Another year, another Call of Duty. However, this year the FPS behemoth has competition in abundance, with Bungie’s Destiny currently continuing to sink its teeth into people, and Respawn Studios launching an impressive new IP in the form of Titanfall.
A lot is riding on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s shoulders, then, as publisher Activision will be hoping that it proves who’s still boss around these parts in the wake up an influx of contenders to its crown.
Also See: Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Multiplayer Trailer
As we brace ourselves for the next iteration in the world-conquering franchise, then, we figured now is as good a time as any to take a look back at the series’ past, and recognize both its very best and very worst moments. Here are the things we’ve loved and the things we’ve loathed about the Call of Duty series.
The Best and Worst of the Call of Duty Series
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BEST: 'All Ghillied Up'
Call of Duty is well-known for its overblown, high-octane gameplay, but one of its most effective missions is 'All Ghilled Up,' a level in which you're tasked with crawling through enemy lines whilst remaining undetected in your camouflaged ghillie suit.
Taking place in 1996, 15 years before the events of Call of Duty 4, as Lieutenant John Price you're enlisted to follow Captain MacMillan through tall grass to a vantage point in a hotel, in order to assassinate target Imran Zakhaev.
The mission is quiet, methodical and unlike anything else in the post-Modern Warfare series, which typically features all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the skull. It's a highlight of the entire franchise, and one which the series' many developers haven't even tried to match since.
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WORST: Modern Warfare 2's quick-scoping snipers
Modern Warfare 2's online multiplayer initially seemed like it was going to be the best in the series. Fast, frenetic gameplay and maps designed for both close-quarters combat and long-ranged battles were plentiful, and for a time it seemed like it truly had the best of both worlds. But then quick-scoping started to rear its ugly head, and soon each and every online match was riddled with snipers who weren't actually sniping.
Sure, there were a lot of people who had fun with the overpowered long-range weapons in MW2, but the abundance of YouTube clips of "360 no-scopes" inevitably led to a large percentage of the community spending all of their time in the game trying to land the perfect KillCam to show off to their snot-nosed friends. It quickly led to the quality of the game's multiplayer taking a nose dive, as matches were populated with people attempting to get impressive kills rather than focusing upon objectives, and anyone who actually wanted to play the game was left to carry their sniping, twirling teammates on their shoulders.
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BEST: The nuke
The Call of Duty series has been both applauded and criticized for its abundance of action "set-pieces," which take control out of the player's hands in order to guide them through carefully scripted scenarios. The first incident of this, and the very best, was Call of Duty 4's nuke.
Taking place in the tenth campaign mission 'Shock And Awe,' players watched as the nuclear bomb dropped upon Iran exploded behind them, creating a shockwave effect that sends the US military's aircraft hurtling down to the ground. After this awe-inspiring, nigh-on terrifying sequence, your player-character stumbles to his feet, surveying the deadly carnage before collapsing to his feet under the weight of the radioactive fumes.
This set-piece was the catalyst for multiple similarly explosive segments in following Call of Duty games, but no matter what developers throw at us, it's doubtful that it'll ever be as surprising as the nuke.
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WORST: The nuke from space
Call of Duty 4 featured the detonation of a nuclear bomb and that went down well, so Infinity Ward had to work a nuke into Modern Warfare 2 somehow. Obviously they couldn't just repeat the scene from the original Modern Warfare (though we suspect that they wish they could), so instead they decided to take players into space to watch the detonation from there.
The end result was a segment which wasn't as nearly as effective as the one featured in CoD4, and only served to remind us that the single-player campaign in MW2 wasn't as good as that of its predecessor's.
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BEST: Zombies mode
Treyarch introducing the 'Zombies' mode into Call of Duty in World at War at first seemed absurd, but now the mode has become a mainstay of the series, inspiring various other spin-offs on the format.
The mode peaked in Black Ops, in which players could assume the roles of historical government figures such as John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro, battling through the undead hordes and trying to obtain a high score.
The mode has since been expanded upon, with aliens being thrown into the mix in Call of Duty: Ghosts, and an Exo Survival mode being introduced in Advanced Warfare, which sees players team up to take on waves of enemies including mechs.
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WORST: Call of Duty: Ghosts' poor reception
Call of Duty: Ghosts was still financially successful, but a middling critical reception led to it receiving a notable decline in sales, leading many to speculate that "CoD fatigue" may have finally set in and players were growing tired of the franchise.
