Call Of Duty remains one of the most successful video game series of all time. Though many complain that the series has gone stale in many aspects, the truth of the matter is that it has tried a lot of different things over time.
Let’s take a look at the best campaigns in the series that managed to dethrone the Halo series as the most successful shooter in the world.
7. Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Advanced Warfare faced stiff competition in the form of Titanfall, the masterful FPS by Respawn, the team that used to make the Call Of Duty series. Luckily for AW, it had a huge brand name behind it as well as an original single-player campaign. The original Titanfall did not.
AW features a campaign that’s far from the best in the series, for sure. Still, it’s one that never stops getting better right until its culmination. It’s true! It goes from the infamous “press f to pay respects” moment to getting rid of Call of Duty‘s most problematic cameo in the climactic final sequence.
How do you even beat such a crescendo?
6. Call Of Duty
Back in 1999, the developers at 2015, Inc. made Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault. Then, they seemingly decided that revolutionizing the gaming world with the greatest WW2 shooter wasn’t enough. Members of that team would leave to create Infinity Ward, the company that would then give us the original Call Of Duty, which played as a curated playlist of the, ahem, “best” moments of WW2.
There’s no connective narrative tissue between these battles other than the overarching war, but the levels carry themselves with such intensity that they each feel like many glorious separate mini-campaigns. If you manage to ignore the outdated graphics, this is still one of the most immersive campaigns in the history of gaming.
5. Call Of Duty: WW2
WW2 “fixes” what some saw as a problem in the pre-Modern Warfare Call Of Duty campaigns: the absence of a narrative that would interconnect missions.
For COD: WW2, Sledgehammer took some time off to craft a tale set in World War II, and the result was a campaign that resonated deeper with players who wanted a more back-to-basics approach to Call Of Duty.
Despite its smaller-scale approach, WW2 features some really cool setpieces of its own, so this experiment was mostly a success.
4. Call Of Duty: Black Ops
Black Ops is the perfect game for people who love the historical accuracy of the old COD games and the fictional nature of the Modern Warfare series.
It features a fun and engrossing campaign that intertwines real events with fictional ones and also introduces a new cast of messed-up original characters.
Yes, Black Ops has the guts to finally show that even the supposed good guys sometimes aren’t all that great. Heck, it kind of almost even dares to criticize the actions of U.S. agencies a bit.
3. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
The original Modern Warfare 2 is the rare sequel to a massively popular blockbuster that actually dares to go too bold. Infinity Ward could’ve just gone for a re-do of the original, but they wanted to leave a mark, and they pulled it off — for the most part. The campaign is a high-octane worldwide chase sequence from start to finish, one that few Hollywood blockbusters could hope to keep up with.
Still, even though MW2 features some of the highest highs in the history of the series, it arguably also has one of its lowest lows. I’m talking about the most iconic mission in the game, “No Russian”. It’s sure to never leave your memories, sure, but I’d argue that it takes its shock value just way too far. It also overuses the death of the character we’re playing as, which came across as something so fresh in the original.
I believe that the original Modern Warfare 2 could’ve surpassed the original had it gone for the “doing more with less” approach. Still, the campaign in the original iteration of Modern Warfare 2 remains miles above that of most other games out there.
2. Call Of Duty 2
Call Of Duty 2 is to the original COD what the original was to Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault.
COD 2 is the rare sequel that’s both bigger and better in every aspect. You will find no bloat, no padding, and no backtracking in here. COD 2 takes players through the most accurate ever reconstructions of some of the biggest battles in World War 2 and easily remains the best WW2 shooter even nearly two decades after its release.
At no point does Call Of Duty 2‘s campaign reach higher highs than those of the original MW2, but its campaign is a much more solid one, overall.
It’s also important to note that COD 2 came out as an Xbox 360 release title, meaning it’s also one of the greatest release titles of all time.
1. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
The original Modern Warfare is one of the best shooters of all time — even if you ignore its masterful online multiplayer mode.
For the first time in the history of the series, the developers did away with historical war heroes, created their own, and took them on a globe-trotting adventure where they tried to prevent all-out nuclear annihilation.
“All Ghillied Up”, “Death From Above”, and “Shock And Awe” are some of the most memorable missions in any shooter ever, but even that doesn’t prevent the original Modern Warfare from being more than the sum of its parts. MW is the game that introduced us to John “Soap” MacTavish and Cpt. Price — or his modern version, at least — and remains the duo’s finest hour.
