Publisher: Activision
Ages: teens & up
Parental
Advisory:
Violence
For intense action that feels as if it was lifted from the movie "Saving Private Ryan," Activision's Call of Duty offers the gritty and brutal goods. This excellent first-person shooter offers an involving single-player challenge and compelling team-based multi-player modes, and does an amazing job of presenting realistic-looking battles.
Call of Duty serves a movie-like World War II combat experience that asks players to survive as ordinary soldiers who are fighting together as a squad. In 24 missions, players become virtual soldiers who take on the German-led war machine and play from the perspective of an American soldier, a British commando and a Russian conscript, who lacks a weapon.
The game is a perfect blend of reality and action. The environments are detailed and realistic, and the game does an incredible job of making players feel as if they are part of a huge army in battle. During skirmishes, players can crouch, stand and lean out. On the other hand, soldiers can generally take a few bullets and still keep going, and can regenerate their health with the use of first aid kits that they find along the way.
The game features British, American, Russian, and German WWII weapons that include rifles, grenades, submachine guns, and pistols, and players may use their weapons in different ways: shooting, aiming and swinging when in close combat.
Online multi-player features support up to 32 players and include deathmatch, team deathmatch and more. And when a player's character dies, there's an innovative camera that gives players the view from the killer's perspective. It's a fine mix that appeals to serious gamers.
The graphics are impressive and do a sensational job of presenting the action, environments, explosions, weather effects and more. As you would expect, the game serves lots of brutal violence and blood and is inappropriate for kids.
With everything going for it, Call of Duty is an outstanding game that is among the best games of the year. It's one that players won't want to miss.
11/17/03 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
