![]() Modern Warfare 3 ladles on set piece after set piece in a truly bombastic finale to the Modern Warfare trilogy. It’s a great military FPS for the time, but it’s a far cry from what the Call of Duty series is known for today. In fact, Call of Duty would possibly have been higher on this list, but for the fact that the assault on the Reichstag that represents the game’s climax is actually revisited – for the better, I might add – in 2008’s World at War. However, by being as straight-laced and matter-of-fact as it is, it’s a pure streamlined affair. The game that started it all, Call of Duty is very much a product of its time, from its lack of exposition (not always a bad thing, to be honest) down to certain game mechanics – for instance, this is the only COD in the main series not to feature regenerating health. ![]() The major let down is a real lack of character development over the course of the campaign. Set in an alternate reality where a new world order is established after the Middle East has been decimated by nuclear war, Ghosts tells a functional story with some highlights that elevate it, including a mission that serves as a precursor to Infinite Warfare, a couple of surprising twists, a cliffhanger ending that actually deserves a resolution and, most importantly, a mo-capped dog that sits in your tank during one mission. In retrospect, the campaign in Ghosts has been unfairly labelled guilty by association. Yes, I’m aware that Ghosts might very well be regarded as the worst Call of Duty, certainly in recent years, but that’s primarily down to average multiplayer and a poor man’s Zombies mode in the form of Extinction. But apart from that we can’t actually remember any standout missions, and that’s kind of what Call of Duty does best. The best example of this comes late in the game when, having had access to all manner of abilities throughout, all of them are abruptly removed, forcing you to revert to relying on your own reflexes and instincts. Traversal is a highlight with the exosuit allowing all kinds of experimentation on the battlefield, and Advanced Warfare not only utilises its near-future setting better than most, but isn’t afraid to subvert it at times, too. ![]() Some big advances in mo-capping and an A-list actor playing the bad guy are not enough to raise this tedious campaign any higher on our list. It’s worth playing, if only for the sake of completion, but don’t expect to be raving about it afterwards. Only a desperate defence of the town of Chambois that forces you to improvise regularly proves to be a standout moment. Whilst the campaign is perfectly acceptable and the tank sections in particular are a lot of fun to play, it’s all just a bit forgettable. ![]() Unfortunately for Treyarch, their first entry in the main series came towards the peak of apathy towards shooters set during either World War. Join us as I use science to objectively tell you the definitive ranking of Call of Duty campaigns. There have definitely been some lulls along the way, not to mention an outright abandonment of single player in the form of Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, but the latest crop of Call of Duty campaigns show the series is capable of dropping jaws every now and then. Those experiences were pretty damn good, too, and dragged FPS games into the 21st century with blockbuster set pieces, not to mention relatively new mechanics like regenerating health and aim down sights. While many players have been firmly hooked on the series’ multiplayer modes since 2007, it can be easy to forget that Call of Duty started out as a primarily single player experience. In that time, we’ve had three new main Call of Duty campaigns to factor in, so we’ve adjusted the article to reflect those changes.ĭid you know that there are 16 Call of Duty campaigns available to play through for PC players? Neither did we, and we’ve played the whole lot of them (even some of the console only ones like Big Red One, but we can’t talk about those here, shhhhh). January 26, 2021 We originally published this back on 7 December, 2016.
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