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Tag: Call of Duty

  • Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4)

    Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4)

    As I’ve said in previous Call of Duty games, I actually don’t mind th franchise as a whole. I understand it’s cool and hip to hate on the popular franchises these days, but Call of Duty games have always managed to entertain me for the few hours I need to put into them. There’s something about the sheer bombastic nature of the campaigns that’s both lethargic, and somewhat entertaining. All this is to say, it’s awesome to see the fruits of a publisher/developers labour when money is (almost) no obstacle, especially when Call of Duty games of years past have been able to generate billions in revenue within the first 24 hours alone.

    So with all that being said, we move on to the uncomfortable middle game of the series, one that could even be argued has stated the demise of on of the biggest sellers in gaming history; Call of Duty Ghosts.

    First up Ghost’s campaign, which, considering I’ve enjoyed the previous two campaigns I’ve played, comes somewhat of a surprise to say: I genuinely didn’t like it. From the barebones narrative of a united South America taking on the USA, to the stupid, brutish characters and their constant shouting of “we’re ghosts!!!”, the whole campaign was stupid and lacked any nuance whatsoever.

    Even the few characters you meet throughout the game’s short 5-6 hour campaign are so generic that they rarely take their masks off, meaning we literally have a a couple of characters which are mimicking the modern warfare series’ “Ghost”. In fact, I would not be surprised if Neversoft were struggling to think up a story, proceeding to look to the Modern Warfare series, and proceeded to centre and entire narrative around the one faceless character they liked. It’s weird, because COD in recent years has really come a long way in their story telling, so it’s so odd that they had such a bad year in 2013.

    Onto the gameplay, which you could guess is just as fast paced and smooth as possible. As always with a Call of Duty title, Neversoft managed to keep to the 60fps lock for the most part, and proceeded to keep you constantly on your toes as you mow down countless foes. My only issue here is the way Neversoft constantly try to take control away from you as the player to show a big explosion, or water falling through a city. These big set-pieces look cool, don’t get me wrong, but they add nothing to the gameplay, and if anything, take agency away from me for trying to get to my end destination. It’s confusing, and feels like a cheap way to add “excitement” to the otherwise smooth shooting mechanics.

    Settings wise, Ghosts at least manages to change up the scenery every now and then, giving you a variety of mission locales, from the deserts of chilli, to the frozen lands of Antartica, all manner of different terrains are explored, and it actually helps in keeping the campaign feeling fast paced. Unfortunately, whilst each locale looks different, and in some instances stunning to observe, they for the most part are generic and lacking any detail. As per my reviews with Battlefield, I found that if you only look at the content the developers want you to look at (the other characters on screen + the main path you walk) then the detail is superb, but the second you start to wonder around the level you notice the rest of the geometry and aesthetics are fairly simply, with repeated textures and objects used throughout. It’s a shame, as the change in locale’s actually could have helped the game stand out from the crowd.

    I know my reviews usually last a lot longer than this, but man oh man was I not impressed with Ghosts. From the boring dialogue of macho men constantly saying what people thing hard men say, to the bog-standard gameplay typical of a COD game, from start to finish I was merely playing the game purely to finish it for my 52 games in 2017. If you want to play a COD game, don’t get Ghost’s; there’s plenty of good titles in the Call of Duty catalogue, and this definitely is not one of them.

    2/5

  • Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty Infinite Warfare (PC)

    Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty Infinite Warfare (PC)

    Holy crap, who would have thought it. A Call of Duty game with a bloody great story? Colour me surprised. Last year I made a point to play each Black Ops game, and came out the other side feeling “meh” about what Geoff Gerstmann described as one of the best Call of Duty campaign’s in recent years. Infinite Warfare blows all that away by making characters that you care about, and backstory’s worth listening to, all whilst giving you the freedom to pick what missions you go on, and how you attack levels.

    As the name implies, Infinite Warfare is set in the far distant future, when humanity has developed faster than light travel and is able to colonise the whole solar system. No reason is ever given (or hinted at) as to why we haven’t expanded past our own solar system, but each of the planets and moons suffice for good, varied destinations. Mars, a settlement which has a population matching Earth, wants freedom from the oppression of Earth, with their own SDF (Settlement Defence Front) proceeding to start an all out war with Earth’s Army, the UNSA.

    The first thing I found odd about the campaign was how few inter-stellar warships the UNSA had on hand. After a parade which shows off all of the ships on earth, and after “half” of them are destroyed from an initial bombardment, Earth is left with just 4 ships. Maybe the team at infinity ward were going for more “realism”, feeding off modern times where there are a limited amount of battlecruisers roaming the seas at this very moment in time.

