Reviewed by: Ebow
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision

Call of Duty is heavily reminiscent of Medal of Honor. And Day of Defeat, the Half-life mod. And the Quake series in the intensity of it's multiplayer. But it still stands as one of my best games of this year, even with all the next-gen shooters arriving in the months ahead (HL2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Painkiller etc).

Why? Simple - it does exactly what it says on the tin (and in the excellent TV ad), and it does it very well.

You play as either a Yank, Russian or British soldier during missions that each of these would have participated in during World War 2. What the game sold itself on, IMHO, was that you were only a small part of a very big war (not Rambo or John Wayne sorting it all out yourself), and the game succeeds in making you feel like this. Although your squad mates often wait for you to do something before they move on, there is a good feeling that you're the only one that can do it, and the others already have tasks (defending, attacking etc) that means you're the only man to do the job. Imagine the Omaha beach level with a less scripted feel and you've got Call of Duty.

Gameplay is pure FPS, but with the story and background to each mission well presented I didn't have the feeling I was just shooting everything for the sake of it (Serious Sam, this isn't). A small tear was shed at the end of the last mission as my comrades [did the thing that I won't spoil for the rest of you] - I felt like I was part of it all, like I'd contributed to what was happening, that I'd cleared the way. I'm very keen to up the difficulty to l33t and play it all again, if only for the MP practice.

A gameplay element worth mentioning is what happens when there's a loud bang next you. Remember Saving Private Ryan, on the beach, where it all went very quiet and blurry and would come back to normality with a whistle? That's what happens. At one stage I was teasing tanks just to make this happen - an excellent touch.

Levels are massive, and with my rig the loading times were tiny (a blessing during multiplayer). Although the game uses a enhanced Quake 3 engine, IIRC, it looks excellent, although there aren't a great deal of real-world physics things going on (you can destroy a few buildings in the "drive a tank" level and erm... you die when you fall from a great height) but to be honest, who cares? These things will not make Doom 3 and HL 2 great games - if there's no story, they'll suck, and the game will feel like a tech demo. Levels of note? Pegasus Bridge, when the music kicks in at the end - it could be "Band of Brothers - The Video Game"; the sitting in the back of the truck firing rockets at vehicles level (has an Indiana Jones feel about it, and runs soooo smoothly); the last level as the Russians. The only level that had me ho-humming was the dam level - the inside stuff stank of Return to Castle Wolfenstein (all samey corridors) but this may be a nasty hangover from RtCW for me... the shoot the stukas level felt a bit arcadey, as did a number of sniping levels where you have to shoot the pop-up targets. These last few don't make the game bad, they probably just mean I've been gaming for too long ;)

Weapon handling is good, and thankfully there's no shotgun to make multiplayer a chore (as with Medal of Honor). Weapons from the different armies are used throughout, with a initial selection made on joining a game of multiplayer. Picking dropped weapons up means you can have a machinegun and a sniper rifle, making for the right kind of guns for the right situation. Some weapons have alternate-fire modes (single shot or full auto, for example), which can be handy for the multiplayer as there's nowt more embarrassing than emptying a mag into a room to find the enemy laughing at your inaccuracy.

While the single player has been that rarest of things for me in that I want to go back and do it again, the multiplayer should be given a few paragraphs.

Standard game types (DM, Team DM) are included, along with a Search and Destroy (single objective for one side, defend for the other - much as MoH Objective levels), Retrieval (similiar to S & D, though the item must be returned to an area) and Behind Enemy Lines (seems to be similiar to Alien tag from A v P, though not actually played this yet).

What makes Call of Duty MP stand out from Medal of Honor MP are the maps. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of MoH MP, but the few levels you do get can be tedious with only a few of you playing. Call of Duty only has a couple of medium sized maps, the rest are all very small. This makes for mad intense combat if there are a lot of you, and quick sneaky fun if there are a few. Even on the medium maps it's easy to find the other side - a flaw in some of the MoH maps IMHO. A nice touch in MP is the "killcam" which, when you're dead, shows you the 5 seconds leading up to your demise through the eyes of the person that killed you. This is helpful in identifying where they are so you can go and exact your revenge, and good for spotting cheats. It's also not enabled on every server.

Maps of note are the ship map (mainly because it's ridiculous, everyone climbing and climbing and sniping and sniping lol), the POW camp (excellent fun to be had on the tops of the buildings) and pavlov. The latter is a good example of what Call of Duty offers in it's MP - catering for how each player wants to play. There's room to snipe if you just want to snipe, but there's room to red mist and charge in if that's what you want to do. Both ways can get you good scores. Both ways are fun. [ego stroke]The latter gets me top of the board 95% of the time ;) [/ego stroke].

So, if you're a WW2 fan and you want to feel part of it all, this is the game for you. If you've tired of Medal of Honor and want to remember how it felt when you played that, this is for you. If you've not enjoyed a FPS of quality since Quake 2, this is for you. If you like coming away from a multiplayer session feeling the adrenalin rush through your veins, this is for you.

Answer the Call :)

Presentation	9
Not PC, but not having to download a blood patch would be nice...
Gameplay	10
Excellent single player, with story to immerse you and fuel you on. Instantly enticing multiplayer that I've not felt since MoH
Value	10
Uses modified old tech but still plays alongside the next-gen of games, IMHO
Benchmark	9
Score is for how far one company can push existing tech and still come up with something that feels new without having to ask us all to fork out for new hardware to run their new game. Hats off to Infinity Ward for this.
Score	9
An outstanding contribution to the ever-expanding WW2 FPS. This may even become the one by which all others are judged.