I knew that I had Friday off, and so wished to check in with my neighbour (who I shall call Colin) to see if he might be keen for a session on an older Xbox 360 classic. It was also after I had rudely discovered he had not even heard of Gears of War that I felt it to be my personal duty to force it upon him.
First I should explain. In the relationship between Colin and video games, though a relatively respectable collection sits on his shelf, the 2 games that receive most of his love and attention are Fifa and Call of Duty. I do not even need to say which ones.
So we pop out to our local Game Store, and to my delight a special edition of Gears of War sat there proud with a golden shiny £4.99 sticker on it. My neighbour picked up various copies of Call of Duty communicating somewhat of a adoration for its existence. I think we all do that right? I have picked up God of War 3 in a shop more times than a chicken pasty from Greggs (that's a lot, for those of you who do not know).
We have been playing Gears of War for sometime close to 45 minutes, while each death inched us closer to the reality that we will end up playing Call of Duty within the next hour. Inevitably, we had died for the last time to which we struck a deal that CoD would be played for 30 minutes only to return to Gears of War later. I knew the truth. DISCLAIMER: Now I am to tread carefully here, as I must be clear that I do not think my neighbour suffers any sort of problem or addiction, nor do I wish this to be communicated in anything I type here.
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| Link: Sadly the worst example of a Call of Duty player |
I do like the game. FPS is a massive genre today, and looking into it, few other games match up to the CoD series. Left4Dead (1/2) I think is an absolutely gorgeous rendition of an online multi-player zombie shooter. Battlefield Bad Company 2 made for a brilliant war game both offline and online. Although a game of yesteryear, Goldeneye 64 was the pinnacle of FPS multi-player gaming. But how come it will always comes back to CoD?
I have had my stint with Modern Warfare 2, and it was good. But I had to put it down. The idea that once I reached level 70, I could either just sit there on my pedestal, proud and magnificent or wipe out all previous efforts for a badge, only to start my efforts AGAIN? No thanks.
It does have that Quick-And-Easy doctrine to it though, like Peggle, Tetris, Zuma and even Geometry Wars. You can pick it up, play it, win some shit and put it down again in 5 minutes... theoretically. It has the exterior of a huge budget, big time developers and an in-depth gaming experience that is rarely offered. Beneath the surface, you have similar reward systems to casual games offering huge scores that, in their awesome scale, give very little in the satisfaction department. It gives a LOT, but in substance gives very little. Like when you buy someone a picture book of puppies for Christmas.
Have I got it totally wrong? Am I being unfair? Let me know.
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CoD has got it nailed, I'm afraid. The single player campaign is full of epic, and devoid of grind. It is easy, in the way that every player knows what is expected of them. Regardless of how many enemies flood the scene, they always come from the same place and do the same thing. Completion is a matter of inevitability, no additional skills are needed to bypass any scene.
ReplyDeleteAnd in the multiplayer? My god, they know how to dangle them carrots! You are always offered another perk, another weapon, another icon, another way to show the world that I AM BETTER THAN YOU! It's quite a draw, MMOs have realised this for years.
I speak as a non-CoD-obsessive, preferring my FPS to be a little more ... well, Quake. Although I also rather like a good session of Halo as well. L4D is glorious, but has somewhat failed to capture the imagination in the way I would have hoped it did.
But even I can see the quality inherent in Black Ops. It really is a great game, and you should put aside preconceptions and give it a go.