Handheld first-person shooters usually do not get my attention or respect. Perhaps this is an unfair bias on my part that is used to playing such games in the wide-open expanse of a television screen, but it is something I’m fairly settled upon. That’s why I’ve been surprised as hell at the fun I’ve had playing Activision’s Call of Duty: Roads to Victory for the Playstation Portable (PSP). Even more surprising, though, is the fact this is an enjoyable game, despite one seriously hefty flaw.
The biggest problem the game has, by far, is the controls.
Even though you’re given the choice of four preset configurations, only the first one (where the analog stick moves you and the four face buttons are there to aim you in the right direction) comes anywhere close to getting the job done. While you can get accustomed to it enough so that you’re able to ultimately get through and enjoy the game, the set up just doesn’t come anywhere near the “quick-response” timing that first-person shooters need in order to keep up with the action.
Hell, if you’d have simply been able to use the analog stick for aiming at all, perhaps that might have made a gigantic difference. As it is, you’re left with sluggish movement thanks to sluggish controls. This might have been okay if the speed of the game took that into consideration, but of course it doesn’t. Instead, enemies run around without a care in the world that they’re twice as fast as you’ll ever be. Fun stuff when you’re trying to dash about in a combat zone — not.
Having said all that, the game does feature something that helps to take the sting off of that particular frustration by including an auto targeting adjustment on the control scheme. With a simple change, it suddenly becomes nearly impossible for any of your shots to miss. Seriously, there were moments when the auto-target had locked onto something way to the right of the screen, and even though my gun (and character) were decidedly pointed to the left, the bullets apparently slipped loose the boundaries of physics and found their way to the target.
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