Call of Duty Classic- Xbox 360 Port of CoD1- USSR The Stalingrad Meat Grinder

Call of Duty Classic (2009) was developed by Infinity Ward (the OG game), Aspyr Media (the CoD Classic port) and published by Activision

Out of all possible ratings: Terrible, Bad, Average, Good, Great....

My rating, based upon my playthrough experience, is: BAD!

I'm glad Call of Duty grown over its lengthy existence, sometimes for better or worse, because the first title is more than a bit rough. Infinity Ward must have noticed this as Call of Duty 2, their second title, was great. During my playthrough I encountered awkward controls at times, very confusing level design with no brightness option (the Tirpitz level), bad checkpoints, and bullets that do not fly within the reticle for aiming. It was a rough ride. Now, considering what the competition was doing at the time, this must have felt like a step forward, as Medal of Honor was the go-to WW2 game and it had grown stale. At least on console, anyway.

But this game didn't get released on console until 2009, so what did people on Xbox and PS2 play? They played a different Call of Duty game altogether, called Finest Hour. While not being that good itself, it was the first console game that allowed you to AIM DOWN YOUR SIGHTS. This was a game changer. Now, after playing CoD Classic and remembering not liking CoD: Finest Hour, I wonder which is worse. This bodes badly for Call of Duty Classic, as CoD: Finest Hour will be in my How Bad Is It lineup once I commit to it.

The game looks ok and puts a lot of NPCs onscreen, especially in the beginning, but the overall graphics package is not that good, even for it's day. The guns and war noises aren't very impressive either, but that's not what hurts this game. CoD Classic suffers from bad level design, bad check points, laser-like MG42s, inconsistent damage, and unclear objectives.

The Tirpitz level had tempted me to scrap the project because it was so infuriating. On another level you defend your squad against dive-bombing Stukas, only to get killed constantly by enemies that your squad can't be bothered to shoot at while you deal with the planes. Any time you run into an MG42 and try to pick off the gunner, you are targeted immediately and get killed, as the Nazi MG42 really wasn't a machine gun, it was a freaking laser!

All of these things, and others, lead to this game being a somewhat interesting, but ultimately frustrating look into Call of Duty's past. If you are morbidly curious as I was you could check it out. If not, I advise you to skip it and play the better titles, like CoD 2.

Call of Duty Classic is available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the OG version on PC

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DHG played Call of Duty Classic on Xbox 360

Part 6