World War 2 is fast becoming one of the most popular subjects of both movies and games – and for good reason. No other war had such a huge range of tactics, equipment, ornations involved to the degree seen in WW2, and just about everyone can agree with thereasons behind the war.

2015 created the excellent WW2 first person shooter Medal of Honor: Allied Assault which was met with great sales and critical acclaim for its excellent atmosphere, intensegameplay, and cinematic feel. Since MOH was released, a whole bunch of the guys at 2015have left to start a new company, Infinity Ward. They’ve been working on Call ofDuty, which looks to be far beyond what MOH gave us in terms of immersion & gameplay.At Quakecon 2003 we sat down with Infinity Ward’s Vince Zampella and Jason West to talkabout Call of Duty’s single player campaign, multiplayer modes, Hollywood voice acting,mod capabilities, and more.

It is clear from the start that both Vince and Jason absolutely love this game; they are very proud of the accomplishment so far, and were eager to get people onto thedemo computers to try Call of Duty. While Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was definitelya great game, it seems that few were satisfied with its abrupt conclusion only five toseven hours from the start. This is clearly a point that Infinity Ward has paid attention to, as the game will send you out on three campaigns from the US, English, andRussian perspectives of the war – then onto a final campaign that takes place in Berlin.Vince explained how these are going to be very different when it comes to the number ofguys in your squad, your firepower, and the style of missions.

The US campaign usually follows the formula of an all-out tactical assault with plentyof powerful weapons and lots of enemies to kill. The English campaign, though, slowsthings down a bit and gives you a tight-knit group of guys with a slightly largeremphasis on stealth and a more goal-oriented style. Finally, the Russian campaignmeans you’ll have overpowering numbers but with inferior morale and equipment – yourown CO’s actually shoot deserters in these missions. We also learned that the gamewill actually show us over 250 soldiers (276 to be exact) on-screen at once during onemission in the Russian campaign, and that each soldier has his own AI workingconstantly.

Jason did mention the number of characters on screen once, and commented on that onezen “moment” with tons of characters all in a single, heated battle: “in massivemultiplayer games, if you work all weekend, you might organize a bunch of peopleand finally get that moment. But it’s so nice to just start a single player game andjust make it. There’s the moment.”

Vince explained how each nation’s campaign starts. In the US campaign, “the gamestarts out on D-Day, but you start out as a pathfinder – as one of the airborne guysthat dropped in early.” The English campaign has you playing as a different soldier,but it also starts on D-Day – in the real war, “they went in on unpowered gliders,landed behind enemylines, completely outnumbered” in order to take strategic points to let the Alliedarmor through after the initial invasion. And that’s what you’ll be doing in Callof Duty.

The Russian campaign is “at the end of the game; it’s more difficult. You start outat Stalingrad, without a weapon, not trained, not well equipped. It’s differenttactics.” But eventually, Jason says, “you grow into becoming a Russian sniper, turning the tide from afar.” If that idea sounds familiar (it was played out in thefilm Enemy at the Gates), then you’ll know where Infinity Ward is coming from. Only,there won’t be a love story – just lots of bullets flying.

Pacing is also something important to the guys at IW, as they have set up missions insuch an order that you might do one or two intense, action-based levels, and then astealth mission or a car ride (with mounted machine guns for you to fire, of course)to break up the standard WW2 FPS gameplay.

When it comes to modding, Infinity Ward seems to be very serious. We are assured thatthe game will have a full SDK and plenty of tools, including access to the powerfulscripting language that controls the excellent AI – example code will be thrown inas well. Unlike Battlefield 1942 which so far has had only spotty supportfor modmakers, Call of Duty should be a modder’s dream.