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Tag: COD

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

29/09/2017
Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty: Black Ops (PC)

I genuinely cannot believe that it’s almost been 6 years since Call of Duty Black Ops was introduced to the world. The game still (in my mindset at least) feels like it was just announced yesterday, with it’s weird mid-60’s era warfare being quite new and revelatory for the time. But alas, here we are 6 years later, and with myself having never given the game a go. For someone that was a fan of the series (I specifically asked for COD 2 for christmas one year, loving the series that much), I was never that interested in the concept of Black Ops. Maybe it was because, to me at least, the series was trying too hard. Modern Warfare was astounding, and it’s follow up, Modern Warfare 2 was just as good, so I suppose I just couldn’t be bothered with what felt like a stand in for a fully fledged game between games. But in dismissing Black Ops as an off-shoot, did I miss anything? Yes and No. Let me elaborate.

Black ops makes sure you know it’s trying to tell it’s own story, and is trying to create characters you fall in love with (just like the whole world did with Captain Price). From the offset you’re given a mysterious premise to the game, that there’s numbers that need decrypting, and it’s up to mason to crawl back through his memories to find out what they mean. This mystery takes you from one place to another, and is actually a good way to explain why Black Ops takes place in such a variety of places.

You fight in the jungles of Vietnam, the island of Cuba, the harsh winters of Russia, and even see the Pentagon during your travels, and whilst Black Ops’ graphics is certainly starting to show its age, I for one enjoyed the attention to detail given to each locale. My only gripe is the Call of duty engine itself, which not only makes shooting enemies feel hollow (I can’t count the amount of times I wasn’t sure whether my shot landed or not), but also does a bad job of lighting environments, resulting in characters looking “plastic-ey”, especially when you’re up close to them during intense story moments.

Those moments are few and far between, because for the most part you’re going to be mowing down countless amounts of enemies as they swarm towards you in open areas. The typical COD action is present throughout, with the ante constantly being upped whilst more and more enemies swarm your way. One advantage Black Ops had over other titles in the series is it’s ability to give narrative as to why you’re in all these different circumstances. Underground fighting Vietcong? There’s plans under there which lead back to the soviets and their Weapon of Mass Destruction. In a Lockheed Blackbird guiding troops through Russia? There’s a plant nearby that manufacturers deadly gas. It all ties together quite nicely to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few moments which felt like tropes (the guiding of people from a Lockheed was one of them), but overall Black Ops done a good job of explaining why you were in each location.

The gunplay as ever was entertaining and constant. Any downtime between gunfights was great for receiving narrative relating to the story, but overall the variety of weapons to use and abuse was staggering, and enjoyable for the most part. As I mentioned before, the game engine was annoying in so-far as not communicating to the player whether an enemy was hurt or killed, but overall I enjoyed mowing down thousands of enemies with different weapons. There’s a reason players keep coming back to COD after all these years, and the gunplay is certainly the main one.

It should be noted here that on PC, the gamepad was not an enjoyable controller to use in Black Ops. I for one prefer using a controller on PC games (call me a peasant all you want, to each their own I say), but found it impossible to do so in Black ops. It just felt wrong, no matter how much I changed up the settings, each and every kill just felt weird or lucky, never as though I had any skill. Half way through the campaign I switched to keyboard and mouse and felt a hell of a lot better for doing so. Take heed if you’re like me and prefer controllers, Black Ops may say it supports gamepads, but it does not feel nice at all.

I spoke of the story/mystery earlier on in this review, so how does it play out? Overall Black Ops does a genuinely good job of intriguing the player, and introducing enough likeable characters that you feel bad should they be hurt. The cold war setting is a point rarely explored in games, so to see key figures from the era (like Kennedy) rendered within the engine was a delight. Plot points come frequently, and whilst the main twist in the campaign was predictable from a mile off, it still done a good job of upping the ante throughout the campaign. The conclusion is also satisfying, albeit with the caveat that you can’t help but think the developers left the franchise open to a sequel in two years time.

A big gripe I do have with the PC version is it’s lack of extra settings to truly use the power of the platform. The graphics engine is clearly made for consoles, and it’s a shame that my PC could easily run the game at over 140fps, especially given the fact Treyarch (the developers) have experience with PC gaming in the past.

Oh, and before I come to the summary, I’m glad Treyarch brought the Zombies mode back for Black Ops. Whilst I didn’t give it a go on PC too much (it’s more of a co-operative mode), I’m glad it exists; I have so many fond memories of killing zombies whilst trying to survive with Uni friends.

So in conclusion, 6 years on I can see why Black Ops was actually seen as the one true competitor to Infinity Wards behemoth Modern Warfare series. They set up some memorable characters, and some plot points that truly standout compared to the stories of other Call of Duty games, and all whilst maintaining the fantastic 60fps gameplay everyone knows and loves. Just be warned if you now wish to play the game since reading this review: Activision RARELY reduce the price of their games. The only reason I have Black Ops 1 and 2 on PC is because of a Steam summer sale. If you still want to give the game a go, get it from amazon; it’s still $40 on Steam.

