If you’re not playing Call of Duty right now, you’re wasting your time. Screw classes, homework, your job, and any social obligations. Get yourself a copy of this game and plug into the most intense computer game experience of your life.

Call of Duty - PC

If you’re still here, you must need convincing, or just not know what I’m talking about. Call of Duty is the latest and best in a recent trend of World War II themed action shooters. Unlike its predecessors, like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Battlefield 1942, and Medal of Honor, Call of Duty immerses you in a total sensory experience. Every sight and sound sucks you into the game world, making you feel like you’re in the middle of the action.

In Call of Duty you’ll take part in three separate chapters, in which you’ll play an American paratrooper, a British commando, and a Russian foot soldier. The game opens as your paratrooper is air-dropped into the middle of enemy territory on D-Day. You set up a landing beacon, and suddenly hundreds of friendly troops drop all around you.

As they begin to organize and form a perimeter, German troops attack, drawn by the beacon. You’re thrown into the middle of a huge, noisy, confused firefight—crossfire is everywhere, machine-gun nests rip through your comrades, and fiery grenade explosions light the sky. The game-play never lets up—while battles may be disorienting, a handy objective-directed compass keeps you on course through the whole game.

Call of Duty is primarily squad-based, though unlike most other squad-based first person shooters, you’re not in the command seat. Instead, your company receives orders from a commanding officer – you act as an influential member of that team, but you’re hardly the only active agent.

Herein lies the most mind-blowing aspect of the game: squad AI. Your squad-mates (and your enemies) duck, weave, shoot, and die just like real people. They support each other, provide cover fire when you huck a grenade, hit the dirt in response to incoming fire, and move forward dynamically as paths are cleared. Nearly all of it is unscripted, and without input from the player. The enemy AI can be frustratingly difficult at times, but the game helps you along at each step, and the quicksave/quickload option comes in very handy.

Graphically, Call of Duty is surprisingly simple. Built on the Quake III engine, it lacks many of the bells and whistles of its contemporaries. But what Activision has done with the engine boggles the mind. Planes swoop by, spitting bullets at ground troops—blood spatters, helmets roll, bombs blast dirt high into the air.

The textures aren’t as sharp as in Unreal II, the models aren’t as high-polygon as in Halo, and the physics engine is nowhere as complex as that of Max Payne 2. But none of these games sports half the artistry of presentation seen in Call of Duty.

One of the most stunning aspects of Call of Duty is how damn noisy it is. During the battle scenes, there is a constant flood of sound—gunfire, screams, explosions, and zooming airplanes remind you that death is all around. Each sound is rendered in precise detail - bullets crack as they pass your head and thud wetly as they enter your body. The only relief you get is if a mortar lands a little too close—time slows, your view becomes nauseatingly warped, and the only sound is the ringing of your damaged ears.

If you remain unconvinced, allow me to expound: Call of Duty is the best single-player action experience yet on the PC. It is far and away the best World War II shooter ever made. It is very high on the list of best PC games ever made. If you do not play this game, you’re turning your back on great literature—you’re snubbing high art. Go get it. Play it. Now.

Highs: Totally immersive, cinematic game-play, graphically and sonically brilliant.

Lows: Can be very challenging, has little replay value.

Rating: 95%—Excellent

I review all computer games on the following system and performance may vary: AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 1.83 Ghz; 768MB of RAM; GeForce 4 Ti4200; Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer.