Call of Duty has, like it or not, cemented the path of modern-day shooters. We may be a tad far from the likes of Modern Warfare 2 and its impact, but there are certainly bright sparks and glimmers of the series still leading the charge. It may now be playing catch-up to the feverish delights of battle royale gameplay but at one point it was setting the standard for first-person shooters. It still does in the sense of community gameplay. A titan-like multiplayer shooter with as little gravitas as the likes of Fortnite. Much has changed, but we can still learn from the series’ best mission – or one of them. Eder Dam presents a transition from the Goldeneye 007 generation of gun-running to a linear suggestion where the set pieces take precedence.
There is no point calling for a return to the linear structure Eder Dam has because Call of Duty already has plenty of theme park thrills which never quite derail as they should. Even Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, for all its promises of playing the game however you see fit, is the usual bait and switch of stealth into combat or combat into more combat. Whatever the case the blowout at the end is the same, irrespective of the path taken. Where the original Call of Duty succeeds is in its guidance. There is no straying off the beaten path. No reward for doing so and, for better or worse, these lacking adventures into the wild are rarely worth it. Save a handful of easter eggs there is little to the first Call of Duty. But it has the charm of nostalgia and the simplicity most games at the time were struggling to replicate. What saves Eder Dam is its unruliness.
Even for all the skilful attempts at capturing the severity of war, there is a moment of disbelief in this mission. It is something the series would warm to over time and soon turn into some scenery-chewing bits of macho bravery. But here, without any support characters aside from either end of the mission, there is a dependency on the player being ready for mindless fun. Call of Duty has always offered that. When it takes itself too seriously it, at best, feels like a B-Movie where Bruce Willis or Frank Grillo may appear. For Eder Dam, the developers appear to be replicating, or at least loving, the thrills of Goldeneye and all the liberating effectiveness of a loose cannon experience.
Eder Dam has the player mow down wave after wave of enemies as they make their way through a dam and back again. What is, on easy mode, a breezy and uncomfortably entertaining experience is, on veteran, a tactical battle. Health does not regenerate; ammo is sparse if you have the dexterity of a dog and the enemies are far tougher. Yet even then the satisfaction of making it from stage to stage is present whatever the difficulty. This is a simple run-and-gun mission, blowing things up and shooting German soldiers as you make your way through a labyrinth. Despite its linearity, there is a streamlined sense of well-developed map-building. The sights and sounds of what this new franchise can offer, at the time in the shadow of the Medal of Honour series.
Sprinkle in those dedications to Half Life and Goldeneye, not the freedom to explore but the urgency of the combat, and Eder Dam comes to life. There are few missions in the series where running and gunning is the sole purpose, at least not without the moral consequence so eagerly present in those shock value moments of No Russian. This is a mission of sabotage followed by the worst mission of the game, Eder Dam Getaway. A gasp of freedom to explore, to wander around the barren halls of a dam pulled away by a linear and annoying series of gunning down cars and planes. Who would have thought that could be less interesting than a mad rush through exploding generators?
What remains staggering about Eder Dam is the scope of it all. How large it is. Fans of the series are trying to figure out where Call of Duty jumped the shark. To be fair, it is probably on Eder Dam. There is a suspension of belief necessary to enjoy this. A relative to the now legendary Captain Price heading up a Special Air Service mission to infiltrate a German-manned bunker which just happens to have a facility filled with anti-aircraft artillery and munitions. Blowing it up is still a thrill after all these years, navigating the slabs of usually dull grey which, in this case, pulls back to those classic Goldeneye moments. That lack of sheen is a limitation of the time which now feels primitive. The masses of enemies make up for those lacklustre details, lining the rooms with plenty to shoot.
Call of Duty may still suffer from limited storytelling but through the diary entries preceding the level, for those who care, this is where the story hits its apex. A seemingly endless supply of repairs and weaponry is being shifted around the dam, and having “another crack” at it feels like such a loose mission statement. But it prepares a player for the fun and thrill of the series to follow. Few missions to follow would ever get close to the tremendous sense of simplicity tucked away on Eder Dam. That is what the series must learn from, even now. Convoluted passages and subterfuge are all well and good but Call of Duty has, for the longest time, lacked the charisma seen in its earliest release. When the line between gritty war simulator and outstanding bonus rounds where zombies or special operations are the aim of the game, run free.
Perhaps that is nostalgia or a disinterest in the multiple additions made to the series as of late. It can never shake the hollow feeling. Advancements made for the sake of it while stripping back the fun. In its place are the same addictive tools fast food has. And for what? To make a series of games which never quite capture the root cause of the series’ charm. Call of Duty may never return to the simple structure of a run-and-gun mission where the sole objective is death to the enemy, but it doesn’t need to. It can learn from this. Complexities like All Ghillied Up from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or Endgame from Call of Duty: World at War had glimmers of these charms right at their heart. Maybe that is the nostalgia talking, after all. But Black Ops 6 had those moments to it too, as brief as they were. Eder Dam is where Call of Duty can find itself again, or at least we can hope so.
