The first title in the COD franchise (named: Call of Duty) hit storefronts in 2003, and was an instant success. It's WWII setting, and combat style was very similar to the already established Medal of Honor games, but Call of Duty had improved graphics, and allowed the player to play not just as American infantrymen, but as Soviet riflemen, Soviet T-34's, & British Special Forces. This diverse gameplay, set up a strong single player game, even though the intertwining storyline between all three nations was poor. Call of Duty possessed a lot of features that were new the the FPS world. Call of Duty was the first game to limit the amount of primary weapons the player can carry (2), and number of grenades (10), and a fire selection o certain guns. It was also one of the first FPS to use the iron sights of the gun when the player aims, instead of just zooming in with the crosshairs. Unlike most FPS at the time, Call of Duty was team oriented, and forced the player to work with their AI controlled allies. Because of these revolutionary new features, and the campaign diversity Call of Duty was well received, and critics gave it scores ranging from 8-10.
The first console game in the series was Call of Duty Finest Hour. Like Call of Duty it took place from Soviet, American, and British points of view, during WWII. Instead of an intertwining storyline like the original Call of Duty, it had four distinct story lines (American, Russian inf, Russian tank, and British). Finest Hour involved more tank warfare in the Soviet campaign, and introduced it into the American campaign. There was also vehicular warfare introduced into the British campaign in the form of a jeep ride. The graphics were improved substantially, from Call of Duty, but besides that the only new feature was multiplayer. Up to 32 people could play 16v16 battles with the xbox or ps2 (gamecube was incompatible with Finest Hour's multiplayer). The game received poor reviews because of it's similarities to Call of Duty, but with all of the Call of Duty features, was still a good game.
Next on the COD console list is Call of Duty 2 Big Red One (2005). Big Red 1 was the first game in the COD franchise to focus on one unit the entire single player campaign, U.S Army 1st Infantry Division. The game followed the 1st across North Africa, Sicily, D-Day, France, and into Germany. The game was a graphical masterpiece compared to Finest Hour, and had a good soundtrack. All of the classic COD features return, as well as tank gameplay, and multiplayer. Big Red 1 was the first game that might be considered crude verbally in the COD series, but none the less was well received. Overall another good game by COD.
The following title in the series was Call of Duty 3 (2006). COD 3 was the first game in the series to not include PC versions, and returned to WW2 with the old COD tradition of playing as multiple nations. COD 3 has just one large campaign that takes place a month after D-Day, but the player control interacting soldiers from America, England, Canada, and Poland. In the American section of the campaign, the player fights as two American infantrymen, securing key locations in France for the allied advance. The British part of the campaign is played as a single SAS commando, who leads a squad of paratroopers deep into France. Once joined by another squad of SAS paratroopers, and a some French resistance troops, the player must cause general havoc behind German lines, to assist with the Allied advance. This is more a clandestine part of the campaign compared to the other parts, and involves more deaths to key persons. The next section of the campaign puts the player in control of a private in the 4th Canadian Armored Division. Like the American, and Polish campaigns, the Canadian takes place at the front line of the battles in France, and besides tank fighting, involves some infantry skirmishes. The Polish campaign is similar to the Canadian campaign in the fact that it gives the player control of a tank, and some infantry battles and puts them onto the front line in France. The Polish campaign is probably the bloodiest since it involves a last stand defense of a strategic hill, before Canadian reinforcements arrive. COD 3 was well received, and continued the multiplayer tradition. A graphical improvement from Big Red 1, it would be the last COD game to take place in Western Europe during WW2.
The next console title in the COD series is Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (2007). Taking place in 2011, Modern Warfare was the first COD game to not take place during WW2. Modern Warfare was also the first COD game to have an M rating (17+). While COD 4 did increase multiplayer exponentially, and start selling map pack DLC's (a regrettable development), it still had a strong storyline. In a fictional future, Russia is in a state of civil war, and a fictional Middle Eastern country is taken over by an anti-western extremist. The player takes control of a US Marine, who is taking part of an invasion of said small fictional country, and a few urban combat missions ensue, before a nuclear WMD goes off in the city killing all inside, which is US Marines and Navy Seals. Before the nuke goes off, the player takes control of a British SAS commando, who performs 2 operations and gathers information tying the Russian communist rebels to the leader of the fictional country. After the nuke detonates, the player is once again given control of the SAS commando who, in a series of missions, kills the leader of the country while working with Russian forces. The true villain of the story is revealed to be the leader of the Russian rebels, and a joint task force of American Marines, SAS commandos, and Russian loyalist forces capture the leader's son, save the US Easter Sea Board from destruction, and fight a large battle in which almost everyone is dead or wounded besides the player, and a handful of Russian loyalists. The rebellion has been put down, and the small fictional country restored to order but the whole this is hushed up by the governments. COD 4 was well received for it's storyline, multiplayer improvements, and graphics, and is still a great game today.
The last good title in the COD series is Call of Duty World at War (2008). The game returns the series to WW2, however the majority of the game takes place in the Pacific theater, and the Red Army's advance to Berlin. The majority of the game takes place in the pacific theater, as the player controls a US marine in multiple missions from Peleliu to Okinawa. There is also a mission in whoch the player is in control of a Naval petty officer flying in a Catalina flying boat. The player must shoot down Japanese planes, and rescue naval crewmen in the water during a naval battle. The other part of the game follows a Soviet infantrymen, and the Red Army's push to Berlin from Stalingrad. There are multiple mission involving T-34 tanks, that add diversity to the campaign. The multiplayer is practically the same to COD 4, and no new features are added besides slightly better graphics (almost indistinguishable from Modern Warfare's). Multiple map packs went on sale for multiplayer, and a new co-op mode was added to the game called Nazi Zombies. 2-4 players fight off infinite waves of Nazi zombies in this split screen mini-game. World at War was a huge success (especially the zombies), and was unfortunately the last good Call of Duty Game.
Overall the first handful of COD games were inventive games that showed great development in all departments, good story lines, and (eventually) one of the most acclaimed multiplayers in the gaming industry. However, like most FPS series, COD suffers from sever repetitiveness, however the vehicle integrated gameplay, and multi-national gameplay helped to cut through this. Overall score for the series:
8.5 of 10.
Hope you article helped, and please check out these videos of COD gameplay.
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