Call of Duty Preview

I'm sure most action gamers are painfully aware by now of just how much the Second World War has been explored and exploited in video games. It seems that most major genres have a few, if not many more, games based on this bloody conflict. It almost seems that the bloodier the conflict, the more attention it will attract with the publishers, and as bloody conflicts go, WWII is pretty much the bloodiest. But, not all WWII games are created equal. Some are able to convey the sense of destruction and bloodshed that this war created, while others are just pale attempts at cashing in on a popular gaming trend. Then there are those special games that are in the league of their own - the trendsetters. One such game was undoubtedly Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a Quake 3 engined FPS created by the talented folks at 2015, and published by EA Games. At the time it hit retail (back in February 2002) MoH: AA literally took gamers and the gaming press by storm. GOTY awards were handed out and the future looked bright for the boys at 2015. What they didn't consider, however, was that financial success of a franchise is a double headed blade. EA wanted to take the MoH: AA franchise in one direction, and the top guys at 2015 obviously thought otherwise, leaving the company to form a new development studio, Infinity Ward. The talent was there and so was the know-how. Armed with loads of experience from creating one of the most successful PC shooters ever and backed up by their new publisher, Activision, the team of over 20 individuals who developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault including all the production leads started work on Call of Duty, an intense first-person shooter set in WWII that is in many ways the logical successor to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Only... this game is not exactly like MoH: AA - it's much, much better.

Call of Duty lets you experience the horrors of war through the eyes of your regular conscript - the grunt. Grunts are not supposed to lead; instead they follow orders, keep their head down and try to stay alive. Still, as any veteran will tell you, grunts are exactly the fellas that will see the most action. They're literally thrown into the grinder. They stand in the thick of battle: on that muddy field smelling the blood and the gunpowder, and hearing the cries of their disemboweled enemies and comrades. Players will be part of a squad, who bond together to take on enemy forces and achieve mission objectives through pivotal WWII battles and authentic military campaigns.

Expanding on the concepts introduced in MoH: AA, Call of Duty lets you play as American, British and Russian soldiers, through four interconnected military campaigns spanning 24 game missions. What's awfully important to note here is that writer/producer Michael Schiffer ("Crimson Tide, "Colors," "Lean on Me," "The Four Feathers" and "The Peacemaker") is actually going to be writing the screenplay. His job is to make sure that the incredibly intense gameplay actually serves a purpose and is sufficiently captivating in terms of the characterization and the game's narrative. The three campaigns will be very different, both in terms of design and gameplay mechanics. The American campaign will be mostly action-packed with intense firefights and a fairly balanced combat (in terms of the strengths of the two sides). You begin the campaign as a member of a U.S. D-Day paratrooper squad from the legendary 101st Airborne Division dropped behind enemy lines and expected to lay the groundwork for the D-Day Invasion. Those of you who have played the single-player demo certainly know what I'm talking about. The attack on St. Mere Eglise (demo mission) is actually the second mission in the American campaign. Massive assaults and slow advances against the entrenched enemy forces are just some of the typical missions from the US campaign. For example, in the mission that immediately follows the attack on St. Mere Eglise, your squad will be ordered to defend their hard-fought position against the invading German forces. In many ways, the entire dynamics of the gameplay will be changed when you spot the approaching trio of enemy tanks, alongside the advancing German infantry reinforcements. Your squad will do their best to halt their advance, but it will ultimately be up to the player to defend the keep. You'll have to think fast and look for that Panzer Faust if you want to survive. The thing that adds suspense and a sense of realism to the gameplay is that, unlike in, say, MoH: AA - Spearhead, the German soldiers won't simply be spawning in front of you and attacking aimlessly. They will advance realistically and believably, creating a feeling of great tension and excitement.

The British campaign will be a lot different from the US campaign. It will be much stealthier and will concentrate on the individual efforts of our character and his ability to outsmart and surprise the enemy. The British SAS troops will create diversions in an attempt to thwart German war efforts and pave the way for the American troops. The game will likely highlight the coordinated efforts that made the invasion of Normandy such a success for the Allies.

