Ok so it's kinda hard to find screenshots of the new Call of Duty, which is weird, but even if this is from Call of Duty 4, the simple fact about these games is, they daaaamn pretty. CoD 4 was one of the best looking games ever, and CoD 6, or Modern Warfare 2 if you prefer the long version, continues that tradition and adds its own flavor of kickass to the mix. As with Uncharted and some other reviews here, I'll get one fact out of the way right away - as far as the world of gaming in 2009 goes, what the masses SHOULD be saying at least, this is it, this is the game of the year. It's the game of the year for three seperate reasons too, and those reasons are the fact that you are pretty much getting three different games all for $60. The multi-player is of course why many people will come back, and what will pretty much immediately grab any dude that picks up a controller and spends a few minutes getting used to the controls (assuming they've never played a console FPS, which is possible, just cuz I'm a freak doesn't mean everyone else is, I repsect that!), and honestly could cause problems in relationships or friendships. It's like MMORPG type addictive, its that bad. Bad to the point that I MIGHT pass on the next Call of Duty, because I seriously play the damn game TOO much. I still have a few games from the onslaught of awesome that I haven't gotten all the way through, and the only reason is this damn Call of Duty game. It creates some sort of visceral, primitive reaction in dudes that you find yourself "ok! One more game, for real this time!" well past 6 in the morning. It's incredible what Infinity Ward (developers) has created here, this experience that should make just about any sane human being want to stay as far away from war as humanly possible, I might add, but it just invokes this reaction in men that makes it damn near impossible to put the freakin' controller down. For some, this makes it an immediate must buy. For others with an addictive personality, you have been warned.
So with that warning aside and me using big words such as "visceral" and "invoke" to help instill that this game's multiplayer is some of the most fun a person can have in a video game, we'll go on to the graphics, and then on to the first of three reasons why this game is the best game of 2009 - which is the story mode. First I'll address the complaints that lots of people will whine about - its too short! Waaah! It only lasts about 7-8 hours! Boo! I want to have at least a 15 hour experience! Ok, sure. When you pick up a game, anymore you want at least 10 hours or more out of your single player story mode, and Call of Duty 6, especially if you play the whole thing over, can barely top half that time. Guess what? It doesn't matter at all. Because the story mode on this game, will ROCK YOUR F:!(*&* FACE OFF DUDE. Seriously. I didn't WANT to like this game this much, I'm serious. I didn't want to be like the masses of frat guy morons and gangsta thugs who are like "oh HELL yeah BRO! I wanna do all this stuff in RL BRO, BUST SOME SKULLS!" while they waited in line to get this at midnight just like I did. But after the first stage, I was sold. I watched a friend play the first stage where they strap you into the gunner seat of a humvee and all freakin HECK breaks loose soon after the intro, and I was actually, physically NERVOUS just watching someone ELSE play the game. It's that intense. There are entirely too many memorable and awesome scenes in this game to mention in one review. If the first area doesn't pique your interest on what the heck else this game will throw at you, then the second area most assuredly will have you hooked. How about a freaking INSANE snowmobile chase where all kinds of dudes are shooting at you and you have to make all sorts of sweet jumps (Napoleon Dynamite style) while being shot at from all kinds of angles? How about being nervous the entire time leading up to that scene where you have to sneak through a blizzard and pick off enemies without alerting anyone? There are a couple of winter scenes in the game and they are all incredible. That's not even mentioning the scenes that take place in the US, where once again, all freakin' HECK has broke loose. Theres a part where all kinds of junk is falling out of the sky. There's a part where you grab some satellite controlled missles and drop them down on peoples FACES. Theres a part where you storm a prison, just like the movie The Rock, except more awesome. The whole game is intense, and you have never played anything like it. Whereas Uncharted 2 was like playing a really well-written action game, Call of Duty's story mode is like playing a completely over the top action movie where explosions are plentiful and you never really have a chance to catch your breath. Which I guess means...there hasn't ever been a movie like that (they usually try and fail horribly. The Marine, anyone?). The Call of Duty 6 experience is one of a kind, and just THIS mode blows Uncharted 2 out of the water. The entire GAME of Uncharted, has gotten its ass kicked by just 1/3 of Call of Duty 6. THIS is why this game is game of the year.
This is a picture of one of the stages where America is under seige. That's in game graphics. See why Uncharted 2 has some competition just a few weeks after coming out? Ok, so I think I just elaborated maybe a bit too much on the story mode. Suffice it to say, this was one of the few games where I got to the end, and IMMEDIATELY after the credits rolled, I said "ok, lets do that all over again!" and played through the first two stages on veteran. It's that good. I can count the games I have done that with on one hand. And thats only 1 part of 3! The next part is the spec ops mode, which is the mode that should make anyone who whines about the one player mode (*cough* people that play on the PC! *cough cough*) immediately shut the hell up. Spec Ops mode takes many of the scenes from the story mode, adds a few more original ideas, and has you do all sorts of cool things inside those zones. Some are specifically made for two players - one particularly awesome one has one player up in the seat of a sweetass helicopter raining hot sweet death upon anything that gets in the dude on the grounds path. Just that area right there provides you a couple hours of fun. Another two player only one has one player in the gunner seat of a helicopter, again raining fiery painful death upon people shooting at the dude on the ground trying to get picked up on the helicopter. And thats only two of about 24 missions. Some are very cool, and some are very frustrating. But rest assured, you will have a damn good time playing this with another person. Some are doable by yourself if you like being punished, but for the most part spec ops is for two people kicking ass. You can do this online with a friend so you get all the screen real estate for yourself, or you can do split screen, which is good that this game still lets you do that, a lot of games don't anymore, which is sad. Whereas your story mode complainers will say that thats only a good 7-8 hours (which in my opinion is still worth $60 in itself just to experience once), spec ops easily doubles that time. To pass all of these missions you are looking at at LEAST another 10-12 hours, and thats even IF you pass some of the later completely ridiculous and unfair missions (Breach comes to mind, its one of the last ones), you better have another person who knows what hes doing to even stand a chance with some of the later ones.
