Call of Duty

Call of Duty (released on October 19, 2003) is a first-person shooter video game based on the Quake III engine. This war game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game was produced by Activision and developed by Infinity Ward.

In September 2004 an expansion pack to Call of Duty was released titled United Offensive. It was produced by Activision, and developed by Gray Matter Interactive, with contributions from Pi Studios. The Mac OS X version was ported by Aspyr Media, Inc. In Late 2004, the N-Gage version was developed by Nokia and published by Activision. Other versions were released for PC, including Collector's Edition (with soundtrack and strategy guide), Game of the Year Edition (includes game updates), and the Deluxe Edition (which contains United Offensive expansion and soundtrack).

A sequel, Call of Duty 2, was developed by Infinity Ward and was released in October 2005. There are also Call of Duty games developed for consoles, but with separate storylines, such as Finest Hour by Spark Unlimited and Big Red One by Gray Matter Interactive and Treyarch.

The next game from the series is entitled Call of Duty 3 and it will be released Fall 2006.

Overview

Call of Duty is similar in theme and gameplay to Allied Assault, and like the earlier game includes various singleplayer campaigns and missions. However, unlike Medal of Honor, the war is seen not just from the viewpoint of an American soldier but from the viewpoint of British, American and Soviet soldiers - players take the perspective of a soldier by the name of Pvt. Martin of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, Sgt. Jack Evans in the British 6th Airborne Division and Special Operations Executive, and Sgt. Alexei Ivanovich Voronin in the 13th Guards Division.

The game is somewhat unique in that throughout the single-player mode, the player is joined by computer-controlled allies who range in quantity from two (in some of the British missions) to an entire regiment of tanks (in the Russian missions). The computer-controlled actors will often lay down covering fire for the actual player as well as contribute helpful dialogue. They also further the game's goal of providing a truly immersive and realistic experience; that is, soldiers in World War II nearly always were part of a larger group, as opposed to the "lone wolf" that is often seen in video games.

The American campaign begins with Pvt. Martin parachuting into France as a pathfinder of the 101st Airborne Division on D-Day for the Battle of Normandy, with echoes of the TV miniseries Band of Brothers. The series continues with a night assault on the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, a defense of the town against a counter attack by German Panzer units, the Brécourt Manor Assault, two special missions to rescue captured British officers, and ends with fighting for control of bunkers around Bastogne. The British campaign begins Sgt. Evans of the British Special Air Service or SAS assisting in the capturing of Pegasus Bridge, as seen in The Longest Day, and ends with a sabotage mission of a V-2 rocket base. Evans also helps sabotage anti-air defenses around the Eder Dam, in preparation for a follow up Dambusters Raid (Operation Chastise). The Russian campaign begins with material based on the Battle of Stalingrad including a recreation of the battle for Pavlov's House. The material based on the Battle of Stalingrad is similar to scenes in the movie Enemy at the Gates. The Russian campaign continues with material simulating close combat in an underground sewer system, followed by a role as a tank commander. The Russian campaign ends as an infantry soldier in Berlin with the raising of the Soviet flag above the ruins of the Reichstag. The multiplayer map 'carentan' is also clearly based on the Band of Brothers mini-series, with the 'entry' to the city being exactly the same, as well as other places..

Famous actors like Jason Statham and Giovanni Ribisi, as well as voice actor Steven Blum, contributed to this game with their voices in the roles of Sgt. Waters (British), Pvt. Elder (American) and Cpt. Foley (American). Michael Giacchino, who previously worked on the Medal of Honor franchise, composed the soundtrack.

The weapons portrayed in this game include the M1 Garand, the Kar98k, the Mosin-Nagant, and the Lee-Enfield, the four main long rifles of World War II, along with the Thompson submachine gun, MP40, Sten and PPSh-41 submachine guns. The light machine guns featured in the game are the Bren, Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and the Sturmgewehr 44(also known as the MP44, StG 44). The game's two pistols are the Luger and Colt M1911. The Kar98k, Mosin-Nagant, and Springfield 1903 rifle are also featured as scoped sniper rifles. Various other weapons, including Flak cannons, Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons, M1 Carbines, FG 42s, and MG 42s are used. Many servers are designated "rifle only," where no machine guns or sniper rifles are used.

Call of Duty also has a feature called "Shellshock", which when the player is close to an explosion, his vision is blurred, time moves slower, and sound is muffled, similar to some scenes in the movie Saving Private Ryan.

Multiplayer modes

The multiplayer mode of this game is similar to that of many first-person shooters; with random respawning in deathmatch mode, selection of weapons at the start of the game (and the possibility of selecting to respawn with a different weapon), and reasonably fast-paced gameplay. The levels available to players in multiplayer are: Carentan (Americans vs. Germans), Brecourt Manor (Americans vs. Germans), Pavlov's House (Russians vs. Germans), Bocage (Americans vs. Germans), a Nazi battleship (British vs. Germans), Hurtgen (Americans vs. Germans), Rocket (British vs. Germans), Chateau (British vs. Germans), and POW camp Russians vs. Germans), and Stalingrad (Russians vs. Germans). The multiplayer game includes the following modes of game play:

Behind Enemy Lines

Players are automatically assigned to either the Axis or the Allied team. The Allied team is "behind the lines". There are just a few Allied players (one or more) who must evade the Axis and survive as long as possible. Staying alive for a certain amount of time adds points to your score. The Axis must hunt down the Allies via compass markers and eliminate them. When an Axis player successfully finds and kills one of the Allied team, the players switch teams, and the hunter becomes the hunted. The winner is the first player to reach the specified points threshold, or has the most points when time runs out.

