CALL OF DUTY® 2 POCKET PC EDITION

COD2 POCKET PC - R. LEE ERMEY?

ANDY MESSNER, PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Call of Duty 2 for the Pocket PC has a lot going for it. First of all, it’s based on one of my favorite games for last year – Infinity Ward developed Call of Duty 2 for PC and Xbox 360. The PC version is a very cinematic first-person-shooter set in World War II. Now, there are dozens of games in this same vein, but few of them deliver a highly satisfying single player and multiplayer experience with the amount of polish, challenge and excitement of Call of Duty.

This game recreates that battlefield experience so well that when I play the game I feel like R. Lee Ermey should be screaming at the top of his lungs at me. You’re trudging through bleak, torn landscapes and fighting off wave after wave of Third Reich Storm Troopers. All you have is your rifle, a sidearm, a handful of grenades you picked up as you were running, and your trustworthy, good-guy allies who have got your back no matter what.

These were all the things that made the PC version so fantastic. We tried to adapt those same qualities to the handheld version of the game. What I like is that the look and feel of the game is very similar to the PC version of the game, but at the same time it works as a successful adaptation because it plays with the strengths of the Pocket PC platform. We spent a lot of time on the controls to get them right. The Pocket PC uses a touchscreen, which we wanted to use as the main method of controls. There really weren’t a lot of touchscreen, first-person-shooters out there to compare and contrast with, so it felt like we were doing something new. I like being able to point and shoot wherever without having to hold a button or point a mouse cursor around. It feels free, organic, and interactive when you’re playing the game this way.

Also, the inherent portability of the system leads to interesting design choices. I like that the game is easy to pick up and put down at any time. The levels are designed so that they shouldn’t take an exorbitant length of time to get through, and there are save points along the way so you can jump right back into the action at a later time.

Overall the game is an ambitious entry into the handheld game market. I’m new to the Pocket PC scene, and was surprised about the type of games being pushed out on the platform. This game is in line with where I think the hardware is going, and as a result I hope that more people will begin making games for this platform, or at least porting over popular Nintendo DS, PSP, and Gameboy games. The hardware is really versatile and performs functions like web browsing, email, phone, music, video – why not games? I like that somebody wanted to do something different and create a real, robust game for this system.