Casual Gamers Hell

Finally, I get my hands on some real FPS action…

Well after last week’s rant I finally got my hand on a fps to satiate my thirst… and I could not have picked a better one.

I’d been wanting to play CoD4 for awhile now, having been a fan of the previous titles in the series. Well at least the single player options. For those whose dalliances havenot included this title, CoD has provided an immersive single player game that was largely cinematic in experience, the polar opposite of the other WWII juggernaught of the same era, Battlefield. Where CoD offered engrossing storylines (like Halo), BF offered a single player ‘campaign’, which was largely a collection of individual multi-player maps populated with sprites, organised into the historical order the battles the maps were designed to reflect occurred.  Its worth noting at this point that even in their futuristic title BF:2142, this trend continued by creating a faux historical timeline.

On the other hand, the two being each other’s opposites does not end there.  Where BF fell behind on the single player front, it did offer some pretty good multi-player maps.  Whilst CoD did make some offering to the multi-player gods (the holy trinity I have dubbed ‘Camper’, ‘Pwn’ and ‘Lolzors’), its mp-fps dogma was not one that could satiate the yearnings of the masses (to over-extend the metaphor).

I should not be surprised that CoD have forayed more boldly into the mp market. The motto these days being if its not online then its not worth playing (just ask valve >=( who have even taken their SP titles online, but I digress…) The new releases in the BF series had been hugely successful with some interesting new developments on the old familiar foundation. Given CoD’s background, I was a little sceptical, but I remembering my fondness for the old series and the manliness of Captain Price’s Man-stache, I thought, ‘why not’ and so I logged on with cries of ‘pip-pip’ and  ‘tally-ho old chap!’

Firstly, that is one manly-stache. Its not the easiest to see in this pic (that I stole off gamespot), but the cigar and m4 carbine convey the same general effect.  I could not help but wonder if a pipe would have been more appropriate?  Then again I’m not arguing with a man that beardy.

So CoD has made the welcome leap into modern warfare, well at least the water is warm. But how does the multi-player fare? Well, I have to say it is brilliant, and far exceeded my humble expectations.

Punching in, I found myself getting into a ‘team death match mode’, nothing new about that, so it was something comfortable to work with.  The first thing I have to say, is I have no idea how the respawns are suppose to work in this game, but my impression is that you generally seem to respawn where the bulk of the rest of your team is (no idea how it works, so doubtlessly I will be proven wrong sometime in the near future). the effect is a running battle to and fro accross the cluttered urban settings. By running battle, I mean that the map does not confer any real advantage to either side, as the battle will flow from one side to the other.  This was a really unique experience in a team game.  Sometimes it will result in one team pursuing the other accross the map, other times it will see one team taking up an advantageous position, with the other trying to break them out of their entrenchments.  As interesting as this seems, it does mean that those that worship before the gaming incarnation that is ‘Camper’ will have to be on their toes.

There is another great thing about this difference, and that is the detail of the scenery.  For some reason, most fps have focused on combat in sweping vistas, to which buildings only offer solid obstacles to hide behind. This may be because other games such as BF rely more on their vehicles. CoD doesn’t have vehicles, and absolutely nothing is lost in the experience, in fact, if anything, the experience is enriched if, like myself, you like to raise a bloody handed salute to the god of ‘Pwn’. I found myself ducking and weaving through a very realistic landscape cluttered with urban sprawl, something I’d been yearning for in fps for quite some time.

Aside from asthetics, the next thing is the effect of your killing streaks, which unlock immediate benefits for your whole team. Firstly, three kills will give you the chance to do a UAV sweep of the map.  as I will explain, the HUD is a blessing to those that wish to not wander lost. The next reward is AI helicopter gunship that you can set on a particular area.  Yes that’s right, invocations to our Lord Pwn and yay verily he will send upon thee a rain of hot lead rain from the skies.  An interesting side note to this aspect is that you can also carry rocket launchers to remove said terrible mechanic beastie from the sky. The next reward is an airstrike…

Another nice little change is that you don’t have to equip your knife. These guys must be like samurai with combat knives, a quick flick of the ‘v’ button and you automatically deliver a fatal blow with your knifey-knifey regardless of what you’re doing at the time.

The next big difference is the customisation of your classes and mission rewards, the link will shortly be apparent.  There are some generic class configurations available for quick selection (sniper, assault, spec ops, heavy), but you also have the option of of customising your own. There are a large range of weapons available, much like CS, and more become available as you unlock them. A very nice addition is the ‘perks’. Aside from the weapons and grenade options, you can also choose 3 perks, the selections from each perk being exclusive to that perk category. And there are a lot of them. For example, you can choose a perk that allows your bullets to do more damage, another to make you run faster, yet another that lets you actually hear enemy voice chat if you are nearby, and a third that lets you, when you get killed, to drop a live grenade where you died. Plus many, many more. The next things you can unlock are weapon upgrades. For examble, new sniper scopes, target sites, and underslung gren launchers. The last new feature I want to mention is the mission objectives. Unlocks are obtained by satisfying small objectives, for example, killing four people on next to no health, knifing three people, or getting 75 kills with a particular assault weapon. This was a nice feature that added another level of challenge.

Finally the gameplay (because I’m running our of time to write this). Never before had I played a game that felt like it mimicked real combat without losing any playability. For example, you need to be constantly aware of your HUD, otherwise you will get lost. The ‘battlefront’ as it were is changeing constantly, you need the HUD to know where it generally is. Another thing is you need to rely on your team-mates. You’ll die a swift death if you don’t have some buddies around (generally). One feature I might add is that enemy players appear on the HUD as red dots when they have fired their weapon, however this is not the case if they are using silencers, in which case they will only show up in a UAV sweep.

Somehow, CoD has managed to remove the arcade factors that pervade in FPS, such as bouncing (in CS for example). The game is very much one about camping and stealth, but therein lies its beauty, as it all adds to the strategy and skill of the game. Very nice game, all in all I liked it. If I had any complaint, its that the demanding graphics can make it laggy at times, but that is hardly a real criticism. There is also a pretty steep learning curve till you get a feel for the HUD, customising your equipment, and making sure you try to keep an idea where your team-mates are.  I had the fortunate advantage of playing with an advanced profile that gave me access to most of the best equipment and perks (4 star general y’all… though this was by no means the highest i think).

Thats about all I can add without more playtime, guess I’d better get onto that…