Call of Duty

aka: COD, Call of Duty (Game of the Year), Call of Duty 1, Call of Duty Classic, MOH Killer
Moby ID: 10826
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Call of Duty is a first-person shooter set during World War II and the first title in a long-running series. It is also the first game by development studio Infinity Ward and in some ways builds upon Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a similar title a part of the team had been working on at 2015, Inc. before forming a new company.

Players experience the battle in Europe during World War II in different campaigns divided further into missions. Unlike MoH: AA these are not only presented from the view of an American soldier, there is a British and a Soviet campaign as well, each focusing on different parts of the battle. In total there are 24 interconnected missions to play to get to Berlin. In each campaign a different perspective is offered, starting as an American Paratrooper during D-Day, progressing to assume the role as an English Special Forces commando, and finally as a Russian tank commander. Some missions are played in solitary fashion, but in most of them the player is part of a larger group with computer-controlled team mates.

Most of the combat is infantry-based, but some is also set between vehicles or tanks. Multiplayer modes include death match, team death match, behind enemy lines (where the allies are outnumbered) and two objective-based modes: retrieval, and search and destroy.

The later-released console version Call of Duty Classic is a reworking of the original game with enhanced graphics.

Spellings

  • 使命召唤 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

261 People (190 developers, 71 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 66 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 195 ratings with 5 reviews)

Very, very good.

The Good
First of all I have to say that I generally don't like "realistic" games - flight sims, Counter Strike and its derivatives, Delta Force and its ilk... I just don't get the same sense of fun and satisfaction that I do from other, fictional games, and the realistic games are also usually extremely frustrating. Well, I'm happy to say that Call of Duty delivers on all fronts: fascinating, satisfying, technically impressive and (almost) flawless in gameplay.

To begin with, the graphics are absolutely astounding. Admittedly the machine I played this game on is quite monstrous (AthlonXP 2800+, 1GB memory, Radeon 9800XT), but at 1280x960 with everything maxxed out only once or twice did the frame rate even hickup (which is more than can be said for other contemporary games). The game looks beautiful: character animations are terrific, physics are realistic (no ragdoll physics, but I don't think they're worth the bother anyways); grass is grass, trees are trees, bunkers are bunkers, the weapons are clearly and accurately rendered; everything looks as it should. No cut corners, no savings in polygon count, lighting is gorgeous - right on target!

Although the game is quite short (about 8 hours net, finished it in a couple of days), it has - much like a good WWII movie - a sense of epic proportions. The missions are huge, varied and never boring or repetitive; there are no pointless "infiltrate with stealth, die if you are discovered" missions, no tacky mission to "obtain the Enigma" or other such crap: what you do get is packed, tight, hardcore action. You get to use practically every relevant weapon (from Luger pistols to Flak guns), drive a tank, take up shotgun while attempting an insane escape from a German-controlled area of France, desperately defend a bridge and fight off the Germans while awaiting reinforcements, commandeer a boat, infiltrate a dam and sabotage power stations, display the Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag... I'm getting out of breath here. The variety and immensity of the missions is simply astounding. The sheer adrenaline rush you get running with a Kark rifle, shooting down Germans while mortars blow up all around you is simply impossible to describe.

Both friendly and enemy AI is very good - far better than I expected, really. The enemies always try and take up hiding places, snipe at you rather than run blindly, jump at you from behind corners... if they're close enough they run and hit your with their guns (as in a melee attack), and they generally cooperate, which is rather impressive. Fortunately the friendly AI is no slouch, and you can almost always trust your comrades to do their job properly and gun down enemies.

Also, the automatic saving system works very well, requiring almost no (quick)save/load of any kind during the game.

... oh, and did I mention that the game never gets old?

The Bad
There's very little I did not like about this game, which is actually a very rare thing for me. I would rate these shortcomings as little more than nitpicking, but they're worth mentioning...

Some scenes in the game are frustrating. Not necessarily difficult, but simply annoying; for example, while infiltrating an airport the player gets to sit in the back of a truck and shoot down enemies. Usually that would have been a really cool scene, only it took me about 3 times to figure out why my truck kept blowing up - turns out that a German with an RPG was standing on a truck somewhere I would never have bothered to look. Realistic may damn well be, but no fun at all. Afterwards you get to fight off Stuka planes with a flak gun, only you are constantly shot at from a nearby roof, and for some reason your comrades are completely ineffective against them - which means you have to both shoot down planes and fire at snipers continuously. In another scene you sit in a Russian zodiac, get yelled at by a sergeant and finally shot at from an airplane; although there's no chance in hell you'll know what to do at that point, if you don't crouch at the right moment you get your head blown off and have to sit through the sergeant's lecture all over again (which is very annoying). Luckily there are very few such issues with the game.

