Classic Game Reviews - Call of Duty

It's World War II, so Infinity Ward only had so much leeway when writing a new story. Call of Duty features three separate campaigns, following a single soldier each from the American, British, and Russian armies. A common thread to most Call of Duty games is that you start out as a green recruit fresh out of training, and that holds true for each campaign.

 Between missions, loading screens feature a journal updated with the latest developments in the campaign, and it's the main way you learn about your character - where he came from, what his fears are, and even how he hopes to survive the war. These journals also provide updates on the missions on which you're about to undertake, such as what kind of military intelligence there is, what kinds of enemies to expect, and your squad's feelings. If it seems like a suicide mission, you'll find that written down.

Scripted events in mission provide the rest of the story. In the CoD campaigns, you'll find yourself jumping out of an airplane hours before thousands of soldiers storm the beaches at Normandy, retaking Red Square with hunreds of other Russian "volunteers," and even storming the Reichstag.

Unlike many shooters, Call of Duty is pure action. Half-Life 2 has physics puzzles. BioShock gives players all sorts of unique abilities. Crysis had its nanosuit with invisibility, armor, and increased speed. Call of Duty has none of that. The game knows what it does well and doesn't branch out from that.

 You never even have to open doors in the game. Enemies may surprise you by flinging doors open and storming out of a building, and your squadmates may kick doors in so you can take a building, but you yourself will never open a single door. After all, what do doors do other than slow people down?

That frantic pace means you'll finish the campaign in under ten hours, less if you have it on an easy setting. Call of Duty difficulties range from recruit (play it in your sleep) to veteran (just quicksave often), and turning the difficulty up can make your next playthrough frustratingly difficult but ultimately rewarding. Not only do enemies hit harder at veteran, but you'll find that most health packs are conspiculously missing. There are few things as heart pounding in video games as fighting a dozen enemies when you start the battle with 10 health. You just hope that nobody decides to fling a grenade your way.

Leaning's also incredibly useful, and fans everywhere were dismayed when Modern Warfare 2 took that ability out. Leaning around corners doesn't mean you can't be hit, but it does make you a much smaller target.

Sub-machine guns are of course good for close quarters combat in buildings and bunkers. Rifles are better for fighting across fields and down streets, but they're surprisingly effective up close as well. The only weapon that performs poorly against nearby enemies is whatever sniper rifle is available to you. Considering that sniper rifles and their ammo are rarer than normal rifles, you'll be using the latter far more often.

The original Call of Duty is the only one in the series to not feature the regenerating health bar common to most shooters today. Instead, it's the classic "find a health pack" gameplay, and on harder difficulties, those health packs are precious indeed. It's easy to forget how difficult shooters used to be compared to the toned down console-fied experiences of the past few years, and by difficult I mean you'd better have quick enough reflexes to drop those Nazis in half a second.

 Most levels are the "kill Nazis and blow up artillery guns/tanks" variety, but a few stand out for being innovative and exciting at the time. Immediately after the dam level, there's a lengthy car chase in which you fend over hordes of Nazis riding motorcycles and other automobiles. The chase ends at an airport, where you man a powerful anti-aircraft gun to shoot down incoming bombers and fend off infantry closing in on your position.

There's also the mandatory tank level through a city, featuring tons of destructible buildings and camouflaged Panzer tanks. Beyond that, it's a pretty typical FPS experience. The skeleton of a story helps differentiate this from other WWII shooters, but CoD's gameplay generally sticks to a tried and true formula.

Another big advancement Call of Duty introduced follows one of the game's slogans: "no one fights alone." Instead of players essentially being Rambo and toppling the Third Reich by themselves, AI squadmates help you fight through the game's three campaigns, a series staple which has carried through to the franchise's newest offerings.

 Squadmates aren't perfect soldiers. They take cover, run away from grenades, and possess some basic strategies to try to outflank enemies, but Call of Duty's AI is unremarkable but acceptable. There were a few times when they ran out into live machine gun fire (taking one for the team, I guess) and needlessly wasted their lives. Thankfully, I usually picked up more squadmates further along in the level.

Even with some help, prepare to do most of the heavy lifting yourself. Call of Duty is notoriously scripted, and you won't be able to advance through most areas without killing 80% of the Nazis yourself. There are a few levels in CoD where you go it mostly alone, such as the dam, ship, and Russian sewer levels, but these are few and far between.

CoD squadmates, on the other hand, contribute more to the general feel of the game. It's a huge step closer to actually reenacting a war, at least as much as a video game can manage.