Call of Duty

Not as superior as the Medal of Honor series but still an excellent game!

The most original thing about "Call of Duty" is the story. The story gives you the feeling you're watching a movie were you are in control of. The levels aren't just levels were you have to go from point A to B and shoot everything and everyone on your way. The levels are scenario's in which there is always something going on and surprises wait around every corner. The levels are filled with great many moments and surprises in which you have to fight for your live and that of your buddies. It really gives you a movie feeling, it's no wonder once you know that the story was written by professional movie writer Michael Schiffer who also wrote the screenplay for "Crimson Tide", "The Peacemaker" and the recent movie "The Four Feathers".

The amazing soundtrack by the excellent Michael Giacchino also add to the movie feeling of the game. The music is written like it's made for a movie scene instead of for a game level. Some tracks even surpass the music Giacchino did for the Medal of Honor games. The music is not spectacular or exciting (like he did for the Medal of Honor games) but emotional instead, which is probably one of the reasons why it gives the game an extra movie like feeling. The music for when you have to hold the Pegasus bridge until reinforcements arrive and the music when you storm the Reichstag in Berlin especially stand out. Giacchino isn't called the new John Williams for no reason.

The levels like I said before are excellent. There is a high variety of levels in which you don't only play as Americans but also as British and Russian soldiers. Some of the levels uses elements and moments from the HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers" and especially from the movie "Enemy at the Gates".

And then the sound. My God the sound! The game has probably the best sound I ever heard done for a game. It really gives you the feeling like you are in the middle of WW II and need to dodge bullets and mortars all the time.

The gameplay however isn't that good, especially not once you're used to games like Medal of Honor. And the fact that you can only carry 2 weapons at the time (+ pistol and grenades) surly adds to the realism of the game but not to the fun of it.

It's not a game you quickly play over and over again once you have finished but luckily the multiplayer option gives the game an high play-ability level. The maps are fun and you can choose between many play options such as SD (search and destroy) and DM (death match) or the original BEL (behind enemy lines) option.

I even liked the game better once I found out that Giovanni Ribisi and Earl Boen were part of the voice cast. I'm eagerly awaiting the first add-ons!

9/10

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Call of Duty borrowed heavily from war movies that were around at the time. It put you right into the action. Having to run over and use med packs slowed people down a bit but it was slighting more realistic than sitting behind cover and healing up. There were many missions that had endlessly respawning troops but this game also broke those levels up with ones with finite troops. The action was good and solid. Nothing was ever so straight forward that you were always safe. You needed both ability as well as strategic understanding. They never skimped on voice actors either. I hadn't realized it at the time but action hero Jason Statham was the voice of SGT. Waters!! The graphics are dated now but the action and challenge are as solid as ever. I also liked the fact that the game would provide historical references to the battles and their significance. Well Done!!

If you played Return To Castle Wolfenstein and all the way through Medal Of Honor and occasionally wished there were a few good men to give you fire support, this game is the answer. After playing the two games mentioned above I was really bored of the "average-shooter-concept": -one against all super evil stupid enemies-. Suddenly there was CoD and amazed me not only with fresh graphics, great facial animations and lip sync, as well as a quite clever AI; it finally brought in something the 1st person shooter genre had been missing for so long - AI comrades for your support. That's what makes CoD so special, and as the tagline promises, you're never alone. But unlike one might believe on first hearing this, friendly AI isn't stupid cannon fodder. They take and give cover, flank and even secure corners around which the enemy might be lurking. Of course they're no replacement for real human players in a multiplayer deathmatch, but for the single player experience, they're the best by far and they're with you all the way through the game (not like in MoH, where you get that mincemeat in uniform to support you ;-)) The storyline is based on historical battles, the tension while playing never gets too stressy (though sometimes hectic), never giving you the impression the developers overshot their aim. For the ego-driven "lone wolf" "rush-rush" players, games like MoH & RTCW might be first choice, while the more cautious "tookmethreehourstokilloneguy" players might choose Brothers In Arms (I call it the "lame" version of CoD/UO/CoD2 ;-))), or something like Splinter Cell, Call Of Duty stands right in the middle, giving you the best of both worlds, and this also applies for the expansion pack "United Offensive" and Call Of Duty 2.