Deathmatch

In Deathmatch, players attack each other in a free for all format and at the end of the time limit, the player with the most points (kills) wins. You can be any side that the map allows and use any weapon, depending on whether the server lets you. Remember that server modifications can be made to servers so gameplay may change during multiplayer experience.

Team deathmatch

Players are on one of two teams and attack the other team. The game ends at the end of a specified time limit. The team with the most points(kills) wins. A notable feature of Call of Duty team deathmatch is that in contrast to most team deathmatch modes of first-person shooters, where the teams will always spawn in the same place; the spawns change depending on the location of teammates. Thus, it is possible to drive the enemy out of a position and have teammates begin to spawn there; at the same time the enemy will begin to spawn in a different place. This is perhaps the most popular game mode.

Retrieval

The retrieval gametype is a team mode similar to classic capture the flag modes except the object must be retrieved within a round meaning players who die are out of the game until the following round. If all the members of either team are eliminated or the object is retrieved then the round also ends with the winning team receiving a point. The mode is generally played with numerous rounds on each map and the team with the specified amount of wins according to the server wins the match.

Search & Destroy

This round-based gametype, much like Counter-Strike Demolition, sees players split into attacking and defending teams. Players who are killed will not respawn until the following round. A round ends when all the players of one team have been eliminated or an objective has been completed, the winning team received a point and these points are used to decide the winner when the game is played over multiple rounds. The objective for the attackers is to plant a time bomb on a compass-directed target. The bomb starts its countdown once planted next to the target. The defenders must protect the object either by keeping the bomb from being planted or defusing it while it is counting down. All official maps have two separate objects which can be attacked, although only one bomb may be planted. Players plant or defuse the bomb simply by pressing the use key. In many leagues such as CAL, this is the gametype of choice for competitive matches.

Headquarters

Headquarters was added into the game with the version 1.2 patch. The mode consists of teams of players attempting to capture radios which appear around the map. A radio is captured by standing by it when no enemies are nearby. The team who last captured the radio holds it and gains 45 points per 45 seconds (time and point rate can be changed). When the opposing team destroys the radio, a new, neutral radio appears elsewhere on the map. The winner is the team with the most points when time runs out. This in effect creates "mini-bases" or headquarters, in which one side will capture the radio and attempt to protect it by any means necessary. Given the fact that most radios are placed in locations ranging from an open field to abandoned homes, the defenders must come up with creative locations to settle in while the offensive coordinates their attack.

Upon being killed a player may have to wait up to 40 seconds to re-spawn (known as reinforced) depending on the time they are killed during the constant 45 second reinforcement countdown (being killed within the first 5 seconds a player is typically awarded another spawn). However if a radio is captured or destroyed the countdown is automatically reset with everyone "reinforced".

This waiting period encourages players to be more focused on gaining points and protecting their radio (as opposed to simply running around and killing opponents) as well as promoting teamwork.

Modding

The game has a number of modifications of various levels of content and development. See List of Call of Duty mods.

Awards

2004 Game Developers Choice Awards
- Excellence in Audio
2003 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
- Game of the Year

Criticism

When Call of Duty came out it was praised by many due to its close-to-war feel and atmosphere. Quite a few players, however, were not pleased with the extremely scripted environment of the game. While giving the impression of being in a World War II-movie, it greatly disallows the player to make his own decisions and is basically a corridor-shooter. For example, in many places of the game German reinforcements keep coming and coming until the player crosses a "magic" line.

Another criticism is that some deem the game as unrealistic. While it is true that it is very immersive and makes the player feel very close to war (some argue that this actually is realism), it is not particular realistic when it comes to ballistics, damage modelling, movement, vehicle handling, et cetera, especially not when compared to titles that are generally seen as realistic, such as Operation Flashpoint or Hidden & Dangerous.

The game also suffers from numerous historic and factual inaccuracies, some examples including:

Many levels within the game are historically inaccurate (some examples being Pegasus Bridge, Sainte-Mère-Église, et cetera).
The MP44 appears in the Stalingrad level set in 1942, while the gun itself did not exist until July 1944.
The method in which players wield the Sten is incorrect. Properly trained British soldiers would not fire the Sten while holding the magazine, since this could cause jams in an already error-prone weapon.
The players can only pick up ammo for the weapon they are carrying from an identical weapon, despite the fact that many weapons use identical ammunition. For instance, although the Springfield M1903A4 bolt-action rifle uses the same ammunition as the M1 Garand and the BAR, one has to pick up ammo for the Springfield ONLY from another dropped Springfield. Likewise, despite the fact that the German FG 42, the Karabiner 98k, and the MG42 all use 7.92 mm ammunition, a user of any these weapons can only pick up ammunition from the exact same weapon. This is especially odd in the case of the Sten, which was specifically designed to accept identical ammunition as the MP40. This may be because it is faster to use ammunition that is already in a magazine or clip. Although picking up ammunition from other weapons would not work because you'd have to unload the rounds from say the 'm1G' clip so they could fit into the Springfield1903, so most of the above doesnt really matter.
German weapons are always more powerful than any Allied weapon, whereas in reality, all the main battle cartridges of WWII were essentially identical ballistically.
While you can only load the Lee-Enfield when there are 5 or less rounds in the magazine, you can always load a fresh 5-round clip into the Karabiner 98k or Mosin-Nagant, even if there are 4 rounds in the magazine.

External links

CallofDuty.com (official site)
Infinity Ward site
Collection of reviews of Call of Duty
Activision site
Category at ODP - A valuable collection of information not available at Wikipedia
Planet Call of Duty
Call of Duty at Mobygames
CoD2Hq - CoD2 Community

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