review: Call of Duty (PC)

I waited like a slavering, starving dog for the intense WWII action of Call of Duty. I picked it up last Friday night along with a rental copy of the magnificent Soul Calibur II, but I'll leave that for another post. On the way home I listened to the pre-order exclusive soundtrack CD to get myself in the spirit. Being Halloween and all we had to put up with the snotlings that insisted on coming to our door begging for candy, so installation was delayed until Saturday. The install went pretty smoothly - that is, until I actually tried to start the game.

I'd like to give a big "Fuck You" to both Activision and Macrovision for kicking me in the balls with their copy protection bullshit. You see, the Single Player campaign insisted that I had the wrong CD in the drive. I read about this problem last week, where this exact error would pop up when people installed the game on machines with a Radeon-based video card and an nForce2 motherboard. Clearly I am not part of this unfortunate subset of people, as I have an ASUS motherboard and a GeForce4. Regardless, though, the game would not start and I had to revert to "other" means. I also quickly found out I wasn't the only one with this problem. It turns out that you either have to get the latest Safedisc driver or uninstall any CD Mastering software that creates a virtual drive (like Nero or my preferred Fantom CD) that runs in the background. In the end I'll never know because I'm not exactly a fan of flipping backwards through flaming hoops just to play a fucking game I paid money for.

Despite the hour or so I wasted trying to get this game to run while spitting nails at my monitor, once I was able to play I was completely immersed for the whole weekend. And the fact that I am writing this review after having completed the entire game in three days reveals Call of Duty's biggest weakness - it's too short. This is more likely the result of the game being too easy on "Regular" difficulty. But this isn't a deciding factor for why you should be playing this game right now.

The biggest reason why Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was so successful both critically and commercially is that they took a Director's view of World War II and made it into a game. Complete with a cast of supporting characters, you were sent on various missions that dealt with some of the Allies' critical turning points of the War, with your character taking a leading role. However considering both expansion packs, it becomes unrealistic to accept that the Second World War hinged upon the successes of one man. With Call of Duty the developers at Infinity Ward show us what should have happened to the franchise if they'd stuck around 2015.

Taking their slogan of "No One Fights Alone" to heart, Infinity Ward has created an absorbing and visceral experience that puts the player on realistic battlefields and lets them fend for themselves. There are scripted sequences abound - but believe me, they do a lot to add realism to the atmosphere. Everything from some fellow soldiers throwing a grenade into the turret of a German Panzer to disable it, to sneaking your way aboard a German battleship and blasting your way into the Armory, to watching your comrades get cut down all around you in a rush up the banks of the Volga. These moments together make up one of the most dramatic games I've ever played. Mission briefings are less about giving trivial orders and more about setting up the backdrop for the action to follow. Instead, your mission objectives are received on-the-fly from your superior officers in the field of battle. This worked great in the American and Russian missions, the latter of which you had no idea what to do most of the time, and had to find a more seasoned soldier in the field to help you out and tell you what to do, emphasizing the seemingly insurmountable odds that the Russians faced while repelling the German Eastern front. Frequently in the U.S. missions the objectives would change partway through, once again showing the dynamic and unpredictable nature of performing a field maneuver under heavy resistance.

The game spans roughly 24 missions, across three campaigns: the U.S. 101st Airborne, the British 6th Airborne, and the Russian Infantry. There is a smaller fourth act at the end of the game that tries to close up each campaign, although this was only done successfully for the Russian campaign. There was something truly stirring about battling through the ruins of the Reichstag, while trying to provide safe passage for a standard bearer that will wave the flag of Mother Russia upon seizing the structure. Each campaign had its definite strong points: the Burnville/Dawnville missions in the U.S. campaign felt like it came straight out of Band of Brothers, and provided a level of intensity I did not think was capable from a computer game. This theme was continued in the Pegasus Bridge mission for the British 6th campaign, where you had to hold a position on the bridge while waiting for reinforcements. Now in some reviews I've heard that the British campaign is the weakest due to all of the sneaking around, but the Pegasus Bridge segment begs to differ. I felt overpowered and I saw my squadmates ruthlessly cut down by Panzers and German Infantry. I ran out of ammo at one point, and had to dash into an open field trying to scavange from friend and foe alike. After recently playing the anemic Breakthrough, this surplus of ammo was appreciated immensely. I mean I could walk up to any corpse in the game and switch weapons. No hot spots, no special drops - any fallen AI character. This was a small touch, but definitely appreciated.