Call of Duty: Ghosts failed to change up the tried-and-tested formula in any measurable way, making a slow shuffle onto the PS4 and Xbox One rather than a bold leap. The plot was formulaic, the multiplayer was a case of "been there, done that" and while the series has faced large amount of criticisms in the past (as any series as huge as Call of Duty would), it's still always managed to garner favorable reviews. Ghosts was a big step back for CoD and harmed the series' reputation considerably, something which Activision will be hoping Advanced Warfare will rectify.
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BEST: Volga River in the original Call of Duty
The entries in the Call of Duty series prior to the first Modern Warfare have largely been forgotten about, but the memory of one particular mission lingers on. That mission takes place in Volga, and was the first instance of the kind of elaborate, nail-biting action sequences CoD would eventually become known for.
Starting off in a barge sailing across the river to your destination, you eventually must fight through an uphill battle in Volga, with no weapon to your name. It's nerve-wracking and tense, bringing to mind the Normandy landings mission in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
While Call of Duty 2 was undoubtedly the best game of the the pre-Modern Warfare CoD games, with it first introducing us to the online multiplayer gameplay that would one day grow to conquer the world, the original Call of Duty's Volga River mission is the only one from the original trilogy that can stand up to the scenes portrayed in its over-the-top younger brothers.
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WORST: Call of Duty 4 Hackers
Call of Duty 4 was one of the most popular online games ever, and many still consider it be the greatest multiplayer FPS title ever released. Unfortunately, the game was eventually tarnished by hackers, who would wreak havoc in matchmaking games and eventually make it nigh-on unplayable.
Hackers figured out how to enable "God mode," grant themselves unlimited ammunition, clip through walls and fly throughout maps, leading to the game's lobbies eventually becoming overrun with foul play.
By the time Modern Warfare 2 released, the PS3 version of the game in particular was an unsightly mess, with hackers sharing their tips and tricks over YouTube in order to propagate their mischievous, game-breaking behavior.
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BEST: The Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beta
Looking back, it's safe to say that the public beta for Call of Duty 4 was hugely responsible for changing the fortune of a series that was struggling to maintain both its popularity and relevancy.
The beta ran for a month from August 30th, 2007 to September 30th on Xbox 360, with its enormous popularity leading to its level cap being raised from 16 to 27 during that time period. The beta led to excitement for the upcoming game reaching fever pitch, with anticipation for it breaking through the confines of gaming as an entertainment medium and leading to CoD4's release becoming a pop culture event.
The popularity of the Modern Warfare series was unlike anything the gaming industry had seen before, and the beta contributed a great deal to getting the game on peoples' radars.
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WORST: Modern Warfare 2's 'No Russian' mission
Now obviously we're not on board with the whole "video games cause violence" campaign, but the controversy that spawned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's 'No Russian' mission was arguably justified, as there isn't really an argument for it being included in the game other than to stir up trouble for no good reason.
'No Russian' is an infinitely stupid mission in which you're tasked with accompanying a gaggle of Russian terrorists through an airport as they mow down innocent civilians. You can stand back from the slaughter and watch from a distance, or you can take part and join in with the bloodshed.
The main problem with 'No Russian' (and there are many) is that it's utterly pointless, as there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to just shoot the terrorists without having to kill the civilians, or at least witness their slaughter. Although it attracted a lot of attention, which is obviously what Infinity Ward was going for, it was all the wrong kind of attention, and is an extreme low point for the series as a whole.
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BEST: The 'Crash' multiplayer map
There have been many developers who have got their hands on Call of Duty in one way or another, but none have managed to replicate the greatness of the 'Crash' multiplayer map from Call of Duty 4.
The map was featured in the aforementioned beta, and from there it solidified its position as one of the greatest maps in multiplayer FPS history. Frequently mentioned in the same sentence as the likes of Halo 2's 'Lockout' and Counter-Strike's 'de_dust,' FPS fans had some of their greatest ever online battles in 'Crash,' and the series has yet to equal its success.
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WORST: The Davis family vacation
Following 'No Russian,' Infinity Ward probably felt as though it had to up the ante when it came to controversy, so therefore decided to show a child exploding in Modern Warfare 3.
While it didn't come close to the unabashed headline baiting of Modern Warfare 2's most infamous mission, it was still incredibly heavy-handed. It even showed the little red arc the series uses to depict damage taken onscreen.
Since Modern Warfare 2 the Call of Duty series has become progressively more silly, and this scene from Modern Warfare 3 was another example of its developers trying to tug some sort of emotion out of its players and failing horrifically.
