What Was The First Call Of Duty Game Made

1. First Call Of Duty Game
2. First Call Of Duty Ever Made

The early Call of Duty titles were set in the World War II era but, in 2007 the setting changed to contemporary conflict with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Experience Call of Duty: the world's best-selling video game franchise. Discover the latest updates to this first person shooter series all in one place. The original members of Infinity Ward, the studio that invented Call of Duty, started out on this second world war shooter, before leaving the game's developer, 2015 Inc, to set up on their own.

First Call Of Duty Game

According to shareholder reports, the Call of Duty franchise has made over $11 billion dollars. Industry estimates place earnings at a slightly lower $9.7 billion. It's probable that service packs and other add ons account for the additional $1.3 billion. Either way, the video game series surpasses the box office earnings of the entire Star Wars saga.

The first Call of Duty game came out in 2003 and has sold an estimated 1.75 million copies, taking in $70 million in sales. The hottest selling entry in the franchise is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with $1.23 billion.

As of 12/23/15, 2015's Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is on track to be a top selling entry in the series. Released on November 6th, the game has sold almost 15 million copies in its first six weeks.

Check out sales of every Call of Duty video game below, ranked by earnings.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: $1.23 Billion

2011's Modern Warfare 3 is the #1 selling Call of Duty Game to date with $1.23 billion in sales. The game earned $400 million in sales in its first 24 hours. At the time, that made it the biggest entertainment launch ever. The video game grossed over $1 billion worldwide in its first 16 days. According to Activision, that put it ahead of even the blockbuster hit Avatar.

When the game was first released, Activision found that the URL 'ModernWarfare3.com' had already been registered. The site redirected visitors to EA's game Battlefield 3. Just after the game's release, a French delivery truck carrying 6,000 copies was hijacked. The heist was estimated at $1 million. Buy sims online download. All in all, Modern Warfare 3 has sold an estimated 30.7 million copies.

Also see: How to Save Money on New Video Games

2. Call of Duty: Black Ops: $1.22 Billion

2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops comes in at #2 on our list with $1.22 billion in sales. https://room-soft.mystrikingly.com/blog/free-ftp-drive. The game has sold 30.5 million copies to date. Within 5 days of its release the game had earned $650 million. Compare that to 2010's top grossing movie, Toy Story 3, which grossed $415 million domestically that same year

A crossbow appearing in the game was inspired by a story told by an actual Vietnam War veteran. The vet carried a bow into combat, which he modified depending on the mission. A popular easter egg is a house in the game modeled after the house from the 1970's TV show The Brady Bunch.

3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: $1.18 Billion

First Call Of Duty Ever Made

Black Ops 2 is the third best selling game in the Call of Duty franchise. The game has sold 29.4 million copies total for revenue of $1.176 billion. The game made half of that money in the first 24 hours after its release. That made it the #1 entertainment release ever at the time. Another $500 billion in sales racked up in the next 15 days.

Pre-orders for the game were three times those of the original Black Ops installment. The game is set during the Cold War in the 80's and during a second Cold War in the future. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North served as a consultant for the game. Manuel Noriega sued Activision in 2014 for his unflattering portrayal during game play.

Also see: Top 5 Bestselling Video Games of All Time

Every Call of Duty Game Ranked by Sales

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: $1.1 Billion

The fourth hottest Call of Duty title is 2009's Modern Warfare 2. Including the Reflex and Mobilized versions, the video game earned $1.08 billion in total sales dollars. It sold 27 million copies all together. Warfare 2 took in $310 million in its first day and $550 million in five days. It set the record for the biggest entertainment release ever.

The critically acclaimed game earned a 94% positive score on critic aggregator Metacritic. The game contains multiple references to the movie The Rock, including a shower room identical to one in the film. There's a level in the game called 'S.S.D.D.' That may be a reference to the phrase, 'Same shit, different day.'

5. Call of Duty: Ghosts: $1.1 Billion

Actually tied for fourth place with $1.1 billion is 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. The game sold 27 million copies worldwide. Almost all the game's sales came in the first 24 hours after its release. Lower sales came despite generally favorable reviews.

The honey badger assault rifle in the game gets its name from an assault rifle. The assault rifle is in turn named for a comedic YouTube video about an eye-poppingly vicious rodent. The game's director, Sylvain Doreau, originally worked as a CG set designer for the 2001 movie Shrek.

