I thought the Normandy beach scene in “Medal of Honor” was it – the perfect immersion in a brutal battlefield, with its exploding boats, random blanket fire from unreachable machine guns and screaming soldiers running up a hill.
Forget about “Medal of Honor” – “Call of Duty” is here.
This is not a game. “Call of Duty” is a cinematic experience. It becomes obvious at the first scene of assault in a farm in Normandy. After a stealh exercice to set up a radio beacon, airborne troups land in the middle of a field and all hell breaks lose. A plane crashes in a building. German and American screams are barely covered by the roar of guns and in the background, anti aircraft stations illuminate the distant sky with their flak.
The game is so intense at times that I had to stop and really look around, each new step possibly the last. And to make things more interesting, the game features the same realistic touch introduced by Halo – only two main weapons can be carried at any time.
The story is linear, viewed through multiple characters instead of a “one man war” from so many games. But the storyline develops fluidly from assignment to orders, each new situation providing occasions to shine with heroism or just sit back and cower.
And then there are moments of sheer brilliance, such as how the game slows down and the image blurs when a mortar explodes nearby, or when you spend a few minutes with other soldiers in a glider on its way to a strategic bridge.
Going through the first part in Normandy was in many way comparable to being drawn into such movies as “Saving Private Ryan” or “Band of Brothers”. It took me close enough to the experience of a battle that it made me hope I would not have to live through one.