CALL OF DUTY

CALL OF DUTY
Posted:2006-03-21 By Master Chief Number of View:7702
CALL OF DUTY By :Master Chief Posted:2006-03-21 xtreview is your : Video card - cpu - memory - Hard drive - power supply unit source Call of Duty Publisher: Activision Developer: Infinity Ward Genre: Action / FPS ESRB: Teen System Requirements Minimum: PIII 700 MHz, 128 MB RAM, Win98/ME/2K/XP, DirectX 9 3D graphics accel. Recommended: P4 1 GHZ, 256 MB RAM, Geforce FX or ATI Radeon 128MB+    In the past few years, numerous first-person shooters have embraced the theme of World War II combat, most notably the Medal of Honor series and the multiplayer-oriented Battlefield 1942. Developer Infinity Ward continues the trend of taking on the Nazis up close and personal with Call of Duty. As some of the development team for this title was behind Medal of Honor, the question is whether or not this W.W.II-themed shooter distinguishes itself with enough style to make it worthwhile.   Call of Duty drops the player into the most significant events of the bloodiest war in history. From the outset, it’s made clear you’re a small part of a massive struggle being waged by millions. You must confront German forces from not one, but three perspectives: American, British and Russian. In each of the three campaigns, you start out in the fray of a major battle, working your way up the ranks of a squad of infantry and toward more specific and dangerous objectives. At all times, the goal remains the same: Berlin.   The combat is intense throughout the game’s 24 single-player missions. Each assignment contains a number of objectives, some of which arise as you progress through the level. Clearing out enemy troops, defending critical areas, blowing up equipment to pave the way for your forces, and dashing for survival are hallmarks of the combat in Call of Duty.   Little of this is done alone, as you’ll often find yourself alongside three or four squad mates on whom you must rely to stay alive in the bullet-rich war zones. In fighting pitched battles with German forces, you’ll almost always depend on support fire and flanking from your mates to help you carry out an objective. Since you can’t control your forces, they execute their roles automatically, providing support fire, sniping at enemies and moving forward toward targets. Sometimes, your squad mates will both give out orders and carry out secondary tasks. In one mission, the commander orders another soldier to provide recon; when enemy fire kills him, the whole unit moves into action to cope with an ambush as you’re ordered to sneak away and find anti-tank rockets to disable an incoming panzer.   As you fight through large fields, small alleys and open streets, you’ll quickly learn the developers have provided you with several methods of survival. Walking upright and blasting away might work in an arcade shooter, but here, it invites immediate death. Therefore, you can crouch while moving and even lie prone to inch forward. Crouching and going prone are useful maneuvers, as every level contains plenty of areas in which to take cover, from dead cattle to charred cars. Another useful feature is the ability to fire “down the sight” as opposed to “from the hip.” Thus, you can achieve a slight zoom effect with any weapon for increased accuracy and control, although at the expense of faster movement. The “down the sight” mode is most effective when used in combination with another key feature - the ability to lean. Firing around walls or doors accurately while exposing yourself minimally is a must in close-quarters combat. You can take down Germans only if you’re equipped with the necessary weapons. Call of Duty features four basic firearms, all named and modeled after their appropriate historic counterparts. Whether the weapons are American, English, Russian or German, there’s always a submachine gun, rifle, sniper rifle and pistol, though each side has its variations on the theme. In one American mission, you’re equipped with a powerful suppressive-fire rifle, the Browning Automatic; the main British machine gun, the Bren, doesn’t feature the ability to fire single rounds bursts, unlike most others; the Russian submachine gun, the PPSh41, holds 71 rounds per magazine, but its stopping power is limited; and the Germans carry either a submachine gun or a more powerful assault rifle. Each weapon has its application in specific situations. The submachine gun is handy for clearing out small rooms of enemies, but lacks accuracy at long distance. In these cases, you may either opt to fire it semi-automatically or switch to a basic single-shot rifle for greater punch; the drawback is that the rifle fires fewer rounds before needing to be reloaded. The sniper rifle is a necessity in the Russian missions, where taking out enemies at a distance can save you and your squad from being mowed down in ambushes. Moreover, the sniper rifle is effective for disabling fixed machine gun emplacements that are otherwise impossible to get around. There are also grenades for clearing out rooms and panzerfausts for disabling tanks.   Despite having access to four weapons, you can’t run around brandishing the entire arsenal. Call of Duty limits you to two slots that you can fill with any combination of machine guns, rifles and sniper rifles. To pick up another weapon when both slots are taken, you must drop one you’re carrying. A pistol and a set of grenades are allowed, too, but even wielding the panzerfaust means you have to drop a main firearm. This forces you to make important tactical decisions during combat. For instance, picking up a panzerfaust to punch through an enemy tank is all well and good, but which kind of gun will you choose to take down the waves of Germans pouring out in the aftermath? Similarly, employing a sniper rifle to pick off targets at a distance is useful, but it’s not wise to drop your submachine gun for it.   