    Regardless of the jaunting amount of army vehicles, the graphical fidelity on display is absolutely astonishing, as usual I might add. Whilst I wasn’t a massive fan of Black Ops 3 last year, I consistently reiterated that it’s graphic’s were amazing. Infinite warfare takes those strong art assets and stretches them further, giving epic space battles, explosions, lasers, and even massive scopes of playable areas, with some ground fighting eventually taking flight to space itself. These massive expansive environments are full of detail, and whilst some areas may harken back to Doom or other space horror games, it’s not through the fault of infinity Ward’s trying; there just isn’t much you can do with a massive metal spaceship, eventually, all metal walls are going to look the same. 

    Graphics only go so far, and it’s the amazing characters that Infinite warfare has you fighting alongside that truly helps to elevate this campaign above the rest. You’ll be introduced to your ship and crew fairly quickly, and whilst it all feels a little too contrived to begin with, you soon start to like the back and forth between each crew member. Everyone has their own personality, and own background that shows itself in new and subtle ways. You can tell this crew knows each other, so nothing is laid out like typical games; it’s only through subtle cues that you notice two characters relationship to one another.

    *Note: Skip over the next paragraph if you don’t want spoilers*

    That’s only the start. Throughout the campaign your playable character (Captain Nick Reyes) is constantly struggling with the decisions he has to make, wanting to never lose a friend of colleague. Towards the end of the campaign most of your characters will unfortunately pass away, due to the extremity of this war and your characters decisions, but it’s with each sacrifice that you realise each character has more personality than any age that came before, with each of their losses feeling genuine and true. It hits home even harder when the credits role, and you get to listen in to each characters death letters to their loved ones or the captain himself. This sentimentality caught me off guard, so much so I felt choked up, bringing fantastic personalities to all characters, no matter how big small their role was in the campaign. I mean, the game was able to make me care about a robot companion for christ sake, if that doesn’t show you how detailed and well thought out the cast are I don’t know what will!

    It cannot be understated how well Infinity Ward nailed the story then.

    Gameplay wise it’s the standard Call of Duty affair albeit with some space battles thrown in and a “hub” world whereby you can choose to do as many (or as few) side missions as you’d like. This freedom is welcome, as some players would like to just run through each main mission, not caring about the side objectives of taking down key SDF members, or rescuing resources needed for Earth. Space battle settings are vast and varied, with multiple obstacles to avoid whilst shooting ahead of enemies to damage and kill them. These sections, whilst varied, can be tough, especially should you forget to fire your flares at the right time to avoid homing rockets. I found myself having to revisit these missions multiple times due to silly deaths on my part.

    Weapon variety is certainly pushed up a notch, especially given the fact infinite warfare is set in the future. You can choose from normal bullet based weapons, energy based ones, and special weapons, all of which have different advantages against different enemies. The Energy based weapons for example will kill a normal human foe, but will take it’s time to do so, where as the same weapons will take down a robot fairly quickly. Before each mission you’ll need to choose your weapons, with the game usually picking the best recommended one for you beforehand, so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick the right weapon for the task at hand.

    Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Infinite Warfare. Managing to complete the game within 3 days, I constantly wanted to come back to it, even when I was away. There are the typical Call of duty tropes sprinkled throughout, for example never ending enemies in some sequences, but otherwise the game’s campaign manages to do something it’s never done before: making you care. Previous games may have had an end of the world scenario taking place, but not once did you feel it was real or that anything would happen should you failed. Infinite warfare managed to make me care about my actions, pushing me on not only to see the conclusion of the game, but to also see more of the crew that I fought alongside. I know Infinite Warfare hasn’t sold well, but if you can pick it up for cheap, do so; it’s certainly something special, and deserves to be played.

    4/5

  • Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (PC)

    There was one question I just could not stop asking myself throughout my playthrough of Activisions latest Call of Duty shooter; why on gods green earth is this game branded with the moniker “Black Ops”?

    Obviously, this is the third in the series, but for some odd reason, Black Ops 3 has no connections to the previous two, and seems to never actually warrant the Black Ops title. Granted, some may say that this is a trivial matter, but I for one think that it perfectly encapsulates the differences (both bad and good) of this latest in a long line of Call of Duty games. Let us proceed to unravel why.

    First up the story, which, whilst being completely unrelated to the previous two games, is actually quite a departure from traditional COD games. The year is 2065. Augmentations and robotics are rife across the world, with many people now having brand new DNI’s implanted into their minds, allowing them to interface with robotics and technology the world over.

