You know what I haven't played in an absolutely obscene amount of time? The sort of game that everyone and their mother has heard of in some form but I can't seem to bring myself to pick up? It's Call of Duty, and I just can't explain why. Perhaps it's because I fell out of love with that generic gung-ho military fiction which the series built itself on, or because the quality of the games themselves began to noticeably sag, or the way in which their success threatened to suck all creativity out of the industry by forcing every big game to be a pale imitation of it for a time, or maybe just the way in which COD served as the in-road for many of the abused and overused monetisation tactics of today such as Season Passes and Microtransactions. (Can I just rant about how the term 'Season pass' doesn't even make sense outside of Sports titles? 'Season' implies that it lasts for a prefixed period of time, but that period of time can mean literally anything the publisher and developer are willing to invest in the gaming world. When you buy a Season pass in any other context there is as least a rough understanding of everything you receive, whilst in gaming that's almost never the case!) But I digress, there's a new COD and I thought I'd give it a looksee.
'Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War' is yet another example of the slowly dawning truth that Activison have run out of titles for their games. And concepts, apparently. This manner of going back on oneself to 'remake the hits' as it were, it getting a little tiresome I must admit. I miss the days when people could be excited for something new and unexpected from their favourite franchise, but maybe I'm just saying that as someone who was just crushed to see that the new Prince of Persia game is a freakin' remaster. (Of one of the three games in the series? Are we really half-assing remasters now, Ubisoft?) Although, to Activision's credit this game does appear to have unique characters and a new storyline, but then again Mason's tale was so beloved one might wonder why they didn't try another take on that one. (Maybe they're waiting for the sequel)
From the trailers we've seen released so far there is one thing abundantly clear about the direction of this new COD; it's framing itself to be a cautionary tale that has some sort of reflection on real life events. They tease the dissolution of unity and trust within America and view it through the lens of orchestrated events from a real-life Russian spy master who was deployed to America and never caught. His is a legend that as been speculated about forever and now the COD writers are going to try their hand at it alongside providing an 'important' life lesson. And if you think I'm exaggerated about the self-imposed importance that the team have placed on this game, remember that the teaser's tag was 'learn your history or you'll be doomed to repeat it!'. Sure, Activision, teach me about the dangers of unchecked power, literally who else would know better?
The story trailer didn't drop all that long later and it was a little bit more specific about the stories it wanted to tell. As it turns out, this will be a title that takes players from Vietnam to the United States in an international race against the clock in order to- wait a minute; this is literally the plot of the original Black Ops. (If there's not a Russian Prison level I'm gonna riot.) In fact, with all this preamble about the cold war potentially becoming hot I'm almost getting the sense that this is the junior's version of 'Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'. (Though somehow I doubt this game will even a fraction as well crafted or memorable.) Ah, but I'm being a downer again, let me at least commend the Black Ops folk for getting an actual President to feature in their game. (Reagan's never looked more plastic.)
As the headlines have all touted, we're essentially talking about a game wherein the President of the United States permits you to commit crimes on American soil because some ultra-patriot pinky promised that it was necessary. (What a hero) That means a whole lot of shooting up folk, blowing up planes and all the other things that counts as 'commentary' in a Call of Duty title. On the more positive view of things, this does mean the return of great COD stables such as the RC car, pre-2000's era weaponary and bandannas on protagonists. Speaking of the protagonists, I have to confess that I never realised that a human's face could be over designed until I saw these characters. They look like a mix up between jaded veterans/diehard super patriots/and surfer dudes trying to look cool. (Okay, maybe I'm getting a little confrontational again.)
Now I know that no matter how confused the tone the trailer comes out like, the final game itself will likely have one heck of a fun campaign. That's one thing Call of Duty can always be relied on for. Even at it's worst when the narrative turned into literal crap and all the characters were parodies of themselves, that raw gameplay fun never truly vanished. (Actually, saying that I never played 'Ghosts' and people tell me that one is the absolute worst. So maybe it did for a little bit.) I think that Activision are certainly overestimating their own storytelling worth with their heady trailers but I say it's their right to sniff their own farts if they want to. And hey, who knows, this game could turn out to be really thoughtful and provocative in a ton on unexpected ways. It won't- but it could- and isn't that what matters in the end?
All that's left to go over is the only thing COD fans care about at all; the Multiplayer. Here I'll come clean and admit that I'm more of a Battlefield fanboy here, but I understand that COD is slowly picking up the slack in this neighbourhood. (Made all the more possible by EA driving the Battlefield franchise off a cliff recently) I just love the more tactical affair that can be defined by half an hour of impromptu night-sniping in the woods as by those moments of hectic chaos, COD never quite achieved that for me. Call of Duty is, however, more traditional with their deathmatches and thus have them down to a fine art, and now that they've got vehicles in the game it's almost as though a sliver of Battlefield's ghost is alive in it's competitor. As for the multiplayer tease we've got, I found it a little weak I'm not going to lie. All the maps they showed off felt uninspired and mere biome swaps with the exception of 'Miami', which I just don't like the look off (too dark and cramped) and 'North Atlantic' which, to be fair, looks like a genius stroke of concept and execution. Yeah, 'North Atlantic' looks fantastic, I cannot take that away from the trailer.
So what do I ultimately make of Call of Duty's latest outing? It looks fine. We're a long way out from the days where Call of Duty was the bastion of cutting edge game design, but even then these trailers did look impressive enough to win over some fans, I'm sure. I think the concept is a little under-explored in gaming and if the game defies it's trailer and turns out to live up to the espionage-esque potential of a narrative like this, I could even start to get excited myself. I think that the message the teaser trailer seemed poised to send is a little muddied by the other trailers, alongside the very nature of Call of Duty as a 'death and destruction first- morality later' series, but I appreciate the attempt to hint at something grander from the storytelling. All in all- I mark this a C+ effort in marketing from the Activision teams. (Yes I'm rating marketing campaign's now, it's not like I'm actually going to buy the game; Cyberpunk comes out this year!)
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