Call Of Duty...
uranium_235
Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9478Banned
Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9478Banned
<div class="IPBDescription">Hmm...</div> Well you saw me talking trash about this game earlier. So here's my full review.
<b>Graphics</b> <i>3 out of 5</i>
What can I say? Dated graphics. The textures were of moderate quality, so I can't really complain about those. Another high point was the fact that I don't think that any of my allies every really looked the same. Their faces were highly detailed, they even squinted when sighting down the ironsights of their weapons. Very nice addition. However, I can't recall even seeing player shadows. I've since removed the game from my drive, but correct me if I'm wrong. There were no footprints in the snow, and I remember seeing snow footprints in... Soldier of Fortune <b>1</b>. My squad would be taking artillery fire, and suddenly the ground sprays some dirt up in a very ugly fashion, and the ground dents a bit. There were no ragdoll effects, and death animations were very few. I gunned down about four germans in a row and they ALL died in the exact some position.
<b>Sounds</b> <i>4 out of 5</i>
Sounds were excellent. I practically went deaf when crawling under machine gun fire. Weapon sounds were very good, and the soldiers would call random orders, adding a nice feel. The musical score was also very good, except for one problem: I couldn't turn the damn music down. At one point, there was music playing for about three minutes, and I'm trying to hear things around me, but I can't because some **** is piping music through a Nazi base at 150 dbs. Another thing, when I switched to EAX 5, I noticed nothing. Absolutely nothing was different. No echoes, no hollow, cavernous gunfire, nothing.
<b>AI</b> <i>1 out of 5</i>
My god how many game makers have to make this mistake before someone gets it RIGHT? Every single AI event was scripted. Their scripting was good, I'll admit that. I was impressed when my soliders ran forward and crouched behind a wall, leaned around, and fired. That was the only impressive part. I got to watch as my troops would run face first into machine gun fire, in single file, and get cut down. I got to watch as I throw a grenade in a room and the soldiers inside would run around in circles (Occasionaly one was smart enough to get out of the room, and I promptly would beat him to death with my pistol). I constantly was told 'Supress that machine gun nest!'. So I fire at it. Does it supress them? No. The AI had no freaking clue as to the idea that bullets were deadly. I would expect that under heavy fire, soldiers would scatter, crouch, SOMETHING. Instead they just keep doing what they're doing as I take them down. I'll snipe one german, and another comes and stands exactly in his place. Another time, my entire squad completely dissapeared. I have no idea where they went, until I found an entire pile of bodies in one spot. Way to win the war, guys. Finally, all my allies completely and utterly suck at aiming. Why? I peek my head around a corner at the end of the game and a german blows it off with a KAR at long range (Without a scope, no less). I watch as an ally runs ahead of me into a room with a Thompson, PAST a german (Assuming the german doesn't beludgeon him to death, which I see them do constantly), and crouch somewhere, fire into a wall, and get gunned down. Furthermore, I can't even gun down my own retarded allies to stop them from getting in the way. I'll be laying down fire and four guys run right in front of me and I loose for causing 'friendly fire' (Though I did find out I could use the Flak guns on them).
<b>Violence</b> <i>1 out of 5</i>
Part of the horror of war is... the horror. Friends dead. Blood, guts, nasty stuff like that. Violence. They remark that the sea had turned red at Omaha Beach. This game makes you think the war was a sterile as a blood donation place. God, where's the part where I watch my ally give me encouraging advice, then, his head splatters all over the guy behind him? Where's the soldiers crawling around, bleeding, moaning? Violent? Yes. Unneccsary violence? Not at all. God, Goldeneye 64 had more violence then this. Why is every damn war game made for 8 year old kids?
<b>Gameplay - American</b> <i>4 out of 5</i>
The American campaign was fairly fun. I didn't really do any 'impossible' objectives, and I always had a sort of squad with me, completing the feel. The car chase was lots of fun too. There were lots of parts that gave me a sense of chaos in the battle.
<b>Gameplay - British</b> <i>0 out of 5</i>
This was terrible. Every single mission I was alone, killing 500,000 Nazis, and blowing up nuclear weapons or something stupid like that. The bridge battle, I watched as my stupid allys ran around in circles in front of my flak gun so I'd blow them up when I fired (Assuming they all weren't already dead). Typical cliche WW2 game.
<b>Gameplay - Russian</b> <i>5 out of 5</i>
Superb. I love the beginning. It was so... perfect. The soldiers telling me to follow the guy with the gun... the propoganda they're telling me... it was great.
