Tired of all those WWII games that all seem similar and have nothing new to offer? Well don't give up on WWII games until you have played what is in my opinion by far the best one, Call of Duty.
It is not common to find an fps of any sort that is as good as call of duty. And what makes this game so intense can be credited mostly to its presentation. Everything here feels authentic 1942-ish. Remember those dramatic scenes you love from your favorite WWII movies such as Saving Private Ryan, Memphis Belle, and Enemy at the Gates? Well Just about every one of the levels in this game feels like it came from one of those movies. Everything from the dust flying up from grenades blasts, to the loud rich sound of the machine guns firing at the trenches, to the screams of falling comrades, really does add to the atmosphere of the game and you really do get lost in it, thinking you really are a common soldier of world war 2. This brings us to one of the major selling points for call of duty. Your a common soldier who dosent fight alone. Instead of going around shooting everyone and everything without so much as a scratch like the governator, you fight alongside other common soldiers. And while they don't necessarily help you THAT much, they do provide some necessary support and you probably wont beat the level without them. This is a very welcome change to titles such as MOH: Frontline ,which was a decent enough game, but it did not deliver the real WWII experience this game does offer.
Now that we are done with the general stuff lets get down to the details shall we?
What sets the great FPS's apart is the weapons system. Halo was great not just becuase of its graphics but the almost perfect balance in weaponry and design necessary for a futuristic fps. Call of Duty is the same way, but instead of having some guns that fire quickly and slow an enemy down, and some with homing armor piercing rounds, the focus is on the accuracy, power, and rate of fire. "almost" every army has these 4 basic weapons: one sniper rifle, one long range rifle, one sub-machine gun (for close ranges), and one machine gun (slower rate of fire but more accurate for long ranges that the previous smg). Each army has dif stats for their weapons and some have additional weapons. For example, the americans also have a smaller rifle that is still very accurate and powerful, but weaker and less accurate than the other. The bonus here though is that you have much greater mobility and can move faster than you could with the standard M1 Garand rifle. Likewise, The russians have less variety in weapons than the other armies. They have only a submachine gun, rifle, and sniper rifle, but the submachine gun carries a lot of ammo before needing to reload and has a strong rate of fire. You can only hold 2 authentic WWII weapons at a time; not including your side arm and gernades. You will rarely use your side arm though, where you will probably use gernades much more. Another cool feature in the system is how your aim gets more accurate depending on your stance, you can be standing, kneeling, or prone. Obviously when your prone your aim is strongest but mobility becomes severely limited. Also when your moving your aim becomes very inaccurate. The AI for the game is pretty good, and you wont see the enemy trying to hide behind a telephone pole like the horendous AI in Frontline. If you don't take advantage of the environment you will find your self getting killed, fast. So often you will have to run from cover to cover in order to get a shot at the enemy. This can be very intense when you are facing a swarm of enemys and a machine gun nest is firing at you.
Like I stated earlier the single player missions are very intense. Each mission is very fun to play and truely feels like a WWII battle. The sound of the game is great (I reccomend turning volume up very loud for full effect :-) ), everything from the blaze of an MG42 and the tink from a shell droppin out of your rifle sounds like authentic WWII and the look of the game is great too. The voice acting aint to bad either, but the one thing i dont understand is why the russians speak english...the germans speak german, but why do the russians not speak russian?
The graphics in and of themselves arnt fantastic, but the detailed environment and rich atmosphere is where the game really scores in looks. Everything from watching your tank blow the side off a building to looking at the ominous gray sky over stalingrad scores the game major points.
There is no real story like in the other call of duty title Big Red One (if you can call it a story), so you wont really get that attached to any characters. If thats the experience you are dying to have then try Finest Hour or Big Red One. These are also some good, solid WWII games in the call of duty franchise. However i can guarantee you this is a better game. The lack of story relaly has no overall effect on the game since its a WWII FPS, a genre that dosent really need a story.
Where call of duty is so much different than other WWII FPS's is where it delivers what feels most like what WWII really was. If you have seen Band of Brothers, Enemy at the Gates, or Saving Private Ryan, well this games feels like it was inspired by these films, and tv show. Some breaks in the gameplay provide some real war footage, which also makes the game feel real. The one aspect that enhances this strong atomsphere is probably being able to fight alongside other soldiers who actually do fight with you. They are just as capable of taking out the guy on the machine gun as you are (well not entirely as capable as you but still). You will do most of the dirty work but your comrades will assist you enough to make the game feel realistic.
There is also a multiplayer option in the game, its nothing spectacular like Counterstrike but it works very well and will keep you playing call of duty for a long time. Multiple maps, modes, and all 4 armies and plenty of people playing makes this a very fun multiplayer game.
I highly reccomend this game to anyone who not only likes WWII, but anyone who likes a good FPS, I cant imagine anyone not liking it, unless you just dont like computer games, in which case you could pick up one of the other console versions. A very fun title. A must for WWII gamers.
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