When did you think Call of Duty lost its way?

[OursIsTheFury]

We can all agree that the first few games of Call of Duty were amazingly done, gameplay-wise and storywise. Some of the last few games were, however, pretty generic, with no major changes from its predecessor. They were releasing sequels and new games yearly, with tons of DLCs and money making schemes to milk out their loyal fanbase. Where did it all go wrong?

 

[thefratman]

I'd argue it was after Modern Warfare 2 that the series started stagnating, especially with the Black Ops spinoffs. That was when the games started becoming copy-paste with a new gimmick added to give a false sense of novelty.

 

[goofy goober]

Cod 5 was a sign of things to come, and the franchise really nosedived after mw2

 

[rz3300]

Well I cannot really point to a particular time and place or after which game, but I would have to say that it somehow had something to do with the amount of attention that it got. Once everyone is talking about it and you see it everywhere, after that the game tends to lose some cache, and it start to appeal to the masses, rather than its following. I think somewhere in there is when they lost their way.

 

[Dowls]

I personally believe Ghosts was the start of the downfall. It was horrible for everyone, no matter what platform you played on it seemed to be somewhat horribly optimised and graphically horrible looking. However that's not to say it's not made a recovery. From my experience on PC, Advanced warfare was also horrible, jetpack boosts felt horrible and the EM1 laser gun was insanely broken in Multiplayer.

Black Ops 3 has recovered the CoD series for a sizeable group of players.It's the best Call Of Duty game since Black Ops 2. The jetpacks feel better and more weighted making jump thrusts way less ridiculous and it actually begins to feel like a Call Of Duty game again. Do I feel like boots on ground is the true call of duty way? Sure, however find me a game that does well and if not better to recreate the fast paced close quarters combat that CoD does... you cannot.

 

[Damien]

I'd argue it was after Modern Warfare 2 that the series started stagnating, especially with the Black Ops spinoffs. That was when the games started becoming copy-paste with a new gimmick added to give a false sense of novelty.

Couldn't explain it better, I remember learning that 3 came out after 4 which was really weird at the time. I still have not played that one. Plus this whole thing about Zombies is super boring to me. I gave it a chance several time when I played with my brother, I just don't like it. The story lines are so cliche and repetitive to me.

Now Advanced warfare was great, and different.

 

[Casiox]

Well, I personally think that CoD stopped being the same once the Black OPS series came out. I do not really have anything against the series, it's good and all, but Call of Duty was maily based on military warfare and that sort of stuff, but they changed the whole subject drastically, that's my opinion though.

 

[pwarbi]

Call Of Duty I think is one of those series of games that as actually been a victim of it's own success to be honest, and when the series first made an appearance it was pretty groundbreaking and it was easy to see why it sold so well. Now I'm not accusing the publisher of cashing in on the series, but in my opinion there wasn't any need to create so many different spin-offs.

One Call Of Duty game a year would have been more than enough,and while you can't really blame them for trying to cash in as much as they can, at the same time you can't have any sympathy for them when people start to get tired of the series which is what is happening now.

 

[Scientist Salarian]

I feel like the worst part of Call of Duty is that a new game comes out every year. To me, that was a problem from the very beginning, because it prevented there from being any truly interesting or meaningful differences between each installment. That was a business model that was doomed to start churning out carbon-copy waste from the get go. The games that come out next to each other feel much more like updates and bug fixes rather than another $60 installment in a series.

The games are fun, don't get me wrong. But there should be half as many as there are.

 

[pwarbi]

I feel like the worst part of Call of Duty is that a new game come out every year. To me, that was a problem from the very beginning, because it prevented there from being any truly interesting or meaningful differences between each installment. That was a business model that was doomed to start churning out carbon-copy waste from the get go. The games that come out next to each other feel much more like updates and bug fixes rather than another $60 installment in a series.

The games are fun, don't get me wrong. But there should be half as many as there are.

That was pretty much what I was saying as well, and I think if the game developers looked back on all of the Call Of Duty games that have been released, I bet only half of them they can say they are proud of. The rest I think are just there to make money, as because the game series was so popular, and still is to some extent, they knew that anytime a game came out with the title Call Of Duty on the front, people would be queueing up to buy it, regardless of the reviews.

 

[Scientist Salarian]

...they knew that anytime a game came out with the title Call Of Duty on the front, people would be queueing up to buy it, regardless of the reviews.