<b>Gameplay - Overall</b> <i>3 out of 5</i>
No progression. I'd complete and objective and then go onto the next one. No sense that I was achieving something for a greater good. Map layout was linear and straightforward. There was no room for creative approaches to difficult problems. You *HAD* to take out that machine gun nest like this. Or you *HAD* to flank him.
No story. God, I know how the damn war is going to end. I'm really bored of these 'Congratulations, you felled the Third Riech!'. No ****, sherlock, you think they're gonna make a game where the Nazis WIN? It'd have been nice if I had something in there that was DIFFERENT. 'Blow up dam' gets real boring. You don't see any war movies about people blowing up dams or flak guns. They're always about escaping impossible odds. You develop a connection to the characters in the movies. Saving allies and scrapping your objectives after a helicopter falls, for example. Don't see that in many war games.
And ofcourse, you have the obligitory 'break someone out of prison' and 'blow up things to make way for troops' (Both of which I said would be in the game BEFORE I EVEN PLAYED IT)
Finally, it suffers from MOHAA AI target selection logic. For some reason, even though you have TWO superior officers near you, and guys with bigger guns, the Nazis would rather shoot YOU then your allies.
<b>Overall</b> <i>2.75 out of 5</i>
Incredibly cliche, linear, carbon-copy WW2 game.
<b>Graphics</b> <i>3 out of 5</i>
What can I say? Dated graphics. The textures were of moderate quality, so I can't really complain about those. Another high point was the fact that I don't think that any of my allies every really looked the same. Their faces were highly detailed, they even squinted when sighting down the ironsights of their weapons. Very nice addition. However, I can't recall even seeing player shadows. I've since removed the game from my drive, but correct me if I'm wrong. There were no footprints in the snow, and I remember seeing snow footprints in... Soldier of Fortune <b>1</b>. My squad would be taking artillery fire, and suddenly the ground sprays some dirt up in a very ugly fashion, and the ground dents a bit. There were no ragdoll effects, and death animations were very few. I gunned down about four germans in a row and they ALL died in the exact some position.
<b>Sounds</b> <i>4 out of 5</i>
Sounds were excellent. I practically went deaf when crawling under machine gun fire. Weapon sounds were very good, and the soldiers would call random orders, adding a nice feel. The musical score was also very good, except for one problem: I couldn't turn the damn music down. At one point, there was music playing for about three minutes, and I'm trying to hear things around me, but I can't because some **** is piping music through a Nazi base at 150 dbs. Another thing, when I switched to EAX 5, I noticed nothing. Absolutely nothing was different. No echoes, no hollow, cavernous gunfire, nothing.
<b>AI</b> <i>1 out of 5</i>
My god how many game makers have to make this mistake before someone gets it RIGHT? Every single AI event was scripted. Their scripting was good, I'll admit that. I was impressed when my soliders ran forward and crouched behind a wall, leaned around, and fired. That was the only impressive part. I got to watch as my troops would run face first into machine gun fire, in single file, and get cut down. I got to watch as I throw a grenade in a room and the soldiers inside would run around in circles (Occasionaly one was smart enough to get out of the room, and I promptly would beat him to death with my pistol). I constantly was told 'Supress that machine gun nest!'. So I fire at it. Does it supress them? No. The AI had no freaking clue as to the idea that bullets were deadly. I would expect that under heavy fire, soldiers would scatter, crouch, SOMETHING. Instead they just keep doing what they're doing as I take them down. I'll snipe one german, and another comes and stands exactly in his place. Another time, my entire squad completely dissapeared. I have no idea where they went, until I found an entire pile of bodies in one spot. Way to win the war, guys. Finally, all my allies completely and utterly suck at aiming. Why? I peek my head around a corner at the end of the game and a german blows it off with a KAR at long range (Without a scope, no less). I watch as an ally runs ahead of me into a room with a Thompson, PAST a german (Assuming the german doesn't beludgeon him to death, which I see them do constantly), and crouch somewhere, fire into a wall, and get gunned down. Furthermore, I can't even gun down my own retarded allies to stop them from getting in the way. I'll be laying down fire and four guys run right in front of me and I loose for causing 'friendly fire' (Though I did find out I could use the Flak guns on them).
<b>Violence</b> <i>1 out of 5</i>
Part of the horror of war is... the horror. Friends dead. Blood, guts, nasty stuff like that. Violence. They remark that the sea had turned red at Omaha Beach. This game makes you think the war was a sterile as a blood donation place. God, where's the part where I watch my ally give me encouraging advice, then, his head splatters all over the guy behind him? Where's the soldiers crawling around, bleeding, moaning? Violent? Yes. Unneccsary violence? Not at all. God, Goldeneye 64 had more violence then this. Why is every damn war game made for 8 year old kids?
