Call of Duty is a rip-off length five hour game that does little more than rehash "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault".
User Rating: 7.1 | Call of Duty PC
The endless praise heaped upon this overrated ripoff mystifies me. It has quite possibly the shortest single player campaign of any game on the market. The graphics are average at best, and the gameplay is nothing special. It's just "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" version 1.1. The game basically places you on a rail the whole time, throws lots of really dumb enemies at you, and lets you mow them down before walking on a rail to the next room where you mow down another mob of dumb enemies. You occasionally come across a puzzle disguised as an action sequence, or you ocasionally rig something with explosives to blow it up. Big deal. The game is scripted to a gnat's arse. This was great when it was more novel a few years ago (example: MoH:AA's Normandy Beach level), but now it's just a rehash. Been there, done that. I guess there's nothing particularly wrong with that, but if I can't have original gameplay, I want great graphics, or cool level design, or a lot of levels. Call of Duty offers a handful of great missions, but that's all. The game's Stalingrad level is a pure ripoff of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault's Normandy Beach level. Why people are so impressed with this is beyond me. One of the big deals, supposedly, is that you are always fighting with other troops. This sounds great until you notice that your friendly troops are just goons who can take a lot of damage. You can't command them, and there is absolutely nothing special about the way that they fight, take cover, shout out barks, etc. Right now, you can buy at least a handful of first person shooters (Doom 3, Painkiller, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Chrome, No One Lives Forever 2) that last at least 3 times as long as Call of Duty. All of these games also have much better production values than Call of Duty, and have some innovative gameplay elements or weapons. Especially Half-Life 2 and Painkiller. You don't have to settle for a five-hour game anymore. Call of Duty is grotesquely overrated, and I suggest that you only play it if you find it in the bargain bin.
