The latest entry in theCall of Dutyfranchise,Modern Warfare, was just announced by Infinity Ward and Activision yesterday and is set to be released later this year. Naturally, after the announcement, our team here at DualShockers began talking about not only the new game but theCall of Dutyseries as a whole. This led to a debate about which game in the series is the best and which ones downright suck.
Rather than just arguing amongst ourselves though, we decided to make things official and actually rank every mainlineCall of Dutygame that has ever hit store shelves. We didn’t take into account spin-offs or handheld entries likeBlack Ops Declassifiedinto our own order though, so don’t expect to see those pop up.
After a few hours of yelling at one another, we had finally nailed down the definitive list of everyCall of Dutygame ever released in order from worst to best. While we think that this list is objectively correct, feel free to go scream at us down in the comments if you disagree, which I’m sure you will.
16. Call of Duty: Ghosts
Call of Duty: Ghostswas unanimously considered by us to be the “worst” entry in the series and there wasn’t really any pushback on that notion. While some on our team hated other entries in the series more thanGhosts, the biggest problem with this installment is that it’s just flat-out boring. Years later, we couldn’t recall anything inventive, fun, or memorable thatGhostsdid whatsoever, other than the fact that it contained dogs.
It’s better to hate a game than it is to completely have no emotion whatsoever for one.Ghostsisn’t aCall of Dutythat we collectively loathe, it’s one we collectively feel nothing for. As Don Draper once said inMad Men, “I don’t think about you at all.”
15. Call of Duty
Call of Dutyis the OG that started it all. Without this entry, this article doesn’t even exist in the first place. That said, it’s hard to put the original game in this series very high on this list, especially by modern standards. Even though it’s not inherently a bad game, the originalCall of Dutyfelt more or less like Activision’s take onMedal of Honor, which it absolutely was at the time. Even though duping another popular franchise doesn’t make the firstCall of Dutybad, it lacks an identity that others in the franchise have.
Perhaps the originalCall of Dutybeing so low on our list here speaks to how young our team is that put this together. We respect the originalCall of Dutyfor kicking off this behemoth of a franchise, but we couldn’t place it higher than what we have it here.
14. Call of Duty: Black OpsIII
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIIis a futuristic acid trip nightmare entirely out of your control, and also, Christopher Meloni is there. After shaking the tree withBlack Ops IIand its branching paths narrative, Treyarch eschewed that in favor of a more traditional campaign. Sure, you can choose your loadouts before missions, but it was the same standard run-and-gun with a contrived and incomprehensible story.
You play as a literal no-name, and you have an unbearable prick as a sidekick. Christopher Meloni is your buddy, and then Christopher Meloni is your enemy, for some reason. The plot has nothing to do with the first twoBlack Opsgames, except for a brief mention of the second game’s villain and some text on a computer screen. You’re essentially a techno-mage casting spells on enemies and robots, things are blowing up, and everything is the same grimdark color. At some points, you might even be stuck on a mission because it glitched out and you have no way to progress. It all culminates in a nonsensical ending that feels like a slap in the face, as if though you played through a pretentious Darren Aronofsky film in video game form.
We also haven’t even mentioned the wall-running mechanics, which feltsluggish, like a wet sponge. Treyarch used to be accused of being a second rate Infinity Ward, and this game may as well have rebranded them into a third rate Respawn Entertainment. This game hurts our brains.
13. Call of Duty 3
Call of Duty 3is perhaps the best of the worst. It didn’t do anything that necessarily pushed the series forward in any meaningful way, but it delivered another solid World War II campaign while offering some pretty generic multiplayer. This game is the predecessor toCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfareand the change from World War II to a modern battlefield was widely welcomed. While we have no ill will towardsCall of Duty 3, it sits as one of the more forgettable entries in the series.
12. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Call of Duty 2: Big Red Oneis the only entry on this list that likely isn’t considered “mainline” in the larger series that we decided to include. When the properCall of Duty 2ended up hitting the next-gen platform of the Xbox 360, those still utilizing older platforms like the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube were left to playBig Red Oneinstead. Luckily, it was still a pretty great game in its own right that you never felt left out compared to those friends you may have had who were playing the much prettier-lookingCall of Duty 2.
WhileBig Red Onedidn’t ever hit the same highs as its next-gen counterpart, it still was an excellent game that continued to grow the franchise’s prominence. Plus, it was one of the last entries in the series that equal parts tried to give you a fun game to play while also educating you about World War II.Big Red Oneisn’t all that memorable compared to what came after, but it’s not a bad game in the slightest.