In my humble opinion, I believe that the game's Single Player experience peaks with the Russian Infantry campaign. If you're a fan of the subject material, you've probably seen Enemy at the Gates. As a result you can appreciate the opening sequence where you travel across the Volga river in a rickety transport, given a handful of ammo, and knowing your fate was to be sliced apart by MG42s at the top of the banks or to be shot in the back by a Commissar if you attempt retreat. This was a truly harrowing experience. The sounds, score and AI scripting were top notch and for that entire mission I was completely engrossed. I thought the sound was groundbreaking on the MOHAA series, but Call of Duty truly knocked my socks off (literally, sometimes). There were some moments where I had been dodging bullets and grenades five minutes earlier, and then safe in what seemed to be a quiet area. I subsequently jumped out of my seat when a nearby sniper or rifleman began to shoot at me, and the whole process started again. It's a very fast game - even those Commando-styled British missions - and it doesn't let up until the end. Because Call of Duty moves so quickly, it doesn't really allow you to see the subtle shortcomings that lay just out of view.

Even though you can't directly give your AI squadmates any commands, they will behave realistically: providing covering fire to both you and the rest of the squad, calling out when grenades are thrown, and overall behaving like a cohesive unit. Whenever I thought I was fighting the entire German Army by myself, I looked to each side and some AI squadmates had already found cover and provided a base of fire. Those were great gaming moments. The enemy AI is just downright scary sometimes - they will take every measure to stay out of view, take cover and overwhelm your squadmates. Sometimes though they stood around waiting to be shot, which kind of ruined the realism. Furthermore, I found that some of my squadmates liked to get stuck in and around staircases - hearkening back to the days of Rainbow Six - or held/fired invisible weapons. Still, when viewing these deficiencies in light of the entire game, they're a small price to pay.

The Quake III Engine looks as good as ever, with detailed textures and accurate character models. The environments give the impression that they might be on par with something like Battlefield 1942 in their size, but they are linearly designed and you will find yourself running into a few "invisible" walls. In multiplayer though this isn't the case - the maps really are that huge. Infinity Ward also saw fit to give us thirteen maps (with most of them being the maps played in the Single Player campaign), which completely decimates the offering in Allied Assault. I can already see CoD being adopted at the next LAN party. The squad-based tactics really allow themselves to come through on CoD's maps, moreso than the structured and building-heavy maps of MOHAA. And the "Killcam" is a great feature, especially if you are prone to being punked when you think you're concealed. It shows the view from the eyes of your enemy in the last 10 seconds or so before he dealt the killing blow.

Playing through this game I realized two things: one, copy protection is getting to be a real bitch and is more and more detrimental to every PC gamer's experience. I was more than happy to give Infinity Ward my cash, but when a Publisher fucks over your core audience with draconian copy protection it doesn't leave a good first impression. Secondly, just when I thought nothing new could be done with a WWII-based FPS I was happily proven wrong. At times Call of Duty treads on familiar battlegrounds, but the characterization, realism and cinematic stylings that the developers took so long to polish came through with flying colours. The ample supply of multiplayer maps is well recieved, and with the official Mod Kit on its way this game has a lot of life left in it. And probably the best indicator of all: I plan on doing another Tour in the Single Player campaign very soon. Congratulations to Infinity Ward for a job well done.