Also see: 10 Most Expensive Video Games Ever Made

6. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: $840 Million

2014's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the first title on our list to earn less than $1 billion. The game sold 21 million copies. The soft sales came without generally favorable reviews.

Advanced Warfare delves deep into the world of science fiction. In it, players use exosuits to jump, dash and perform other superhuman feats.

The game stars Kevin Spacey, known for his roles in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects. Spacey and nearly every other character in the game lent their real life appearance to their character in the game.

7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: $716 Million

Coming in at #7 on our list of Call of Duty money makers is 2007's Modern Warfare. The game sold 17.9 million copies and earned $716 million. Modern Warfare enjoyed excellent reviews across most platforms.

The 8th game in the series, Call of Duty 4 is the first to be set in modern times. It took a team of 100 people working two years to construct the game. Some team members attended a live-fire U.S. military training so they could better understand what it feels like to stand near an Abrams tank while it fires. Team members also interviewed real combat veterans to get a sense of the emotion during combat.

Also see: How Much Money Has Every Star Wars Movie Made?

8. Call of Duty: World at War: $628 Million

2008's World at War is the 8th biggest Call of Duty money maker. The game has sold 15.7 million copies to date with earnings of $628 million. The game is set in World War II, in both the European and Pacific theatres.

The game's cast includes stars Gary Oldman and Keifer Sutherland. For motion capture, the game's crew built a full sized replica of a PBY Catalina, a WWII era flying boat used by the Navy.

The game opened to largely favorable reviews. The game includes a Nazi zombie mode that includes shotguns, flamethrowers and ray guns.

9. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3: $592 Million

The #9 biggest Call of Duty money maker on our list is 2015's Black Ops 3. The title has already earned $592 million within the first six weeks of its release. Almost all that cash rolled in during the first three days of sales.

Black Ops III is set in 2065, amid the effects of climate change and a technological revolution. Game play includes robots and cyborg supersoldiers. The game is rife with paranoia about a coming robot takeover.

The game stars Ron Perlman and Jeff Goldblum.

Also see: How Much Money Has Every Marvel Movie Made?

10. Call of Duty 3: $320 Million

#10 on our list is Call of Duty 3. The 2006 game sold 14.8 million copies and earned $320 million. Set entirely in World War II, the game featured multiple campaigns and downloadable content. The game was built in just eight months.

In the game, one character says, 'Today we're on a secret mission to get coffee and doughnuts. Sd2vita tutorial for mac. Problem is, Jerries drank all the coffee and ate all the doughnuts. So we gotta go kick their asses.' This is a riff on Roddy Piper's line from the movie They Live. In the famous line, Piper confronts a group of evil aliens and says, 'I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I am all out of bubble gum.'

Sources:

Activision shareholder reports

Nobody does warfare like Call of Duty, as evidenced by the series' staggering sales figures and universal critical acclaim. Over the years, we've seen the long-running series run the gauntlet from World War II to battling for the solar system, with virtually everything in between. However, as diehard fans will tell you, not all CoDs are created equal, and some are simply better than others. So which is the cream of the crop, and which aren't exactly the straightest of shooters? Let's wade through the trenches—both modern and futuristic—to find out.

(Note that this ranking only includes the series' console and PC entries. Handheld titles like Call of Duty: Roads to Victory and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified are not considered.)

Call of Duty: World at War – Final Fronts

While developers Treyarch were hard at work creating a then current-gen World War II experience for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360, Oxford-based game creators Rebellion Developments Limited were tasked with providing the incredibly successful (but already outdated) PlayStation 2 with its own rendition. The result is Call of Duty: World at War—Final Fronts, and it's the worst Call of Duty to date.

Both enemy and friendly AI are atrociously stupid, and the way they look on the outside isn't much better. The graphics were bad by late-PS2 standards, and certainly seem even uglier now. The campaign is (usually) painfully easy, except when your own CPU-controlled squad-mates push you out from cover and directly into the line of fire. Even worse, a distinct lack of anything original or new left us all wishing our moms would take out a second loan for a PlayStation 3. On top of all that, a complete lack of online multiplayer cemented Final Fronts' hold as the worst mainline console Call of Duty to date.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour

As the franchise's console debut, Call of Duty: Finest Hour is far from what its name implies.

