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Activision’s critically-acclaimed WWII franchise hits the PSP.
Call of Duty is one of the most ambitious series on the consoles and PC. The same can be said of the portable rendition of the game. Although the missions are expectedly smaller and the chaotic nature of the series is somewhat more contained, this is unmistakably a Call of Duty game.
Roads to Victory is a full-fledged entry in the Call of Duty series, with the same style and scope that the series is known for on other platforms. As expected in a Call of Duty game, you’ll be experiencing the war from the perspective of an 82nd Airborne Division soldier, Canadian rifleman and British parachuting commando throughout its 14 missions. The missions are varied and impressive in scale and scope and truly capture the atmosphere and hectic nature of the war. The game has a number of pistols, rifles, machine guns and grenades to help you get through the missions. Amaze hasn’t tweaked with the formula extensively so the basic gameplay will be instantly familiar and you’ll still be presented with a number of scripted events that really help immerse you in the war. Of course, the action is mixed up a bit so you’ll also have to take down tanks, fight off enemy planes, and call air strikes with binoculars.
Roads to Victory controls fairly well and about as well as we can expect from a PSP first person shooter. The analog nub controls movement, the face buttons control aiming and the right shoulder button controls the series “aiming down the sights” feature. The d pad pulls heavy duty as it controls crouching (tap down), grenades (tap up), as well as reloading and switching weapons. It’s fairly intuitive but a little clunky due to the buttons themselves and not necessarily the game’s fault. Thankfully, the game does have a very generous auto-aim feature that alleviates any possible frustration associated with the control scheme.
While the singleplayer mode is impressive, the developers also included a 2-6 player offline multiplayer mode. The included modes are deathmatch, capture the flag and king of the hill. Call of Duty has always been one of the few games to still keep capture the flag matches fun and interesting and the same can be said of the portable iteration.
Visually, Roads to Victory is comparable to the early PlayStation 2 games, although more impressive graphics have been seen on the handheld, especially in recent games. The character models look pretty good although the animation is sometimes stiff. The levels are often large and feature a lot of open areas, but the architecture and texture quality is simple. Nonetheless, you’ll be impressed when the game presents you with one of its infamous scripted events
The audio in the game is on par with the best the series has to offer, which is to say fantastic. The orchestrated soundtrack is powerful and fittingly epic. The sound effects are truly amazing and really help bring the game to life. It’s a shame to hear the game through the PSP’s built-in speakers and somehow even the headphones seem tiny for music this powerful.
With Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, Amaze has successfully brought one of the most successful and exciting franchises to the PSP. The gameplay has been made more accessible but nonetheless engaging for the handheld, and the presentation, particularly the sound, is great. The PSP is not perfectly suited for first person shooters, but this is about as good as it can get. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Mar 15, 2007
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