home :: musings :: level analysis of "pavlov's house"

Level Analysis of "Pavlov's House"

07.07.2004

"Pavlov's House" is one of the Russian levels from Call of Duty. I think it's an excellent level, in that it has a relatively simple and small layout, but the mission objectives and enemies are designed so that all of the main CoD gameplay types are utilized, each in a fun and exciting way.

Other than "unusual" levels, such as the driving missions, CoD features four main types of combat - (i) long-distance sniping with scoped rifles, (ii) medium-distance move-forward-until-fired-upon-and-then-battle-it-out combat utilizing a combination of all the weapons, (iii) close-quarters turn-the-corner-with-your-submachine-gun-blazing, and (iv) heavy-weapons combat in which the player is required to disable enemy tanks.

The layout is fairly simple - a single shelled-out building comprised of four floors and a basement, open expanses around it, and a rubble wall directly in front of the building - but "Pavlov's House" requires the player to use every type of Call of Duty combat in this relatively small space.

The level begins with an easy but gratifying sniper objective, as the player shoots and kills several Nazis in the distant house from long range. The player then moves forward with the rest of the squad to the rubble wall directly in front of the building. At this point, over a dozen Nazis are firing from the house at the player and his squad; the player has to use a peek-around-the-corner-and-slowly-clear-the-windows strategy at this point but can use a variety of weapons to accomplish the task. The level designers made this section even more interesting by "respawning" reinforcements in certain windows after they've been cleared, so the player really has to make sure to keep an eye even on the windows that he's already cleared.

Once the Nazis firing from the house have been cleared, the player must complete a fairly intense sweep of the house. The basement and three floors of the building must be swept by the player in the close-quarter, turn-the-corner-with-your-submachine-gun-blazing style described above. Adding to the difficulty of this is the ruined character of the building. Holes in walls, floors, and ceilings make the player vulnerable from all directions and add a sense of breathlessness and paranoia to this section. Hearing a grenade drop down from a hole in the ceiling is a real tension-raiser.

Once the building is cleared, German reinforcements, including two tanks, arrive to retake the house. The player must find vantage points from which she can destroy the tanks while also avoiding being killed by the tanks or Nazi infantry that is moving towards the house. The tension at this point of the level is really raised; the combination of the camera shake from the tank barrage and the pressure of needing to destroy the tanks before they get too close is really dramatic.

Finally, once the tanks are destroyed, the player has to defend the house for a certain amount of time before Russian reinforcements arrive. At this point, all hell breaks loose. A seemingly-endless stream of Germans are coming in from every entrance to the house, which leaves you spinning around constantly to make sure that a couple of Nazis haven't popped up behind you. It's a really exciting and frenetic couple of minutes and the level uses a brilliant device to close down the level. The level ends with no additional enemies spawning but requires the player to kill the remaining enemies in the house. This does a great job of lowering the intensity of the actual fighting while increasing the "will I survive?" tension by allowing the player to see exactly how many enemies are left and how close to victory the player is. My body physically relaxed when the assault was finally over.

"Pavlov's House" is an amazing level. It utilizes a small space and relatively simple geometry (the level could have been blocked out in a couple of hours), but uses it to create a really diverse combat and gameplay experience that runs the full gamut of what Call of Duty offers.