Instead of focusing on one character, Spark Unlimited's entry into the series has players bouncing between three forgettable soldiers from three different WWII armies (Russian, British and American) in a bland, simplified version of what PC gamers had running on their machines. A distinct lack of checkpoints often put a damper on the fun, especially when dealing with some absurdly long escort missions. In every way, shape, and form, Finest Hour would've been finer had it followed in its big brother's—the original Call of Duty's—footsteps.

It wasn't a total failure, of course, as the first CoD on consoles put us in control of some tanks, and plopped us in a particularly interesting North African campaign. However, with no shortage of first-person shooters available on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, Finest Hour is—truth be told—barely worth mentioning.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

With the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, 2013 saw Call of Duty: Ghosts bridge the gap between console generations. Unfortunately, the bridge it built wasn't one for the record books.

The fact that Ghosts is still objectively a very, very good game is a testament to just how strong the franchise really is. Nevertheless, everything about the cross-generational title is just so 'meh'—the single-player campaign is as action-packed as ever, but lacks both the star power of future titles and memorable moments of past installments. The story's 'big reveal' is downright laughable, and it only goes downhill from there. Online, the implementation of field orders was more distracting than anything, serving only to encourage individually-minded play.

All in all, Call of Duty's first installment on 2013's oven-fresh next-gen hardware came out a little too undercooked.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Going down as perhaps the most hated entry to date, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was maligned as soon as it was revealed—perhaps unfairly so.

2016 was an absolutely epic year for shooters, as it saw the releases of Doom, Titanfall 2, Gears of War 4, Battlefield 1, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Amidst such a sea of quality competitors, Infinite Warfare failed to stand out from the crowd—and ultimately loosened the franchise's vice grip on the genre. A blockbuster campaign of solar proportions fell victim to some pacing issues, and even Game of Thrones' Kit Harington failed to make a lasting impression. Worse yet, the multiplayer might have even been a downgrade from the previous year's Call of Duty: Black Ops III, though throwing zombies in space was just outrageous enough to work.

Many fans of the series stomached Call of Duty's futuristic push with the phrase: 'As long as they don't make Space CoD.' Well, Infinity Ward did make Space CoD—and it didn't go well.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One officially marked the start of the series' console dominance, though there was still plenty of room to grow.

Also see: Top 5 Bestselling Video Games of All Time

Every Call of Duty Game Ranked by Sales

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: $1.1 Billion

The fourth hottest Call of Duty title is 2009's Modern Warfare 2. Including the Reflex and Mobilized versions, the video game earned $1.08 billion in total sales dollars. It sold 27 million copies all together. Warfare 2 took in $310 million in its first day and $550 million in five days. It set the record for the biggest entertainment release ever.

The critically acclaimed game earned a 94% positive score on critic aggregator Metacritic. The game contains multiple references to the movie The Rock, including a shower room identical to one in the film. There's a level in the game called 'S.S.D.D.' That may be a reference to the phrase, 'Same shit, different day.'

5. Call of Duty: Ghosts: $1.1 Billion

Actually tied for fourth place with $1.1 billion is 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. The game sold 27 million copies worldwide. Almost all the game's sales came in the first 24 hours after its release. Lower sales came despite generally favorable reviews.

The honey badger assault rifle in the game gets its name from an assault rifle. The assault rifle is in turn named for a comedic YouTube video about an eye-poppingly vicious rodent. The game's director, Sylvain Doreau, originally worked as a CG set designer for the 2001 movie Shrek.

Also see: 10 Most Expensive Video Games Ever Made

6. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: $840 Million

2014's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the first title on our list to earn less than $1 billion. The game sold 21 million copies. The soft sales came without generally favorable reviews.

Advanced Warfare delves deep into the world of science fiction. In it, players use exosuits to jump, dash and perform other superhuman feats.

The game stars Kevin Spacey, known for his roles in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects. Spacey and nearly every other character in the game lent their real life appearance to their character in the game.

7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: $716 Million

Coming in at #7 on our list of Call of Duty money makers is 2007's Modern Warfare. The game sold 17.9 million copies and earned $716 million. Modern Warfare enjoyed excellent reviews across most platforms.

The 8th game in the series, Call of Duty 4 is the first to be set in modern times. It took a team of 100 people working two years to construct the game. Some team members attended a live-fire U.S. military training so they could better understand what it feels like to stand near an Abrams tank while it fires. Team members also interviewed real combat veterans to get a sense of the emotion during combat.

