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I Thought We Were Beyond This 2.8.2008 12:57pm
I was playing Call of Duty 4 yesterday. A game I was peer pressured into picking up. Haven't actually jumped into the multi player yet, I wanted to try my hand at the campaign first. It was here that I discovered a problem that has not plagued video games since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; The Endless Army.
War is difficult... from what I hear anyway. And I play my shooters the way I would probably react in a real situation. I sit tight. Then pop out and shoot, and return to cover. I have infinite patients so I can do this all day. It is a tactic that is both safe and effective, actually it's even more effective in GRAW and Rainbow Six: Vegas, because of their cover system.
COD 4 accredits itself for being ultra realistic. There is no cover system like the aforementioned Tom Clancy games, but it doesn't loose marks in my book because of that. Where it does make me scoff (and also kick and scream) is the endless amount of enemies you face if you hold yourself up behind some cover. If you do not make forward progress in the game the terrorists (always terrorists these days) keep coming and they fill the exact same spot as the guy you just killed.
If you are being harassed by a guy in a second story window, and you pop out and finally get him, if you don't move to a new location within 30 seconds someone else will magically appear to take his place.
I sat on a street corner for (I kid you not) fifteen minutes. Shooting at guys in buildings and their replacements. When I finally decided to rush the building I was killed. The second time went through, I rushed after the first wave, fully expecting the house to be littered with terrorists anxiously waiting for their turn to die. The house was empty. "Where" I wondered, "were all those terrorists coming from before?"
The answer is nowhere.
Infinity Ward has crafted a fantastic game, don't get me wrong, but that endless army crap needs to stop. When I play R6:Vegas2 next month I know that when I kill on patrol a replacement won't appear the second I turn away. It just takes me out of the game. I hate knowing how a game works and then playing it with that knowledge. I'd rather play COD4 as if I were in war. That's why I buy games and don't join the army. The last time I dealt with an infinite number of enemies was in Zombies Ate My Neighbors. But I forgive that game because it's awesome.
