Call of Duty

The Call of Duty series is Activision's biggest property, but it began as a splinter of the recently-defeated Medal of Honor series. Like that series, it is a World War II and Modern Warfare first-person shooter that focuses on bombastic action and immersive setpieces.

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Call of Duty

Call of Duty is the first game in the series, published exclusively for PC. It was based on the Quake III Arena engine and was released on October 29, 2003. Developed by ex-Medal of Honor developers Infinity Ward, the game released to massive critical accclaim and soon spawned off a series of consol offshoots.=

Call of Duty 2

Call Of Duty 2 is the sequel to Call Of Duty, and marks the first time that a core entry in the series was released on consoles simultaneously with the PC release. It was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for the PC and Xbox 360. It casts players as soldiers from the Red Army, British Army, and United States Army in World War II. It was released on October 25, 2005 for PC, and November 15, 2005 for Xbox 360. A Mac OS X release came later, on June 13, 2006.

Call of Duty 3

Call Of Duty 3 is the FPS sequel to Call of Duty 2, and marks the first of Actiision's annual release platform. It was developed by Treyarch, and marked the first core installment in the series not developed by Infinity Ward. It released for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Xbox.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare marked the first installment in the series that was not set in World War II. It was also the first title in the series to receive a Mature rating from the ESRB as opposed to a Teen. At the time, it was the most successful game in the franchise, and to date it has sold over 13 million copies.

Activision was notoriously hesitant to bring the series to a modern setting, afraid that the game would no longer sell if it wasn't set in World War II.

Call of Duty: World At War

World at War was the second annual Call of Duty title developed by Treyarch, and was noted as a much more polished and quick game than Call of Duty 3 was. The game took numerous cues from Modern Warfare, setting the multiplayer in the same framework of leveling up and decking your character out with Perks and Killstreaks. It marked the first time that a number didn't appear at the end of a core Call of Duty title.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the sequel to Infinity Ward's best-selling Modern Warfare, and marked the first time in franchise history that the core title number was replaced by a sub-series number, thus placing greater weight on the Modern Warfare name on a higher pedestal than the Call of Duty name.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call Of Duty: Black Ops was Treyarch's second attempt at creating a sub-series comparable to the Modern Warfare subseries, after World at War failed to outsell Modern Warfare in 2008. After seeing that modern combat was so much more popular than World War II combat, Activision sent Treyarch packing into the (comparable) future of the Cold War and the Vietnam War. It cast players as black ops agents working in the shadows of the wars, doing dirty work and assassinations. It was framed as an interrogation, with players solving a mystery as they traveled through the lead character's memories via flashbacks. It went on to outsell its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, cementing it as a massive success for the developer and paving the way for them to be the lead developer on the Call of Duty franchise as of 2012.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 released in 2011 for all major consoles and PC, and marked the supposed end to Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare trilogy and the story of its leads, Soap and Price. It was condemned by some critics for not making any major changes to the core formula of the game and relying too heavily on scripting. Other critics praised the game for the high quality of its shooting and seamlessness of the aforementioned scripting.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Call Of Duty: Black Ops II is the latest Call of Duty release, and the first direct subseries sequel developed by Treyarch. Instead of revisiting the Vietnam War of the original Black Ops, the second game throws players into the future and gives context to a fully automated war using flashbacks to the Cold War era and beyond. The game features numerous new technologies based on Drones, and sports an upgraded graphics engine and branching story paths.