Also see: How Much Money Has Every Star Wars Movie Made?

8. Call of Duty: World at War: $628 Million

2008's World at War is the 8th biggest Call of Duty money maker. The game has sold 15.7 million copies to date with earnings of $628 million. The game is set in World War II, in both the European and Pacific theatres.

The game's cast includes stars Gary Oldman and Keifer Sutherland. For motion capture, the game's crew built a full sized replica of a PBY Catalina, a WWII era flying boat used by the Navy.

The game opened to largely favorable reviews. The game includes a Nazi zombie mode that includes shotguns, flamethrowers and ray guns.

9. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3: $592 Million

The #9 biggest Call of Duty money maker on our list is 2015's Black Ops 3. The title has already earned $592 million within the first six weeks of its release. Almost all that cash rolled in during the first three days of sales.

Black Ops III is set in 2065, amid the effects of climate change and a technological revolution. Game play includes robots and cyborg supersoldiers. The game is rife with paranoia about a coming robot takeover.

The game stars Ron Perlman and Jeff Goldblum.

Also see: How Much Money Has Every Marvel Movie Made?

10. Call of Duty 3: $320 Million

#10 on our list is Call of Duty 3. The 2006 game sold 14.8 million copies and earned $320 million. Set entirely in World War II, the game featured multiple campaigns and downloadable content. The game was built in just eight months.

In the game, one character says, 'Today we're on a secret mission to get coffee and doughnuts. Sd2vita tutorial for mac. Problem is, Jerries drank all the coffee and ate all the doughnuts. So we gotta go kick their asses.' This is a riff on Roddy Piper's line from the movie They Live. In the famous line, Piper confronts a group of evil aliens and says, 'I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I am all out of bubble gum.'

Sources:

Activision shareholder reports

Nobody does warfare like Call of Duty, as evidenced by the series' staggering sales figures and universal critical acclaim. Over the years, we've seen the long-running series run the gauntlet from World War II to battling for the solar system, with virtually everything in between. However, as diehard fans will tell you, not all CoDs are created equal, and some are simply better than others. So which is the cream of the crop, and which aren't exactly the straightest of shooters? Let's wade through the trenches—both modern and futuristic—to find out.

(Note that this ranking only includes the series' console and PC entries. Handheld titles like Call of Duty: Roads to Victory and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified are not considered.)

Call of Duty: World at War – Final Fronts

While developers Treyarch were hard at work creating a then current-gen World War II experience for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360, Oxford-based game creators Rebellion Developments Limited were tasked with providing the incredibly successful (but already outdated) PlayStation 2 with its own rendition. The result is Call of Duty: World at War—Final Fronts, and it's the worst Call of Duty to date.

Both enemy and friendly AI are atrociously stupid, and the way they look on the outside isn't much better. The graphics were bad by late-PS2 standards, and certainly seem even uglier now. The campaign is (usually) painfully easy, except when your own CPU-controlled squad-mates push you out from cover and directly into the line of fire. Even worse, a distinct lack of anything original or new left us all wishing our moms would take out a second loan for a PlayStation 3. On top of all that, a complete lack of online multiplayer cemented Final Fronts' hold as the worst mainline console Call of Duty to date.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour

As the franchise's console debut, Call of Duty: Finest Hour is far from what its name implies.

Instead of focusing on one character, Spark Unlimited's entry into the series has players bouncing between three forgettable soldiers from three different WWII armies (Russian, British and American) in a bland, simplified version of what PC gamers had running on their machines. A distinct lack of checkpoints often put a damper on the fun, especially when dealing with some absurdly long escort missions. In every way, shape, and form, Finest Hour would've been finer had it followed in its big brother's—the original Call of Duty's—footsteps.

It wasn't a total failure, of course, as the first CoD on consoles put us in control of some tanks, and plopped us in a particularly interesting North African campaign. However, with no shortage of first-person shooters available on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, Finest Hour is—truth be told—barely worth mentioning.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

With the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, 2013 saw Call of Duty: Ghosts bridge the gap between console generations. Unfortunately, the bridge it built wasn't one for the record books.