07/10/2016
Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (PS4) Review

It’s been years since I’ve played a call of Duty game. That’s not to say I don’t like them, far from it in fact, I spent hundreds of hours playing Call of Duty 4 and World at War with friends whilst at uni. The problem is, in subsequent years since I fell in love with the series, not much has really changed in the way it’s played out. I found my time in COD Modern Warfare 2 mediocre at best and only entertaining because me and a work colleague brought it at midnight on release day and managed to finish it within a day. COD Modern Warfare 3 didn’t fare much better, as I only played it purely to finish the story, and purely to see how to game turned out considering all the controversy that happened around infinity ward’s directors.

The world of Advanced Warfare is huge and detailed. Scenes like this made me forget I was playing the game on a PS$ and made me think I was playing on my PC

I picked up Advanced Warfare as it’s genuinely one of the only COD games in recent memory which has actually peaked my interest. I managed to get a few matches of the games multiplayer done over Steams free weekend, so decided to pick the game up on PS4 where my other friends would be playing it.

So, to start with the differences, the setting. Previous games of the franchise have taken place either in the past, or in the present, with others straying semi into the future (black ops 2). Advanced Warfare doesn’t piss around, and is set firmly 50 years in the future, ensuring the player has access to all manner of different vehicles, settings, and technologies we could only dream of. This setting has it’s advantages; it allows sledgehammer games to imagine a world not too different from our own, but with the whole world being taken over by LCD screens. It’s pretty cool actually, seeing a world that isn’t completely sci-fi but actually imaginable compared to the technology we have today, something I compliment Sledgehammer on portraying fantastically.

Next up, the combat. Apart from introducing a new double jump that allows a player to see the terrain better or get up to new heights, not much has changed in the traditional Call of Duty formula of hiding behind a wall until an enemy hides and peeking out to kill them. The addition of homing grenades and new gear which help to highlight enemies on the field better than simply zooming in help to allow the player to kill more enemies than ever before, but doesn’t stop the core combat from feeling hollow as a result. I easily mowed down over 1400 enemies in my play through of the campaign, which would easily class me as a psychopath in most games, but in Call of Duty, it’s a standard affair.

Whilst action sequences are broken up and varied at times, they feel far too contrived, and offer little in the way of freedom.

The hollowness isn’t to say that the combat is boring, far from it; it’s still easily one of the best shooters on the market by far, with its simple Left Trigger Right Trigger combo of aiming one of the most satisfying by far. I just merely wish that the campaign/ would have some gravitas to it, some personality if you will, rather than the entire world being in danger and it’s up to you and your team to save it.

Graphically, Call of Duty games have come a long way. I seriously was gobsmacked at times at the intensity of the lighting effects on textures and shadows across the world. Add to this the amazing facial animation on characters in the world (with House of Cards’ Kevin Spacey playing the main antagonist), and you’ve got a truly delightful game to behold, one that really does honour the title of “next gen”.

You’ll be seeing a lot of vistas on your travels through Advanced Warfare’s campaign, with the game taking place over the whole globe.

Story wise, the Call of Duty formula unfortunately rears its ugly head once again, with a huge organisation (Atlas) threatening all of the free world with it’s tight grip on security giving it a plentiful supply of targets on the planet. This is another “one man saves the world against one insane dictator” type stories, but one which is made more believable due to Kevin Spaceys ability to make Irons an actual believable character, one which really does believe his own motives behind killing america or any other free state in the world due to governments inability to act within a timely manner.

The multiplayer of Call of Duty hasn’t changed a great deal, but my god is that a good thing. The timeless mechanic of die and repeat seems like it’ll never get old, with each death pushing you on to find your killer and put them down. It’s odd, but for all the new guns and advantages players are given (such as the double jump), things have relatively stayed the same, with most players staying grounded through fear of other players catching them whilst jumping. It’s all brilliant in the end, and I can easily see why players continue to buy Call of Duty games for the multiplayer alone, let alone the over-the-top campaign. There’s nothing more satisfying as seeing your own name at the top of your team with no deaths and many, many kills.

Actions sequences constantly try to keep you on the edge of your seat, but being that you know your character won’t die, they rarely feel threatening.

So, all in all, am I glad I brought back into the Call of Duty hype? Yes and no. The series is still easily one of the most recognisable in the world, with it’s shooting mechanics and priority of 60fps gameplay being a staple of the series, it’s not hard to see why. What I wouldn’t have minded seeing was after all this time away, experiencing something new and unique would have been nice. Scripted sequences like the jet level merely give the illusion of player control, and don’t necessarily go so far as to actually give you freedom to explore. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but considering games have the ability to give players an experience no film or book can give you by allowing you to make choices, it’s a shame the medium still hasn’t pushed forward or advanced. If you’ve kept your distance from the Call of Duty franchise for some years, Advanced Warfare might be worth coming back to, if not only to see how little has changed but how fun the core shooting mechanic still is.

4/5

31/07/2015