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by ritual, Saturday, August 30, 2003 Comments(5)
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| When I first heard the news that the Call of Duty demo would be an exclusive for FilePlanet subscribers only, I was a bit upset with Activision and the title itself. Only a few days later did the news come out that the demo would be released not only to everyone for free, but also 2 days early. Being a multiplayer type of guy, coming from backgrounds of Counter-Strike, Warcraft III, and Day of Defeat, I was a bit disappointed from the start because it only contained a single player demo. I had imagined myself sitting up till the early morning playing the Call of Duty demo without breaking for bathroom or food and drink; apparently this wouldn’t happen until maybe next weekend. |
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As many predicted, the demo did contain the St. Mere Eglise level. At the start, you are thrust into that almost-famous scene of the American GIs trooping up a small pasture and then encountering a few German MG-42s camped out in the windows of a nearby abandoned home. Mortars explode left and right as you watch some of your comrades being cut down by enemy machine gun fire and one or two get hurled into the air by nearby exploding shells. There is a very impressive and innovative effect which happens to you if you are near an exploding shell, I had to find this out the hard way! As I was trudging up the pasture, a shell landed next to me, I was tossed a few feet, lost most of my hearing, and my vision was blurry, not to mention, my aim became swayed and my movement was much slower. The environment was the most realistic World War II scene I have seen yet in a PC game from my knowledge acquired through movies, documentaries, past research, and stories handed down to me from my World War II veterans including my Grandfather. In an attempt to stay clear of machine gun fire, your squad takes cover in craters, behind the carcasses of freshly mowed down bovines, and a rickety old fence that you find inadequate once an MG crew begins to send splinters in every direction. |
| Once you move past the MG-42 encampments, you find yourself in a close range firefight with some lightly armed German foot soldiers roaming around in nearby houses taking cop shots at you from windows and doorways, then, quickly sliding behind walls to work the bolts of their Mauser Carbine 98 Ks. Iron sights became a great asset here, as I focused in to where I anticipated the soldier that had just fired at me to reappear, I found myself getting closer to my monitor in an attempt to see the enemy better, then realizing, I was playing a game: leaned back into my chair and continued playing. |
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Your main objective in this level is to take out three (3) anti-aircraft machine guns setup somewhere in the back of the town. As you get closer and closer to the AA guns, you see tracers wavering wildly throughout the sky. At one point, you surprise attack one of the guns taking out a group of Germans spraying the air in an attempt to take out the airborne dropping in from above. The death animations are exactly what I have been looking for in a game. In real life, when someone is shot, they do not simply sprawl out, arms above their head and legs stiffened. When hit in the abdomen, the target will slowly keel over, curl up in a ball, and attempt to scurry behind cover. This is what I found in Call of Duty. Also, instead of blood spraying uncontrollably out of the soldiers, you sometimes only get a puff of white, what appears to be smoke, which through research, I later found out that this is actually moisture that is given off from the skin of the target leaving the body from the impact of the bullet. |
| The game play was very exciting in Call of Duty and the graphics were very attractive. Days before, I found myself roaming CoD IRC channels and forums in an attempt to find the minimum system specifications for the game, afraid that my not-completely-out-of-date Pentium IV, 1.3 Ghz and GeForce 4 128mb card would be able to run this game with nice looking effects. I left the settings on default and my frame rates seemed fantastic. The models, although very similar to those in MOHAA looked great, and I was shocked when I saw the AA guns exploding, and my frame rate staying virtually the same. Most games today require a lot of power in you PC, this is not the case with Call of Duty. |
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Overall, although Call of Duty seemed a bit like MOHAA in the movement and basic feel of the game, I think Call of Duty is much more fun to play and much more realistic in its story line and basic features. The sound is great and you feel as if you are actually there taking part in the battle and the visual effects are amazing but at the same time do not require a slew of brand new hardware. My only complaint with the Call of Duty demo is that there is no multiplayer. Hopefully, in the days to come I’ll be able to play along side and against many of you in a brand new multiplayer map. |
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