The fact that Ghosts is still objectively a very, very good game is a testament to just how strong the franchise really is. Nevertheless, everything about the cross-generational title is just so 'meh'—the single-player campaign is as action-packed as ever, but lacks both the star power of future titles and memorable moments of past installments. The story's 'big reveal' is downright laughable, and it only goes downhill from there. Online, the implementation of field orders was more distracting than anything, serving only to encourage individually-minded play.

All in all, Call of Duty's first installment on 2013's oven-fresh next-gen hardware came out a little too undercooked.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Going down as perhaps the most hated entry to date, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was maligned as soon as it was revealed—perhaps unfairly so.

2016 was an absolutely epic year for shooters, as it saw the releases of Doom, Titanfall 2, Gears of War 4, Battlefield 1, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Amidst such a sea of quality competitors, Infinite Warfare failed to stand out from the crowd—and ultimately loosened the franchise's vice grip on the genre. A blockbuster campaign of solar proportions fell victim to some pacing issues, and even Game of Thrones' Kit Harington failed to make a lasting impression. Worse yet, the multiplayer might have even been a downgrade from the previous year's Call of Duty: Black Ops III, though throwing zombies in space was just outrageous enough to work.

Many fans of the series stomached Call of Duty's futuristic push with the phrase: 'As long as they don't make Space CoD.' Well, Infinity Ward did make Space CoD—and it didn't go well.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One officially marked the start of the series' console dominance, though there was still plenty of room to grow.

By focusing on telling the story of America's 'Fighting First' Infantry Division, a.k.a. the Big Red One, Treyarch's supplement to Call of Duty 2 provided—for the first time—the action-packed, playable war movie the series is now known for. Gameplay mechanics were tight, the action was heavy, and the missions were visually stunning.though the story itself wasn't particularly award-worthy.

Big Red One also allowed for 16-player multiplayer matches on Xbox and PlayStation 2. The modes, however, were anything but revolutionary, with your standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Domination rulesets playable across a variety of maps. While PC gamers might have scoffed at the offering, online multiplayer wasn't yet on mainstream console gamers' radars—so its inclusion was commendable nonetheless.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Call of Duty: Black Ops III falls victim to the same thing that dogs most 'subpar' (but still great) entries in this list—a lack of ingenuity.

Poly bridge 1 0 – bridge building simulator game. Online, things were quite promising. The implementation of a Specialists system changed online multiplayer for the better, allowing players the ability to explore a wide range of characters with unique advantages and disadvantages. However, the fun stopped there, as everything else about Black Ops III's multiplayer felt familiar—which isn't necessarily a bad thing, since (arguably) nobody does competitive online first-person-shooters like the Call of Duty franchise.

Black Ops III's new film-noir take on their now-patented zombie mode was as fresh and unique as it was challenging, and Treyarch's new Nightmare mode put their cookie-cutter campaign to shame. In fact, the single-player campaign is one of the worst they've ever made, forcing you to slog through level after level of whack-a-mole shooting galleries and on-rail action sequences—ultimately weighing this game down to the realm of mediocrity. (Only in comparison to other CoDs, of course.)

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops was met with mixed reviews—and for good reason, since the game is easily the most middle-of-the-road entry in the series' history.

Optimists praised the game's single-player campaign for providing plenty of variety and a memorable atmosphere, while naysayers found Treyarch's attempt at making a psychological thriller ham-fisted and clumsy. The truth is ultimately somewhere in between, as the campaign undoubtedly provided the series with a nice change of pace, while still tripping over itself more times than we would have liked.

Where Black Ops really shined, however, was online. Treyarch built upon the series' already well-established and dominant online multiplayer by implementing both a currency and contract system, neither of which intruded upon one's enjoyment of the game. Wager matches upped the ante for those who were interested, Combat Training made multiplayer enjoyable for anyone, and the return of a zombies mode—while not as remarkable as World at War's—rounded out the very solid package.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty's first proper entry on current-gen consoles was a treat, indeed—but still had a few chinks in its exo-suit.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare featured an excellent campaign, packed with near-futuristic weaponry and powerful exo-suits, and featuring House of Cards' Kevin Spacey as the primary antagonist, with voice acting titan Troy Baker as the primary protagonist. The introductory missions were among the best in the series' history, with a modernized South Korea providing a beautiful backdrop to shoot down clouds of drones. However, the story itself ultimately fell flat and definitely didn't warrant a second playthrough.

