Review: Call of Duty (2003)
This is a review that has been a long time coming. Today I’m going to talk about the original Call of Duty. This is the game that spawned an entire franchise as well as a slew of copycats. Yes, I realize that in its own way, Call of Duty is arguably a clone of another game, Medal of Honor (or some would even argue, Battlefield). But I think its safe to say that in the court of public opinion, Call of Duty has been the most popular of the lot. Perhaps the day will come where I’ll take a look at the Medal of Honor games and give the two franchises a solid comparison. But for now, let’s look at Call of Duty and see what all the fuss is about.
These days, when you mention Call of Duty, most people think about the latest console game that bears the series’ name. However, when the first Call of Duty game was released in 2003, it was a PC title. In fact, for years the only way to play the original Call of Duty was on the PC. A console release of the original wouldn’t see the light of day until 2009, when an updated version was made available for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 under the name Call of Duty: Classic.
An expansion pack to the original game was released in 2004 called Call of Duty: United Offensive. I’ll provide more detail on what the expansion pack adds to the game a little bit later. But it’s important to understand that these days, most of the online community that still supports the game consider both the main game and the expansion pack to be synonymous with each other. Call of Duty: Classic lacks a lot of what was added with United Offensive. Plus, today only the PS3 version is still available for purchase. This version is not compatible with PS4 or PS5 systems either. For this reason, I still consider the original PC release to be the definitive version of the game, and it’s the one I chose to play for this review.
For those of you who are interested in playing Call of Duty on your PC. It’s important to know that there is a little work involved with getting this game to run properly on modern hardware. Thankfully, there’s no mods to download or anything of the sort. But you may need to edit some config files to enable widescreen support and to increase the frame buffer to help prevent crashes. There’s plenty of guides for this all over the internet so I won’t go into details here. It is important to note, however, that if you have the expansion, you will need to do the same for the config file in your expansion directory as well. Once it’s done, it’s done.
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter that takes place during World War II. It supports both a single player campaign as well as online play. One thing that makes Call of Duty stand out from other FPS games of the era is that it is intended to be played with a “team mentality”. This true even when playing the single player campaign. Typically, most scenarios place you as an individual infantryman who is part of a larger squad of soldiers. When playing single player, other squad members are controlled by AI. They will often provide cover fire or behave appropriately depending on the situation.
Being a WWII game, all of the weapons available are historically accurate. Unlike most FPS games up this point, the player is unable to carry an unlimited amount of weapons. Instead, players are restricted to two main guns, a sidearm, and ten grenades. Typically, I will keep a sniper rifle and a machine gun as my primary weapons. It is possible to swap weapons out. So, for example, if your machine gun is out of ammo and you find a different gun on a fallen enemy, you can drop yours and pick theirs up. However, different guns take different types of ammunition. So, one has to be wise when it comes to trading weapons. In the event that the player is out of ammunition, you can always whack an enemy in the face with the butt of your rifle. There’s also various heavy artillery scattered throughout the game, such as mounted machine guns, ground-to-air weapons, etc.
One feature that I enjoyed about the game was the inclusion of an “aiming down the sight” mechanic.Weapons can be aimed and fired when the player is running, of course. But Call of Duty also allows players to steady their weapons and aim down the barrel for increased accuracy. When doing this, however, players are unable to run and their focus is instead narrowed to whatever is in their sights.
The single player campaign focuses on the allies of WWII. The game’s tutorial takes the player through US basic training, and then the main game has them participate in a handful of historical battles. The focus then shifts to the the UK where the player takes the role of an English infantryman. Next, the player will assume the role of a Soviet soldier, etc. When playing online, players will have the choice to choose between the Axis or the Allies.
I found each of the single player scenarios to be very well done. The map design is just incredible and the scenarios are very well thought out. While ground battle is certainly the primary mode of play, there are several moments in the game where you attack enemies while on the back of a moving vehicle or even navigate a tank through the streets of an embattled city. All of it is well paced and exciting. Even though this is now a twenty year old game, I found it to be very captivating and certain parts really do create a sense of peril and realism.
Multiplayer in Call of Duty supports both LAN and online play. Of course, unless you and your friends are planning to throw a LAN party, you’re more than likely going to be playing using online servers. Surprisingly, there’s a pretty active community for this game today. Like most online FPS games, Call of Duty supports custom maps and textures. So, when joining an online server, it’s not unusual to have some pretty hefty downloads before you can join. Word of warning: several of the online servers I played on somehow managed to overwrite some textures from the single player game. When this happened, I found myself unable to play any single player levels that utilized the overwritten textures. So, if you’re wanting to experience the single player campaign, you may wish to hold off participating in any multiplayer until you’ve finished.
Online play in the base game supports the following game modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Retrieval, Search and Destroy, Headquarters, and Behind Enemy Lines.
Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are pretty self explanatory. Team Deathmatch is probably the most popular mode of play. Retrieval is similar to a Capture the Flag type of game, with players trying to steal various enemy objects and returning them to a checkpoint. Search and Destroy is a one-sided style of game where one team defends an area from the other attacking team. The goal of the attacking team is to either eliminate all of the opponents or detonate a bomb(s) at a particular location. Headquarters is similar to Domination from other multiplayer FPS games of the era. It is essentially a land control/defense style game with the ultimate goal of having the highest defense score by the end of the round. Behind Enemy Lines is an unusual option. In this mode, the goal is to eliminate as many enemies as possible as they attack in waves.
