Call of Duty Review Part Three: Russian Campaign

**Warning, there will be spoilers in this review.** (Sort of)

Well, having just been on a Call of Duty splurge over the past few days, I thought it might be an idea to finish the series off with what is arguably the strongest campaign of the three. Parts one and two are here and here.

Now, the opening mission may be one of the greatest missions of any game ever made in the history of ever. If you don't know about Stalingrad, essentially it was Russians in the middle, then a line of Germans, then Russians coming across the river to attack the Germans. You're one of the dudes on the boats, and it's amazing. It may be one of the most atmospheric and down-right moving experiences in video games. Seeing hundreds of Russians charging straight up the hill at the machine guns, whilst artillery goes off and planes strafe overhead is an intense rush. What's also interesting in terms of design is that it doesn't even give you a gun. You get given a clip of ammo, and are meant to pick up a gun off of somebody that dies. Unfortunately, you never find one, so instead you act as bait so that a sniper can line up shots on a machine gun. It's an odd contrast to the British campaign, which has you evaporating rooms of Germans in a hale of bullets.

Amazingly, they follow that up with what may be the second most incredible moment of the series (maybe third after Pointe Du Hoc in two). You arrive at Red Square just as the remnants of a previous wave are getting cut down by your own commissars. And then it's your turn. After a rousing speech, your whole line just runs at the Germans, screaming, and it's awesome. Of course, you down rush straight at them, but head to the flank (making sure to grab a gun first) and proceed to snipe their leaders. Even so, it's so cool.

Following that are some odd missions also set in the city. They have you crawling through sewers and train stations, usually with only one or two other guys. It's still done pretty well though, in that you'll often come across other small squads of Russians moving about as well. After these odd but still pretty cool missions, you take part in the Pavlov's House mission, which is another highlight. After securing an apartment block, the few remaining soldiers are tasked with holding out against huge numbers of German troops, including multiple tanks, with nought but a few anti-tank rifles. It's difficult as hell, but awesome when you finally complete.

In fact, going off an a tangent here, this game is way more difficult than I remember. I played it in hardened, thinking "Oh, I can complete all the other ones easily in hardened". Not in this case. I don't think it's just the old school health system (no regenerating health, no sir) either, but more that everything seems a lot more powerful. A single shot from a bolt-action rifle is 50% of your health gone. A single accurate burst from a sub machine gun is the rest. It's unbelievably difficult at some points, and can become pretty frustrating.

But anyway, the next mission is the tank mission. It's pretty cool to be fair, and much easier than I remember it being, but it's not the highlight. Call of Duty does infantry combat very well, but isn't so good at tank combat (probably with the exception of the Crusader charge mission in two, which was awesome).

And that's pretty much it. There's one final prologue mission, which may very well be the second greatest mission ever made in Call of Duty but that's for another time, and another review.