Advanced Warfare's multiplayer was also quite excellent, providing ample opportunity to test out the game's fancy new hardware and move sets. Lacking in content it was not, with Call of Duty: Black Ops' Hardpoint making a triumphant return, and Uplink serving as another form of capture the flag for those not interested in literally capturing a flag. Co-op survival was also good fun, assuming you had a friend to help you flip the map.

Call of Duty 3

As the only major Call of Duty entry to not make an appearance on PC, Call of Duty 3 gave console gamers something to brag about.

Treyarch took the already great gameplay mechanics of Call of Duty 2 and made them even better for seventh-generation consoles. Call of Duty 3 first gave players the ability to throw enemy grenades back, while also selectively adding in some timed-button sequences to spice things up. The campaign itself was stunningly gorgeous for its time. Combined with a beautiful score, Call of Duty 3's presentation made for the most cinematic playable war experience we'd ever seen.

Call of Duty 3 also started to properly build the foundations for its killer online multiplayer, allowing 24 players to compete in your standard selection of game modes on Xbox Live. There was no experience-tracking system, but Xbox's online service certainly benefited from Treyarch's call to arms.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Treyarch took their sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops where no entry in the franchise had gone before — into the future! This allowed the title to experiment with weaponry and gadgets in a way that no previous Call of Duty had been able to do, while at the same time empowering the developers to tell a story without the constraints of contemporary plausibility.

That said, nothing about the gameplay was particularly advanced compared to earlier entries in the series. Despite the new setting, the campaign is as typical as ever, with a heavy dose of the nonsensical, as you travel around the world shooting swarms of both bad guys and bad robots in what amounts to, at times, a glitchy, buggy mess. Still, Black Ops II does deserve credit for pioneering player choice in the series, while featuring branching storylines and multiple endings.

The multiplayer, meanwhile, refined everything Call of Duty had done up to that time in its most complete package yet. Changing killstreaks to scorestreaks rewarded team-oriented play, a solid starting kit kept newbies from feeling overwhelmed, and the majority of the maps were brilliantly designed — which all helped justify the game's record-setting success on the market. Black Ops II was Call of Duty at the absolute peak of its prestige and cultural relevance.

Call of Duty

It all has to start somewhere.

In Call of Duty's case, it started in 2003, with a PC-only WWII shooter largely modeled after the now-slumbering Medal of Honor series. Amidst a sea of WWII games flooding the first-person-shooting space, the series' debut stood out as one of the most authentic, action-packed, and fun to play. Instead of providing something truly innovative, Infinity Ward took the best parts of every other WWII game they could get their hands on—such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Battlefield 1942—melded them all together, and fired out a warning shot.

In the online space, the implementation of a kill cam was truly a game changer, but ingenuity stopped there. Instead of rewriting the book, Call of Duty simply relied on tight mechanics, a solid single-player offering, and top-notch graphics.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Coming in as the worst of the franchise's exceptional Modern Warfare series is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.which is still miles better than even the best Black Ops title.

Modern Warfare 3's single-player is its biggest triumph as well as its greatest flaw. For the first time, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer got the scripting right, correctly balancing the story—which underlies actually getting from point A to point B—with non-stop, shoot-'em-all action. Each mission, when taken alone, is exciting and interesting. However, when taken together, Modern Warfare 3's campaign has the least amount of variety, making it feel like a mindless slog through an on-rails shooting gallery without any unique gameplay elements in place to change up the pace.

By this point, however, Call of Duty's online component had become its claim to fame, and Modern Warfare 3 delivered in a big way. You'd be hard-pressed to find a single level which isn't objectively brilliant, and balancing tweaks made the game more legitimately fair than ever. The game's progression system is near-perfect, meaning the only thing stopping you from playing more of MW3's online multiplayer is.well.you.

Call of Duty 2

It's easy to forget that there once was a time when high-profile, cinematic war experiences weren't available to play on your home console every single year. Minecraft mobile review. Call of Duty 2 was one of the first games to truly realize this vision.

Never before had a video game so accurately provided the feeling of being an anonymous soldier in the Second World War. Death chases you from every direction as high-quality sounds of explosions, gunfire, and screams belt out from your sound system. The jump to 720p or 1080p resolutions made the brutality more real than ever, as every detail seemed finely crafted—and every enemy seemed ready to capitalize on your failure to act. The sense of helpless terror amid all the chaos added such sensory overload that one could be forgiven for taking it in small doses.