Personally, I found Team Deathmatch, Retrieval, and Headquarters to be the most entertaining. But finding active servers for anything other than Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch can be a bit tricky at times.
The United Offensive pack adds a number of new missions to the single player campaign. I found these levels to be very refined compared to the content from the vanilla game. They are fun and well worth your attention if you are the type of player that enjoys single player content. The NPC AI also seems to be a bit improved in these new missions. Where United Offensive really shines, however, is the multiplayer additions to the game.
United Offensive includes a handful of new multiplayer maps. These maps are much larger and are all very well designed. But the real draw that this expansion brings is the inclusion of three new multiplayer modes: Domination, Base Assault and Capture the Flag.
Domination is likely to be familiar to anyone who’s played other multiplayer FPS titles. Even though it shares some similarities with Headquarters, its goal is bring classic Domination gameplay to Call of Duty. Base Assault is something entirely unique and probably my favorite of the three additions. In Base Assault, teams have use various heavy artillery to attack and destroy opponents bases. Capture the Flag should be pretty self explanatory. It brings classic CTF to Call of Duty.
It is undeniable that multiplayer is what made Call of Duty so popular. It featured all of the classic modes that other FPS titles offered, but it did so in a WWII theme. Personally, I enjoyed the single player campaign in both the main game and the expansion a bit more that I did enjoyed the multiplayer. But this was mostly because I’m a history buff and I found the single player scenarios to be very compelling. I’m sure that when compared to today’s Call of Duty titles, there’s probably few reasons that someone would choose to play this over a newer release. But having never played any game in the series up to this point, I was very pleased by what this first Call of Duty had to offer. Having now experienced this title, I’m looking forward to checking out other games in the series in the near future.
Version Reviewed: PC
Difficulty: Variable – Call of Duty features various levels of difficulty for the single player campaign. These settings are as follows: Greenhorn, Normal, Hardened, or Veteran. Overall, I found these settings to be pretty appropriate. First time players would do well to choose either Greenhorn or Normal depending on their level of FPS experience. Veteran mode can be extremely brutal at times. Of course, none of this matters when playing online as the difficulty level will vary depending on the skill of your opponents.
Multiplayer: Local and Online multiplayer.
Story: This game allows you to play as allied soldiers during various campaigns of WWII. The “story” is told through mission briefings between the levels and through chatter among your squad members. It’s very situational and I feel like it is intended to be more of a WWII infantry simulator than an actually narrative.
Originality: Online FPS games were already popular at the time this game was released. The big draw here is the team combat in a WWII setting. Little tweaks like limited weapon capacity and having to take cover instead of running around with guns blazing are what make this game stand apart from the competition.The AI in this title was top of the line at the time it was released and even today, I was impressed by how intelligent the NPC soldiers seemed to be.
Soundtrack: The music in this game is sparse at times, but always appropriate and fitting. The voice acting is really good for an early 2000’s title.
Fun: Personally, I had a blast playing through the single player campaigns for both the main game and the expansion. Online play was entertaining despite the fact that this is an older game. Most modern multiplayer games of this type focus on earning points to unlock new cosmetics and weapons.This game doesn’t have any of that. It’s simply an oldschool multiplayer FPS. That might not be everyone’s cup of tea these days, but as a fan of retro titles, I can appreciate it.
Graphics: Despite being a twenty-year-old game, Call of Duty holds up surprisingly well – especially when tweaked for modern resolutions. I did encounter one puzzling issue with doubled/blurred textures on walls and certain floors. But I’m certain it was due to having some driver-side graphic settings enabled that the game never expected to handle.
Playcontrol: This is your regular WSAD keyboard + mouse control scheme. I found it to be pretty standard and responsive. The controls are customizable, so you can set it up however you wish.
Downloadable Content: Community maps and mods.
Mature Content: Violence.
Value: Despite being nearly two decades old at the time of this writing, both Call of Duty and United Offensive are priced at $20 each. That’s a total of $40 for the complete game. Is the full game worth $40? Probably, but considering its age and the fact that the online community is very niche, it is difficult for me to recommend paying full price. This game doesn’t go on sale as often as other titles, but when it does, that’s the time to grab it.
Overall score (1-100): 90 – It is no surprise that this game spawned an entire franchise. It’s realistic FPS done right. I wasn’t sure what to think when I sat down to play this game, but it ended up capturing my attention and I was delighted by what I found here. Having completed it, I’m excited to see what future installments have in store. Great stuff here!
Original System: PC
Available today on: PC – (Updated as of Fall 2024)
Best Experience: PC – (Updated as of Fall 2024)
Other Reviews In This Series:
Call of Duty – Call of Duty 2 – Call of Duty 3 – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Call of Duty: Black Ops III Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 – Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: World at War – Call of Duty: Ghosts – Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Call of Duty: WWII – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) – Call of Duty: Vanguard – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)
