When Call of Duty Took Itself Seriously

[@theWheezy]

Maybe it's not a big deal, but I like to think Call of Duty games became memorable because you could quickly identify it (plus the amazing gameplay). I hop on these newer games and feel vastly disconnected when jumping between modes. It has an overall theme and setting, but I'm not crazy to think they don't care much about that right? I personally think they have backtracked a lot, and only care about advertising their game with iconic characters from other franchises and famous celebrities. You could also make the point that a rebooted series (modern warfare & black ops) makes it all forgettable because we already had all that. You can agree or disagree, but going all in on a theme and sticking to their guns I believe can make a game drastically more appealing when playing and talking about. I'll give Cold War props, it's the one modern COD game that has a strong theme. Great menu, one of the best soundtracks, and very strong narrative. You can see that very fast in the game and within the marketing. Very strong themes. Credit for used clips/audio in description ^^^ Trying to slowly build a discord server, come join up! join the discord community >>> discord.gg/Nb5NfT6AWX If you enjoyed the video, consider supporting me. These videos I am heavily passionate in making, but KZbin doesn't pay well and isn't stable. No need to do so, but the option is there: www.patreon.com/thewheezy

[@fearrogue]

Facts CoD Sucks now days

[@Crazinator]

It's not stupid bro and everything you said was completely true everything that made Call of Duty serious was the reason players loved it the whole point we're just soldiers going at it and War instead we have these Goofy weird cameos of people from Hollywood movies or from other games or cartoons and such basically fortnite Call of Duty used to take itself serious but now it doesn't and is one of the reasons why I stopped playing it and for those that actually think it's better and think they should add more goofy stuff are the ones that never even played the original or just flat out didn't like it because it was too real for them but yeah Call of Duty doesn't take itself serious no more

[@sbudaforever]

Are you a pro player?

[@WTF-Viper]

i feel like i found my own voice. this is EXACTLY what I want to be talked about. we are letting our game loose its soul Infront of our eyes and people are ok with it because they say things like. "Chill out grandpa" instead of growing up themselves.

[@Crazinator]

@@WTF-Viper exactly bro and whenever you mentioned at this game needs to be good they want to say some stuff like over your Boomer or you're just old or something like that buddy it's what really made the game good

[@spartan300zx]

I miss a simple homepage with campaign, multiplayer to select. Now I need a PhD to understand the damn homepage.

[@streamlove2]

This! I swear

[@Braybro-ci4pt]

Fr bro

[@gabrielnefriol9039]

Yeah !

[@armintor2826]

I remember when they changed the front icon of CoD2019 to make it the EXACT SAME as Warzone and i literally wasnt able to tell which was what

[@spartan300zx]

@@armintor2826 I couldn't even find the damn campaign, WHICH IS WHY I BUY THE DAMN GAME FOR lol

[@SuperSealMan777]

Funny to think that they took themselves more serious when they were so "bombastic and hollywood", and now when they're trying to be "realistic and tactical" they cant seem to take themselves seriously. Wut.

[@theWheezy]

I wouldn't mind if they just stuck to that "realistic and tactical" theme as long as it doesn't affect gameplay (MW2022) and it didn't have walking advertisements everywhere completely devaluing their theme. Older CODs with their hollywood appeal still had grit and knew how to be badass without being completely unbelievable. Something can be unrealistic, but believable.

[@andreivaldez2929]

Even if they want to do "operators" for cosmetic sales they could keep a serious aesthetic that doesn't feel out of place. MW2019 had a few operators added like that but that went away since the flashier stuff sells better.

[@SuperSealMan777]

@@theWheezy I whole heartedly agree. However that would simply be too easy and or beneficial.

[@dimebag667]

​@@andreivaldez2929Doesn't MCC have the ability to not see other players cosmetics? Just give everyone the ability to not see stupid skins, and pointless effects. Or ban mtx. That would be nice too.

[@rexthewolf3149]

@@dimebag667 MCC’s MTXs aren’t paid and the filter only disabled stuff that wasn’t in the original games.

[@M3RKMUS1C]

Very well said, the main identity of those COD games were tied to the factions, announcers, and average soldiers fighting on distinct, unique maps. I think the best way forward is to take a chance on creating something NEW while also reimplementing these old features that made the games iconic. Great video!