The Russian campaign, on the other hand, is fairly typical of the type of combat that was favored on the Eastern Front. Russians will be outmanned and outgunned, but they'll use their numbers to overcome the enemy. Russian commanders will order bare handed soldiers to rush the enemy so that the Germans would reveal their numbers and locations. Sure, the fighting in Stalingrad was two inches away from being considered a mass slaughter, but if it wasn't for the brave efforts of the Russians, who knows how the map of the world would look today. The Russian campaign will see our character become an expert marksman - a sniper (Just like in the fantastic Hollywood movie, Enemy at the Gates). But before that can happen, you'll have to stay alive as you dodge enemy fire and give your best to keep your head in one piece in the extremely hostile environment of the war-torn city of Stalingrad. The Russian campaign has a few other surprises in store, too. In later mission, you'll actually get to pilot a T-34, and together with the help of your AI-controlled squad mate, who will mount the front machine gun, kick some Nazi ass on the road to Berlin! The most notable quality of the campaigns in Call of Duty is that the gameplay will be highly versatile, as its constantly changing pace is reflected perfectly in the selection of weapons and the design of the maps. The map design never follows the same pattern for long. The road to Berlin was very different for the British and Americans on one side, and the Russians on the other, and that's perfectly reflected in the game's level design. Naturally, another important factor that will diversify the gameplay even further is the broad selection of weapons available to each of the sides. Weapons that we got to see so far include: the M1 Carbine and M1A1 Garand, M1A1 Thomson Sub-Machine Gun, Colt 1911s, as well as Lugers, the British Bren Light Machine gun, Russian sniper rifles, MP-40 and many others.

OK, so now that we now why Call of Duty will provide hours upon hours of nail biting action the question still remains: what are the factors "behind the scenes" that create this effect. What is it in the technology that makes us experience digitized WWII combat on a whole new level. Anyone who has tried the demo will probably agree that this is the most intense war shooter yet. After playing the demo for roughly ten times on all levels of difficulty I'm left wondering if I ever witnessed a single-player experience that is as immersive and intense as the one in Call of Duty. Sure, some of you will argue that, conceptually, there is not that much difference from MoH: AA. If you haven't been convinced by all the talk about the different campaigns already, then, surely, you have to acknowledge the technical achievements that this game brings in the field of graphics (Quake 3 code modification), sound and AI. When talking about Call of Duty the term "powered by the modified Quake 3 engine" has to be taken in its broadest possible sense. From what I know, the renderer has been completely rewritten, the animation system is brand-new, and so is the locational damage on the enemy models. You can easily witness this by shooting the enemy in different body parts. For example, try hitting a Nazi in the knee and then follow that up with a head shot, and see what happens. Call of Duty features awesome new filtering and particle effects - tank grenades take huge chunks off stone walls when they hit, and the smoke trails and fire look amazing. The game also supports a new technique called smooth shadows. What this does is basically smooth out the edges of the shadows, making them a lot more realistic than in other Quake 3 engine powered games. On top of that, the designers are able to precisely determine the intensity of the shadows in each of the scenes for that perfect cinematic effect. Finally, each scene in the game has loads of more polys than there were in, say, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Sound effects in Call of Duty are another critical aspect of the in-game atmosphere. The team at Infinity Ward has created a whole new sound engine for the game. At first this might not seem all-important, but as most of you know by know, the actual difference in-game is staggering. The deafening sounds of the gunfire are perfectly positioned and the voices of your squad mates are incorporated seamlessly into the scenes, so that they seem a part of it, but not completely muted by the thundering noise of the gunfire.

Last but not the least, the most crucial technical aspect of the game has to be the amazing AI code. Much like in MoH: AA, the gameplay in Call of Duty usually revolves around scripted gameplay sequences. Personally, I'm not a big fan of scripted scenes, as usually, they're bound to go wrong at one point. One of your teammates will get stuck somewhere, and you'll completely lose that crucial sense of immersion in the game. Luckily, that is not the case with Call of Duty. I've played the demo over and over, and the scripted scenes worked great every time. Not once have I lost that sense of immersion due to a serious AI glitch. The AI routines in Call of Duty are nod-based. This means that the designers will position certain critical reference points on each of the maps for the AI to follow. This way, the AI becomes "aware" of its environments and able to react logically and according to the level's important spots. Besides being "aware" of the nods, the AI also has the ability to climb over fences and other obstacles in their way, therefore, creating the illusion of a thinking soldier rather than a mindless drone. Among other things, the team AI will be able to drag the wounded soldiers into cover and lay down highly effective suppressive fire. It will use other advanced military strategies and be able to look for the most effective cover against enemy fire. We also mustn't forget the enemy AI. Besides being able to take cover and move in a believable fashion, the enemy AI will engage you in a melee fight, and it will be clever enough to know that staying in cover when you've thrown a grenade their way isn't exactly the smartest thing to do. There are numerous other examples of amazing AI work that Infinity Ward has done in this game, but this is I think sufficient to explain why the gameplay in Call of Duty is so incredibly powerful. I guess the answer lies in the fact that Call of Duty manages to successfully merge elements of great narrative, clever design and awesome programming into one seamless and enthralling gaming experience.

All of us here at ActionTrip.com are counting the days till November when Call of Duty will hit the shelves across the North American continent. Most of us here got our first glimpse of CoD at this year's E3 where it quickly became one of our show favorites.

Now do be a good little boy and download the demo, or I'll smack you across the face with my rifle butt!! Ugh, I'm sorry... I think I've been playing that demo a tad too much lately.