Pretty sure this is a picture of the Breach stage, if it isn't, its close enough, you have to bust in a couple of doors and shoot all the jerks inside before the slo mo gimmick is up, and make sure you don't shoot any stupid hostages in the meantime, or its back to the drawing board. It's unfair, and it'll kick your ass. It's also pretty damn fun and you'll keep coming back to it after you fail for the 100th time, at least I still did. And check THIS out, I haven't even gotten to the third reason why this is the game of the year, except for my warning at the beginning - the multi player. Here is where your game time will quadruple, sextuple, octuple, whatever - at any rate this will increase your time with this game EXPONENTIALLY if you enjoy yourself. And by god you will. The multiplayer from Call of Duty 4 has been tinkered with just enough to make it an even better and rewarding experience, where you will constantly be getting experience boosts for killing so many people, getting so many headshots, using a certain attachment to a gun, not to mention all sorts of other bonuses - heck they even give you a bonus for falling a long ways, or blowing up a car, and lets face it, who DOESNT like blowing up a car? And nearly every level (out of SEVENTY, which will keep you busy for DAYS if you want to make it all the way through) has some sort of cool unlock - be it a new gun, secondary gun (like a cool shotgun, machine pistol, or *gasp* DOUBLE SHOTGUNS OMG), or some sort of new perk to help you waste people better. And in this game you can even level up your perks (of which you assign three different ones when you play) so that you can do more cool things with them - for example, the commando perk, one that I highly recommend everyone use for a while, especially when you start out, lets you stab some faces from further away. Say you have some jerk comin around the corner, well with the commando perk, he can be a few feet away from you, you mash the button quick enough to stab em and you lunge at them and stab they face. It rules. Like I said, most any DUDE that reads this is probably oh man, VIOLENCE, YES. I don't know about the appeal this game has to girls. For girls, I'd say this is probably NOT the game of the year. In fact this is probably the most HATED game of the year for some girls in serious relationships. This is why I say I might honestly stay away from the next Call of Duty game, because its crazy messed up addictive. It also glorifies violence, I'm not going to skirt that issue. Like, bigtime. I mean, if you do well on each multiplayer game, you are a serial killer. You've killed 20-30 people, and you are damn proud of it. Yes, it's just a game. But I can't address the fact that I love this game without admitting that I probably SHOULDN'T like it as much as I do. But thats neither here or there, and I think I've said enough about what SHOULD be the game of the year, so here are the scores!Graphics - 10/10. If Uncharted 2 hadn't come out, this would be the best looking game of the year. In fact it still gives Uncharted a very decent run for its money, especially when you consider that the multiplayer section looks nearly as good as the single player, and thats pretty much unprecedented in a video game (and its CERTAINLY not the case in Uncharted 2's multiplayer - which I admit I didn't really touch)
Sound - 10/10. All the guns sound like they should and some make you feel like a real badass because they are MEAN. Things blow up real good. The voice acting has a couple of famous actors in it and it doesn't sound like they are just reading off a script. It's great stuff - no Uncharted, but great stuff.
Challenge - 9/10. This game is tough. Especially on veteran, or on the three star difficulty in spec ops mode. But, for the most part, not impossible. And not mega frustratingly hard like Uncharted 2, because you are warned before you jump into something that will kick your ass, MUCH unlike Uncharted where it just springs it on you. It doesn't mess around on difficulty toward some of the later parts but thats fine, a game like this is supposed to be tough. It IS really hard, like takes a lot of freakin' time hard, to get really good at the multiplayer. It's a steep learning curve and you need some ridiculous reflexes to get to the top of that list during every game, but its a damn good feeling when you get there.
Fun - 10/10. So much replayability. Basically endless if you consider the multiplayer component, but add in that you will want to play through the story mode at LEAST twice, not to mention all the spec ops stuff you will at least want to try, and you got yourself a stew right there, baby! (Oh how I miss you, Arrested Development).
Overall - 10/10. Get this game. It's one of the best games that has EVER come out, not just this year but ANY year.
Now remember, for ME, MY game of the year is BlazBlue. I'm going to do a top 10 list on my next post and explain why I made my choices, cuz hey, well, its my freakin' blog, and I can damn well do whatever I want on this thing, plus I'll mix it up from the reviews. But alright, Clev has spoken about the game of the year!
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