One game in contemporary times that unites the trio of the past, the present and the future is the Call of Duty games (CoD); a first-person shooter video game which began on Microsoft Windows before expanding into video game consoles and handheld gaming devices. The first game of the series had a World War II theme while modern and future games all have and will have themes that are futuristic as the developers of the game continue to give gamers a peek into what modern warfare would look like albeit having virtual entertainment primarily in mind.
Since the first Call of Duty game was released in the year 2003, several other main series and spin-offs of the franchise have all been successfully released and sold in the market. From this, over 250 million copies of the series have been purchased totaling about $15 billion in sales. It is then therefore interesting to know which games have made this creation of Activision a huge success in the global market of video games.
Call of Duty Games
After over a decade and half of its first introduction, the game franchise has introduced games where players play with a rudimentary arsenal to more sophisticated and futuristic weaponry. To achieve this, the following games were built with any of IW engine, the Treyarch NGL and id Tech 3 game engines as their need are.
Main Series
1. Call of Duty
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Infinity Ward | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Nintendo DS, Windows Mobile | October 29, 2003 |
It all began here with the infantry and combined arms in World War II portraying the American and British paratroopers and the Red Army. The maiden Call of Duty was distinct from the normal sci-fi inspired games in its time as it was more realistic with a natural environment and real life/combat realities of a soldier limited to only two weapons. The player had no pickups other than health and ammo and was also less mobile. In the course of playing the game, you will have to play as an American, British and Soviet soldier in the various stages of your virtual participation in World War II. Every fan of Call of Duty games started here.
2. Call of Duty 2
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Infinity Ward | Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Nintendo DS | October 5, 2005 |
This is the second of the World War II Call of Duty games. The graphics were much better compared to the first just as the addition of enemy grenade indicators and automatic health regeneration encouraged players to be a lot more adventurous in the fast-paced game. The storyline remained mostly the same as the player played in a more combat rich environment in America, British and Soviet campaigns.
3. Call of Duty 3
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Treyarch | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii | November 7, 2006 |
Call of Duty 3 became the first of the Call of Duty Games to be originally released on a computer platform. The game narrates the war times and events of the American, Canadian, British, French Resistance and Polish armies in the Falaise Gap after the D-Day (Normandy landing of Tuesday 6 June 1944 in Operation Overlord). The major changes the series came with was the introduction of vehicles for multiplayer mode and of course better graphics as expected. The storyline featured a single campaign from the views of 4 different protagonists.
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Infinity Ward | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, OS X | November 5, 2007 |
As the name suggests, Modern Warfare marked a paradigm shift from the World War II theme of its predecessors as it was set with modern time warfare in mind. It typically featured combat in Russia and the Middle East with both American and British protagonist who had an assorted array of arsenal at his disposal. The release of this game marked the beginning of greater things to come in the Call of Duty games.
5. Call of Duty: World at War
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Treyarch | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows | November 11, 2008 |
Activision showed they really had a thing for the original World War II theme of the Call of Duty games. It was probably, for this reason, they went back in time to it and released the 5th of the game series; Call of Duty: World at War. The storyline remained the same with an option of a campaign either a single or multiplayer centered around the Pacific and the Eastern Front. A zombie defense mode was also introduced in the multiplayer version.
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Infinity Ward | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, OS X | November 10, 2009 |
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game retained much of what was in its predecessor but had the addition of a “Spec Ops” mode where a player can embark on a series of separate missions either as a single player or with another player.
7. Call of Duty: Black Ops
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date | |
Treyarch | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, OS X |
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Though Call of Duty games owes some of its success to its non-sci-fi warfare storyline, it would be insensitive to assume that that games that have such storyline were not doing well. Prolly for this reason, Black Ops was introduced as it centered on fictional events; machinations and their operations taking place during the cold war and partially in the Vietnam war. It retained much of the characteristics of the series but with a protagonist that can talk, in-depth and more precise character customization as well as a zombie mode.
