This is the final COD campaign that I had not played (the campaign is the only topic I will be critiquing). As of right now, I have played them all (excluding the original trilogy but they are so outdated I don't want to touch them).
With the knowledge of the entire rest of the series, I can say with confidence that this is one of the better ones. Even though it came out all the way back in 2008, it didn't feel too dated. However, having played so many, these games have long since become far too formulaic, and this being one of the earlier ones means they had no desire to innovate beyond the core shooting (which holds up well enough).
The story is light, but it's WWII so you know the general plot beats. The game is split between a duel narrative; a voiceless US soldier fighting the Japanese and a voiceless Russian fighting the Nazi Germans. You are a vessel who is present for interesting battles, and the character along with you (either Roebuck or Reznov) is the one with the interesting dialogue and interactions. The Russian plot line as Dmitri does it's best to portray you as a hero by the end, culminating in a pretty great ending sequence, but being silent hampers what could've been a far more emotional story.
On a gameplay front, as I alluded to, it really is just shooting gallery after shooting gallery. The different styles of fighting between the Japanese and the Nazis make for some superficial differences which keeps things somewhat fresh mission to mission. There is also two vehicle missions; the tank one (my least favourite in the whole game) and the plane gunner one (one of my favourite in the whole game). Again, this is an easier title so they weren't looking to innovate yet, so I can forgive it. The differences in locale mean you won't get bored during the 5 - 6 hour runtime.
The soundtrack is particularly noteworthy here. Usually I can't really pinpoint any stand out OSTs from COD titles, but this game has bangers across the board. Seriously, I was hooked on these tracks from mission one all the way to the rolling of the credits. And suitably, the credits sequence just played some of the best tracks, which I happily sat through just to relish in them again.
Artistically, the game looks dated. It is from the early XBOX 360 era after all. Despite this, I wasn't too often hampered by an inability to see what was happening, which is a problem I've had with other COD titles from this era. That's kind of subjective though, so feel free to ignore that aspect. Basically, it looks fine for it's age, and there's some decent art direction to carry it.
In summary, it was worthwhile going back and playing this older gem that I somehow missed. There's something about the older titles that, try as they might, they can never really recapture. And this isn't nostalgia, because up until I recently saw this in the XBOX store on sale, I didn't even know this game existed.
With the knowledge of the entire rest of the series, I can say with confidence that this is one of the better ones. Even though it came out all the way back in 2008, it didn't feel too dated. However, having played so many, these games have long since become far too formulaic, and this being one of the earlier ones means they had no desire to innovate beyond the core shooting (which holds up well enough).
The story is light, but it's WWII so you know the general plot beats. The game is split between a duel narrative; a voiceless US soldier fighting the Japanese and a voiceless Russian fighting the Nazi Germans. You are a vessel who is present for interesting battles, and the character along with you (either Roebuck or Reznov) is the one with the interesting dialogue and interactions. The Russian plot line as Dmitri does it's best to portray you as a hero by the end, culminating in a pretty great ending sequence, but being silent hampers what could've been a far more emotional story.
On a gameplay front, as I alluded to, it really is just shooting gallery after shooting gallery. The different styles of fighting between the Japanese and the Nazis make for some superficial differences which keeps things somewhat fresh mission to mission. There is also two vehicle missions; the tank one (my least favourite in the whole game) and the plane gunner one (one of my favourite in the whole game). Again, this is an easier title so they weren't looking to innovate yet, so I can forgive it. The differences in locale mean you won't get bored during the 5 - 6 hour runtime.
The soundtrack is particularly noteworthy here. Usually I can't really pinpoint any stand out OSTs from COD titles, but this game has bangers across the board. Seriously, I was hooked on these tracks from mission one all the way to the rolling of the credits. And suitably, the credits sequence just played some of the best tracks, which I happily sat through just to relish in them again.
Artistically, the game looks dated. It is from the early XBOX 360 era after all. Despite this, I wasn't too often hampered by an inability to see what was happening, which is a problem I've had with other COD titles from this era. That's kind of subjective though, so feel free to ignore that aspect. Basically, it looks fine for it's age, and there's some decent art direction to carry it.
In summary, it was worthwhile going back and playing this older gem that I somehow missed. There's something about the older titles that, try as they might, they can never really recapture. And this isn't nostalgia, because up until I recently saw this in the XBOX store on sale, I didn't even know this game existed.