Live review: Call Of Duty Classic

Developer: Infinity Ward Publisher: Activision Price: 800 MS Points

The Call Of Duty hype machine has been at full speed for a number of years – six, in fact – and has reached the point where whole generations of gamers are riding the wagon without any idea of the relatively humble origins of the series. Thankfully, then, Call Of Duty Classic has come along to reintroduce all those starry-eyed kids to where it all began, as well as remind the rest of us where it all came from.

First and foremost, those newcomers won’t be at all impressed with what’s become the enormous gulf between the visual quality of then and now. The HD upgrade has largely done this last-gen title no favours. The problem with simply increasing the screen resolution of old graphics is that you’re left with the same low polycount and texture detail, meaning what’s happening on screen will often be made to look older and creakier than it ever did next to the smooth lines of the 1080p resolution.

Still, a playable, well-constructed shooter can’t be bogged down by something as simple as lousy graphics. Starting up Classic just after we’d been unfortunate enough to play through the woeful Rogue Warrior, we were more sensitive than ever to the difference between an imaginative, well paced and atmospheric campaign and a pile of dross starring a blowhard, swearing idiot. Classic is certainly an example of the former, containing many glimpses of the brilliance we’d see in the future.

So while Classic misses out on many of the pyrotechnic effects and bombastic, mood-building set pieces of its successors (particularly, naturally, Modern Warfare), the basic, duck-and-cover experience you’re left with contains enough pure COD action that it’s instantly recognisable, utterly playable and loses almost nothing in the translation.

In fact, one or two things even feel like gains – finite health, for example. While we initially hated the idea of returning to such a dated concept as – shock – dying when your health bar runs down, we found that the lingering concept of facing genuine, instant death by the next bullet somehow enhanced that oppressive fear of being Private Grunt, dropped alone into a village just outside Normandy and forced to fend for yourself for a while. And anyway, there are more than enough health packs lying about, and a careful bit of resource management keeps you in fine fettle most of the time.

Still, that feeling of fragility is perhaps what Classic (and, indeed, Call Of Duty 2 after it) tends to hinge on. Way before you were Soap MacTavish and were hurtling through Russian ice bases taking on whole armies on your own, you were simply a tiny cog in an ill-equipped, ragtag machine facing impossible odds, and Classic’s a great reminder of that fact.

Taking in three different campaigns, spanning (in COD tradition) the experiences of three different soldiers, you’ll first find yourself fighting with the Americans, while embroiled in the invasion of Normandy around D-Day, as well as attacking the Bavarian Alps to rescue two British officers (one of whom is named Captain Price, incidentally). Next, the British missions deal with the airborne part of the Normandy landings, known as Operation Tonga, followed by the “Dam Busters” campaign at the Eder River in Germany. The Russian campaign deals with the Siege of Stalingrad, even taking in such details as Pavlov’s House, before shifting to the Vistula-Oder Offensive on the Eastern Front. Epic? You bet. It almost feels like Infinity Ward didn’t expect to ever make a sequel or spinoff, so conclusively and accurately does this game cover the popular key events of World War II. In this way, it’s a truly excellent and comprehensive simulation of the war; nevertheless, you still can’t help but think how amazing it would have been to play these historical moments with the later games’ improved controls and a little bit more graphical kick.

Ropey graphics aside, this is still an excellent Infinity Ward history lesson. It just can’t hope to hold up to its more advanced descendants.

Score: 3 out of 5 stars