Call of Duty

Written by Matt Swider  on February 20, 2005

Review: The opposite of УBlitzkrieg.Ф

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Call of Duty became Activision's decorated World War II franchise on the PC in 2003 and took on the home console a year later. At the same time, it set its sights on a smaller, but just as challenging target, Nokia's N-Gage, to give gamers a WWII experience from a portable perspective. It's a notable attempt at bringing a squad-based first-person shooter to the mobile gaming platform, but there are a lot of issues, namely that the game is incredibly slow to move and the sluggish frame-rate only further reduces the game's speed. So, while it admirably keeps many Call of Duty elements intact, you may second guess buying it because the slow gameplay makes it the opposite of УBlitzkrieg.Ф

The single-player mode in the N-Gage iteration of Call of Duty spans 11 missions with varying objectives and is split into three campaigns. Each campaign places players in the boots of allied soldiers of different nations, the first on D-Day with Private Martin from The Screaming Eagles, America's 101st Airborne Division. The second campaign follows the covert operations of Sergeant Evans from the Britain's 6th Airborne Division. The third is dedicated to Russia's Sergeant Ivanovich, who battles the German's advance into the city of Stalingrad. This setup is very much like the PC and console versions of Call of Duty and doesn't fail to impress. Before beginning the first campaign, players chose a difficulty level: Greenhorn, Regular, Hardened and Veteran. Basically, a more difficult setting means you'll find less health and more deadly bullets buzzing by your helmet.

Greenhorn and Regular are adequate difficulty levels to stick with, not because the AI is extremely intelligent, but because maneuvering tends to troublesome and clumsy. Turning to counter enemy fire is a real chore at times and accurately hitting your target takes a lot of patience. It's frustrating when technical issues such as this cause you to die and it's even more irritating when your own computer-controlled teammates take your life. This happens a lot when an explosive is set and there's a mere three seconds to clear the area. And unfortunately, there's no big bang if you die this way or a cry of pain if you're shot. There's no scream, just a screen, and it pops up all of a sudden and simply declares: УMission Failed.Ф Luckily, you can save on the spot at any point in the game, so long as you're alive.

In addition to the frame-rate dragging the game's pace through the dirt, the graphics can look a little muddy and the draw distance can be terrible at times. This causes pop-up issues that can be a real pain when you want to return fire off in the foggy distance. At the same time, though, there's a good deal of quality animation and environmental elements. For example, enemies shot in the helmet react differently than when shot in the leg. Also, tents and building structures really show that the level design, though mostly linear, is dead-on. It's just unfortunate the 3D engine wasn't a little speedier so that the 3D environment and animations could be enjoyed.

While I've regrettably had to say Call of Duty isn't a lot of things, I can happily say that it isn't All Quiet on the Western Front. The music, the sound effects, and the voiceovers are all top-notch. As the bullets whiz by your head, you can hear them with clarity and you can also understand the commands issued by squad-team members. This is one area of the game that won't disappoint you one bit.

The ability to play Call of Duty with three other N-Gage owners with the game via Bluetooth isn't a disappointing feature either. You and your friends can face off in a free-for-all, split up into even teams, or gang up on a single member you don't like that much. N-Gage Arena doesn't allow you to connect with others for an online deathmatch, but it does offer new upgrades to use when you play over Bluetooth.