Tuesday, January 10, 2006
I just finished Call of Duty 2 for 360 (look, I have the achievement to prove it!), and the kinder, bloggier me wants to tell you what I thought.
Call of Duty really surprised me. I don't really like WW2 games in general, though I mostly blame it on Medal of Honor. I don't like the stupid overbearing storyline (though this is a topic for another time). I don't like the way you're in a squad that either doesn't do jack and relies on you to do everything or shoots everything before you even see who they're shooting at. I don't like overly scripted events like D-Day, where you walk through a series of scripted explosions designed to look cool but cause no damage (kinda like a ride in Disneyland). And I don't like going over the same battles again and again and again.
Call of Duty really nails most of these. I love the way you flip between three different campaigns. I love the way objectives are always varied, but they're logical and always simple -- no silly curveballs that require you to learn some insane new skill. I love the weapons, particularly the way each campaign has a different set and feel (bolt action rifles in Stalingrad a la Enemy at the Gates -- brilliant!).
One thing that Call of Duty's Soviet and British campaigns do exceptionally well is keep you going in the right direction. It is a remarkably linear game, but you don't feel it in those missions because your forward path is always the logical and obvious one. There are also some absolute standout moments in those campaigns. I loved the pipeline stuff in Stalingrad. Spotting targets for your artillery from the roof of that African town was awesome. And charging across a desert valley by running behind your tanks was a jaw-dropping moment for me -- I simply couldn't believe that the soldiers actually had to do that!
I think the game loses its way in the American campaign though. You take an arbitrary path through various buildings, and it's not obvious where you should be or why you're going this way to your objective rather than the other. Plus, I've seen some weird, weird things with AI. For instance, on top of Hill 400 you're supposed to be defending a bunker you just captured off the Germans. So fine, you're there fighting off Germans... but whenever they break through your line, they don't attack the bunker, they start shooting you from behind. So basically, it looks like the Germans are DEFENDING the bunker and you're attacking them, which is really dumb and stick out like a sore thumb in an otherwise superb game.
But they deserve special praise for the way they've handled the squad. They've found a great balance between keeping you busy in control and making your squad more than a set of useless goons. You pick your advances. They back you up. And if you wait too long, they'll charge ahead. It's a subtle but very effective system.
And the game is a class act throughout. Love the blurred screen and quotes when you die. Love the way that there's blood, but not in a gratuitous way. And I love that there are no stats. I really wasn't a believer of Call of Duty, but now I am. Now I hope they turn their attention to the Pacific Theatre and give us missions set out there... island-hopping with the Americans... fighting through the Malaysian jungle with the Brits... maybe even some Chinese resistance to the Japanese. Why not?
Posted at 5:26 AM