The second thing I didn't appreciate is the music... it is a particularly awful attempt to duplicate the musical style Hans Zimmer coined in The Rock and Crimson Tide, with two exceptions: the first being that this style has got really old, and instead of inspiring it gets really annoying. The second is that in this particular instance, the music is way over dramatic, uninspired at best of times and generally mediocre. I really wish they'd do the soundtrack differently. A thought: various classical pieces put together in appropriate scenes (Beethoven's 9th, Mahler's 2nd... the options are limitless).

Finally, although this game has probably the lowest bug count in recent memory, I still encountered two or three bugs that really ruined my day, at least when at one time I had to reload my game because I literally got stuck between a tree and a rock and could not move.

The Bottom Line
A technically, cinematically, and historically impressive game: a great deal of fun for any gamer, and a very engrossing experience for history and movie buffs alike. Who knows, maybe playing this game will give people a little taste of what it's like to be a soldier and make them think twice in the future... we can only hope.

Windows · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2004

A fantastic trip into a horrible world

The Good
This game is unbelievably good when it comes to impressive scenes. It is brimful with memorable moments, beautiful graphics, massive battlescenes and it even boasts a lot of variety. It lets you, as a player, witness the war from three different views (american, british and russian) and you get involved in missions ranging from storming an airfield and then defending it from dive-bombing Stukas, participating in massive army battles that includes machine guns and tanks and you even get to do some snipering in Stalingrad at the end of the game. I personally enjoyed the russian missions the most, but I am sure almost everyone will find something they love about this game.

The Bad
The only problem I found in this game is that it's all scripted. If you die on a mission and have to reload, EVERY solder and every tankwill appear on exactly the same place and the same time as the last try. This way you always know what's going to happen before it happens if you play the same mission more than one time. It also felt a bit short, but I must tell you it was fun while it lasted.

The Bottom Line
A truly cinematic game, simple in its gameplay as most games in the FPS genre, but thoroughly entertaining if a simple but impressive actiongame suits your taste. Highly recommended!

Windows · by Mattias Kreku (413) · 2003

Addictive arcade style shooter that is sure to satisfy

The Good
The strength of this game is that it knows what is is and what it isn't; there is no identity crisis here. COD is not a simulation demanding meticulous planning and squad tactics. It does not ask you to navigate across vast landscapes, or sneak around at night undetected. This games drops you into the thick of the action, with bullets whizzing past your head and team mates yelling and dying around you. The developers have devoted every aspect of this game to atmosphere, and have succeeded in creating an amazing feel. Even the way you move and fire your weapons just feels right, and your enemies react in realistic ways. You'll soon notice that this game is heavily scripted and linear, but is so well done that you rarely feel ripped off. Clever level design adds to the satisfaction. Just when you start to get bored they switch your character to the British or Russian army, and begin a new story. The opening Russian mission is brilliant, you'll love it. Also this game is great at lan parties, bring it on!

The Bad
Not much! Personally I enjoy more tactical games and the linear approach began to wear thin after a while. I don't appreciate enemies spawning endlessly until I cross the next trigger, making the game awfully predictable at times. Perhaps my main complaint about this game though is that they have no bots in MP. A map gets pretty lonely if only me and 3 mates are in it.

The Bottom Line
Play this game you won't be disappointed

Windows · by Jason Appleby (5) · 2004

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The PC version of Call of Duty appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Enemy at the Gates

When the battle on the Russian front starts, the first few missions are almost identical to the scenes in the movie Enemy at the Gates.

German version

In the German version all terms like "Nazi" or "Kraut" were replaced with a simple "Deutscher" ("German"); "Wehrmacht" is replaced with "German Army". All swastikas (besides a few smaller ones on uniforms which were missed) were either removed or replaced with iron crosses.

Awards

  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2004 - #6 Game of the Year 2003
  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Shooter of the Year
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Best Sound of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – #6 Game of the Year
    • 2003 – PC Game of the Year
    • 2003 – PC FPS of the Year
    • 2003 – PC Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2003 – PC Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2003 - Best Sound of the Year (PC)
    • 2003 - Best Level of the Year (PC, for Pegasus Bridge)
    • 2011 – #12 Top PC Game of the 2000s
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2005 - #20 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list

Information also contributed by Cameron Rhyne, Daniel O' Donovan and PCGamer77.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Corn Popper.

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 added by Masa♥Yuki.

Additional contributors: MAT, Unicorn Lynx, tarmo888, Zeppin, Cantillon, Chris Jeremic, Caelestis, Patrick Bregger, Masa♥Yuki, Plok, FatherJack.

Game added October 30, 2003. Last modified March 20, 2024.