<b>Gameplay - American</b> <i>4 out of 5</i>
The American campaign was fairly fun. I didn't really do any 'impossible' objectives, and I always had a sort of squad with me, completing the feel. The car chase was lots of fun too. There were lots of parts that gave me a sense of chaos in the battle.
<b>Gameplay - British</b> <i>0 out of 5</i>
This was terrible. Every single mission I was alone, killing 500,000 Nazis, and blowing up nuclear weapons or something stupid like that. The bridge battle, I watched as my stupid allys ran around in circles in front of my flak gun so I'd blow them up when I fired (Assuming they all weren't already dead). Typical cliche WW2 game.
<b>Gameplay - Russian</b> <i>5 out of 5</i>
Superb. I love the beginning. It was so... perfect. The soldiers telling me to follow the guy with the gun... the propoganda they're telling me... it was great.
<b>Gameplay - Overall</b> <i>3 out of 5</i>
No progression. I'd complete and objective and then go onto the next one. No sense that I was achieving something for a greater good. Map layout was linear and straightforward. There was no room for creative approaches to difficult problems. You *HAD* to take out that machine gun nest like this. Or you *HAD* to flank him.
No story. God, I know how the damn war is going to end. I'm really bored of these 'Congratulations, you felled the Third Riech!'. No ****, sherlock, you think they're gonna make a game where the Nazis WIN? It'd have been nice if I had something in there that was DIFFERENT. 'Blow up dam' gets real boring. You don't see any war movies about people blowing up dams or flak guns. They're always about escaping impossible odds. You develop a connection to the characters in the movies. Saving allies and scrapping your objectives after a helicopter falls, for example. Don't see that in many war games.
And ofcourse, you have the obligitory 'break someone out of prison' and 'blow up things to make way for troops' (Both of which I said would be in the game BEFORE I EVEN PLAYED IT)
Finally, it suffers from MOHAA AI target selection logic. For some reason, even though you have TWO superior officers near you, and guys with bigger guns, the Nazis would rather shoot YOU then your allies.
<b>Overall</b> <i>2.75 out of 5</i>
Incredibly cliche, linear, carbon-copy WW2 game.
Comments
By gaming standards, the A.I. isn't bad at all; they utilise cover efficiently, can follow you all over the map and and actually useful at fighting the germans, the same can't be said for a few other games out there featuring teammates. At no time is it a chore to work with your allies, they always get where they're supposed to go, and always fight fiercely and accurately.
The graphics are decent, especially considering it's based on the Quake 3 engine. The models and textures, while nothing fantastic, are consistently detailed, varied and vibrant. The water effects are absolutely amazing, however. Pixel shaders make the water look better than UT2K3's best efforts, without any performance hit to speak of, basically they're sublime.
I agree with you on the aural front; sound in this game, especially with 5.1, is nothing short of stunning. The mortar stun effect has to be heard (and seen) to be believed.
As for the missions, most were good, some (such as Stalingrad) were fantastic, and a few were disappointing. Disappointing. Not poor. Not boring. Just not up to the high standard created by the others.
Oh and I don't know what you've been smoking, but the defense of Pegasus Bridge is pretty much the 2nd best mission in the game after Stalingrad - when the mournful music kicks in during the dying moments of the level, your teammates are fighting for their lives and tanks are literally surrounding you, you can't help but get swept up in it all.
Your harsh sentence has no truthful foundation; Call of Duty is an epic WW2 FPS, which, while not breaking any moulds, gives an exhilarating gameplay experience much like the original Medal of Honour did, only CoD does it in an overtly superior manner. I loved it, it's a shame you couldn't bring yourself to.
Scripted. Berlin, the assault on the Richstag or whatever it is... just before we came around the final corner, I saved.
My allies ran forward, took some cover. All the rest got mowed down because they just ran, standing up, in the open. I reloaded. Same positions. Same people died. Reloaded. Same thing. I think one guy didn't die, but he quickly crouched and walked BACk and got shot.
Saved game, just before the last american mission when you run through the forest. Saved a couple seconds before an artillery shell hit a couple guys. Reloaded. They got hit again. Reloaded. Hit again. Reloaded. Hit again. They made the exact same turns in their path each time. They didn't run from tree to tree, they were following waypoints. Reloaded, this time I ran up to them, where the artillery is supposed to hit. Surprise, the artillery didn't hit there.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Your harsh sentence has no truthful foundation<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So if mine doesn't, that means your fanboyistic opinion somehow means MORE? God, you're the one who thinks that this game is 'epic'. For an 'epic' title, it sure had absolutely NOTHING new... water effects MIGHT have impressed me, if I didn't see better effects in older titles.