    If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because it’s been done many times before in other forms of media: Ghost in the Shell springs to mind for example. Where Black Ops 3 deviates though is in the philosophical applications of DNI’s. Very early on in the game you’re taught that you can interface with another person’s DNI, allowing you to see everything they’ve ever thought. Doing so will make them brain dead, and it’s through this moral ambiguity that Black Ops 3’s story actually stands tall.

    You see, whilst it’s a nuisance that there’s no relation to the previous two games, Black Ops 3’s futuristic story manages to carve out an extremely believable and unique world. The use of DNI’s to interface with peoples imaginations and memories allows for dramatically different and crazy landscapes, with the stylised future feeling fantastic, even going so far that it would feel right at home in a Deus Ex game.

    With an AI intent of never dying eventually making its way into the plot, the moral ambiguity starts to increase a notch or two. The characters that take part can at times feel like stereotypical caricatures, but overall they help to give the story more believability, showing how different personalities can help in truly showing a devastating force. Overall, by the end of the 8-10 hour campaign I was left feeling hugely satisfied with what I had just taken part in, something I can’t necessarily say for other Call of Duty games (I enjoyed the previous Black Ops games, but don’t take too fondly to their stories).

    This isn’t an understatement when I say that the futuristic setting helps to add more to the gameplay than any COD game before it. Your suit not only has augmentations that allow you to do things like hack enemy AI, or cause explosions at a distance, but also allow you to traverse the environment at tremendous speeds. Wall running, double jumping and sliding are all present, and they add such a sense of speed that it’s going to be hard to go back to previous Call of Duty games I haven’t played before (e.g. COD Ghosts).

    About those augmentations: they’re fantastic at changing up the “strategy” (I use that word lightly) of a traditional Call of Duty game. In the past you’d run from encounter to encounter, shooting down everything you saw without thinking. With the new abilities to hack, destroy and paralyse enemies you’re given greater freedom to take any challenge that is thrown at you how you would like to. For my part, I admit I relied on the instant kill robot feature a little too much (especially when it’s upgraded and can explode other surrounding robots), but the versatility of different options to mess and tinker with is truly astonishing, and weird in a franchise that’s become accustomed to pushing out the same features year in, year out.

    The addition of a new “Hub” world base between each mission is also another weirdness that truly sets Black Ops 3 apart from anything that came before it. During each level, you’ll pick up and find collectibles, as well as modification kits that are earned through levelling up. Back at the base you can choose to use these kits to upgrade your abilities, make new guns, or simply upgrade existing weapons. The collectibles you find can also be showcased on your walls, along with any accolades that you’ve learnt in tough missions. It’s odd and small, but all of this makes your playthorugh feel personal: you get to choose what you want to do and what you want to showcase within your base, making everything, from load outs to mission completions feel rewarding and personalised, with a sense of progression which is always present.

    The new enemy types were a welcome departure from constant humans being able to just hide behind buildings and objects in the environment. Robots march towards you without hesitation, which are first seems really simple (just shoot them right?!?) but soon becomes a challenge in itself when you also have to worry about other enemies firing at you. Then there’s the big enemies; these monstrosities can be seen as bosses, as they require a lot of rockets, and a lot of bullets to be taken down. There’s also drones, which are weak but high in number, and finally bullet-proof humans. All this variety makes for a challenging experience, especially when you have multiple enemy-types homing in at you at once. If anything, the enemies on display push you more and more into using your augmentations, which results in a splendid gameplay loops of running, firing, hacking and repeating, all whilst trying to stay alive.

    Graphically, Black Ops 3 is an absolutely stunning game. I took so many screenshots throughout my play through that at times I would die from taking in the scenery rather than actually playing the game. Characters brim with life, environments look just as stunning as anything you’d ever see within a Crysis game, and for the most part my 1070 GTX was well and truly put through it’s paces. There are times where you can see that Treyarch are still using the old COD engine, all with glitchy AI and the same animations as previous games,  but these times are few and far between.

    Finally, the music, which for the most part was ignorable. You’re not really going to come to a COD game for it’s music, especially with so many explosions and so much gunfire going off at all times. On that note, the explosions were just as explosion-ey as ever, with guns sounding like what you’d expect a future model of an AK-47 to.

    Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Black Ops 3. The changes made since the last Black Ops were significant enough to keep me more than entertained, with the new augmentations and hub world helping me feel that this was my own personalised experience. The only thing I just cannot get my head around is the use of the Black Ops name. There are so many changes, such a different story, and overall no relation to previous games that I don’t see a need to use the moniker at all. For a title as fantastic as this, Black Ops 3 deserved its own franchise name, God knows it deserves it for how much of a departure it is from the tried and tested COD formula.

    5/5