You know, a bit of roleplay - a spy trying to blend in and act normal instead of jaywalking in front of jackbooted goons. One early mission sees you following a target into a bar. While some of the missions stick to this more freeform vibe, there’s still some hangovers from old Call of Duty. It feels dynamic and makes the characters more interesting than the monotone door-kickers of series past.

It helps that the facial capture is some of the best I’ve seen, too - the characters all emote naturally. People interrupt conversations and go about their business regardless of what you’re doing. Sometimes other characters will comment on you being such a nosey little bitch. People occasionally walk off to have a private conversation and you can do your best to listen in. I particularly like how the game builds a sense of distrust, sowing seeds for later story beats. Your choice of agency also changes some of the interactions you have with teammates, with them referencing whether you’re former MI5, CIA, CBBC, etc.īetween missions, you explore your safehouse and get to know teammates by digging into them with dialogue options. I will never get over seeing ‘Kirk “Bell” McKeand’ in pre-mission briefings.

The game opens with you filling out a personnel file - name, which clandestine outfit you’re from (I went MI5), and psychological profile, which is an icky way to give you in-game buffs - paranoid people aim faster, OK? Once that’s done, you’re assigned a codename - Bell - and that’s how characters refer to you. It has a bit of the old perspective shifting Call of Duty campaigns are famous for - there’s one piece of nostalgia bait where you head to Yamantua as Mason, accompanied by Woods - but you mostly play as you. As Goldilocks would say, “The amount of headfuckery is just right.” There’s an entire level like this in Black Ops Cold War, and I think it will stay with me as long as series classics like All Ghillied Up. If you haven’t played that, it’s a brilliant indie game that you should play immediately where all your actions are commented on by a narrator, and you can go against that narrator to experience some surprising outcomes.

And it all culminates in a section that riffs on one of the unlikeliest of inspirations: The Stanley Parable. It balances the in-your-face, balls-to-the-wall set-pieces you’d expect from COD with more subtle subterfuge masterfully.

Call of duty review cold war