- Play as part of a well-trained squad in this first-person, action game
- Delivers the gritty realism and cinematic intensity of WW II’s epic battlefield
- Experienced through the eyes of citizen soldiers and unsung heroes
- Authentic squad movements and tactics
- Each soldier’s distinct personality and training comes out on the battlefield
Product Description
Call Of Duty brings to life the power and drama of life on the frontlines of global war! Exciting 32-person multiplayer action via LAN or Internet Developed by the team that originated the award-winning Medal Of Honor series, for the most immersive & realistic WWII game yet!… More >>
World War II shooters are everywhere these days. Wolfenstein, Metal of Honor, and even cheap knock-offs have flooded the market lately. Many of the best have found their way onto the Mac (…) and one in particular has garnered high praise.
Call of Duty is a popular team-oriented shooter that puts you in the roles of American, British, and Russian elite soldiers united against Nazi Germany. It takes a very patriotic approach and emphasizes realism in atmosphere, equipment, and missions.
That emphasis is evident throughout the game. Campaign briefings and mission load screens feature authentic orders, photos, and maps. Each time you die in-game you are presented a quote about the nature of war, each of which inspires you to try again or imparts some truth.
The game is very immersive and often feels like a movie. The opening cinematic is a good example and sets the patriotic theme immediately – “many nations unite… one goal… Berlin.” Characters seem like actors with lots of dialog and great use of body language.
There are even effects borrowed from war movies. If you are near an explosion – an incoming mortar round, being in the same room as a grenade, or having a tank zero-in on your pillbox – you’ll experience a stun effect like those seen on the big screen. If you’re lucky enough to survive, that is! Things will get very quiet and you’ll find yourself prone, moving slowly, and suffering from blurred vision.
The realism applies to behavior too. Soldiers jump over walls, take cover, and hold their helmets convincingly. The designers did draw a line, though. There is blood when a bullet hits a man, but the violence is not gratuitous. The more gross ugliness of war is omitted; expanding the game’s audience emphasizing more important messages.
The most blatant of those messages is that “in the war that changed the world, no one fought alone.” Teamwork is critical and Call of Duty drives this point home by making reckless attacks, and other techniques common to most first-person shooters, absolutely fatal.
In order to succeed you have to support, and be supported by, the members of your squad. They will ask for covering fire and if you don’t provide it, they won’t be alive to do you the same favor next time.
Teamwork is just as important to success online. A single shot doesn’t always kill, but it’s close. So it’s good to have suppressing fire and often the only way to be certain of victory is to coordinate superior numbers. Unfortunately there are no vehicles (I won’t give up Battlefield 1942 quite yet) but they’re coming in the upcoming United Offensive expansion pack. In the mean time, fixed machine guns do add a little variety.
The multiplayer action is fast-paced and the maps are interesting, balanced, and quick to load. There’s even a great feature called “kill cam.” When you die, you immediately watch a replay of the last few seconds from the perspective of your killer – that’ll teach ya!
Call of Duty features fabulous graphics and performance even on lower-end machines, teaches real lessons about war and history, emphasizes team work, and captivates with it’s cinematic presentation. Not only that, but several difficulty settings, unlimited approaches to each mission, and expandable and addictive online play gives this game awesome replay value! It won’t be coming out of my dock anytime soon!
Rating: 5 / 5
As some reviewers have mentioned, this game is what Medal of Honor should have been. The graphics (and sound effects) are really outstanding, and on the whole, the physics model and gameplay seems more realistic that MOHAA. It’s a much more enveloping experience.
Bear in mind you need a relatively new, powerful Mac for this game to work as intended. I wouldn’t bother even trying with anything less than a 64MB Radeon card or equivalent nVidia card. For example, I’m running mine on a dual G5 (Radeon 9600, cable internet) and during really congested battle scenes or dense multiplayer contests, it can get a little choppy… so have realistic expectations in mind, relative to your own machine.
The online multiplayer setup and server setup can be a little confusing, but performance is generally very good. Wish there were a few more maps but that’s what the add-on packs are for, right? : ) Good integration with Punkbuster and as a result, far fewer hacks found on most servers IME.
Definitely worth your money!
Rating: 5 / 5
This is by far the best WW2 Shooter I have ever played so I really have to recomend this to any one in need of a shooter. It runs quite smooth on my low end eMac 1.25 which I was surprised about. The gameplay is fun and reilistic but loading times are kind of long and your health goes down pretty fast, fast enough for me to only give it four stars but this really is a top noch shooter that runs well on low end macs.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is an incredible simulation – graphics and sound are outstanding. In single player mode the enemy AI is very good. Some scenarios (particularly the battle for Stalingrad) take your breath away – you’re running up a hill, with bullets and bombs flying all around you, not even carrying a gun (there aren’t enough to go around), with the Germans trying to kill you ahead, and your own officers threatening to kill you if you retreat. If you’ve seen the opening scene from “Enemy at the Gates” it’s exactly like that, only a lot more intense.
Rating: 5 / 5
Everyone is right–this is MOHAA the correct way. I’m still a big fan of MOH, but this is extremely fun. (Especially the zooming through the french countryside in a “tin can” car. What a hoot!)
In defense of MOH–and although I don’t know this to be the case–I would guess that MOH is easier on your system than COD. COD’s graphics and sounds are UNEQUALED, so you need a beefy system to get the most out of it. (I’m running a G5 with a hefty video card.)
So, in a nutshell, this game rocks. I was skeptical of the 50 buck pricetag, but as soon as I post this review, I’m headed over to buy the expansion pack.
It’s that good.
Trust me.
Rating: 5 / 5