The most salient aspect of Call of Duty is the cinematic feel of the game. In the course of a mission, you might come across several squads of soldiers on your side fighting and dying nearby. Even when you’re not engaged in battle, the crackling of fire and mortars besieges you from all sides, and squad mates and enemies can often be heard shouting and charging. Moreover, some of the locales, such as the Normandy landings, holding Pegasus Bridge and defending Stalingrad, convey an epic aura as raging battles fill the screen. In another bow to realism, artillery and tank shells landing near your position temporarily render everything in slow-motion. As this emulates the feeling of being woozy, you turn and move more slowly, making you vulnerable to enemy fire. Graphics: The graphics in Call of Duty are polished and detailed, and the game environment is depicted vividly. Most of the texturing is impressive, as snow, grass and concrete surfaces look genuine. The gun models are quite good, with larger weapons having the appearance of being powerful without looking cartoonish. Character movement is also executed well, as soldiers crawl, crouch and pop up rather realistically. It’s clear that the visuals have been designed to bring out the atmosphere of battle, as the ruined rubble of buildings appears gloomy and cold, whereas Nazi command centers look daunting. The explosions springing from the enemy tanks and artillery pieces you destroy are especially satisfying and lifelike. Also nice: fireballs shooting up in the sky with flames pouring out, producing a visual feast. A couple things are less than superb. The facial expressions, for instance, are a little blocky, making the lip-syncing of a commander’s orders less than convincing. The death animations are somewhat disappointing, too; sometimes, enemies fly off balconies if shot from below, or get up after being hit two or three times as if nothing happened, only to keel over dramatically after being struck a fourth time. There are some occasional clipping issues as well, such as enemies piling up near an opened door. Nonetheless, these are minor gripes; the overall visual effect is breathtaking and pleasing to the eye.     Interface: Installation is straightforward, though Activision’s tedious disc-swapping process, whereby you need to open your CD-ROM drive three times to get through the install, remains. Likewise, the opening menu is self-explanatory and easy to navigate, and all the relevant playing modes and options are a click or two away. Customizing sound and graphics options is a simple affair, too, as is loading saved games. The combination of mouse and keyboard controls should be intuitive to anyone who’s played first-person shooters, and everything from firing a gun to character movement can be modified.   The in-game heads-up display is standard fare for a first-person title. There’s a health bar that changes colors as your situation worsens and a box informing you of how many rounds you have in your clip and in your belt. There’s also a small compass on which friendlies and the direction of the next objective are highlighted, as well as a handy visual indicator to let you know if you’re standing, crouching or going prone. At no point are you left feeling there’s something lacking in the interface.     Gameplay: Call of Duty’s gameplay is intense and cinematic. There’s rarely a moment of rest, and you must stay alert at all times. Since you often move into battle with squad mates, there are usually a large number of enemies on two or three sides that must be dealt with. They’ll lean and crouch behind walls and boxes, forcing you to think before you shoot. Learning when to lean, crouch and aim “down the sight” is critical to staying alive, and once mastered, makes for an exhilarating experience. The thrill of dodging enemy fire and taking out targets from all sorts of positions heightens the drama of combat.   Call of Duty offers a quick save feature and stores your progress automatically at key points; besides that, the player can save anywhere. The controls are responsive overall, and toggling between shooting and stance modes is painless. This works out well because Call of Duty is highly scripted, with important developments cropping up quickly. The scripting becomes tedious if you get stuck in one area and events start looping, but most of the time, it boosts the theatrical effect of taking part in a large-scale effort. For instance, in one mission, you must defend a bridge against an all-sided German attack by scurrying into a bunker, grabbing panzerfausts, and knocking out enemy tanks at your commanders’ orders while he and other soldiers deal with scores of infantry who are firing at you.   The above-mentioned sequence also illustrates the importance of your squad mates in combat. Throughout most missions, you must attack, defend or escape with their assistance, and this works admirably considering you exercise no control over them. In one instance, a fellow soldier wheels you into an enemy airbase and orders you to take control of an anti-aircraft gun to down incoming planes as he and your other team members take out German infantry. You’re then ordered back into a truck to make a getaway via airplane. The presence of squad mates in Call of Duty is well-done, dovetailing nicely with the theme of playing a small role in an epic battle.   Logging in at about 15 hours, the single-player experience isn’t lengthy, yet this isn’t an accurate indicator of the product’s value. The quality, attention to detail, intensity and cinematic aura of the experience are impressive, if not mesmerizing. As you move from one campaign to another, you’ll feel as though you’re playing multiple games, as fighting the war through the viewpoint of each nationality is a gratifying experience in itself.     