By Sam Coles:
There is no series at the moment that gets as much
hatred like the Call of Duty series and most of the time it’s for stupid
reasons like because it’s COD. I understand the fatigue that people have with
the series but honestly it’s not as bad as some people like to make it out to
be and consider it shares similar trends with DICE’s Battlefield series. A lot
of people always hate the fact the Call of Duty series doesn’t “innovate” that
it’s the same time and time again, however when they do bring something new to
the table people complain still and want it back the way it was before which I
can almost see the developers banging their heads against a wall in
frustration.
Call of Duty when it was first released in 2003 on
the PC was a different take on the military shooter because you weren’t lone soldier you’re part of a squad and the
battles felt more alive compared to Medal of Honor. COD liked the cinematic set
pieces which were somewhat short in the first few games and didn’t interrupt
the experience too much, but it changed when the series jumped to the modern
day with Call of Duty 4 with the more explosive set pieces you would see in a
summer blockbuster. People praised COD 4 for the singleplayer and multiplayer with
the simple progression system and 3, 5 and 7 kill streak bonus which kept the
game fair and balanced. However the things people like to complain about COD
now were present in the “The best COD game” for example short and linear
campaigns, unbalanced ranked multiplayer, campers etc.
Modern Warfare 2 was a great continuation to the
series but this is where things started to get a bit out of hand with the progression
system where you could customise your killstreaks which went all the way up to
25 with a game ending tactical nuke, which resulted in people exploiting the
game to get said killstreak.
By the time we got to 2013 with the release of Call
of Duty Ghosts people got fed up with the modern military shooter, so in early
2014 Activision did something bold and different which was in the form of the announcement
of Advanced Warfare. Advanced Warfare said “screw it” to the modern or past
warfare settings and set it in the future and before you say I don’t count
black ops II as futuristic as the technology existed in today’s world and some
of it was set in the 1980’s. Advanced Warfare is set in the distant future in
the 2060’s where soldiers have access to the exo suits which run on Nano
technology which gives the soldier increase strength and mobility.
Advanced Warfare increase the mobility of the player
and this really helped the multiplayer as the movement reminds me of arena
shooters of yesteryear with fast pace combat where you can retreat rather than
holding down the trigger and hope you kill the other player first. Retreating
in this game was more of a good idea than fighting especially when you’re out
numbered. The ability to boost dodge left, right and backwards is great and
makes you feel like a boss when you dodge a barrage of bullets.
The game was well received compared to Ghosts
and people seem to like the new movement for the multiplayer. Later however
people complained about the movement and the term that really annoys me now
that they like to use “Boots to the ground” where want to go backwards in the
series.
The question I ask people now is why are people so
down on Infinite Warfare? People say they have been too many futuristic COD
games which they have only been two before this because Ghosts and Black Ops II
aren’t really futuristic games. In my opinion I think Infinite Warfare looks
really fun and different for the series and I don’t want to see the series go
backwards to Modern Warfare or World War II because the audience will just end
up complaining again and it will go full circle. The reason why we abandoned
those genres was due to oversaturation whether it be Call of Duty or copycat
games so the industry moved on so let’s not backtrack.
A lot of people like to say that Call of Duty is
dumb and I retort so what! Not everything has to be high art in the video game
industry there is always room for games that are loud, dumb and completely
absurd. I like Call of Duty because I know what I’m getting into whether it’s
set in World War II, Vietnam or even in space I know I’m going to be playing a
highly entertaining and functional action game with good gameplay and visuals.
If you don’t like the series good for you but don’t
try and force your agenda on others because you have a strong hatred for the series
and if it gets you this worked up then you need to reassess yourself. Voice
your opinion about a subject whether it video games or anything but respect
others and have a constructive argument rather than result to school yard bullying
tactics, let’s keep it civil let’s have intellectual arguments about subjects with
good evidence that’s what makes a healthy debate a non-healthy debate is when
you just say it’s shit for no reason.
Playing COD 4 online when it first came out was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. When it first came out I was astonished by the graphics, the story, and the gameplay. Its Really nice game.
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