[@iJustWannaRoxk]

Bombaclartttt

[@Brotha_Iz]

Faze booce sighting

[@Squareheed]

holy shit a washed up has-been

[@FutaCatto2]

MW 2019 was very controversial towards media it made me fall in love with the franchise. It really showed the grittiness of modern day conflict both civilian and military. MW2 2022 ruined the Campaign with its MCU dialogues between Soap and Ghost. Very few people saw this which led to MW3 2023 today.

[@Feeeliixxx]

Im gunna be a BIIIIIG BOOOOOOYYYYY

[@farrelhadyan6989]

Yeah I agree to this whole video, Imagine Going To war and Seeing Snoop Dog Cracking 90s with a Sniper 💀

[@kronos_1337.]

Cranking 90s is something ya do in fortnite, in reality you'd be going to war and get 360 no-scoped by snoop dogg

[@Pack_Watch]

So youre telling me 360 no scopes were realistic? 😂

[@farrelhadyan6989]

@@Pack_Watch It's a Joke Bud, Don't ruin the fun

[@Pack_Watch]

@@farrelhadyan6989 pfft what? 😂

[@farrelhadyan6989]

@@Pack_Watch nvm, let's just continue on our day

[@Lordbobomb]

CoD used to be a trendsetter, now it's a trend chaser. Games used to try to be like CoD. But now CoD is trying to be like Fortnite.

[@captainszasz5836]

You say as fortnite has been trying to mimicking alot of cod/warzone's mechanics.

[@flamingscar5263]

COD was never a trend setter, it always followed the trends, its just that the trends it followed used to be good now its "the era of the crossover" as Ive been calling it, fortnite started this whole "put other characters and real life people in your game" trend

[@rexthewolf3149]

@@flamingscar5263This isn’t a new thing to COD they’ve been doing stuff like this to a since bo2 skins packs, AW exo clown, ghost has a Snoop Dog Announcer. The community just has a selective memory when it comes to this stuff.

[@Nazrat84]

No because Fortnite built it's entire empire on chasing other trends and still is. Call of Duty Warzone was still Call of Duty. There's also the fact CoD predates Fortnite with it's shift in aesthetics to be more cartoony and action-figure like, meaning Fortnite might have also taken that from CoD rather than the other way around.

[@plank5370]

​@captainszasz5836 nah n1ĝĝà same goes for cod they copied they whole battlepass at first now they copied the whole collaboration skin śĥ1ť

[@MrPoopcorn]

Man I miss old cod. I never thought battlefield would stop being realistic too lmao

[@sussyman9034]

Battlefield is still kinda realistic

[@Soliye.]

@@sussyman9034 No it's just straight garbage. And the fact 2042 is what we get with them only focusing on Multiplayer is tragic. They have similar issues to CoD. Just like Rainbow Six Siege and Halo. It's really a plague in general that immersion has left multiplayer FPS games.

[@Visstnok]

@@sussyman9034 Yeah, wingsuit black punk chicks are very realistic.

[@urosmamic4172]

​@@Soliye.Well,well,well that was fun -that one cringe operator

[@Ebola419]

@@Soliye.the devs that work on these things are all liberals that are scared of guns.

[@Spark51001]

The OP 40 spawn in theme from BO1 is 6 seconds of absolute bliss. Adds so much character and gets you hyped to actually play a round.

[@gabrielwiktorowicz3281]

If you like it I recommend listening to Rooftops by Sean Murray. It’s the full song

[@onesaucynougat7471]

It’s from a full track from the campaign called rooftops like the other person in the comments said. It’s really good and the whole song builds up to the one bit that plays when you spawn as OP 40.

[@theWheezy]

those themes hit incredibly hard, didn't realize how much I loved them until exploring them all again

[@Spark51001]

@@gabrielwiktorowicz3281 cheers king, much appreciated

[@sur.viv.e]

FR OP 40 SPAWN THEME IS GOATED

[@CAJfur]

The main thing that I miss is having factions. My favorite part about cod was just feeling like a soldier in a war, especially being able to hear what they are saying in their native language. You don't really get that anymore. Having "factions" in mw3 mp (current cod) doesn't even make any sense. I'll be on the spetsnaz side, and I'll be playing as this Irish guy named Conor.

