World War II-themed first person shooters: They’ve been everywhere on the PC since the boxoffice success of Saving Private Ryan, to the point of almost becoming a cliche. For a while there, a few Vietnam shooters were tried, until people figured out that hey, the Vietnam war wasn’t exactly all glory for the U.S. So now a new crop of WWII shooters are on the rise, and this fall’s Call of Duty is set to de-throne the reigning king of the genre, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

The single-player demo of Call of Duty arrived at 8 p.m. eastern last night, and my BitTorrent client was crunching away on it just minutes later. After a little while, I had the game installed and ready to go—and I was promptly floored. I thought WWII action couldn’t get much more realistic than MOHAA, but CoD makes the former look like a child’s game. This is absolutely, positively the one title you must buy this fall if you enjoy WWII action games as much as I do.

CoD is different from MOHAA in that it is a squad-based single-player military FPS. Whereas MOHAA had you playing the part of just one man (who was sometimes joined by a small squad of three or four men), the CoD demo sets you in the midst of an entire company of paratroopers who have dropped into enemy territory on D-Day. The realism of the battlefield is like nothing you’ve ever seen. Not just because of the sheer number of soldiers—you really get the feeling you’re fighting against an entire legion of men, not just a handful of them here and here—but because of the graphic effects of combat all around you.

In the opening moments of the demo, you find youself sneaking up a hill with your company of soldiers, all poised and ready to capture a French farmtown that’s been occupied by the Nazis. As you proceed through the inky darkness, careful to avoid the dead cattle lying at your feet, the roiling black sky above you flashes with the distant light of explosions and aircraft weaponry. The clouds glow with hellfire as though lit from within, and anti-aircraft fire streams upwards into the night. Then the ground team begins shooting.

You are at the edge of town, where the Germans are fully entrenched and are now firing upon your men with mounted MG-42s. The machinegun fire chips and splinters away at the wooden fence that provides your only cover as you lie prone, steadying your carbine on one shoulder. Pressing the right mouse button, you bring up your rifle and look down the sight, lining up your reticle with the Nazi soldier behind the MG-42. Overhead, a warplane screams its final cries of death as it plummets, trailing white-hot streamers of fire, into a ball of flaming wreckage on the other side of the field.

Such is the atmosphere of the first few moments of the Call of Duty demo. This truly is the most realistic WWII gaming experience I’ve seen yet. You start out with a carbine, a Thompson submachine gun, a Colt M1911A1 and grenades. If you want to pick up additional weapons along the way—such as an MP-40 dropped by the Nazi you just fragged, or the M1 Garand belonging to the poor dead fellow next to you—you must swap the new weapon for one you’re already carrying. This prevents the player from walking around with an unrealistic five rifles and three machine guns at a time, like what’s possible in MOHAA.

Furthermore, the weapons themselves behave in a more realistic manner in CoD. There’s no rocksteady scope on your carbine; you have to physically bring up the rifle and look down its actual sight to line up a precise target. Fans of Counter-Strike will be familiar with this, as it’s done in much the same way. Weapon sound effects are all fantastic, with much more punch than those in MOHAA, although the excellent foley sounds (weapon handling, cocking, reloading, and soforth) from MOHAA are still unmatched.

Your Captain will shout orders to you as you progress. He might order your squad to “Move up!” on an enemy position, or “Keep your head down!” if the area is being blanketed with machinegun fire. Use your carbine to pick off a pesky German machinegunner, and your Captain might congratulate you with: “Good job, son!”

It’s an incredible feeling, crouched behind a brick wall in the middle of a line of a dozen other allied soldiers, all trading bullets with Nazis holed up in building across the street. The German rounds chip away at the brick wall with perfectly authentic sounds, and the AI is actually fantastic—on both sides. Your allies won’t get in your way while you’re shooting, and if you move behind one of them, he’ll actually get out of your way—but only if you’re at the same level as him. For instance, if he’s crouching and you’re standing, you can shoot over his head, so he won’t move. But if you’re both crouching, he’ll get his ass out of your line of fire. I love it!

The German AI is good, too. During standoffs like the one I just mentioned, the Nazis won’t come pouring out of the buildings shooting haphazardly at you until you pick them off. They’ll take cover too, and they’ll stay there. You can’t just sit around and wait for the AI to get “bored” and come charging at you. You need to wait for the moment when those soldiers peek out to shoot at you—which is, of course, what they’re waiting for you to do as well. This may sound tedious, but it’s really not—the AI is programmed in just such a way that the battles do progress in an entertaining fashion, while at the same time not being simple point-and-shoot clickfests.

I would have taken actual screenshots from the demo for you to see—in fact, I took 65 of them by pressing F12 nearly constantly during the game. Much to my irritation, however, when I opened up those JPEGs, they were all pure black. RAGE! So, my advice is to use FRAPS if you want screen captures. Maybe it’s an “ATI thing.” (Wouldn’t be the first time….grumble.)

All-in-all, if you want to experience the finest WWII first-person-shooter action you’ve ever seen on your PC, you’ve got to go grab the Call of Duty demo—and then pick up the full version when it hits shelves this fall. This is just another reason why it’s good to be a PC gamer. (Console owners get their own version of the game, Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Visit the official site for more information on this version.)

You can grab the Call of Duty PC single-player demo from 3D Gamers, among other sites. It’s a 174 MB download.