Multiplayer: The multiplayer experience emulates the intensity of the campaign, which is fine, but there’s nothing new. As with all Quake 3 engine games, there are separate executables for the single and multiplayer modes, so your presets for single-player won’t carry over. You can choose between local area network and Internet play, and in the latter case are presented with a list of gaming sessions from which to choose, with ping, match type and the number of players displayed. There’s some noticeable lag on larger maps with over 20 players on them, but I found a good number of low-ping contests available.   There’s a standard deathmatch mode along with three other game types: Behind Enemy Lines, Retrieval and Search & Destroy. The first mode is a bit bizarre, as numerically superior Nazi forces attack an Allied force, and players on the German side turn into Allied players if they succeed in killing one. In Retrieval, a time limit is given to one team, which must try to capture documents defended by another. Search & Destroy consists of one team trying to blow up an infrastructure the other is supposed to protect.   While all the variation is welcome, the absence of bots to assist in these modes makes smaller-scale multiplayer less tactical. Nonetheless, online and LAN action is enjoyable because the presence of several forms of cover in most maps provides plenty of places to crouch behind and hide, forcing prolonged sessions of strategic shooting and aiming. It’s not possible to run around rampaging with guns blazing, which would make a mockery of the core gameplay of Call of Duty. Another contributing factor is the kill-cam, whereby you can see who shot you and how you died. This gives away sniper positions and makes camping out in one place impossible. Though there’s a good balance between open terrain and more close-quarter environments, given the large number of maximum players supported in some maps (40), the ability to pilot vehicles (as in a few single-player missions) would’ve been welcome.     Sound FX: Call of Duty’s sound effects are well-fitted to its overall tone. Gunfire and mortars crackle and explode in the distance, providing a certain ambience that heightens the tension and urgency of gameplay. The weapons\' fire is loud and crisp - never weak or muffled. The fury of tank fire and explosions is impressive, too, rumbling and rattling appropriately. The audio features all of the EAX modes as well as software-simulated 3D sound. With EAX enabled, the echoing and piercing of gunshots rings through perfectly.   The voice acting is top-notch, with British and Russian-accented English fleshing out the second and third sections of the single-player experience. The voices of squad mates and commanders sound authoritative and authentic without offering a hint of gimmickry. Your own teammates, other friendly soldiers and enemies constantly shriek and holler out orders, contributing to the feeling that you’re part of the battle. This is reassuring since the gameplay could’ve ended up feeling detached and impersonal as you played three different people. Thanks to well-placed dialogue between team members, this never happens. For example, there’s a memorable escape sequence where a frightened private and his superior exchange humorous barbs while you lean out of the car and shoot at Nazis.     Musical Score: The music complements the content of the game. It’s comprised of mostly classical instruments, sometimes heightening the tension and fear of what lies ahead, intimidating during battle, and triumphant when victory is at hand. Often, there are small musical stirrings instead of big scores, but this was a tasteful decision on the developers’ part. There were many times where, peering around in dark hallways or in the sewers, the music added to the feeling of suspense.     Intelligence & Difficulty: The intelligence of both your squad mates and your adversaries is generally good. Enemies usually act competently, crouching, seeking cover fire, throwing grenades when appropriate and so forth. If they’re close to you, they’ll even resort to butting you with the end of their rifles. In another nice touch, if a machine-gunner is taken out, a nearby soldier will duck and move toward the emplacement to replace his fallen comrade. Sometimes, however, old blunders prevail: bad guys occasionally bunch up at doors, squeeze into each other in tight spaces or fail to notice you when you’re standing in front of them. As for your own soldiers, they misbehave infrequently enough that it’s not bothersome, and their movements and firing rarely interfere with your own. Usually, they’ll provide support fire and move forward, taking on enemy troops as best they can, but don’t expect them to do the job for you.   The single-player campaign features four difficulty levels. I found the next-to-easiest one plenty challenging, as the opponent becomes tougher and smarter in later levels, scaling smoothly with the complexity of the missions and the number of enemies involved.     Overall: Call of Duty is a cinematic and thrilling experience. The ability to take part in the last century’s most defining and destructive war through the perspective of three different sides is quite engaging. The developers put serious time and effort into polishing the visuals and sound, and fleshed out a great experience with solid mechanics that enrich the atmosphere and drama of combat. This title should be on the A-list of every PC gamer.   xtreview is your : Video card - cpu - memory - Hard drive - power supply unit source we would be happy to answer for your question . if you have suggestion or comment regarding this review our support would be glad to help just join our forum and ask u will get the best answer to discuss check our forum section :-) RATE THIS REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5    / 5   View Stat

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