Call of Duty

Pros

• Diverse and immersive single player experience
• Three varied Axis vs. Ally gameplay modes

Cons

• Graphics look dated by today's standards

Call of Duty has been one of the biggest flagship game franchises for years now, but you might find yourself surprised by how much the original incarnation of the first person shooter franchise holds up. What's truly exceptional is how Call of Duty manages - despite its aged and anachronistic graphics - to create a real and thrilling sense of place. It does so with the help of countless influences. Whereas preceding shooters largely focused their attention on fast and kinetic action alone, Call of Duty drew its inspiration from some of the biggest films of all time.

The storming of Normandy in this game felt like living through the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan when it was first released - and while the graphics aren't as cutting edge as they once were, the sense of how well you're situated in a particular time and place is still very well done here. Part of that comes down to the implementation of at least somewhat more complicated objectives and the inclusion of your battle squad in combat. That's not to say that you can expect the sort of squad control tactics that later first person shooters built on, but having AI driven squad mates really contributes to the feel that you're not just a man with a gun in the midst of an arena and more just a single soldier trying to contribute to the cause. That said, they'll be a constant presence through most of the levels, and the barked orders and suppressing fire creates a sense of liveliness that the environments otherwise wouldn't have. Level objectives fill a similar role - not fundamentally changing up the core gameplay experience but lending more context to the events going on than other shooters of the time.

And while Call of Duty draws some clear inspiration from war movies, it actually exceeds them in one way: the way it presents perspectives from throughout the war. While later Call of Duty games would transition their focus primarily to American soldiers, the original puts you in the shoes of soldiers from most of the major armies involved in World War II. The result is a greater sense of humanity across the entire war as well as more variety in the type of gameplay you'll be involved in. The game starts with you playing a paratrooper descending quietly into Normandy before the explosions of the full invasion, but that's just the start of an event driven war game that puts you in some of the most exciting moments of World War II while still not straining credibility. And despite some heavy scripting throughout the course of the missions, there is some variety in how combat plays out. Some characters will die no matter what you do, but others may live or die depending on how well you succeed in the mission or how well you protect your A.I. teammates.

The single player campaign here is one of the stronger for the genre of the time, but it's also relatively short. You might get a half dozen hours out of the whole experience, but the lack of quantity is matched by some solid quality in terms of artificial intelligence. While the squad techniques themselves are a little thin, individual soldiers will operate with a decent amount of cunning. They'll advance smartly, making use of covering fire to protecting approaching allies and ducking behind cover to stay out of the line of sight. In addition to run of the mill soldiers from various armies, you'll also find yourself facing down tanks and a variety of other different heavy vehicles.

But multiplayer has always been the crown jewel of the Call of Duty series. This version doesn't come with the huge variety of modes that you'd find in later iterations of Call of Duty - but there's a level of tightness in the multiplayer game modes that might appeal to players who've gotten sick of the season passes and experience driven progression systems of later entries in the series. In short, there's a greater emphasis on accuracy and twitch response than later games, but there's still a decent layer of strategy that you'll need to fulfill to succeed against the opposition.

So what are you working with here? It mostly comes down to standard deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. In other words, you'll spend most of your time shooting down the opposition without the need for deeper objectives. The maps are small and fast - necessitating a sense of strategy but keeping things more driven by reflexes. The three other modes are unique enough to have value even given the amount of growth this series has seen over the years. Both of them pit the Axis against the Allies, but they throw off the power balance in unique ways and create a sense of asynchronous gameplay that was well ahead of the curve.

Call of Duty certainly doesn't have the flash or the depth of games that proceeded it, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth your time. Whether you're looking to see how the series started or revert back to a simpler approach to the military experience, you'll find a lot to love here. Suffice to say, it may be more basic, but there's a lot more than just nostalgia at work here.

Pros

• Diverse and immersive single player experience
• Three varied Axis vs. Ally gameplay modes

Cons

• Graphics look dated by today's standards