THE STORY OF CALL OF DUTY BEGINS NOT AT ACTIVISION, BUT IN THE BOSOM OF ITS CHIEF RIVAL, EA. THE LATTER PUBLISHER HAD TASKED A DEVELOPER NAMED 2015 INC WITH EXPANDING ITS TERRITORY ONTO PC WITH MEDAL OF HONOR: ALLIED ASSAULT…
IN THE KNOW
» PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION
» DEVELOPER: INFINITY WARD
» RELEASED: 2003
» PLATFORM: PC, MAC
» GENRE: FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER
DEVELOPER HIGHLIGHTS
CALL OF DUTY 2
SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 2005
CALL OF DUTY: WARZONE
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION 4, PC, XBOX ONE
YEAR: 2020
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE III (PICTURED)
SYSTEM: PC, VARIOUS YEAR: 2023
“Steven Spielberg started Medal Of Honor,” says artist Brad Allen. “He sent us a video one time, commending certain things that he was liking in the game as we were progressing. It was super neat to get to work on a Spielberg project.”
Brad’s role at 2015 Inc was his first games industry job. In fact, although the studio had secured a modicum of credibility in first-person shooter circles with its SiN expansion, Wages Of Sin, it was mostly populated by young and inexperienced developers – nearly all of whom had travelled to Tulsa, Oklahoma from elsewhere in America to seize their breakthrough opportunity. “I had moved out there from California, so it was a bit of a culture shock,” Brad says. “But it was really fun.”
Robert Field, a modder who had built the enemy AI for Quake’s popular Frogbot, was even further from home. He arrived at Tulsa International Airport on 15 December 2000, when development on Allied Assault was already underway. “I’m from Brisbane in Australia, so walking around in the snow in Tulsa was interesting,” he says. “We even had a tornado once.”
The weather was tolerable because the work was fulfilling. With the Nineties over, Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault looked like the future. “To me, up until that point, a lot of games were hyper-coloured and bright and shiny, and this was not,” Brad says. “This was subdued and realistic looking, and all the colours were drab. It was much more rich and interesting, the way they were presenting it.”
The foundations for Call Of Duty were set here, in the shadow of Spielberg. In place of the machismo of Doom and Duke Nukem was a more subtle sense of historic pride, mingled with sadness and a sense of sacrifice. Your avatar wasn’t a superman, but a vulnerable soldier victimised by World War II, attempting to carry out hair-raising orders as best they could. This was an interactive Saving Private Rya
