Here’s a throwback to the original Call of Duty (CoD), released by Activision in 2003 that started the long-running franchise. Ever since Call of Duty 2’s release in 2005, a new Call of Duty game has been released every year. Call of Duty: Black Ops, released in 2010, is the highest selling game in the CoD franchise with 31 million copies sold.
When the first CoD was released, there was considerable positive reception, however some were turned off by the gameplay. In particular these were gamers coming from more fast-paced first person shooters such as Quake 3 Arena. CoD felt slow and bogged down. You couldn’t ‘bunny hop’ or rocket jump. In CoD, a rocket jump would kill you. And some gamers didn’t like how easily a player could get killed. One or 2 shots, and it was over.
But fans of CoD pointed out it was more realistic. Who can get hit by a shotgun 5 times and move around like nothing’s happened!? Eventually the critics came round. CoD was amazing to play and those who had initially felt hamstrung by its movement soon adapted. CoD ended up winning various ‘Game of The Year’ awards in 2003, setting the scene for spin-offs and sequels years down the line.
In the instruction manual there were some important tips from Activision. One tip was to “listen to your squad leader! Do exactly what he says and you’ll stay alive.” It’s likely many CoD players would disagree with that advice.