The game is completely frustrating on anything other than the first two difficulty levels. When I increase difficulty, I dont expect the nme soldiers to automatically single me out, and magically know were I am, nor do I expect to get shot by running mp40 soldiers from about 100m.
It was the best WW2 FPS I've ever played, but it was scripted, and too freakin hard when you put it on any decent difficulty level.
The game is completely frustrating on anything other than the first two difficulty levels. When I increase difficulty, I dont expect the nme soldiers to automatically single me out, and magically know were I am, nor do I expect to get shot by running mp40 soldiers from about 100m.
It was the best WW2 FPS I've ever played, but it was scripted, and too freakin hard when you put it on any decent difficulty level. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I started playing on beginner and it was WAY too freaking easy. So I played it on one step above 'regular'. The defending missions were hard... but most of the game was just 'lean around, aim with gun, shoot nazi once in head, he dies'. It doesn't help that every gun except the Russion 70-round SMG had near 100% accuracy when 'zoomed'.
Actually, in several missions, I managed to accomplish it without getting shot ONCE.
Oh, that's another point I forgot: All enemies seem to favor shooting you, not your allies.
Oh and I'm no fan boy, I simply enjoyed it and don't want to see an excellent game be slated for such minor reasons.
War's never been so much fun.
EDIT: I completed it on Regular (I think that's what it called) and only missions like Pegasus Bridge were difficult. Now I'm going through on Veteran, just got back to Pegasus Bridge... this is going to be tough.
I liked it. I did think the Allied deaths were ridiculously out of proportion to the number of German deaths. (except Stalingrad :-D)
I don't know if the reference to "Cannon Fodder" was intentional, but still, <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Having not played the full game I can't really comment, but i'm definatly getting it at some stage. Or U235 could send it to me since he seems so disatisfied with it.
I don't know if the reference to "Cannon Fodder" was intentional, but still, <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Indeed it was <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
<b>"War, never been so much fun. War, never been so much fun. Go to your brother, kill him with your gun, leave him lying in his uniform, dying in the sun."</b>
Less flames, more battling opinions <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
EDIT: And don't get me started on the A.I. of B.H.D... they couldn't tell a Somalian rebel from a piece of desert rock.
I really liked it, a bit short, but very fun.
Time to play it again on harder difficulty latre on after I beat Max Payne 2.
may favorite missions.
US: Blowing up the guns firing on Normandy Beaches. Just like in Band of brothers, you even go in that little bunker to get the maps like Winters did in BoB.
British: Holding that bridge. The Damn was pretty good too, i watched a presentation on that dam mission on the History Channel not to long ago.
USSR: The final taking of the German building (forget name). The music was awsome, as you fought your way up to the top, The apartment mission was pretty ugly though with Germans coming in everywhere.
Thats gonna be a hard on on the vetran difficultly.
They are good for a game of such vast size. I mean seriously, Rockstar COULD have made GTA III photorealistic, but no computer would be able to handle all the cars and action going on. I would much rather have a smooth OK looking game then a slow as hell GREAT looking game.
I played the St-Eglais (IIRC) demo.
I play it regularly. Once a day on greenhorn. Yes, some events are scripted, but for the most part the AI adapts.
**Cough**UT2003**Cough**
Well, your computer being able to run them wasn't the point, was it? The point was, the graphics weren't good.
<!--QuoteBegin--Supra_soldier+,--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Supra_soldier @ ,)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In my opinion CoD rocks in every way: A.I, graphics, story (yes even story ), action, all of it. Its just one helluva game. I'd like to see Uranium make a better one .<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
...
OMG i think CS is great i'd like to see YOU make a better game lolololol
I'd take gameplay over graphics anyday; and for the most part the weapon models are decent - at the very least a damn sight better than RTCW's dross efforts.
There are some events where Scripting will have to take over AI, AI can do a lot but it can't do it all.
I mean, at least the scripting coulve' been GOOD. ("Martin, surpress that bunker! Keep their heads down!". I fire into bunker with Bren gun. Germans don't even flinch.)
I think you mean evans, martin was only int he american campaign. Maybe if you shoot better you can kill some germans.
Why don't you try Operation Flashpoint then.
The AI is rather good on that.