Sunday 13 January, 2008

SUMMARY:

Call of Duty 4 is Activision's latest first person shooter in the Call of Duty series. The game is different from past Call of Duty's because the setting is now the current time period with updated game play, weapons and an entirely different plot compared to the traditional World War II shooter. The game consists of an intriguing plot in campaign mode that is told from 3 different perspectives. Additionally there are different multi player games to play online ranging from Free-for-All to a capture the flag type game.

GAMEPLAY:

After playing this game for an hour or so, it allowed me to get by the training mission as well as the first two missions. Although the training is somewhat slow compared to the rest of the game, it does allow players to become faster at doing medial tasks (such as throwing grenades). Also it allowed me to become familiar with all of the controls for the PC version. The layout of the training level overall felt very realistic consisting of staged rooms, a shooting range and an obstacle course complete with pop-up wooden soldiers to train for the real thing.

The training mission was just as I would expect it to be, if I were an SAS agent for Britain. With fluidity, the A.I. soldiers you play with brief you from the training for the mission into the real first mission of the game. The first mission consisted of me (Soap Mctavish) infiltrating a cargo ship in the bearing strait with my superiors (Capt. Price) and other soldiers.

The lack of DX10 support in this game is hardly noticeable because of Call of Duty's stunning visuals in the very first misson, you'll really think you're on the chopper with rain around you and Capt. Price smoking his cigar before deployment. The rain and wind effects in the game are second to none. With the weather dynmaic affecting the cargo ship, I sometimes found it difficult to aim with the iron sights on the boat because of the constant rocking back and forth. Although this was bothersome throughout the level, it added a level of detail I've yet to see in any other WWII shooter or even any current day shooter.

Veterans of the FPS genre will feel right at home with the constant action provided in Call of Duty. The "run-n-gun" type of play that some amateurs may have, will prove ineffective very quickly. The AI bots playing the security soldiers on the cargo ship are some of the best i've seen. At harder difficulties the AI adapts to the way that you run around in the mission and they try to flank you constantly always popping out from behind corners. For the hardened FPS players, the hardest difficulty might pose some problems and delay in the game actually causing the player to look for cover and prevent from being blown away by the precise throws of the AI bots.

A good initial entry. In future entries try to ask yourself why these games are making you do the actions or feeling the way it is and ask if it makes the game better or worse from a design perspective. Try to stay away from a play by play entry of what it was like to play the game.

The chances are we have played the games you choose, especially very popular games, and you should spend that space writing more on design opposed to wha tthe game is about.