Like it or not, Activision’s “Call of Duty” video game series causes people to skip work and classes when a new game comes out every November. And raking in half a billion dollars in sales in its first week alone, the latest game, “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2,” was no exception two weeks ago.
Surprisingly, as someone who grew up on video games and still loves them, I’ve managed to stay away from the “Call of Duty” craze for the past five years. I purchased “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” several years after it came out, tried it and realized I wasn’t a fan of first-person shooters (a type of game in which the player experiences the action through the eyes of the game’s protagonist). I preferred my games in the third person.
This changed in September when Playstation, my game console of choice, offered “Borderlands” as a free game for Playstation Plus members. “Borderlands” is a first-person shooter with a role-playing game element tied to it, and being free, I downloaded it not expecting to like it. After playing it for about an hour I realized I was coming to terms with gaming in the first person, and in fact started to like it.
“Borderlands” was free because the makers of the game were hoping to entice people to buy “Borderlands 2,” which was coming out later in the month. Their strategy worked because I added it to my collection just a few weeks later. After putting it in my Playstation, it never left as I worked myself through the massive game, playing it late at night after my children and wife were asleep. Shooting monster dogs, solving puzzles and saving an outcast world made for a perfect stress reliever.
Knowing I could handle a first-person shooter, I decided I needed to see what all the fuss was about in regards to “Call of Duty.” I got “Black Ops 2” and started the game’s campaign mode several days after it came out. Judging it against “Borderlands 2,” though, I couldn’t figure out why people were so into “Call of Duty.”
But then I played the multiplayer mode in which you team up with other players online and try to get more “kills” than the opposing team. Instead of playing against computer opponents, who are predictable and easy to beat, I found myself playing more formidable players who made the game challenging.
Challenging is an understatement, as these players were probably better than me in every aspect of the game. I could hardly walk five feet without dying. Snipers were downing me from hundreds of yards away, and stealth operatives were sneaking up from behind and knifing me to death. And every time I found an opponent he or she gunned me down before I could even get my finger on the trigger.
Despite my many deaths I was addicted. I wanted to be the soldier who took out an opponent, even if I was no more than target practice for them. I changed my strategy and started following teammates around, hoping a little teamwork would help.
Logically, it worked as I found myself dying less and taking out opponents more often. I was still dying more often than I was registering kills, but at least I wasn’t always last place on my team.
I may never get back to the campaign mode in the game because the online multiplayer is too fun. And I’ll probably die more often than I don’t, but at least I understand why the game is so popular. I can’t imagine I’ll skip work or class for the game, but late nights may never be peaceful again.
* * *
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Nov. 30, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment