History VideoGame / CallOfDuty1

* EliteMooks: Two of them. The first are the Fallschirmjager, who are German paratroopers equipped with the rare FG-42 rifle. The second are the Waffen-SS, elite mechanized infantry armed with STG-44 assault rifles and more MP-40 submachine guns than regular Heer Infantry.

''Call of Duty'' is the first entry in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series, developed by Infinity Ward and released on October 29, 2003 for UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows.

An enhanced port of the original game, ''Call of Duty Classic'' was released for the UsefulNotes/Playstation3 and UsefulNotes/Xbox360 in 2009, as part of the "Hardened" and "Prestige" Editions of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2''. [[VideoGame/CallOfDuty2 A sequel]] was released on both PC and Xbox 360 in 2005.

* AllForNothing: Downplayed in the case of the ''Tirpitz''; the mission has you infiltrating the ship to plant bombs in preparation for one of the many air raids on the ship, which you successfully manage [[spoiler:but at the cost of Captain Price]]. The game doesn't come out and say it, but if you know your history, you'll notice that the game placing the mission on October 27th means this is in preparation for Operation Obviate, wherein the RAF barely managed to do more than minorly damage one of her rudders.

* BadassDriver: Sgt. Moody and Pvt. Elder both do a little of this in first game, first with a French sedan and later a Kubelwagen.

* BlatantLies: When the Germans start broadcasting propaganda inciting the Russians to surrender, all the while it's clear that the German forces will just shoot you on sight without question.
** Also, if you know your history, Soviet P.O.W.s weren't treated anywhere near as nicely as the propaganda promised...

* BlatantLies: In the first game, when the Germans start broadcasting propaganda inciting the Russians to surrender, all the while it's clear that the German forces will just shoot you on sight without question.

* DeathIsDramatic: Averted with [[spoiler:Captain Price]]'s death in the first game. He dies defending a chokepoint while you're in another room, and the game does absolutely nothing to draw your attention to his death. The only indicator is his body on the floor, which is really easy to miss since his corpse is usually buried under a pile of dead Germans. It's entirely possible to get to the end of the mission without realizing he's been killed, until you get to the exit and Waters brings it up.

** Captain Price looks and sounds entirely different from his more famous ''Modern Warfare'' depiction: there isn't even a hint of stubble below the [[PornStache famous mustache]], his hat is a bright red beret rather than a camouflaged boonie hat, and he's [[FakeNationality voiced by]] an [[Creator/MichaelJGough American actor]].

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: "No cows were harmed in the making of this game" at the end of this game and its expansion, due to all the dead cattle that popped up everywhere, particularly in the first game's American campaign.

* ParachuteInATree: In the first game, this is what happens to Sgt. Heath, Pvt. Martin's initial immediate superior. Unfortunately for him, he dies via NeckSnap from the force of the landing, forcing Martin to continue his pathfinder mission alone until he can call in reinforcements. Later in Ste. Mere-Eglise, if you look towards the church you can see a paratrooper hanging from it, based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steele_(paratrooper) a real event]] from the battle in question.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Remember Pavlov's House in the first game? Seems silly, that one house holding out against a whole German army complete with tanks... except that it really happened. And a realistic version of the mission would be three ''months'' long.

* RareGuns: The FG 42 appears as one of the best weapons in the German arsenal, though its use and rarity are both acknowledged by having the vast majority of them appearing early in the American campaign, where you're actually fighting Fallschirmjäger units who would have had access to the rifle. ''United Offensive'' isn't as realistic with the addition of the Gewehr 43, handing them out to almost every other German across the game.

** ''United Offensive'' takes this UpToEleven with the Battle of Kursk, which has T-34 tanks go up against Panzers, Tigers, and even the mighty Ferdinand tank destroyer.

** Captain Price looks and sounds entirely different from his more famous ''Modern Warfare'' depiction: there isn't even a hint of stubble below the [[PornStache famous mustache]], his CoolHat is a bright red beret rather than a camouflaged boonie hat, and he's [[FakeNationality voiced by]] an [[Creator/MichaelJGough American actor]].

* DirtyCommunists: The Soviet campaign has the various commissars, who take Stalin's "not one step back" order to the letter. Rather than competently lead troops into battle, they instead herd them onto the frontlines like cattle, equip them poorly, and force them to rush heavily defended German positions with little ammunition or weaponry. In fact, one of Voronin's immediate superiors, having been fed up with their tactics, decides to simply shoot a commissar under the guise of him being killed by the Germans just so you and he can get to a more advantageous position that happens to require moving fifteen feet back towards the river.

In September 2004, an ExpansionPack, called ''Call of Duty: United Offensive'', was released, developed by Gray Matter Interactive. This expansion added additional weapons and vehicles for all factions, new playable characters and [=NPCs=] as well as expanding the role of returning ones, and added new missions set in new locations. The multiplayer was also heavily expanded, which now featured driveable vehicles for both the Allies and Axis. The new American campaign, set exclusively during the Battle of the Bulge, focuses on Cpl. Scott Riley, who takes orders from Cpt. Foley and Sgt. Moody as they drive the Germans out of Bastogne. The new British campaign tells the story of Sgt. James Doyle, an RAF recruit who gets shot down over the Netherlands, gets rescued by SAS Major Ingram, and later joins the SAS himself as the Allies advance into Sicily. And finally, the new Soviet campaign, with Pvt. Yuri Petrenko, focuses on the Battle of Kursk and Third Battle of Kharkov, as the Soviets repel and later crush the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front.

