Five Reasons to Hate Call of Duty

Let me just start by saying that I used to like Call of Duty, and I started playing them back on Call of Duty 2: the Big Red One. That being said the games kept getting better all the way up until Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops came out, after those two the games started to get worse. For instance Modern Warfare 3 was basically the same thing that Modern Warfare 2 was. As the series went on, the quality kept falling (though to be fair, Call of Duty: Ghosts was a little better). Below are some of the reasons that I think that are causing the series to decrease in quality.

1. Decreasing Story Quality

The original Call of Duty games were mostly, if not wholly, made for the story mode or campaign. Since then, the series has been gradually becoming increasingly about the multiplayer, and less about the story mode of the game. This in and of itself is not a bad thing, however it has gotten to the point where it almost seems that the only reason that the campaign is there is to have somewhere to make the multiplayer levels from. I mean honestly nobody plays their campaigns anymore because they feel like it was left to the unpaid interns to make, while the rest of the team would work on the multiplayer. In addition to that in the newest installment of the series you cannot even pick up the guns from the enemies that you kill because they scan the bio-metrics of the user.

2. Time Jumping

Why is it that all the latest additions to the series seem to advance roughly 20 years or so? Is it just to make the same basic game and introduce a few “new” gadgets? For example look at Modern Warfare 2 and 3, Modern Warfare 2 was quite innovative and it revamped the multiplayer mechanics, all in all it is a great game. The game was so good in fact that while Modern Warfare 3 is an attempt at a copy, it is still fun. However it could honestly be said that Modern Warfare 3 is really nothing more than an extra long expansion to it’s precursor. Basically, it comes across as all those “new” iterations of the sports game offerings. 

3. Not Relatable

My third reason for not liking the more recent Call of Duty games is how as they have moved on the games have become less relatable. What I mean by this is in the past Call of Duty games, such as the ones set in WWII the game, are relatable simply because many of the events mentioned actually happened (minus the zombies that is). So in this way, it adds somewhat of a historical quality to it. The same thing applies to the Modern Warfare series and the first Black Ops game. However with games such as Advanced Warfare nothing is even remotely relatable, none of the events mentioned actually happened, and none of the gadgets seem even close realistic.

4. Graphic Stagnations

The graphics involved in Call of Duty have not (noticeably) changed since 2012. It is understand for them not changing on a year to year basis, but this is a 4 year span of time with little to no change on the graphics of the game. If nothing else this, shows that Activision is starting to become stagnate in their work. Frankly, if the game looks, feels, sounds, and plays the same every year why should I keep buying it. I do understand that graphics by themselves do not make the game good, however if they don’t even remotely change the gameplay, then they could at least spend a bit of time and effort to make it look better.

5. Microtransactions

And finally one of my least favorite things that any game could ever do… microtransactions. Black Ops 3 has added in game things that you can buy in order to help yourself win. I mean I understand when a free mobile app will have them they need to pay for the game somehow, however Black Ops 3 is a full price game they should not need to use microtransactions to make more money. In addition to that I have heard that the next Call of Duty game will cost $80 instead of $60 as they have in the past. Another aspect similar to the microtransactions that Call of Duty is a huge culprit of is having a new gun skin or a new playable character as a DLC. Not only do they cost money, but it won’t really change any aspect of the actual gameplay…other than in superficial looks that is. All in all, I think that the Call of Duty franchise has seen better days, and I hope that at some point they return to their roots in order to make a game that is more worth playing. As a side note they have always had awesome cover art.