Activision’sCall of Dutyfranchise has been going strong for nearly two decades now, with most entries in the series topping sales charts and earning high marks from critics. Later this year,Call of Dutyfans can look forward to the release ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a direct sequel to the 2019Modern Warfarereboot that will pick up where that game left off.
Hype is high forCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with Infinity Ward expected to deliver yet another blockbusterCall of Dutyexperience. Time will tell howCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2fares, but fans will find out sooner rather than later, as the game’s release date is October 28.
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WhileCall of Dutyfans wait to get their hands onModern Warfare 2in the beta and when the full release rolls around in October, they can revisit some previous games in the series. To get a better idea of whichCall of Dutygames should be prioritized and which ones should be avoided, here is the entireCall of Dutyseriesranked in a tier list.
S-Tier
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)-Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfareis the game that catapulted the franchise to a whole new level of popularity.Call of Duty 4’s campaign was innovative at the time, with a high stakes-story and creative level design that resulted in some of the most memorable missions in series history. When players had their fill of the blockbuster campaign, they could jump over to the multiplayer offerings, withCall of Duty 4changing the face of online multiplayer gaming as we knew it.Call of Duty 4’s impact on online multiplayercan’t be understated, and to this day, the franchise follows the blueprint made by this game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)- Infinity Ward hit it out of the park withCall of Duty 4, and so it’s incredibly impressive that the studio was able to do it again withCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2a couple of years later.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s campaign dials things up to 11, with each mission memorable in its own right.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2introduced fan favorite characters like Ghost, and it also featuredNo Russian, one of the most controversial missions in series history.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s campaign was accompanied by an incredible multiplayer experience with some of the series' best maps and the co-op Spec Ops mode, makingMW2the complete package when it comes toCall of Duty.
Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)- When it comes toCall of Duty, Infinity Ward had firmly established itself as the franchise’s lead studio. After all, Infinity Ward is the one that createdCall of Dutyin the first place, producing the originalCoD, the excellent sequel, and theModern Warfaregames. However, Treyarch found equal footing with Infinity Ward when it released the originalCall of Duty: Black Ops, which offered a more suspenseful, mind-bending narrative, innovative Wager Matches for multiplayer, and some of the best Zombies maps that the series has ever seen.Call of Duty: Black Opsremains a fan-favoriteCall of Dutygame to this day, and for good reason, with remakes of itsNuketown multiplayer mapstill showing up regularly in newCoDtitles.
A-Tier
Call of Duty 2 (2005)- The firstCall of Dutygame was made as aMedal of Honor-killer, setting a new standard for military shooters. The sequel had a lot to live up to, but Infinity Ward not only met those expectations withCall of Duty 2, it exceeded them.Call of Duty 2is widely considered one of the best World War 2 first-person shooter games there is, with clever enemy and partner AI and intense combat that holds up to this day. TheCall of Duty 2campaign is the real highlight of the experience, and while the multiplayer is fun enough, it had yet to reach the potential it would realize withCoD4and the games that followed.
Call of Duty: World at War (2008)- Before Treyarch was known for theBlack Opssub-series, it was chasing the success ofCall of Duty 4withCall of Duty: World at War.Call of Duty: World at War’s concept is simple: it takes the framework ofCall of Duty 4and applies it to a World War 2 setting.Call of Duty: World at Warmay not have been quite as popular asCoD4, but it’s still an incredible game in its own right, and it’s also notable for being the firstCall of Dutygame to feature thefan-favorite Zombies game mode.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012)- Treyarch followed upCall of Duty: Black Opswith the aptly namedCall of Duty: Black Ops 2.Call of Duty: Black Ops 2blended historical FPS action with more futuristic gameplay, while retaining the unique multiplayer and Zombies elements that fans loved from the firstBlack Ops.Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s Zombies game modes were quite experimental for the time, with the uniqueTranZit mapbreaking away from the framework established by the firstBlack Ops. Not all its gambles paid off, but overallCall of Duty: Black Ops 2is still a top-tierCall of Dutyexperience.
B-Tier
Call of Duty (2003)- The originalCall of Dutygame was a big deal at the time of its release. It took home numerous awards when it first launched in 2003, and it also enjoyed some success when it was later re-released asCall of Duty Classic. Elements of the game don’t hold up quite as well today, and its use of a classic health point system makes it feel at odds with the other games in theCall of Dutyseries, which have mostly used regenerating health. In any case, the originalCall of Dutyis still a landmark release, even if it feels antiquated compared to the other games in the franchise.
Call of Duty 3 (2006)- It took a few games for Treyarch to truly find its footing with theCall of Dutyseries, but its early efforts were still commendable.Call of Duty 3rarely tops the lists ofbestCall of Dutygames, but it’s still a solid entry in the franchise.Call of Duty 3is notable for having a more story-driven campaign than its predecessors, with a bigger focus on specific characters that was expanded on in the games that followed.Call of Duty 3’s multiplayer was also solid, even if it didn’t generate quite as much interest asCoD4or the other games that followed.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)- Some hailCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3as the best in the series, but for others, this is the game when franchise fatigue started to settle in. Aesthetically,Modern Warfare 3is very similar toModern Warfare 2, and the basic set-up was more or less identical with the previous twoMWgames. Regardless,Modern Warfare 3’s Survival mode is a blast and the multiplayer is overall more balanced thanMW2.Modern Warfare 3also introduced thepopular Kill Confirmed multiplayer mode, which remains a fixture in theCall of Dutyseries to this day.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)- After failed attempts to make futuristicCall of Dutygames, Infinity Ward went back to its roots with the 2019Call of Duty: Modern Warfarereboot. TheCall of Duty: Modern Warfarereboot tells a new story with familiar characters, bringing back fan favorites likeCaptain Price. It offers a grittier campaign that leverages the added horsepower of modern hardware to deliver one of the best-lookingCall of Dutygames to date. The multiplayer experience was also fairly top-notch, though not everyone is a fan of the doors and other gimmicks added to the maps. The butchered “Spec Ops” mode was also a letdown, especially since the Spec Ops Survival variant was exclusive to PlayStation for an entire year.