Unlike games such as ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'', which focused exclusively on lone American soldiers TrappedBehindEnemyLines during the WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica, ''Call of Duty'' focuses instead on 3 different campaigns set in different parts of Europe, with players each being accompanied by numerous AI-controlled companions. The first, the American campaign, focuses on Pvt. Martin of the [=101st=] Airborne Division, who mis-drops into Normandy on D-Day alongside his superiors Captain Foley and Sgt. Moody, as well as [=82nd=] Airborne Division member Pvt. Elder. Following a successful action at Brecourt Manor, Martin, Moody and Foley are then tasked with rescuing captured British officers in a daring mission behind German lines. The second, the British campaign, focuses on Sgt. Evans, a member of the 6th Airborne Division tasked with securing a vital bridge over the Caen Canal alongside his superior Captain Price. Following this successful action, Evans and Price would be reassigned to the SAS, serving alongside Sgt. Waters for top-secret sabotage missions in Germany and occupied territories. And finally, the Soviet campaign focuses on Pvt. Alexei Ivanovich Voronin, a NewMeat soldier trying to survive the brutal Battle of Stalingrad.

An enhanced port of the original game, ''Call of Duty Classic'' was released for the UsefulNotes/Playstation3 and UsefulNotes/Xbox360 in 2009, as part of the "Hardened" and "Prestige" Editions of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2''. [[VideoGame/CallOfDuty2 A sequel]] was released on both PC and Xbox 360 in 2005.

* AnachronicOrder: The missions with each character will generally be in chronological order, but once you switch protagonists you're likely to go back in time, possibly to a point further back than when the previous one's missions started.

* BadBoss: The Commissars during the early Stalingrad levels will shoot any soldier that tries to retreat, even when the odds are stacked heavily against the Soviets.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** The original ''Call of Duty'' and its expansion ''United Offensive'' had more in common with ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAlliedAssault'' and other ''VideoGame/{{Quake III|Arena}}''-engine games than later ''Call of Duty'' games. There was a health bar that could only be replenished by picking up health packs; your weapon slots included a third slot dedicated to a pistol and a fourth for frag grenades, which couldn't be quick-thrown (all other equipment was shoved into a HyperspaceArsenal and placed as needed with the use key); there was no ammo sharing between weapons of different types, even if they used the exact same ammo in reality (even the scoped and unscoped variations of a rifle couldn't take ammo from one another); enemy grenade-spam tends to take the form of small bursts of several grenades rather than the more steady stream of later games, and [[GrenadeHotPotato you can't throw them back]] (even though [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the AI can]]); and you could [[SaveScumming save the game manually at any point]], with checkpoints, on top of being much fewer and further between than in later games, also being permanent saves, letting you revisit them at any time. Most missions also limited you to a single squad, and killed squad members would ''not'' be replaced mid-mission. You also couldn't sprint except in ''United Offensive'', where the stamina bar was depleted much more quickly and it defaults to [[DamnYouMuscleMemory an entirely different key]], with the game instead implementing a ''VideoGame/CounterStrike''-style weapon-weight system, which interestingly makes a character holding a pistol in ''[=CoD1=] faster'' than a sprinting character in later games. ''Call of Duty 2'' is the game that established the ''Call of Duty'' gameplay style (RegeneratingHealth, two weapon slots, quick grenades, a proper mission select, console-style single checkpoint saving, etc.) which has remained largely consistent throughout the rest of the series, the only major changes ''Call of Duty 4'' made being the standardization of sprinting in the form we now know it and Create-a-Class for multiplayer.

* DirtyCommunists: The Soviet campaign has the various commissars, who take Stalin's "not one step back" order to the letter. Rather than competently lead troops into battle, they instead herd them onto the frontlines like cattle, equip them poorly, and force them to rush heavily defended German positions with little ammunition or weaponry. In fact, one of Voronin's immediate superiors, having been fed up with their tactics, decides to simply shoot a commissar under the guise of him being killed by the Germans just so you and he can get to a more advantageous position.

* AnachronicOrder: The missions with each character will generally be in chronological order, but once you switch protagonists you're likely to go back in time, possibly to a point further back than when the previous one's missions started. This in particular is what allows Price to continue being a major character in ''Call of Duty 2'' after he died at the end of the British campaign in the first game, since the British missions in ''2'' are all primarily set in the African campaign, two years before the D-Day and beyond setting of the British missions in ''1''.

* RareGuns: The FG 42 appears as one of the best weapons in the German arsenal, though its use and rarity are both acknowledged by having the vast majority of them appearing early in the American campaign, where you're actually fighting Fallschirmjäger units who would have had access to the rifle. ''United Offensive'' isn't as realistic with the addition of the Gewehr 43, handing them out to almost every other German across the game.

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* RareGuns: The FG 42 appears as one of the best weapons in the German arsenal, though its use and rarity are both acknowledged by having the vast majority of them appearing early in the American campaign, where you're actually fighting Fallschirmjäger units who would have had access to the rifle. ''United Offensive'' isn't as realistic with the addition of the Gewehr 43, handing them out to almost every other German across the game.