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Call of Duty Field Manual
Acclaimed for its immersive gameplay and thrilling storylines, Call of Duty® has captivated millions of players worldwide since the release of its first game in 2003. Call of Duty®: Field Manual is an engrossing collector's item for fans of the series. Presented as an official combat-issued handbook that has been misplaced by its owner, the book pairs stunning original illustrations with an engaging narrative that showcases the statistics and history of the essential units, vehicles, weapons, and battlegrounds.
112 pages, Hardcover
Published November 3, 2017
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About the author
Micky Neilson
63 books59 followersMicky Neilson is a two-time New York Times best-selling author whose graphic novels, Ashbringer (#2 on the list) and Pearl of Pandaria (#3) have both been published in six languages. As one of the first writers at Blizzard Entertainment, he has more than two decades of experience in the cutting edge of the gaming industry. He has self-published three horror novels in his original series The Turning, on Amazon. In 2017 Micky was tapped to write The Howling: Revenge Of The Werewolf Queen, a comic book continuation of the beloved 1981 Joe Dante horror film The Howling. In 2018 Micky completed his first original sci-fi novel, Ridgerunners, and co-wrote the graphic novel The Invisible Empire: Madge Oberholtzer And The Unmasking Of The KKK, as well as the illustrated novel Strange Highways. Most recently Micky wrote the bestselling book The Art Of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy and completed his sci-fi trilogy Skiptracer. Micky lives in beautiful Washington State with his wife and daughter where he enjoys life's essentials: movies, comic books, chocolate and sushi.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 25, 2025
The Call of Duty WWII Field Manual is extremely dull. The Goodreads description paints it as some cool collector's item with an engaging narrative, but let me assure you: This is as much of a paint-by-numbers WWII guidebook as you can possibly find.
This field manual was an odd choice to begin with. The narrative of the Call of Duty WWII game isn't especially character-centric, and it takes place in the real world during the real second world war - so what would differentiate this product from the mass of guides written by historians or at least created with more of a historical-educational purpose?
Turns out, Micky Neilson didn't come upon a way to make this feel particularly like Call of Duty. It's literally just a basic beginner's guide to the western front in WWII, that painstakingly lists and describes weapons, vehicles, and uniforms. It covers what you'll see in the game, but not in a way that tells you anything about the game -- or even anything interesting about the items themselves. Prepare yourself for a lot of "this model gun was made in this year and has these specifications, then they made an update with these changes in this other year and here's the new model number". I don't think I've ever spent so much time reading model numbers for guns and vehicles, and I didn't particularly enjoy it.
If you've read other in-universe media like this (including others from publisher Insight Editions), you may be wondering about some extra goodies to supplement the manual itself -- things that make it feel used and like it came from the actual world of the game. Bad news here too, unfortunately: This is supposedly game protagonist "Red" Daniels' manual, and Red is as boring as can be. There are a few letters to his sweetheart back in Texas, but they're the same generic fare you've probably read dozens of times. There are some pictures from the game, but they don't depict anything interesting -- and while they're period-accurate in not being high-quality photos, that also means they're a bit hard to make out. And there are in-line notes from Red as well -- but rather than giving insight into his experiences in the game, they're almost all extremely generic comments, some of the most timid sarcasm imaginable, or bad jokes. Completely boring and devoid of real humanity.
The Call of Duty WWII Field Manual isn't the worst thing I've ever read. It's not totally offensively horrible. But it is one of the most boring and pointless things I've ever read: If you want Call of Duty, go play Call of Duty. And if you want World War II, there's so much other, better, literature out there for you (I'm pretty sure you can read *actual* field manuals online, for example). Whoever you are, if you're reading this, skip it.
This field manual was an odd choice to begin with. The narrative of the Call of Duty WWII game isn't especially character-centric, and it takes place in the real world during the real second world war - so what would differentiate this product from the mass of guides written by historians or at least created with more of a historical-educational purpose?
Turns out, Micky Neilson didn't come upon a way to make this feel particularly like Call of Duty. It's literally just a basic beginner's guide to the western front in WWII, that painstakingly lists and describes weapons, vehicles, and uniforms. It covers what you'll see in the game, but not in a way that tells you anything about the game -- or even anything interesting about the items themselves. Prepare yourself for a lot of "this model gun was made in this year and has these specifications, then they made an update with these changes in this other year and here's the new model number". I don't think I've ever spent so much time reading model numbers for guns and vehicles, and I didn't particularly enjoy it.
If you've read other in-universe media like this (including others from publisher Insight Editions), you may be wondering about some extra goodies to supplement the manual itself -- things that make it feel used and like it came from the actual world of the game. Bad news here too, unfortunately: This is supposedly game protagonist "Red" Daniels' manual, and Red is as boring as can be. There are a few letters to his sweetheart back in Texas, but they're the same generic fare you've probably read dozens of times. There are some pictures from the game, but they don't depict anything interesting -- and while they're period-accurate in not being high-quality photos, that also means they're a bit hard to make out. And there are in-line notes from Red as well -- but rather than giving insight into his experiences in the game, they're almost all extremely generic comments, some of the most timid sarcasm imaginable, or bad jokes. Completely boring and devoid of real humanity.
The Call of Duty WWII Field Manual isn't the worst thing I've ever read. It's not totally offensively horrible. But it is one of the most boring and pointless things I've ever read: If you want Call of Duty, go play Call of Duty. And if you want World War II, there's so much other, better, literature out there for you (I'm pretty sure you can read *actual* field manuals online, for example). Whoever you are, if you're reading this, skip it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review