I've seen some appalling reviews in this place and I thought I should rectify the shot from some of the reviewers. What is Call of Duty aside from a WWII shooter? Well, just that. It's a world-war 2 shooter with an aspect centered a lot more on the war rather than a large-scale vendetta against Nazis. Medal Of Honor played like this chunky three-legged script-o-rama. You felt rather weak in front of soldiers that could smack you, while all you could do is stand there and shoot them. It was a great shooter, but I don't think MOH: AA ever set any kind of milestone. Nor was it an objective ever to beat MOH. Call of Duty literally SPITS on MOH:AA.

Its gameplay is better, its sound is better, its scenarisation is better, hell the NAME itself is a lot more enticing. Call of Duty will give you something MOH: AA could never have. And that's -SWEAT-. In MOH: AA , it wasn't unlikely to be seen running through enemy lines just blasting away with your thompson smg. Now? If you even pop your head out, you're almost dead: That's if you play the game on Veteran difficulty.

People saying that this game is too easy have just played it on Greenhorn (easiest difficulty). Is this an MOH: AA killer? You bet it is. Gone are the heavy and pointless infiltration scenes: There is one but I'm sure the people at 2015 just wanted to mock MOH's faults by making it extremely short a mission. See, Call of Duty doesn't mess around and try to be more than it really is. It tells you flat out: You're gonna be fighting a war here, boy. Saddle up.

And it never lets go.

The first game of the series. That's probably why I remember her so much. Developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, Call of Duty offered players an unparalleled experience, immersing them in the realities of World War II with unprecedented realism and drama.

And she was just gorgeous. And I've played it many times. The first thing I would like to note is the extraordinary nature of the actions. I played a little bit of various computer games, so it was a pleasant surprise to me that you are fighting for an ordinary soldier who is operating at the front with thousands of the same ordinary guys. This is not an elite special forces soldier or some other kind of soldier. This is an ordinary person who defends his Homeland, goes into battle with others, sees the death of comrades and enemies, makes history himself. And such an action immerses you much more into the reality of the events taking place in those distant years. After all, you literally find yourself at the front. Other games are perceived as just games, but this one made me feel different emotions.

The first thing that strikes you about Call of Duty is its attention to detail. The game perfectly conveys the atmosphere of military operations thanks to carefully recreated locations based on real historical events. Missions taking place on the battlefields of Europe offer diverse and exciting scenarios, which makes the gameplay intense and unpredictable.

The game has three segments, three different campaigns, where you will have to fight for American, British and Soviet soldiers. The missions are full of variety. Somewhere you run with a rifle or a machine gun through the streets of the city and forests, somewhere you control a tank, and in one of the missions you even fly on an airplane and shoot back at enemy fighters. All this does not let you get bored at the moments of passing. Players are faced with difficulties, heroism and the horrors of war, which clearly demonstrates how terrifying these events were.

The graphics are decent: sounds, effects, music - everything is on top. You have to choose which weapon to carry, because you can take a maximum of two heavy objects. First-aid kits are presented in different versions, they will treat the hero accordingly. Explosions look great, shootouts are full of sounds and effects. The creators also paid attention to the change of seasons, when there is snow and steam coming from the mouth, to the explosive mixture of mud and blood near Stalingrad, to green forests and meadows in missions in Europe. This is a very decent result for 2003.

The graphics and sound in Call of Duty deserve the highest praise. For its time, the game offered excellent visualization, with detailed models of characters and environments. The soundtrack, which includes realistic sounds of shooting, explosions and commands, immerses you even more into the atmosphere of war. The soundtrack, created by Michael Giacchino, complements this effect and enhances the tension and drama of what is happening on the screen.

The game is great for its time. And even now I sometimes overplay it. Let it be outdated, but it takes its hardcore, decent realism in terms of graphics and plunges into the world of the most terrible war ever fought.

9 out of 10.