Call of Duty

Call of Duty is the first title from the new game studio Infinity Ward, a company founded when 22 staff left 2015 Studios after developing the hugely popular World War 2-based first person shooter, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Infinity Ward comprises of a significant amount of the talent that was responsible for making Allied Assault such a success, so it was with great anticipation that many gamers followed the development of Call of Duty.

Call of Duty attempts to recreate the epic atmosphere of Allied Assault. With three separate campaigns featuring action from the perspective of American, British and Russian soldiers, gamers will experience combat in a variety of different theatres and environments ranging from storming France on D-Day to waving the Russian flag above the Reichstag as the Red Army takes Berlin.

The game is built on the Quake 3 engine, although it has been revamped and improved so many times since its first release it is now quite a different engine altogether, though it retains the same core set of stability, functionality, and performance that has made so many games simply work effectively at delivering a good experience to the user.

The game begins by dropping you into basic training, a tutorial scenario that familiarises you with the basics of gameplay. You get some practise moving around, crouching, going prone, and climbing ladders - the usual stuff. You'll also get a chance to fire a few of the weapons on offer and get introduced to the iron sights mode (something which I hope will become more popular in first person shooters). Unfortunately there's no option to skip the tutorial, which might irk veteran FPS gamers, but the tutorial mission only lasts a few minutes, so it isn't completely painful.

Your next gameplay experience is as a US soldier dropped into France to help find a path for your countrymen as the invasion of the mainland takes place. Right from the outset you'll be impressed with the environment, which has obviously been painstakingly created to really give gamers the sort of experience they're used to in war movies. You'll hear guns booming in the background, the sky will light up with anti-aircraft fire, planes will scream overhead, paratroopers will drop down, and enemy machine-gunners will unleash torrents of lead at anything that moves. All of the effects combine to create one very immersive experience, more so than any other World War 2 game to date.

Importantly, this same experience is maintained throughout the entire game - it isn't just packed into the first few levels and then forgotten about as has happened so often in the past. Call of Duty is jam-packed with action in every phase of the game - there is always something happening, which adds immeasurably to the effect of being involved in the game, rather than just playing it. Combined with some truly epic scenes (several of which gamers will recognise from movies such as Enemy at the Gates and even some elements which look like they drew inspiration from Band of Brothers) from some of the major events of World War 2 - the Russians retaking Stalingrad in particular - packed with scripted sequences, explosions and the chaos of battle - all up, a very immersive experience.

Visually, Call of Duty looks great - there seems to be more focus on environments and settings rather than specific visual elements, which works well. While Call of Duty doesn't offer anything in the way of next generation graphics, everything is of a very high standard - models and characters are all well done, the textures are crisp, and the animations are nice and varied. However, the environments are really outstanding, whether you're navigating your way around the shattered city of Stalingrad, crossing a snow-covered field on top of a tank, or running through trenches in the French countryside.

The effects, such as explosions and tracer fire, are all very well done - mortars going off around you throw up giant bursts of dirt into the air, and you are constantly surrounded by bullets whizzing overhead. Special mention should be made of the shell shock effect - if a large explosion catches you, you'll be knocked down and your vision goes all blurry (thanks to some funky visual effects) and you can't move. Your hearing also goes, so you're very vulnerable for a up to a minute until your senses all come rushing back. A good incentive to get into those foxholes and trenches when you hear someone scream 'incoming'.

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