Rose-tinted Replay: Answer the call

For my first Rose-tinted Replay I thought I would play through a game that I really loved (while trying to think of a better name for this feature). I thought this would make my first game a safe bet, but later I realised it makes it more dangerous. Am I going to destroy my fragile impressions of a game I love...? Probably.

If one screenshot could sum up a game...

I remember my first play through of Call of Duty really well. I was 15, in my final year of secondary school and skipping most of my school work to play games. Up until that point I had never been a fan of the FPS genre, I hated the ludicrous guns and mindless enemies and the superhero main character single handedly eradicating the population of the channel islands. There were a few I played, but not many. Then Call of Duty came out and it was incredible. Now you were just a soldier in a war, one member of an entire squad and, most importantly, fragile. The game is full of those epic stand out moments that stun you with breathless wonder - if you couldn't tell I really like this game - and having not played for six years I want to see whether they still offer that same excitement even now.

Sainte-Mère-Église (2003)

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god... shit, shit, shit. Ahhhh. Crap! That pretty much sums up my first impressions of the game back then. It was fast furious and lethal.

Sainte-Mère-Église (Now)

Right, there is a person who will pop up there. Then a machine gun here. Throw a grenade now, wait... wait... now run. Hide behind this, shoot him, run up here. I was worried this would happen, I know what is coming, where everything is... I am barely even playing, just going through the motions. Oh and the fact it takes a few hundred bullets to kill every enemy quickly becomes annoying (I never noticed that before).

I did not accidentally flinch and shoot the guy on the left
straight after this screenshot. Honest.

Normandy Route N13 (2003)

Wow, I'm in a car, and can lean out the window, and fire my gun and then reload inside the car. This is incredible. We are driving through the German front lines. Oh shit a tank! I remember feeling breathless during this level, at the end I felt I had just sprinted up a hill and back. I was sweating (I am a very warm person) and my mouth was dry. It was incredible.

Normandy Route N13 (Now)

Sigh... I know if I hide inside the car for the first bit I can just cruise past most of the first lot of Germans. Then some come from that direction. It is now just too easy, this level turned into a chore and felt really stale. I started noticing how stupidly the car handled and how little you really impact the outcome of this level. If you don't shoot at all, you will still get through it. I now, unhappily, notice what a wearyingly scripted moment it really is.

Like Rochdale, only with more grass.

Pegasus Bridge (2003)

This level was amazing, and you can read why here. Suffice to say it was so frenetic it actually scared me.

Pegasus Bridge (Now)

Another level down, play by numbers, killed tanks by the score, troops by the battalion. Nothing was a surprise, I knew where every enemy came from and if things got too rough... I just hid in the bunker.

Overcompensating? Yes... yes I am.

Stalingrad (2003)

Right okay, we're across the river! I survived, now is the time to take the fight to the... wait...what... the... fuck. I want a gun, give me a gun, you bastards give me a sodding gun! First you rip off Enemy at the Gates and then you don't even give me a weapon. This is chaos, madness!

Stalingrad (Now)

On my first play through I couldn't believe it! I hadn't seen Enemy at the Gates, which was a good thing in hindsight, so I was in shock. 'Did this actually happen?' I remember thinking. I was learning about the war while I played. This is an important phenomenon because, in reality, this is probably how most children will learn about the second world war from now on. They won't remember the dull lessons from school, taught in isolation with little context of the wider conflict. No, they will learn from games. Lets just hope they play this fine example of a game instead of World at War, otherwise were all screwed. However playing the level through now it just felt... void.

What the hell am I meant to do with these? This army sucks!

Pavlov's House (2003)

This just takes the piss. There is no way you can complete this level it is just too much! How the hell do you... oh wait, if I just camp here I can kill all the Germans as they run up the stairs... nice.

Pavlov's House (Now)

I know every step, every inch, every broken wall of that apartment building (you are tasked with taking and holding a four story apartment block, Que many tanks and every single soldier in the German army courageously running over piles of their dead comrades and being beaten back by a handful of soviets). It was a simple case of going through the motions, finding the best spot, and waiting for the level to end.

Don't judge me!

That pretty much sums up my replay of Call of Duty. When I first played it, I was amazed, spell bound! it was incredible. The game put my in the middle of the war and scared the crap out of me. It was the first game I remember playing where I thought afterwards - I'm glad I wasn't there. Death was brutal and fast and would occasionally make me jump so hard I'd bang my knees on the desk. Which makes my recent play through so sad. It all seemed so, stale. I knew every inch of the game and went into a trance like state as I clicked on German after German until they fell to the floor. I would advance through towns with my gun pointed stubbornly at an innocuous window waiting patiently for a German to try and surprise me. There was no wonder, no terror left, which left the game feeling empty. Even nine years on it is a brilliant game and still plays well (but not in wide screen without some tweaking). But without the bombast and novelty, which has slowly been leached by the ever decreasing quality of its sterile sequels, it is not the truly great game that it originally was. Which, given the fact I have just ruined my memories of a beloved game for the entertainment of four or five readers, makes me feel somewhat stale myself. Bastards!

(*Just to note, my Fraps messed up during my play through and I didn't notice! I have borrowed some of these images from the Call of Duty Wiki and offer great thanks to them!)