11. Call of Duty: WWII
Activision decided to return to its World War II roots withCall of Duty: WWIIbut the results were mixed. While novelties like an actual health bar and utilizing old-school weapons was fun, the game sometimes fell flat on its face. The campaign had its moments of enjoyment, but the characters you interacted with throughout were bland to straight-up annoying. On the Nazi Zombies front, the mode felt more tacked-on than it perhaps ever has before.
Call of Duty: WWII’smultiplayer however was the game’s main saving grace, but even in this realm, Activision began dipping its toes into elements like loot boxes that made it unsettling. Plus, the addition of a hub area was equal parts neat but also unnecessary.WWIIfelt more like it was trying to become more of a games-as-a-service product from Activision than perhaps any other installment in theCall of Dutyseries before it, which left a sour taste in our mouths and kept this entry out of the top 10.
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
“Is there gonna be wall-running?” Treyarch developers asked the audience at theBlack Ops 4reveal event. “No!” the audience yelled back. The absolute worst parts of Treyarch’s abhorrent thirdBlack Opsinstallment were exorcised from its follow-up, resulting in a tight, competent, and fun package. The subseries still proved to have some fuel in it withBlack Ops 4.
The Hero-like Specialist concept fromBlack Ops IIIis better realized in4, with each character feeling distinct and all of them meshing quite well to form team dynamics. While the Meloni schlock-filled campaign ofIIIwas followed up with a total lack of a campaign in4, the tutorials were a fun way of integrating story into multiplayer, with absurd cutscenes that featured Mason’s descendant as the world’s first trillionaire(?) and gameplay providing players with a holographic Vietnam-era Frank Woods assistant yelling 1970s colloquialisms while you fire a future gun at dummies.
The Blackout battle royale mode is a technically consistent take onPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The inventory is well-suited for console controls and the vehicles add a fun element that is unusual for theCall of Dutyseries. More surprising though was how much nostalgia the Blackout map invoked.Call of Dutystill feels like a somewhat recent and modern game franchise, and while this may be a cheap tactic, it was fun to see the map’s lifting of classic areas fromWorld at War,Black Ops, andBlack Ops II. It is weird to think ofCoDas a “nostalgic” franchise, andBlack Ops 4is the first entry in the long-running series to really earn that reverence. Plus, there’s a Viktor Reznov skin, so that instantly puts that battle royale over others for that reason alone.
9. Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2is easily still the best of the series before it made the jump toModern Warfare. If you picked up an Xbox 360 the year it released, in all likelihood,Call of Duty 2was the game you grabbed with your system. Not only wasCall of Duty 2just a great launch title, but it immediately showed what would be so special about the next iteration of consoles in HD.
Importance and influence aside though,Call of Duty 2also offers an enjoyable campaign with some fantastic setpiece moments that the series has always been synonymous with.Call of Duty 2by proxy gets lost in the shuffle amongst the larger franchise nowadays, but it still stands as an excellent game that you could return to and still greatly enjoy today.
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
TheModern Warfareseries is pretty much loved by all and considered to be one of the greatest and most influentialCoDfranchises ever. That said, no one can deny thatMW3is the “worst” entry out the three mainline games. That’s not to say it’s bad as the story does a good job of wrapping up whatMW1andMW2set up. The Spec-Ops mode added even more fun content, but the multiplayer just felt like a more boring and light versionMW2. It overcomplicated things with three different types of scorestreaks and made all the weapons that were fun inMW2just no longer enjoyable.
When putting together this list,Modern Warfare 3in our estimation just came across as the definition of average. There’s nothing necessarily bad aboutModern Warfare 3, but it felt like the perfect game to slot in right here in the middle of the pack.
7. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
For better or worse,Call of Duty: Infinite Warfaretried to be something different. While many longtimeCall of Dutyfans ended up hating many of the changes that this entry made, especially in the realm of multiplayer, if you were growing tired of each installment due to fatigue, there’s a good chanceInfinite Warfarehad something you’d like. The game’s campaign felt more like aWing Commandergame than it ever didCall of Dutyand also introduced some wild new elements to the story like side missions. Plus, some of the weapons that you could utilize were wildly inventive, you could fly what was basically an X-Wing in some of the missions, and the story ended with you murdering Jon Snow.
LikelyInfinite Warfare’sbiggest flaw is that it just came out at a time where fans were growing weary of futuristic war shooters. Between theBlack Ops,Advanced Warfare, and even other franchises likeTitanfall,Infinite Warfarewas just the straw that broke the backs of many when it came to the futuristic setting. Still, if you return toInfinite Warfaretoday, at least to play its campaign, there’s a whole lot to like.
