Call of Duty: A Retrospective

Yes, I am doing this. I am joining the many people who have done this time and time again. A retrospective of Activision’s and Treyarch’s desperate cry for a new game concept. Generally this is a little bit of real information with overloads of my personal opinion. Fanboys, look away now.

Honestly, I’m speaking as an unbiased player, which I am before you comment on the fact that within my first sentence I slated the game developers who created this monstrosity in the first place. Oh bugger there I go again. But think about it, how many games have there been now exactly? And by law of gaming how many games do you have to make before it just becomes a money sponge? Look at Sonic; they accepted the fact that their games aren’t for this generation of gamers, their entire structure focused on repetitive gameplay, and in the mid 00’s that would have been fine, no expected anymore. HOWEVER, releasing the same game over and over yearly is now considered sin in my eyes. And okay, maybe I did bash multiplayer, and yes I bought a copy when I could but that was only when I had ran out of things to do, when I just wanted a generic shooter, where I didn’t have to think and just keep my finger on the trigger. I loved the Call of Duty’s up until the first Modern Warfare. It was a good concept, and the fact they actually had story elements, instead of the cliché story within all of the previous games which was essentially, ‘Nazi’s Nazi’s, Russians, ‘Merica, Russians, Nazi’s, guns, pew, pew, the end’. But at least they made the campaigns interesting, there was a genuine sense of accomplishment, and with recent releases…I haven’t felt that.

Okay, moving on from story, let’s look at gameplay. For me. It’s as exciting as watching paint dry on an already grey wall but the shade of grey you’re waiting to dry is only a lighter shade, and then it dawns on you how bored you are because you’re defining different shades of grey like that awful novel, DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP. The graphics engine hasn’t been updated since World At War, and with the PS4 and Xbox One clearly stating their improved dynamics within games and visuals, Call of Duty is going to end up looking like an under budget kids show for the triangularly challenged. Seriously, it’s a little embarrassing. With revolutions in graphics like GTA 5, who have constantly innovated to update their gameplay, and their visuals for the good of the player. Not repeating the same thing over and over again with copy and paste level designs, and genuinely awful multiplayer.

This story was featured in our first print edition which is available now in schools and by contacting Yasmine@bringingwords.org