That's what I never understood. Why hurry to go buy the next one? Unless you were a serious contender to enter professional play, I don't see a good reason to rush over to the newest installment when the one you already have plays just fine. I was playing Black Ops 2 with a friend just a few days ago and 15,000+ people were in multiplayer. That's more than enough people to still have a really great time playing it. And BO2 is, what, three installments ago?

 

[NotCasual]

I guess that would be at the time when new players wouldn't be able to tell the difference between older and newer CoDs. Well, that was actually when the franchise was still revivable. But now, it's the biggest joke of the internet. The internet hates futuristic CoDs with a passion, so what did Infinity Ward do? Release another one.

Yes, at the time the game was being developed, there was no hate towards futuristic games. But Infinity Ward should've realised one year into development, that they needed to change course. They wouldn't need to discard everything, and it would have only been a year out of the 3 years they had. But no, they didn't. And now they're paying the price.

 

[pwarbi]

When the series started the futuristic games I think it did take a turn for the worse. Personally I would have liked to have seen the game stick to wars that have actually happened and using weapons that are real. As soon as you started to land on a different planet and use lasers it started to die a death for me.

 

[Avex]

Honestly, when they turned it futuristic. Who cares about jetpacks, wall running and all these other unnecessary additions. Black Ops 2 was the last one I enjoyed - it didn't wander too far into the future. I've played all by AW and IW so far because it just doesn't feel the same.

Take us back to basics. Bring back zombies without all these "gumball" things. Remove jetpacks and wall running then talk to me about CoD.

 

[Alanmwp]

Honestly I think the futuristic feel in COD is a good step in the right direction. What army in the world isn't using technology to fuel their equipment. Going back to the roots is cool, but I would rather the game evolve and be more up to date. So far, I've loved every story line in COD. Personally a good story line is enough to get and keep me hooked.

 

[Jonathan Solomon]

Honestly, when they turned it futuristic. Who cares about jetpacks, wall running and all these other unnecessary additions. Black Ops 2 was the last one I enjoyed - it didn't wander too far into the future. I've played all by AW and IW so far because it just doesn't feel the same.

Take us back to basics. Bring back zombies without all these "gumball" things. Remove jetpacks and wall running then talk to me about CoD.

I feel the same way. Black Ops 2 was the last time I thoroughly enjoyed the Call of Duty game series. We don't need jetpacks and wall running abilities. Takes the realistic aspect out of the game. No one cares about jetpacks, lol.

 

[Sino989]

I personally think that Call of Duty lost its way when it started making everything "futuristic." In Black Ops 2 it was okay because there wasn't any exo suits but when Advanced Warfare came out that's when they lost it.

 

[AntwanCeja]

I think the COD franchise always had its vision of a sequel where it all was futuristic, evolved and robo-operated. I think they in some way lost track of what they were good at. Its obvious that they knew they were good at developing games, but for some reason, they just got to think that since real WWIII is on the horizon lately, they wanted to give us a glimpse of what it would look like. I dont know... I still love playing these games though.

 

[Blumaoo]

Call of duty has been going downhill because of the recent games and what the people/consumers actually want, for instance, it is like if you go to a restaurant and you want a burger without the cheese but they still add the cheese. Would you still want to come back to the restaurant even though you have eaten there plenty of times and they keep messing up every time you come back to them now? That was how they were before, but now we are waiting on Call Of Duty: WW2 hopefully this game is what it is hyped up to be and everyone's wants will be satisfied.

 

[MLF]

Honestly, when they turned it futuristic. Who cares about jetpacks, wall running and all these other unnecessary additions. Black Ops 2 was the last one I enjoyed - it didn't wander too far into the future. I've played all by AW and IW so far because it just doesn't feel the same.

Take us back to basics. Bring back zombies without all these "gumball" things. Remove jetpacks and wall running then talk to me about CoD.

As someone that used to put thousands of hours into each COD multi-player, this is exactly when I put the controller down. This is about the same time Titanfall and Destiny were announced/released and it felt like COD was just trying to follow that path. That left a sour taste in my mouth and I've not played COD since Ghosts.

In my opinion, they should have focused on evolving the multi-player experiences that were had in Black Ops, World at War and Modern Warfare 1 & 2. That was some of the most fun MP gaming I ever had. Listen to the fans complaints, fix the major issues, and expand the experience without jumping the shark like they did.