, they certainly will get right behind you, eliminating the possiblity of a quick escape. I find this problem is easily remedied by a swift rifle butt to the face.

Play against anyone in the world in World War II

Yeah, there is a multiplayer mode, but this is clearly a singleplayer game. What? Why do you care so much? Fine, I’ll talk about it if it will appease you. You pick up some guns, shoot each other, and repeat. What? You want more? Fine, there are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Headquarters, and Search & Destroy modes. But I’m honestly not rating this game with multiplayer in mind. “It’s no CS” says it all.

So who wins?

*SPOILER ALERT* In a surprise twist, the Nazis win at the end. Okay, that’s an outright lie. The developers win for creating a great game, and Activision definitely wins for making more money, but I don’t know if the gamers win. I don’t think we need more WW2 games right now. In fact, I think I’ve got WW2 game bulimia. But then again, the only downfall to this game, other than the bingeing, is the annoying A.I. (I swear it’s taunting me).

Bottom line: CoD2 is an excellent game worthy of praise. The experience it provides is amazing and unforgettable. People that have never played such a great game should start here, but people that have played other WW2 games might be disappointed by it. We’ve seen and done it all before and would rather play some other multiplayer game. Only the gamers that can’t get enough of the WW2 shooters will fully enjoy this title.

4 beef cakes out of 5

Call of Duty

King — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 03:46:20 +0000

No cows were harmed in the making of this game

Who loves to shoot Nazis? Hmm? That’s right; everyone on this green earth who isn’t a Nazi likes to shoot Nazis. Perhaps that is one reason why this game is so freaking awesome. Perhaps it also helps that you play as a wide variety of different soldiers, from British to American to Soviet (sorry, no German, although you do get to impersonate one for a while). Or maybe it’s the weapons. There seems to be more than enough weapons to keep you entertained and plenty to splatter some Nazi brain matter on the walls. And the Nazis just keep on comin’. It don’t get much better than that. Unless you can snag two Nazis in one beautifully placed sniper shot, that might be better. But this game offers all that and more.

The graphics in this game are excellent, even for a game already two years old; you can easily find yourself drawn into the game and barely even notice the beings you are slaughtering are only AI. Enemy character animation is also very good, they lean around corners and look intent on killing you, they run when they should and hide when they should and look proper doing it. In fact, the enemy characters look very convincing, you can hardly see any blocky forms in them, and you have to be damn close to see that. There are also several different enemy character models, so you really don’t feel like you’re just killing the same dude over and over. However, the faces are all the same, so it loses its convincing effects after a short time, but who cares? You’re just going to shoot them directly in the face anyway. What does it matter if it looks the same? The friendly animation is not as impressive, although each face looks different and everyone has a different name, they often look like retards bounding around in the fields, the movements seem extremely ungainly. As for the environments, the only thing bad I have to say is about the water. It looks like they took a small pattern for the water and just repeated it over and over, you can actually see the water pattern repeating, and that’s just not right. But all other textures and patterns in the game are fantastic, and once again, you barely even notice that it’s not real. Even the dead cows look pretty damn good. You know, for a dead cow.

The AI in this game was supposed to be extremely advanced, at least according to LilPickle, but I can tell you I found nothing but disappointment in the AI. The enemy AI seems to have a knack for knowing exactly where you are and shooting only at you, no matter how many other soldiers there are to shoot, no matter how well you are hidden, no matter how many ninjas you T-bagged, and no matter how much cheetah blood you drank this morning. And that really pisses me off. One of the taglines for this game is “no war is won by just one man” or something. But if that were true, then why does the enemy AI instinctively know to fire directly at you? That doesn’t make much sense to me. This seems to apply even when you go into ninja mode and try and sneak around the back of the enemy, they always turn and shoot you, even if you are prone on the ground and moving slow to make no noise. They always know right where you are. But otherwise it’s not too bad, the enemies do try to duck and hide, they run and dive and crouch and everything. Hell, if you get close enough to them they’ll actually strike you with the butt of their gun. It’s just the way they shoot that really pisses me off. As for the friendly AI, get ready to get irritated. Just when you’re about to snap off this awesome sniper shot at the unsuspecting enemy, one of your friendlies just happens to jump directly in front of your shot, and you unwittingly shoot him directly in the face. And then you’re all like what the fuck? But it doesn’t matter, because the Nazi you were supposed to shoot then manages to kill you while you slam the next shell into the rifle. And that concludes my main complaint with this game. Stupid AI.

The missions in this game are all very good, and they mostly get harder as you go along, although some tend to be easier as long as you have some skill with a sniper rifle. However, not all of the episodes are the same length, nor do they get longer the later the game gets. It kind of skips around a bit and seems a little unorganized the way its setup. But, that’s only a minor detail and I can easily overlook it for the extremely high quality of the rest of the game. Missions range from the typical runs of bridges and rescue, to the non-typical run of Stalingrad and sabotage of Nazi boats.

One other thing that really drove me nuts in this game was the controls. They are very non-typical for a first person shooter, which was irritating at first, but after a while it actually becomes much easier to use than you might think. Otherwise, the game handled very well, I never once experienced lag, and only once got irreversibly stuck. The movements seem realistic and well planned; you move fast when you walk and slow when you crouch or go prone. And the speed at which you move in each of those positions feels excellent and just the way it should. Bullets inflict the proper amount of damage on the enemy, and occasionally on you. Overall, the game feels and handles just the way you’d expect from World War II game, and it really helps to add to the feel.

What little multiplayer I actually attempted handled just as good as the rest of the singleplayer game, but I’m just too much of a noob to do any good against those types of people, so I didn’t try for very long. However, it handled well even on my low budget 3 year old machine… so, no complaints here.

So, aside from irritating AI both friendly and enemy, and the lumbering movements of friendly soldiers, this game is excellent. It is so easy to get the hang of, is very challenging and is wonderfully animated. It really feels like a WWII game should, and I have played enough WWII games to know. Call of Duty scores excellently under almost all regards and the few places where it does not score well are easily overlooked for the otherwise excellent quality of this game. So, all in all, I give Call of Duty a shining

4 splattered Nazis and dead cows out of 5