Putting quotes on screen like:
"War is delightful to those who have not yet experienced it."
"Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist."
-and then making a game purely about trying to make the spectacle of war FUN while shooting masses of middle-eastern stereotypes as they run mindlessly at you. Shut the FUCK up.

There's an allusion to self-awareness through these, but if it's not blatant from the gameplay and the narrative and the metanarrative and the developers' intent and the legacy of these games and the military funding and everything else, it's immediately shattered when you die and get the quote:
"Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share."

Why even try to include any of the other desperately misplaced statements on terrorism, the horrors of war, what evil must be done in the name of freedom. Nobody making - let alone playing these games gives a damn how America has perpetuated the use of the word "terrorist" to justify racism and genocide and push conservatism to fund the military and place more trust in the government. Everybody making and playing these games is here because it's a gun game. You point and click and don't think about it. People from other countries aren't people, they're an object, an NPC, an aesthetic. Don't listen to what they're saying, don't think about who they are outside of conflict, just point and click like a good dog.

Moral repugnance aside, I'm not even entertained by this game. The setpieces and spectacle really aren't special, partially due to my having played literally any game that's come out since and being unenthused by shooters at large, but I can still pull examples from before Call of Duty that are leagues ahead of this mechanically. I'm not having fun with the military formations and the gunfeel in the ways they clearly want me to, and nothing will ever top having played Metro and Machinegames' library.

the most revolutionary call of duty of all time, and arguably one of the most impactful shooters of all time. introducing the Create a Class, and Kill Streaks, along with one of the most thrilling cinematic campaigns which was so good that they remastered it, twice. it was mad fun. the perfect call of duty, all ghillied up, crash, soap, the ending scene when Price slides you the pistol, and the intro when you are in the POV of the leader of a nation about to be assassinated. overall a perfect call of duty that can never be replicated again.

Great shooter game that launched a great franchise. The mission briefing scenes feel super immersive and the tech-y visuals are so cool. It really makes you feel like you're the best of the best, tasked with saving the country.

The gameplay has aged a decent bit and does not feel quite as satisfying as most modern shooters will, but what this game nails is the "realistic" feeling. The gimmicks like the stealth and snipe missions feel super immersive and are detailed enough to give it an authentic feel.

Great gameplay, engaging story, a genre defining game.

the blueprint for every military shooter campaign that would follow - how does it hold up? The sections where you have to wade through a clown car's worth of respawning enemies are kinda annoying but are made up for with the more straightforwardly linear setpiece sections - All Ghillied Up in particular is the highlight of the game's campaign. It also marks the breaking off point from the vaguely grounded WW2 stories of CoDs past into its own amusingly convoluted Tom Clancy-esque alternate future lore. Shoutouts the delightfully 2007 Infinity Ward rap that plays over the credits.

(Single player campaign review) Absolutely essential video game, maybe the best American AAA game ever made. The details of the mechanics and level design seem forgotten by time. Paradoxically wildly underrated. On my short list of “mandatory reading” for videogames. A significant number of linear games would be a lot better if the developer learned any of the lessons from mw — there’s a huge and multidisciplinary game-wide commitment to spending money on simulationist systems in service of the linear scripted levels — very dynamic second to second ai, flavor dialogue that responds to dynamic details of fights , setpieces where you get saved by a tank or helicopter using real AI, and so on. Generational achievement. Don’t play the HD re-release, which messed up some of the fx.