The 2019Call of Duty: Modern Warfareis also notable for including theCall of Duty: Warzonebattle royale experience, which was added to the game a few months after its launch.Warzonebreathed new life intoCall of Duty: Modern Warfare, and while it may not be as highly-regarded as it once was, there was a time whenWarzonewas at the top of the online multiplayer gaming world.
C-Tier
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014)- For years, Infinity Ward and Treyarch took turns makingCall of Dutygames, but then Activision introduced a third studio into the mix. Sledgehammer Games' firstCall of Dutytitle was 2014’sCall of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which added exo suits to theCall of Dutyexperience.Advanced Warfaresignificantly increased the game’s speed and mobility, to mixed results. ManyCall of Dutyfans enjoyed this faster-paced multiplayer experience, but others would have preferred a boots-on-the-ground approach.Advanced Warfare’s Exo Zombies modehad its fans, too, but it wasn’t available in the game at launch, only added later as paid DLC.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2015)- WithCall of Duty: Black Ops 3, Treyarch had its first bigCall of Dutymisstep. At this point, the Zombies game mode started to wear out its welcome, with Treyarch trying to keep the mode interesting by stuffing it full of new gimmicks.Black Ops 3moved forward withAdvanced Warfare’s advanced mobility options, which didn’t sit well with classicCall of Dutyfans. Despite its flaws, though,Call of Duty: Black Ops 3multiplayerwas still plenty fun to play, and while the campaign’s narrative may have been especially bizarre for aCall of Dutygame, it at least tried new things and featured 4-player co-op support.
Call of Duty: WW2 (2017)- Sledgehammer Games pushed theCall of Dutyfranchise into the future withAdvanced Warfare, but for its secondCoDeffort, it took things back to World War 2. There once was a time when World War 2 shooters were a dime a dozen, but they were hard to come by whenCall of Duty: WW2released, making it a fresh of breath air in that regard.Call of Duty: WW2’s microtransactions and loot boxessaw the series become even more monetized than ever before, and while it was nice to see a World War 2 game with modern graphics, it didn’t stop the campaign and multiplayer from having a distinct sense of “been there, done that.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018)-Call of Duty: Black Ops 4launched without a proper campaign mode, instead focused entirely on multiplayer and Zombies, to mixed results. SomeCall of Dutyfans enjoyed the new hero-shooter focus in the multiplayer and the new modes that came along with it, while others continued to yearn for a classicCall of Dutygame that returned the series to its roots. The same went for the Zombies game mode, which continued to pile on gimmicks and stray further from what made it popular to begin with. That’s not say to thatCall of Duty: Black Ops 4is without its fans - there are many that still play its multiplayer to this day - but it definitely failed to live up to the high bar set by the first twoBlack Opsgames. Something else of note is thatCall of Duty: Black Ops 4featured the Blackout battle royale mode, the first major BR in aCall of Dutytitle, paving the way for what would come withWarzone.
D-Tier
Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)- UntilCall of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward had a near-spotless track record. It put out one hit after the next, butCall of Duty: Ghostslaunched in 2013 to some of the lowest review scores in series history. Not only was franchise fatigue in full force whenCall of Duty: Ghostslaunched, but the game dropped the ball in a number of other ways as well, with its unusually large multiplayer maps often cited as one of its biggest downsides.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)- Behind-the-scenes turmoil between Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games forced Treyarch to fast-trackCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and it shows.Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warfeatures a decent amount of content considering its relatively short development time, offering fans access to a campaign, the classicCoDmultiplayer experience, and a fresh take on Zombies, but it has serious and severe technical problems that keep it from reaching its full potential.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016)- Following the underwhelmingCall of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward’s losing streak continued withCall of Duty: Infinite Warfarein 2016.Call of Duty: Infinite Warfaretook the futuristic style ofAdvanced WarfareandBlack Ops 3to the next level, setting the game in space and fully embracing the sci-fi genre.Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer and Zombies were nothing to write home about, and many fans rejected the franchise’s pivot from military shooter to sci-fi FPS. Gameplay-wise, theCall of Duty: Infinite Warfarecampaignwas by-the-numbers forCoD, though the game does have one of the betterCoDstories with a great cast of surprisingly well-written characters.
Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021)- Sledgehammer Games has always been looked at as the C-team forCall of Duty, and unfortunately, it was unable to shake that reputation withCall of Duty: Vanguard.Call of Duty: Vanguardonce again features a historical setting, but it does very little to differentiate itself from other games in the series. The changes it did make were not for the better, withVanguardnotorious for having one of the worst Zombies modes in franchise history.Vanguard’s missteps have caused the game to be the lowest-ratedCall of Dutygame made to date, and it’s also failing to meet sales expectations.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2launches October 28 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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