There was a time when Call of Duty was good, this was the start of that time.

The Story is that the three characters you play as are involved in different operations for different nations to stop the Nazi's during World War 2. There is barely any story moments outside of the missions themselves, but for a World War 2 based game, it didn't really need too. It's focus is on the Gameplay. The Cutscenes that appear sometimes before levels are great, and give a real war feel with the atmosphere of the game.

The Characters are bland, I would not care if any of them died, including the ones I play as.

The Graphics were good for their time, but are now very pixelated. But not to the point where the game is unplayable, and there is more detail put into the environments than the average first-person shooter of the time.

The Gameplay has you in first person, shooting Germans with your weapons, and completing tasks to help the squad you are in to become one step closer to winning the war. Now although Call of Duty wasn't the first first-person shooter to change the gaming industry, it was the first to use friendly AI to help you out in missions, and the gameplay itself is very iconic, and can lead to many games trying to emulate what this game achieves. Also it's a computer game, so you can save whenever you want. Your actions can also make the difference between the fates of random soldiers in your squad, it doesn't matter that much as a new soldier will spawn in most of the time, but it's nice to know it's there for people who want to simulate it. The first level in the russian campaign is easily the best level in the game with it's real look into how some of the allies had to fight, and the suicidal mission atmosphere that the whole sequence gives off. Now there are some flaws with the game. Like the fact that the objectives reveal future tasks, despite the fact that it doesn't feel as real to know what is going to happen next. The AI barely ever kills targets, and at least three quarters of them will have to be killed by you. The Text to tell you about where you are at the beginning of levels is too fast for you to read. You can cause a vehicle to explode without the vehicle you are in exploding itself. Random soldiers for the group sometimes have ranks that surpass the leader of the squad. There is no Grenade detector. Sometimes the enemy isn't prepared for you, even when they should have heard what you were doing prior to that. Multiplayer is good. You can play a few different game types, while in the maps from the game (or more if you get the United Offensive pack). But unlike the campaign, more like in reality, you can die in one shot. Which is fun if you are okay with the realism "minus the respawning of course", and I say it works for a game where you kill normal soldiers in a realistic way, and where the opponents are other real players. Also the feature of having certain random players use submachine guns, and others using ones that cause more damage, but can't be fired as fast is a great way of having people play with many types, while not making it so that everyone uses the same gun.

The Music is awesome. It was composed by Michael Giacchino, the same guy behind a number of Pixar films. The tracks really push the dark atmosphere of each level that it's in, and are great to listen to on their own.

Call of Duty 1 deserves to be known for it's achievements that are very forgotten about thanks to the modern era of the franchise.