Call of Duty

Call of Duty (released October 29, 2003) is a first-person shooter video game based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine. This war game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game was published by Activision and developed by Infinity Ward.^[2] It was accompanied in September 2004 by an expansion pack, Call of Duty: United Offensive, which was produced by Activision, and developed by Gray Matter Interactive, with contributions from Pi Studios. The Mac OS X version of Call of Duty was ported by Aspyr Media. 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 in the USA. In Europe the soundtrack is not included).

Since November 12, 2007, the game and its sequels have been available for purchase via Valve's content delivery platform, Steam.^[3]

Campaign

The Pointe du Hoc (D-Day) mission in the singleplayer campaign.

Call of Duty 2 contains four individual campaigns, split into three stories.^[13] Each story concerns a World War II soldier overcoming insurmountable odds in the war.^[14]

Eastern Front

See also: Eastern Front (World War II)

The player takes the role of Private Vasili Ivanovich Koslov, a Red Army soldier on the Russian front;^[7] The first Russian mission is a training mission during the Battle of Moscow. Referencing the stretched supply lines of the Soviet forces, the player uses potatoes as practice grenades on the grenade range. After finishing 'training' by beating back a German assault, the player is transferred to Stalingrad (a year later), and must recapture a building, walk through trenches as tanks plow over them, and hold a position and recapture another building at the end of the level under hails of gunfire, but ultimately watches his commander order the building to be destroyed. After this, the player takes part in house-to-house fighting across Stalingrad, ending with the destruction of several German tanks via the use of sticky bombs. Soon afterwards, the player is to retake and hold a trainyard, again under heavy suppression, destroys a German tank and recapture several other locations in the same map. Later, the player then has to participate in house-to-house fighting in Stalingrad, destroying yet another tank in the process, and ultimately reach, recapture and hold city hall, performing sniper combat.^[15]

North African campaign

See also: North African Campaign

The player plays a British soldier, Sergeant John Davis of the 7th Armoured Division. The first map has the player in a sneak attack on German troops, ending with the destruction of a valuable German supply station. The next map on the same night has the player defending a crucial town from overwhelming numbers of Germans, finally achieving victory by destroying much of the German tank force using artillery. This is followed by the Second Battle of El Alamein, during which the player has to fight through several trenches, machine gun nests, flak 88s and finally taking the German's field HQ. The assault on El Daba to intercept the remaining Germans in Africa and destroy several flak 88s soon follows, ending the first British campaign.^[16] An addendum to the second set of missions has the player taking on the role of a British Tank commander, David Welsh. The first mission of the third campaign in Toujane, Tunisia, has the player immediately under fire, holding a household with a single machine gun and then wreaking havoc with an armored car, forced out by mines, and then escaping the town with a bare handful of men. The following mission has the player retaking the town, and the final map involves capturing Matmata and shooting down several Stukas using a German anti-aircraft gun.

Battle of Normandy

See also: Battle of Normandy

As Corporal Bill Taylor of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, the player starts off by playing a part in D-Day, at the assault of Pointe du Hoc, to destroy a German artillery battery, and hold it against a massive German counteroffensive in the following mission. Soon after, the player captures a nearby town and serves as a sniper against mortar crews until reinforcements arrive. The second US campaign is focused on Hill 400, involving the capture of Bergstein, a disastrous charge at Hill 400's bunkers and the defence against the German counterattack, with the player again performing sniper work against German mortar teams, destroying enemy armor, and generally holding the hill against the counteroffensive, all the while burdened by artillery and overwhelming numbers of German soldiers. The final British mission takes place during the Battle of Normandy for control of Caen.