Kester
November 1st, 2007, 06:02 AM
Having played the mp beta on the Xbox 360 I was really looking forward to getting my hands on the SP demo on the PC. I finally got around to playing it yesterday and was as impressed as I hoped I would have been!
I loaded the game up and noticed the difficulty settings, like Crysis, there is 4 - Easy, Medium, Hard and Veteran (although they may have different names, they are the same thing). I liked the tagline of Veteran (You will not survive), so I selected that and waited for it to load.
Treated with an overview of the city I was about to fight my way through, my objectives were shown - fight my way through the city to provide reinforcements to a immobilised tank and an escort of 4 soldiers, call sign "Warpig". I dropped into the game and started on an overpass, stricken with hulks of burnt out vehicles and other rubble. My squad were told by me CO to move out and as we did we're almost instantly ambushed. This is when I learnt that the tagline "You will not survive" was not a lie. I tried pretty fruitlessly to move up the overpass to it's exit, and after a couple of attempts decided maybe I should drop back a difficulty setting to Hard.
Having readjusted the difficulty setting, I found the game was actually playable, and not just a spawn and die game. My squad moved up the road and exited down a flight of stairs on the right, to flank our ambush. Turning to Night Vision my squad quickly cleared the building and we moved on to the next courtyard. To which I was treated to another intense fire fight. Again we cleared the immediate area and gained some ground. At which point a convey of tanks appeared on an overpass to the East and I was ordered to grab a Javelin (rocket launcher) and take them out.
Finally we broke through and grouped up with "Warpig" and her 4 men squad and proceeded to hold back the enemy. My CO tried to call in Gunship assistance, but was denied, due to an AA gun in the area. This was obviously my next objective. Moving out of the open and into the buildings I moved to it's position, took out the gunner, and 2 soldiers close by and planted the c4 charge. I only had to place an infrared strobe now and wait for the gunship to arrive. They soon did and they quickly mopped up the remaining enemy in the buildings overlooking Warpig. At which point my squad and I moved back to the tank and the demo ended.
Whilst the demo was relatively short at 20 minutes, compared to the 1 hour 20 minutes I had been treated to the night before with Crysis, it was highly enjoyable and I'm glad I played it through a second time as otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell you how it looked as my first play through was spent ducking in and out of cover, taking a couple of shots and moving on to the next available, constantly checking my angles for the enemy, who will punish you if you put even a foot wrong.
The graphics, whilst not as visually stunning as perhaps Crysis, or the Unreal Tournament 3 demo, they are superb and definitely "next-gen". There is a very gritty realism to the overall style of the level, even down to the rubble and other assorted props strewn around. It's obvious the developers have also spent their time working on the animations of the squad around you, they move about and clear buildings and areas as you'd expect a fire team to do so. I was suitable impressed when I saw a team mate burn through a wire link fence, and as he pulled it open lost his balance and fell on his back.
The game play is intense, and there is no way you could ever run and gun this game, at least not on the harder difficulty settings. You have to rely on both the cover around you and your team, as without either you will die, on a constant basis. My only complaint is that you seem to be a more important target to the enemy than the rest of your squad, even if your squad are in front of you in more strategically important positions.
However, having never played any of the Call Of Duty series, I was suitably impressed and will definitely go out and buy this game when it is released.
9/10
I loaded the game up and noticed the difficulty settings, like Crysis, there is 4 - Easy, Medium, Hard and Veteran (although they may have different names, they are the same thing). I liked the tagline of Veteran (You will not survive), so I selected that and waited for it to load.
Treated with an overview of the city I was about to fight my way through, my objectives were shown - fight my way through the city to provide reinforcements to a immobilised tank and an escort of 4 soldiers, call sign "Warpig". I dropped into the game and started on an overpass, stricken with hulks of burnt out vehicles and other rubble. My squad were told by me CO to move out and as we did we're almost instantly ambushed. This is when I learnt that the tagline "You will not survive" was not a lie. I tried pretty fruitlessly to move up the overpass to it's exit, and after a couple of attempts decided maybe I should drop back a difficulty setting to Hard.
Having readjusted the difficulty setting, I found the game was actually playable, and not just a spawn and die game. My squad moved up the road and exited down a flight of stairs on the right, to flank our ambush. Turning to Night Vision my squad quickly cleared the building and we moved on to the next courtyard. To which I was treated to another intense fire fight. Again we cleared the immediate area and gained some ground. At which point a convey of tanks appeared on an overpass to the East and I was ordered to grab a Javelin (rocket launcher) and take them out.
Finally we broke through and grouped up with "Warpig" and her 4 men squad and proceeded to hold back the enemy. My CO tried to call in Gunship assistance, but was denied, due to an AA gun in the area. This was obviously my next objective. Moving out of the open and into the buildings I moved to it's position, took out the gunner, and 2 soldiers close by and planted the c4 charge. I only had to place an infrared strobe now and wait for the gunship to arrive. They soon did and they quickly mopped up the remaining enemy in the buildings overlooking Warpig. At which point my squad and I moved back to the tank and the demo ended.
Whilst the demo was relatively short at 20 minutes, compared to the 1 hour 20 minutes I had been treated to the night before with Crysis, it was highly enjoyable and I'm glad I played it through a second time as otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell you how it looked as my first play through was spent ducking in and out of cover, taking a couple of shots and moving on to the next available, constantly checking my angles for the enemy, who will punish you if you put even a foot wrong.
The graphics, whilst not as visually stunning as perhaps Crysis, or the Unreal Tournament 3 demo, they are superb and definitely "next-gen". There is a very gritty realism to the overall style of the level, even down to the rubble and other assorted props strewn around. It's obvious the developers have also spent their time working on the animations of the squad around you, they move about and clear buildings and areas as you'd expect a fire team to do so. I was suitable impressed when I saw a team mate burn through a wire link fence, and as he pulled it open lost his balance and fell on his back.
The game play is intense, and there is no way you could ever run and gun this game, at least not on the harder difficulty settings. You have to rely on both the cover around you and your team, as without either you will die, on a constant basis. My only complaint is that you seem to be a more important target to the enemy than the rest of your squad, even if your squad are in front of you in more strategically important positions.
However, having never played any of the Call Of Duty series, I was suitably impressed and will definitely go out and buy this game when it is released.
9/10