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| PLATFORM: GAMECUBE |
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 ometimes we have the pleasure of bringing a truly excellent yet under-exposed game to light, and telling the world about a buried gem. Other times, it’s our unfortunate duty to tell you that a game that’s been hyped up as the next big thing simply doesn’t deliver on its promises. As you can probably guess, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One forces me into the latter role. While it’s clear that the big budget Activision put into this internally developed sequel has paid great dividends in terms of technology and polish, somewhere along the line the game has lost its soul.
Infinity Ward’s PC original (as well as the fantastic follow-up on both PC and Xbox 360) layers a truly cinematic feel on top of a brilliantly conceived, complete gameplay package. Even Spark Unlimited’s console-only Call of Duty: Finest Hour managed to deliver some wonderfully intense thrills despite its technical limitations. Big Red One, however, shoots well wide of the mark in the atmosphere and gameplay departments – even though the engine in this release is vastly superior to the one used in Finest Hour. The visuals are great, especially viewed in progressive scan, and the action is competent, but everything else about Big Red One falls squarely into the category of mediocre.
Don’t get me wrong – gunning down the Axis war machine piece by bloody piece is still fun, to an extent. But when you’re doing it in the context of mowing through endless hordes of identical enemies with the collective intelligence of a postage stamp, it wears thin rather quickly. This is especially true when the level designs consist almost exclusively of moving down a linear path until you trigger a mass enemy spawn, shoot them, and repeat ad nauseum. I can’t stress enough how flat-out boring the majority of the levels in Big Red One are. Whether you’re dispatching Italians in Sicily or thinning the ranks of the Afrika Korps in Egypt, the action is formulaic and repetitive. The occasional off-beat sniper mission or vehicle level breaks up the monotony somewhat, but as soon as you finish up one of those, it’s back to the same old grind. The tank control is great, though, so that’s something.
The final nail in Big Red One’s coffin of mediocrity is the baffling aim assistance. The game goes the usual route of simply giving players a little bit of leeway as far as having your shots connect with the bad guys, but then takes it two steps further. When looking down the sights, your reticle will slow down as it nears an enemy, and even follow them for a short distance if they move. This could help in theory, but in practice simply serves to screw up my timing and make me miss shots. Frustrating.
The total lack of soul in Big Red One, along with the irritating level design, are simply too much for the technical excellence embodied in its smooth framerate and slick graphics to overcome. If an average, run-of-the-mill shooter can convince you to drop $50, then you won’t be disappointed here. For FPS fans looking for something new and interesting, this would be a good title to skip.
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The development team that brought us Call of Duty: Finest Hour has gone MIA. Rather than giving this franchise a just 21-gun salute, Activision has turned to its faithful subsidiary Treyarch to keep it alive and well in the trenches. With Big Red One, Treyarch lays a fierce assault that is fantastic to the eye, but lifeless. The white-knuckled drama of Finest Hour has deflated into a heap of passionless linearity. No matter how many enemies crawl out of the woodwork, Big Red One struggles to deliver pulse-pounding excitement. The cookie cutter level designs and often-confused enemies deliver the sensation that you are shooting fish in a barrel. It does, however, excel in vehicle-based combat – which there’s plenty of. Tanks control admirably, and bombing runs in a plane are handled in a unique and enjoyable way. Big Red One still packs a punch…it’s just not as powerful as its precursor. |
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7.25 |
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| CONCEPT: |
| Make a highly competent World War II shooter without any of the flavor that made the original Call of Duty such a seminal game |
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| GRAPHICS: |
| You won’t find much better on current-gen systems |
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| SOUND: |
| Yet another game in which my guns fail to have the aural impact I expect |
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| PLAYABILITY: |
| Believe it or not, the aim assistance is more frustrating than helpful |
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| ENTERTAINMENT: |
| If you’re looking for something new, look elsewhere. If it’s some Nazi-shooting entertainment you’re after, this gets the job done |
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