Call of Duty: Where’s my Flux Capacitor?

Call of Duty emerged in 2003, bringing another WWII FPS into our hands. The tight narrative was a prominent feature, enveloping players into the story of the game. With Activision using a “leapfrog strategy,” alternating between Infinity Ward and Treyarch, and now finishing development on CoD5: World at War, what’s expected for the future?

Given current events worldwide, Infinity Ward’s development of Call of Duty 4 and bringing it into modern day was a risky choice. A storyline that dealt with terrorists and nuclear war, along with an ending that actually had me shedding a tear; Infinity Ward proved again that they could design a game that walked the fence on historical content and still created a triple-A title. Now Treyarch is developing Call of Duty: World at War, and taking it back to World War II on the Pacific Theatre and Eastern battles. After living through CoD4, it is hard to imagine gamers wanting to head back in time again for another WWII game. We should not keep reliving the last Great War, but try to stop another one.

Even if the developers wanted to keep creating games that occur in the past, there are other theaters from which to take inspiration. Vietnam or the Korean War are conflicts that have not been recycled as much as WWII. Then again, with CoD4 revealing the potential of current event-based gaming, why would we want to travel back in the past ever again? Treyarch is going back to the pot, developing what is familiar, and introducing new abilities that we probably won’t care about. A new feature added to the game is swimming elements. Meaning water will slow the player down. Really, isn’t that what water does?

According to Joystiq, the rumor was that Infinity Ward was going to move forward with a futuristic setting for their new game. I think moving in that direction is positive as long as we don’t get ray guns or wrist mounted mini-nukes. If the future setting was used, why not use the Future Force program, currently being developed by the US military, as a solid base. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter used some of the applications of this program in game and with the potential that Infinity Ward has, seeing a completed game with the newest R&D technology possible would create great multiplayer opportunities or co-op playability.

Past or Future?

Call of Duty has done its tenure in the past, and should move to the future. The only time Call of Duty should ever revisit the past would be a game that had the player participate in great campaigns throughout history. We are using next-gen technology; let’s see stories and gameplay that use it as well.