Call Of Duty: Roads To Victory
© N/A
Platform: PSP
ESRB: T
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1-6
Online: No
Developer: Amaze Entertainment
Publisher: Activision
Suggested Retail: $29.99
Graphics: C+
Sound: C+
Gameplay: B
Replay: B-
Fun Factor: B
Buy it now!
"Call Of Duty: Roads To Victory"
By: Captain Gordon EdwardDate: Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Have you been worried about what happened in World War 2? Have you forgotten the events that transpired during that time period? Probably the best question is if you want a World War 2 game -- in the style of Call of Duty -- on the go for your PSP? Well needless to say the game continues with the adventure of cleaning up Europe, with you dealing with all of the riff raffs that have come between all that is morally correct in our society. I still have another question though... Does the world need another World War 2 shooter? Of course it does.
Obviously this game hardly requires me to regurgitate the story since you can pretty much assume what you need to do. Every level has you go to several areas on the map to defeat enemies, but it may also be labelled as trying to capture an area. While playing through, you will have the option of playing either as the Americans, the Canadians, or the British armies while trying to complete map specific objectives as you continue across Europe. It does not matter too much about which army you play since each of the game mechanics are the same. I know you may be upset with not being able to play Captain Canuck, being able to bounce bullets off of your pectorals, but you will need to learn to live with it.
But just because you are unable to have bullets bounce off of your chest does not mean that you will go down with a single bullet. Depending on the difficulty setting you will have a resounding ability to be a damage sponge, which makes the game quite enjoyable. On an easy difficulty you can take around ten bullets, breaking the record of what the infamous 50 Cent has endured. If you allow time to tick by your body will rejuvenate completely, so you really can become an unstoppable soldier. If only Captain America was a super soldier from this game perhaps he would still be around.
General controls are quite simple, and intuitive, making it very easy to pick up and play. Using the right shoulder button you can fire at your enemies. The game includes a targeting system that automatically aims at any nearby enemies, which makes the game a breeze to play. In close combat it will also allow you to fire off a melee attack to quickly defeat enemies. Using the left shoulder button allows you to personally aim your shot, which works great for the sniper rifle or distant enemies. The main reason that it works well is because you are allowed the opportunity to look down the barrel of any weapon. The triangle, square, x, and circle are used to aim and the analog nub is used for moving your character around the screen as well.
These are not your only abilities as a solider, and truthfully that hardly even covers half of the bases. For starters do you like the idea of playing Hot Potato with enemy soldiers? Luckily you can -- and you can even cheat while doing it -- as you can cook or “hot box” grenades before tossing them at enemies just by pressing and holding the up button. The left button will reload the current weapon, and the right one will allow you to either swap the current weapon with a weapon on the ground, or swap it with your alternative weapon.
The down button will allow you to crouch on the ground, which is great for when you need to hide yourself, but it is also used to prop yourself up from the position. Do the abilities stop there? Not quite yet. In the aiming mode as a sniper you also have the option of holding your breath to prevent the gun from moving. For this all you need to do is press the right button, and for a limited time you will hold still. Overall the game handles quite nicely, which is great to see on the PSP, though it would have been better to automatically use the analog stick to aim.
Graphically the game is a little bland, which is a little annoying to see. Most of the buildings and environments do a fairly good job of building the ambiance, but open organic areas and roads are fairly drab. It is great to walk into a house and see a lot of Nazi propaganda, but this is all negated when you walk outside to a graveyard and wonder why tombstones lack text.
Something else that could be included with the graphics is the mini map on your screen. It works fairly well by telling you what direction the next objective is located in, but it would have been best served if it included a map of the area, so that you do not end up walking through the maze of houses aimless. Overall the maps are set up quite nicely, making it pretty much a straightforward journey, but occasionally you may get mixed up in the heat of combat.
The sound of the game is another decent feature, but it fades too easily into the background. The sound effects for general weapons works well enough, where they help put you into the zone. Most weapons sounded almost identical and after playing the game for a few hours the noise can get a little annoying. I will also say that the music does a good job of keeping the game interesting, but at the same time it was nothing amazing. It accomplishes its job and that is all.
In the end, this will be a good PSP game to pick up. The maps are sectioned nicely so that you can sit down for ten to twenty minutes to complete a level. Depending on how well you do in the levels bonus material will be unlocked. The game provides an Ad Hoc style of multiplayer, but you will need to find others with the game and the PSP to use it. The controls were a little annoying, but there were a few different options that you could try out. If you do not enjoy the auto targeting you can turn it off, but using the buttons to aim is annoying. The title hardly stands out from what the series accomplishes on the consoles, but it is better than most of the shooter games on the PSP. Wrapping up, Captain Gordon gives Call of Duty: Roads to Victory a B-.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? CaptainGordonEdward@Gmail.com