With solid online and split-screen multiplayer laying the groundwork for the future while adding the icing to an already magnificent cake, Call of Duty 2 remains one of the finest World War II games ever created.

Call of Duty: WWII

It's been nearly a decade since the Call of Duty series last returned to its roots, and 2017's Call of Duty: WWII does so in spectacular fashion—offering great renditions of the series' flagship campaign, multiplayer, and zombies modes.

The campaign is heart-poundingly intense and feels more grounded than many of its competitors—expect to die multiple times while storming the beach at Normandy. Lending further realism to the campaign is the removal of regenerating health, forcing you to use medpacks in order to heal your battle wounds in addition to a relying heavily on squadmates for assistance.

Those unhappy with the increasingly fast-paced, arena shooter-like multiplayer mechanics of recent Call of Duty entries will love WWII, which slows things down in a major way. No more wall-jumping. No more futuristic weapons. All that's left is a classic, grounded multiplayer shooter with extremely well-designed maps—with the welcome additions of an objective-based War mode and Destiny-like pre-match social hub.

Rounding out the superb package is a revamped Nazi zombies mode, which favors the original's horror over recent renditions' campiness. The Nazi experiments are more grotesque than ever, and with multiple ways to progress through the campaign, there's something for zombie fans everywhere.

When all three modes are combined, Call of Duty: WWII is one exceptional package.

Call of Duty: World at War

As the last Call of Duty title to feature a World War II setting (until 2017's Call of Duty: WWII), Call of Duty: World at War remains a stalwart defender of everything great about the series, while also one of the few games to truly push the envelope.

First and foremost, World at War smartly used the exact same game engine as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, making for silky smooth gameplay and impossibly tight mechanics. Secondly, the game's brutality is unmatched by any other entry in the long-running series, truly reminding players just how much they really wouldn't want to be there. WaW is also, by far, the goriest entry to date, and Call of Duty has since toned back the often visceral reminders of what trench guns really do to a human body. And then—of course—there's the flamethrower, which expertly caused the environment to sizzle and burn as you unleashed hell upon the Japanese army.

While not everyone was a fan of World at War's multiplayer, the title also lays claim to creating what is now a franchise staple: zombies. To this date, little can match the excitement and terror of holding down a boarded-up building in some late-night, lights-off couch co-op while wave after wave of Nazi zombies descend upon you from all directions, until you're all inevitably eaten alive.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

By now, you've undoubtedly figured out which Call of Duty holds down the top spot as the greatest entry in the series to date. But nonetheless, with such massive shoes to fill, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 managed to meet—if not exceed—everyone's expectations.

Modern Warfare 2's campaign maintained the excellent standard of quality fans had come to expect from the series with action-packed set pieces and enough drama to keep you on your toes—including a controversial terrorist attack on an airport, in which you and your crew lay waste to hundreds of innocent civilians. However, the campaign was just a bit too short, and the story itself wasn't nearly as cohesive as its predecessor.

Where Modern Warfare 2 manages to actually surpass its older brother is in its online multiplayer. Revamping the loadout system allowed for more customizable gun combinations, while the restructured perk system allowed for them to be upgraded through use, granting secondary abilities. Of course, customizable kill streak rewards permanently changed the game for the better, helping make Modern Warfare 2's online multiplayer not only the best in the series, but one of the best competitive multiplayer experiences ever made.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Was there ever any doubt?

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is not only the greatest game in the series, it's one of the greatest games ever made. The single-player campaign is absolutely packed with memorable moments, from the heart-stopping nuke twist to the ghillie suit climax, ensuring even the most uninterested player can't help but love it. Still, it isn't without its flaws. The single-player campaign is short and it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that doesn't really detract from the overall experience.

While previous entries laid the groundwork for solid online multiplayer, Modern Warfare built an indestructible palace. Sure, Modern Warfare 2 did it better, but one can't discount the fact that Modern Warfare did it first, did it foremost, and did it perfectly. With lightning-fast respawn times, pixel-perfect mechanics, and the assurance that even the best player could get picked off, the non-stop action never ceased to impress. Indeed, it was near impossible to put down, and truly made Call of Duty's online multiplayer the staple it is today.

Modern Warfare is so revered by fans, Activision even remastered it in 2016—proving that the great CoD is just as good today as it was in 2007.