PSP Fanboy review: Call of Duty Roads to Victory
Most people only read reviews to find out if they should buy, try or avoid a particular game. With that in mind, here's that info on Call of Duty: Roads to Victory for those who don't want to read a full review.
Buy: If you are a Call of Duty fan and are willing to deal with less accurate controls.
Try: If you are incredibly picky on how your FPS games control or haven't played the Call of Duty series before.
Avoid: If you don't like Call of Duty or FPS games that play with anything other than a mouse or 2 analog sticks.
I honestly had my doubts that Call of Duty would be worthwhile on a portable. The game is so heavily dependent on presentation and controls, how could it work on the PSP? Would the controls be tight enough? Would there be full voice acting with orchestrated music and pre-scripted madness?
I got my questions about presentation answered quickly. Call of Duty: Roads to Victory has the same excellent voice acting and orchestrated music you'd find in the PC and console releases. Additionally, much to my surprise, there were lots of set pieces and pre-scripted events. The beauty of this is that it allows so much of the story and emotion to presented during gameplay instead of just in cut-scenes. If only every PSP title had this kind of production.
The controls are a bit of a tough spot though. Since the PSP only has one analog stick, the developers mapped the movement to the analog stick and aiming to the right face buttons. Obviously, you're not going to get the same precise and quick aiming from buttons as you would an analog stick or mouse. To make up for this short-coming, the developers put in a very forgiving aim assist and made the enemies less brutal. It surely isn't ideal, but anyone who's played Goldeneye should have some idea of how it works. It doesn't take long to get used to the controls, and eventually you'll stop thinking about them all together.
To round out the package, Call of Duty: Roads to Victory also has Ad-Hoc multiplayer for up to six people, and includes various modes, such as Deathmatch and King of the Hill. However, without Infrastructure support or Game Sharing, it was impossible to play against others. Of course, with such imprecise controls, I honestly don't think I'd want to play it online.
Conclusion
The controls aren't perfect, but any Call of Duty fan will likely want to buy this title. It does have some familiar elements from other Call of Duty titles, but it's nice that it's not just a direct port of a previous game. Add in the amazing presentation and impressive graphics, and Call of Duty: Roads to Victory adds up to an engrossing experience.
PSP Fanboy Score: 7.0
[Update 2: There is no online multiplayer in Call of Duty. Steven is referring to Ad-Hoc play only.]
[Update 1: Fixed wording mistake]
