With the first person shooter Call of Duty, Activision (USA) released one of the most popular first person shooter games worldwide in 2003. More than 500 developers are working on the Call of Duty brand, which has billions in sales. The many different locations and sometimes tricky tasks make this computer game so attractive.

• The Call of Duty video game series can be played in single and multiplayer modes.
• It’s a combination of fiction and history.
• Due to the war scenes and the use of weapons, the age rating is 18 years.
• The game can be played online, on the PC and on various device platforms.

Reality was the inspiration behind the development of Call of Duty

The main game Call of Duty is set in World War II, but does not tell a coherent story. The player successively takes on the role of a soldier who fights on the side of the Americans, the British or the Russians. The scenarios are based on real events such as the invasion of Normandy, Operation Tonga (defense of the Pegasus Bridge) or the expulsion of the Germans from Stalingrad. The idea for this last scene comes, for example, from the 2001 movie “Duell – Enemy at the Gates” by director Jean-Jacques Annaud. The gun noises were recorded realistically during test firings with original weapons from the Second World War.

Call of Duty – a new version every year

Short for COD by abbreviationfinder, Call of Duty has been named “Game of the Year” several times. As a rule, a new edition appears every year. Updates and add-ons are also offered on a regular basis. In addition to task cards, the player has access to new weapon systems. There are also so-called mods. These are additional options created by Call of Duty fans themselves to expand the game. Initially, Call of Duty only existed as a Windows version, and in 2006 the German premiere for Mac OS X was celebrated. The game is now also playable on the Sony Playstation, Xbox One, Nintendo WII, Nintendo DS and GameCube.

Call of Duty – alone against everyone

In the single player mode, the player slips into three different roles one after the other. He plays alone against the computer and has to solve various tasks that lead him to Stalingrad, North Africa and Normandy. With the United Offensive add-on, the player, when he has reached the highest rank, can use binoculars to find targets, which are then bombed with the remote-controlled artillery. In Call of Duty, all players start with an identical rank. Promotions must be earned through achievements in the game. After the death of a game character, the player can start with a new weapon. The type of weapon he chooses will determine which country he will fight for.

Call of Duty – fight together and win in multiplayer mode

Call of Duty has a multiplayer mode. It allows games in the network or with friends in the same room. There are different game modes:

• Deathmatch: Everyone plays against everyone.
• Team Deathmatch: Two teams play against each other.
• Search and Destroy: One team has to do an order, the other team tries to prevent it.
• Retrieval: A team tries to move a stolen object to its own base.
• Behind Enemy Lines: An allied team competes against a majority of opponents and is supposed to survive as long as possible.

The task cards are modifications of the missions for single players.

The system requirements for Call of Duty

The current version “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” was released on November 13, 2020 and can be played on Windows PCs, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X | S.

Certain system requirements apply to the PC version:

• Operating system Windows 7 (64-bit) or higher
• at least Intel Core i3-4330 processor
• Working memory of at least 8 GB RAM; better: 12 GB of RAM

Special features of the German version of Call of Duty

There are special versions for Germany of the scenarios that take place during World War II. All anti-constitutional symbols such as swastikas have been removed and replaced with normal bar crosses. National Socialist propaganda materials are also not included in the German edition. Videos at the end of the game showing SS members or Hitler were cut. However, there are mods in which such sayings, characters and names still occur. The so-called arcade mode, in which the player receives points when killing an opponent, has also been removed. The unabridged edition of the game has been on the index since January 2009.

Conclusion

The first person shooter Call of Duty is a war game, the main edition of which is based on the Second World War. Numerous other editions have different historical or fictional backgrounds. The atmosphere of the game is extremely realistic and. Due to the war scenes, the brutality and the use of weapons, the minimum age was set at 18 years.