Obviously COD games gain their critical success via their multiplayer, and I’ve not looked at that. This is a review of the single-player, which it’s crucial to remember is what most purchasers of the game will ever play. And it’s absolutely awful.
Yes, it’s pretty cool when an entire town floods. But you don’t get to appreciate it. Do so and you’ll drown in it, rather than be able to pick a piece of high ground and enjoy the spectacle. This is COD, so your instructions are to go to the left and under that door, whether you like it or not. And it’s impressive that they so incredibly realised a devastated baseball park in meticulous detail. But try to take it in and you’ll die, either from bullets, or more likely the game just declaring itself over because your moment of looking wasn’t in its script.
As a result of this, despite the extraordinary job of the background designers and level crafters, there’s never, ever a sense of place. An oil rig is a jungle is a mountaintop plaza. It’s corridors, no matter how gorgeous the walls, and you’re to stare forward at the men’s bottoms unless there’s a building falling over. Do as you’re told, or the game throws its toys out of the pram and refuses to carry on.
It’ll make another billion dollars, and they’re already making the next one that will be exactly the same, and the incredible potential will yet again consume its own fetid tail. The circlejerk of life.