"Most people don’t know that Vin Diesel was in Saving Private Ryan. That bit of trivia has nothing to do with this game."

Just over the horizon, you can faintly make out the wreckage and ruins of Stalingrad. As the ferry transports you and two dozen nervous soldiers to the urban battlefield, the commissar reads Comrade Stalin's latest decree: not one step backwards! The commissar assures you of Mother Russia's courage, but just as he does a German Stuka unleashes fire on your boat and half of your fellow soldiers now lie dead. As the plane turns around for another attack, some soldiers jump out of the ferry in panic. “Traitors!” shouts the commissar right before he orders his underlings to open fire on the cowards. The moment the boat docks it explodes in a massive ball of fire thanks to another Nazi plane. You barely survive, and when you get a grip of yourself you notice the twisted hell of metal, rubble and gunfire that was once the glorious city of Stalingrad. And now the war really begins…

“Epic” is a word used to describe many games, but Call of Duty is one of the first to truly deserve that adjective. This FPS chronicles the German Theater of World War II not from just one viewpoint, but three. In addition to the American viewpoint present in most games, Call of Duty provides us with campaigns for the Brits and a refreshingly distinct U.S.S.R campaign. All three combine to make an extraordinary gaming experience.

Most of the levels are squad-based and chockfull of scripted events (like in Medal of Honor). You have no control over your squad mates, but the A.I. is so believable there really isn't any need for more control. Your fellow soldiers provide cover fire and hide behind obstacles while being shot at and never act like idiots by failing to react. The same goes for the enemies who don't just sit there like targets at a shooting range.

Call of Duty not only features excellent AI but also intuitive controls. You can only pick up two primary weapons at a time, so you won't waste anytime wondering how a soldier can hold a dozen different weapons. Not only that, but it also provides some strategizing by decided which weapons may be useful in the upcoming battles. Attempting to dodge explosions and a rain of bullets never feels cheap or annoying thanks to the responsive controls. To top it all off, the aiming scheme is so simple and fluid that the game never becomes more challenging than it should be. The controls are essentially flawless- truly a rarity nowadays.

Now according to most gaming publications, Medal of Honor set the bar for WWII games with its stunning Omaha Beach level. If Medal of Honor set the bar, then Call of Duty absolutely demolishes that bar. The opening level for the Russian campaign that was described in this review's opening paragraph is more memorable than almost anything released the past few years. Immediately following that level is a mesmerizing suicide charge on German fortifications involving dozens upon dozens of troops. While the Russian levels are definitely the best, the American and British levels are also superb. My favorite level of the other two campaigns is the pulse-pounding high-speed chase in which you have to take out oncoming motorcycles, jeeps and German soldiers from the back of a speeding truck. While some levels are blatant “homages” to films like Enemy at the Gates and Band of Brothers, they're so well designed that it does justice to the material that inspired the stages.

The atmosphere in the stages makes the levels all the mire memorable. You actually feel like you're in the middle of a battle thanks to the explosions, gunfire and general disorder surrounding you. The sound effects all sound authentic and will certainly make the best of your computer speakers. The voice acting is incredibly professional and never sounds cheesy. Movie actors Giovanni Ribisi and Jason Statham even provide a couple voices. Continuing the Hollywood-quality sound production is a masterful score by Michael Giacchino, who worked on the Medal of Honor series and The Incredibles.

With such an excellent singleplayer campaign, the multiplayer cannot match it. There are five modes (including deathmatch and team deathmatch) but it's obvious the game's strengths lie elsewhere. The modes lack the excitement and strategy the modes in other games such as Half Life and Unreal Tournament. The comparison may be unfair because those games have been perfected over the years by various mods and a devout community, but Call of Duty pales nonetheless. The multiplayer can still be really fun due to the incredible core gameplay, but it cannot come close to competing the with extraordinary single-player campaign due to the somewhat lackluster modes.

In addition to the strictly adequate multiplayer, there are other things that prevent Call of Duty from being perfect. The first flaw is the weird blend of pseudo-realism and some implausible stages in the singleplayer campaign. Almost all of the stages involve you and a squad of soldiers taking out enemies, but a couple awkward stages diverge from this formula and end up feeling out of place. In these stages you single-handedly take out what appears to be whole divisions of German soldiers. These levels feel woefully out of place in a game with a realistic atmosphere. The other downer is the incredibly short completion time. The whole thing can be beaten in about six hours. Granted, it is six hours of incredible gameplay, but it still feels far too short.

As a group of soldiers and me stormed the Reichstag in the final hours of the war, I couldn't help but feel that there was one thing that could have made this game revolutionary. If Call of Duty added more historical context to the game it would have easily compared with numerous WWII movies in terms of emotional impact. You really get a sense of patriotism in the levels, whether it's Russian, British, or American. If some more information was added about all the countries in the war then this could have been a truly fun game and a historical lesson. I guess I'll have to stick to the History Channel. Even without this added dimension, Call of Duty is one of the most intense and memorable shooters around. Don't let the short single-player campaign deter you from picking up this game. This war is far from hell.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/05