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Developers | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, OS X | November 8, 2011 |
The major addition to this series was the “Survival” co-op mode which saw players defending their ground against waves of enemy attacks, combat was more intense and the need for survival became a natural instinct of the player in the game. MW3 was so successful that it was reported to have sold over 30.71 million copies worldwide.
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Treyarch | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U, Microsoft Windows. | November 13, 2012 |
Activision maintained the tradition of having a follow up for some of its series. Black Ops II came as a follow up to its predecessor – Call of Duty: Black Ops and had the main addition of being set in two time periods; 1980s and 2025. One of the main improvements in this particular game was the introduction of a weapons progression system where the player unlocks more sophisticated weapons as he progresses in the game.
10. Call of Duty: Ghosts
Developers | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Infinity Ward, Neversoft, and Raven Software | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U, Microsoft Windows | November 5, 2013 |
The Call of Duty games continued coming out with a modern or perhaps futuristic wartime theme with a touch of sci-fi seen in previous games. Call of Duty: Ghosts was another new addition with lots of things to thrill the player with: there was a new cast of characters, the introduction of an animal; a German Shepherd dog named Riley and many realistic combat environments. Ghosts heralded the coming of more sci-fi games from the series before they went back to the original World War II installment.
11. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Developers | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Sledgehammer Games in collaboration with Raven Software and High Moon Studios | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows | November 4, 2014 |
One of the spectacular things about Call of Duty Games is their ability to bring to the present what was before now and at the same time give us a peek into what will be in the future. With Advanced Warfare, an Exoskeleton suit which improved character mobility for faster gameplay was introduced in addition to the player having a health boost, cloaking ability and a portable shield to withstand enemy fire. If you like feeling indestructible in a game, you will definitely take a liking to this game once you try it out.
12. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Treyarch | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows | November 6, 2015 |
Black Ops III went further into the future precisely in the year 2063 when a breed of Black Ops soldiers emerges as a battle between human and military robots ensues. There is an option of customizing your character just as the thrill of 4-player co-op was not eliminated in the game.
13. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Infinity Ward | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows | November 4, 2016 |
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare code-named COD: IW took a complete departure from the earth-themed combat events the Call of Duty games have been much associated with. In this installment, you will play as a certain Captain Nick Reyes a Tier 1 Special Operations pilot who leads the remaining forces to fight in space after an attack on earth leaves the planet devasted. The multiplayer mode was retained while the option of players crafting their own weapons was introduced for various campaigns as they fight in a zero-gravity environment.
14. Call of Duty: WWII
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Sledgehammer Games | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows | November 3, 2017 |
After many changes in mobility and weaponry have been made in the Call of Duty games of various installments, Activision thought it best to revisit their roots with an aptly named game called Call of Duty: WWII. The game came void of advanced technology, sci-fi, automatic health regeneration and a couple of other things the modern and futuristic themed series has been characterized with. You will begin life in this game as you land with a squad in the 1st Infantry Division, in Normandy on the D-Day then fight your way through Europe as the horrors and thrills (if any) of the events of World War II unfold before you in Operation Overlord.
15. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Treyarch | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows | October 12, 2018* |
Just like World War II, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was devoid of automatic health regeneration but still retained customization options and weapons progression like the previous Black Ops installment – Black Ops III. In addition to this, the single-player option which Call of Duty games seems to owe much of its success to was thought irrelevant in this series as it came in a battle royale mode with fluid multi-player setting and a wide array of zombies.
Spin-offs/Other Games
16. Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Spark Unlimited | GameCube, Nintendo, PlayStation 2, and Xbox | November 16, 2004 |
Call of Duty: Finest Hour retained the World War II theme of the first Call of Duty game. It consists of three main campaigns in the Eastern front (Soviet), North African (British) and the Western Front (American). You will have to play through The Battle of Stalingrad in the Soviet campaign, embark on a night raid in Matmata with a commando team in the British campaign and finally advance into Germany in the American campaign.
17. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Developer | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Treyarch | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube | November 1, 2005 |
The second spin-off to the Call of Duty series came as the CoD2: Big Red One. It focused on the combat lives of the Big Red One; the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division not explored in the original game Call of Duty 2. The game began with a North Africa Campaign, invasion of Sicily, the Omaha Beach landing in Europe and the crossing of the Siegfried Line into Germany.
18. Call of Duty: Roads to Victory
Developer | Platform and Supported Device | Release Date |
Amaze Entertainment | PlayStation Portable | March 13, 2007 |
CoD Road to Victory is the spin-off to Call of Duty 3. There are three campaigns a player will have to play through in the game viz the American, Canadian, and the British campaign with various operations in each campaign. The game, however, was not as successful as most of other Call of Duty games as it was marred with several glitches during gameplay.
19. Call of Duty: World at War – Final Fronts
Developer | Platform and Supported Device | Release Date |
Rebellion Developments | PlayStation 2 | November 10, 2008 |
CoD World at War – Final Fronts was developed and released entirely for the PlayStation 2 gaming console. It had its own set of distinct missions with the U.S army fighting in the Pacific region, Battle of the Bulge in Europe, and the British advancing on the Rhine River into Germany. The gameplay, however, remained unchanged like other Call of Duty games.
20. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized
Developer | Platform and Supported Device | Release Date |
n-Space | Nintendo DS | November 10, 2009 |
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized was solely for the handheld Nintendo DS. It retained much of the theme of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in addition to spotting new weapons, vehicles, usage of spy drones, an AC-130 gunship and hacking of computer terminals. The game received several positive reviews but not as much as that received by the original series.
21. Call of Duty: Zombies
Developers | Platforms and Supported Devices | Release Date |
Ideaworks Game Studio, Treyarch | iOS, Android | November 16, 2009 |
CoD Zombies was adapted from the Zombie mode of Call of Duty: World at War with three maps: Verrückt, Shi No Numa, and Der Riese a player will play through. It was developed for mobile devices and basically, a player will have to defend a German bunker from waves of zombie attacks from SS soldiers.
22. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies
Developers | Platform and Supported Device | Release Date |
Ideaworks Game Studio | iOS, Android | December 1, 2011 |
Continuing with the zombie theme spin-offs, Black Ops – Zombies was released entirely for the thrill of mobile users who are avid fans of zombie-themed games. The game had an option of 2-4 players to play in a co-op mode with several other new enhancements made to the general mechanics of play while still retaining the taste of all Call of Duty Games.
23. Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified
Developer | Platform and Supported Device | Release Date |
nStigate Games | PlayStation Vita | November 13, 2012 |
Black Ops: Declassified is a spin-off of the series introduced to fill the gap between Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops II. Its single-player mode was styled in an objective mission setting where players can revisit previously concluded missions to perform better. In its multi-player mode, you have the liberty of playing with 3 of your friends (4 in all) in the various missions you will take up throughout the game.
Sadly, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified wasn’t much a success as it had several glitches and design flaw that hampered the overall thrill of the game.
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24. Call of Duty: Strike Team
Developer | Platform and Supported Device | Release Date |
The Blast Furnace | iOS, Android | September 5, 2013 |
Call of Duty: Strike Team was set in the year 2020 where the mission of the player will be to lead a special team that will hunt down those responsible for putting the world in chaos. The game came with an option of your being able to customize your team’s weaponry before setting out to take down the bad guys
25. Call of Duty: Heroes
Developer | Platform and Supported Device | Release Date |
Faceroll Games | iOS, Android | November 26, 2014 |
In CoD Heroes, you will have a wide array of drones, elite soldiers and heroes at your disposal as you battle in its 3D combat environment. The game is similar to Clash of Clans as players have the ability to move their army – called Units in the game to any position they want and have them attack from there. In addition to this, players will also have to build up their base with defensive structures to prevent enemy attacks. In all, this is one Call of Duty game that seems distinct from what the franchise is known for.