Call of Duty

"2003's Game of the Year. Here's why."

Coming up to the 2003 year the World War II FPS genre was mainly dominated by the likes of Medal of Honor -- nobody really knew what to expect when people began raving about a new prospect for the future, named Call of Duty. The team at Infinity Ward are generally made up of the former Medal of Honor team. Yes, which means that these people developed the original Medal of Honor series on the PS1 and the huge Playstation 2 hit that was Medal of Honor Frontline. Does it come as a surprise to you that Medal of Honor have kind of lost their popularity as of late? Not to me. As soon as Call of Duty was released back in Late October-Early November in 2003, it began to surpass the Medal of Honor franchise, later capturing 2003's Game of the Year award. Why is it so praised? Find out in my review of Call of Duty.

Graphics
Almost instantly when you enter the game for the first time you will be amazed at how great the game looks. It doesn't even matter if you have a low performance graphics card -- the game will still look quite strong. You start off doing a little bit of recon, but then when the action really picks up you will be amazed at all the buildings being exploded, planes in the sky looking as realistic as ever and your men and their facial expressions are what you would expect them to look like in a World War II game. Each of the terrains is very well detailed, with buildings demolished in the background or simply burning on fire. It really makes you feel like you're in actual war. Yeah, there is a few glitches here and there, but you would expect them from any game these days and it isn't a major problem at all. The first mission of Stalingrad is graphically one of the most demanding levels in the entire game, if not the most demanding. You start off in a boat surrounded by all of your fellow shaky soldiers who look scared to death, with your fellow comrades screaming orders at you. As this happens, the German Luftwaffe continue to drop bomb shells in the water, destroying fellow boats as the water smashes like there's some kind of storm. Once you finally reach the land side and run up to the hilt of Stalingrad.. well -- the action just gets so crazy it's unbelievable. CoD also introduces a 'shellshock' system, where if you find yourself in a near death experience, such as a grenade blowing it up close to you, you will experience a drowsiness effect and the screen will go all blurry. The graphics are truly one of the benchmarks for Call of Duty's success. Mind you, there isn't really in a fault in anything Call of Duty wise.

Sound/Audio
If you thought the graphics were enough, think again. Once you have great graphics, and also a great audio experience, you have the ability to create one of the most inspirational duplicates of war. If you play with Surround Sound, it just feels like you're playing in an actual movie. The sound of explosions, deployed machine guns firing continuously, fellow soldiers screaming as they fall to their death -- it truly is a great experience. Just don't play it too loud or you may encounter some problems with your hearing after a while! Some of the battles are just what you would expect from war -- the constant ringing of your ears as explosions happen close to you here and there, or grenades blowing up near you. Music wise, well.. you couldn't ask for more. The orchestra who performed the music for CoD have done a very good job in creating pieces of music which fits in perfectly with the genre. Sad, slow music, exactly like the music featured in the hit series Band of Brothers.

Gameplay
Now we're talking. Onto the cream of the whole product. Aside from having stunning graphics and perfect sound, Call of Duty plays excellent as a game. It's very similar to the likes of Medal of Honor -- of course, with most of the former MoH team working on the game. But it also plays better than Medal of Honor. Occasionally in Medal of Honor you will go in mostly alone, like you're some kind of Rambo soldier, but not in Call of Duty, no. You are always with a squad just like in real war (well, there are some British SAS missions.. but of course, that is realistic as the SAS really were some kind of Rambo soldiers). You will fight alongside them all the way, remembering some of their names and wondering if they will make it through the war with you.

There are 24 missions in the game altogether. Although the game has been criticized for being short, crack it up on the hardest difficulty and you won't have such an easy time this time round. As for the missions -- you have American, British and Russian campaigns to participate in. The missions vary and are all different. The Americans all look out for each other and work well in a squad together, trying to take over places in France that the Germans have occupied. At first you're in a squad for the British campaigns, but then it goes onto SAS-type missions where it will focus on just you, which I wasn't too fond of.. but it's nice to have a variety, right? The Russians, well, they attack in large groups and participate in mostly suicidal runs to charge the Germans back and make them exit from their town of Stalingrad. Just being a part of these suicidal runs, running at the Germans without any ammo at all -- it truly is a super part of the game.

Weapons vary, too. You've got your machine guns (Thompson, MP40, MP44, PPSH, Sten), rifles (Kar98k, Mosin Nagant, Lee Enfield, Springfield) and all the other extras such as pistols and grenades. You won't be bored of the weapons because you could use a different one each time. Controls wise, you've got your regular WASD control system that you would expect from any generic FPS. Left click to shoot, right click to use your ironsight (aim for better accuracy). You can crouch, prone and jump.

I was a little disappointed that there was no Omaha Beach level, because in my opinion Call of Duty would outperform Allied Assault and Frontline's versions of the level. But hey, who needs another intense mission like that when you have the likes of Stalingrad? The AI of your fellow soldiers can be a little sluggish, but at least you're not some kind of rambo charging in on your own, right? The Gameplay is truly the most impressive out of Call of Duty's main features -- with the graphics and sound just adding to what is already an excellent masterpiece of a game. Top marks.

Multiplayer
Once you've completely finished the single player and you're done with it, you can then go onto the multiplayer aspect of the game. Unlike some games, there are many servers to choose from and you have a superb wide variety of gametypes. Search & Destroy, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch -- not to mention a lot of mods that you can download and increase your fun with. There's event a Paintball Gun mod for all you paintballing fans out there. There a lot of maps to choose from and you can choose any gun you want to start with (machine gun, sniper rifle, normal rifle, etc). When I first played the multiplayer I was very impressed and I couldn't stop playing. Could they make the game any better? Single player makes a great game altogether, but to add the multiplayer aspect into it, too, is like two games in one.

Story
Pretty obvious, really. You take the role of an American private, a British soldier and a Russian comrade and participate in real battles of World War II. They all give their views on each mission as you read a letter or a diary from them before a mission.

Replayability
Well when you've got the single player mode, which will take some time to beat on the hardest difficulty, and then the multiplayer -- the replayability is very strong indeed. You will never become bored of the multiplayer as there's always new mods coming out and a huge variety of servers to choose from. You won't put Call of Duty away that easily.

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Call of Duty, without a shadow of a doubt, fully deserved to win the 2003 Game of the Year award. It surpasses the likes of Medal of Honor by giving you fantastic gameplay, stunning graphics and sound that puts you in the seat of a real soldier in World War II. If you haven't got the game yet -- what the hell are you waiting for? Go out and get it now. Now!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/05