1) Call of Duty Black Ops 2
If you haven’t guessed it by now, we chose Black Ops 2 as the defining CoD game. Not only did the game offer a thrilling story, but it had some of the best online multiplayer across all CoD’s.
The story mode was one of the best, which had players resulting in different endings depending on choices they made throughout the game. This weighs heavy on the player and it switches it up from the run and gun mentality first person shooter campaigns usually tend to be.
Activision recently stated that there are more players on Blops 2 than they would have ever expected for a 3-year-old game. The game was centered around tight gameplay and extraordinarily well-done maps. This also gives good reason to be hyped for the latest CoD — Black Ops 3, which is releasing this Friday, November 6th.
So how do your list stack up against ours? Is there a huge difference? Let us know it the comments below!
2) Call of Duty Advanced Warfare
In my eyes, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is basically the game that changed CoD forever. Sledgehammer Games took an entirely different approach to the standard mechanics for Call of Duty and changed it up tremendously.
Players were introduced to the exo-suits. These suits allowed the players to perform new actions that no other Call of Duty offered, for example, double jumps, super speed and the ability to go invisible.
In addition to the new gameplay features, the campaign was actually worthwhile. It featured some great actors like Troy Baker and the legendary Kevin Spacey. Plus it truly displayed the next gen capabilities through both the cutscenes and gameplay.
3) Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
The original Modern Warfare was something very special for gamers. Not only was it one of the best CoD’s ever made on a technical standpoint, it also had one of the best storylines for a first person shooter ever. And thankfully Modern Warfare 2 followed it up rather well.
Alongside the excellent story and memorable characters, MW2 also had one of the best online communities. At the time, MW2 was the game which everyone was talking about. Maps, guns and kill streaks really grew in MW2, giving players more depth in their tactics and has now become a trademark for the series.
4) Call of Duty Black Ops
Besides the fact that Black Ops had an intriguing story and an excellent feel for the multiplayer, the big feature in Black Ops were the Zombies Mode.
The Zombies mode was first introduced to players during World at War and since then hasn’t stopped. Games with some type of survival mode rarely ever come close to the pure enjoyment of playing Zombies mode with four of your friends. Don’t pretend like you didn’t pump tons of hours into Kino der Toten, we all did.
The recent attempts for a Zombies mode in CoD games don’t even come close to the original Black Ops series. Hopefully with the launch of Black Ops 3, we can see some kind of revitalization to the zombie mode scene in Call of Duty.
5) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
In 2007 when Call of Duty decided to break off from the WW2 setting, Infinity Ward took the series to a place where fans absolutely loved, the modern area — Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Players were introduced to fan favorites John “SOAP” and Captain Price, two big characters in the Modern Warfare series. Modern Warfare was the first game in the series to really emphasize on its story, the following games in the series picked up on this pretty quickly.
With the story as good as it is, you mustn’t forget that MW also had an amazing multiplayer that was groundbreaking for the gaming industry. The biggest feature that was added were Kill-Streaks. These were just one of the things that CoD implemented that changed competitive multiplayer across all games.
6) Call of Duty World at War
World at War was a strange title, after just leaving the WW2 area, developer Treyarch decided to quickly return to it. And it surprisingly did pretty well, the game had a deep, riveting story that took players through some key moments of WW2.
The multiplayer was so-so, not many fans talk about it; the feature fans DO talk about though is the Nazi Zombies. World at War was the first CoD game to implement the Zombies mode, and at the time, it didn’t know what kind of success it was going to bring.
7) Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
The Modern Warfare series is the only part in the Call of Duty franchise that can stack up to the Black Ops games. The first 2 Modern Warfare games are renowned titles, but when it comes to the final act — Modern Warfare 3 disappoints.
MW3 was released back in 2011 and it must have been a hard time for Infinity Ward to get the most out of the last gen console. The game looked not as crisp as you would expect and the multiplayer maps were nothing special. The game felt re-used, nothing new came out of it; leaving a bad memory in fans of the series heads or seemingly no memory at all.
8) Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, and Call of Duty 3
For the sake of keeping the list in a top 10 form, we combined the first 3 Call of Duties in one little package.
Back in 2003 when Activision and Infinity Ward launched the first Call of Duty, little did they know what kind of gaming goliath they were creating.
The original 3 games were all set in WW2, a great starting point for a shooter game. The story was simple, however as each one released they started to feel too similar.
The first set of games had their technical issues, yes, but these were the games that set up the bright future that was yet to come.
9) Call of Duty Ghosts
I’ve been playing Call of Duty for its multiplayer for quite some time now, and with each of those passing titles, I have never played a game worse than Call of Duty Ghosts. The promotional work for Ghosts seemed amazing, the first next-gen CoD, customization and both male and female characters, had Ghosts looking like loads of fun.
But boy oh boy was it the complete opposite, the campaign was nothing but short and pointless, and the multiplayer portion was completely unbalanced. Let’s face it, most people buy Call of Duty for the online, so when the game doesn’t even deliver on that, it's a kind of a dissapointment.
The one interesting feature Ghosts had for itself was its ‘Extinction mode'. It was Infinity Ward’s take on Treyarch’s famous Zombies Mode. It had 4 players teaming up forcing them to try to survive waves of these vicious Aliens, which admittedly was pretty fun.
10) Call of Duty: Declassified (PS Vita)
Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified is the game many Vita fans were dying to get their hands on. A Call of Duty that you can play on the go!? It sounded awesome; an online multiplayer and a full-on story mode featuring characters from the original Black Ops, what else could you want?
Well, for starters a game that ran properly would be nice. You would think that developer Nihilistic Software (developers for Resistance: Burning Skies ) would have the first person formula down pat by now. It actually looked like their first time attempting developing a Vita title, the game was unpolished, clunky and barely playable.
If Sony decided to care just a little more, Black Ops: Declassified could have been one of the best Vita titles to date. But sadly they didn’t and it seems that we will never see another attempt again.
Whether you're a fan of the franchise or not, there is no denying the milestones that the Call of Duty franchise achieved are nothing short of amazing. The series have been running for over 10+ years, each year bringing the same amount of energy and trying to innovate by introducing new and refined gameplay elements.
But with all the hype around each years COD, they're not always promised without flaws. Some might let us down more than others, while some prevail and display why Call of Duty is still the big hitter in the multiplayer scene.
Not many, if any, could stay as relevant as Call of Duty has. With their most recent title — Call of Duty Black Ops 3 releasing this week, November 6th, we decided to rank the Call of Duty franchise from worst to best.
Let's see if you agree…