[@theWheezy]

You must not remember Conor McGregor being a highly decorated Spetsnaz soldier as a side hustle :)

[@TheLenientgravy441]

One of my favorite memories of BO1 was playing in Hanoi or one of the other maps with the Viet Cong. being able to identify where the other team was at; based on the language they spoke. Say when they threw a grenade, or some other action that required a voice line. It’s entirely absent in the new games. Everybody sounds about the same, so there’s no added depth to the gameplay.

[@mingyuhuang8944]

It's weird that cod was so over the top and Hollywood Michael bay insane and yet maintained basic standards in military style and story. Now it's basically fortnite.😢😢

[@HatlessTea]

My Team vs Enemy Team

[@Nile-oz2go]

Ghosts started this shit when they introduced only 2 factions compared to COD4-BO2 where we used to have many factions with unique theme and tone.

[@Afineaddition]

We need this identity back. The franchise was at its peak from 2007 to 2012.

[@NexusKin]

I'd argue it was from 2003-2012. Those original WW2 games were also super fun.

[@flyingbeast7902]

@@NexusKin yeah i grew up on cod 2, i learned basic english from it, because i played it so much, one of the best games at that time.

[@feixue1005]

Only way to get it is to leave and support the games that have kept the identity alive

[@TeurastajaNexus]

You forgot the first Call of Duty and its expansion United Offensive. Shame on you.

[@MooNAtyX]

the head of activision Bobby Kotick sacked the people that made COD1, COD2, MW1&2 after MW2 because they were basically visionaries, trying to make art out of their game, and Activision just wanted to make billions... I wish the reality was a bit more complex than that but sadly it's really what happened. Infinity Ward, the guys that made COD1 and 2, saw their franchise being given to treyarch for COD3, Treyarch fucked up several times before achieving something like Black Ops, so IW decided to create their own franchise within the franchise : Modern Warfare. It worked so well and made activision his billions, but they hated each other by that point and when infinity yard wanted to keep advancing the state of COD further towards an idea looking like Titanfall he just sacked them... The people left there were barely good enough to make a pale copy of MW2 : MW3. When the people from Infinity Ward got sacked they finally could work on their dream Titanfall, under their new name Respawn. Activision, knowing exactly what Respawn would want to work on, told their studios to increment a shitty version of jetpacks in COD, simply to outshine Titanfall three years in a row, just to say COD did it first. It really is a tragic tragic story. If only Activision and the geniuses at IW/Respawn would have been able to work together, the last ten years of the video game industry would have looks vastly different. Very sad

[@bradenfiducia3248]

I’ll forever remember the ranger that hands you that M4 in the downed chopper then gets fuckin domed 6 inches from your face.

[@Mr.X-A1]

Yess, what a game mw2 was!!! Peak gaming

[@Boxingblocks9778]

No one mentions the fact that zombies back in WaW and BO1 used to base it's story on historical blueprints and classified experiments. Of course, it's not realistic but it was inspired by them from real life in some way.

[@blvckl0tcs750]

almost every existing cod title does this

[@Frank-qn7de]

remember when zombies were just a wonderweapon from the germans to make super soldiers and the illuminaty had ties with all this but then in bo2 they decided they were gonna take the marvel-esque multiverse magic BS route with time loops and 2 alien races fighting with zombies themselves being almost an afterthought, what a massive waste of a story in my opinion but atleast ultimis (the OGs) were cool

[@it2spooky4me79]

​@@Frank-qn7deI personally like the multiverse story, plus they made great characters, I could care less about dumb old Nazi zombies, the story was good and so were the characters, and that's all I care about, in the end the multiverse was destroyed anyways.

[@im_justin_u9493]

@@Frank-qn7dezombies was always about the zombies in Black ops the multiverse wasnt a multiverse it was a looping timeline shit rn zombies is the only mode that isn’t complete shit. There was always magic in zombies the aether was a thing since world at war element 115. Pack a punch is literally a magic machine.

[@devketchem1955]

True bro

[@Almassy22]

Dude.... I've been looking for a video like this for YEARS, in less then 10 minutes you described how call of duty lost its "war theme" and became a soulless game, with forgetable maps and characters. At the end of the day it's good to know that I'm not the only one like this

[@PossiblySheep]

W profile picture

[@filiperubin]

True, I feel the same when playing the newer titles. Even though it doesn't change the gameplay, it feels a bit "ughhhhh" when I play a match full of colorful characters and weapons.

[@iluvsolim]

agreed

[@NicoKuba]

Preach

[@MercurialDecree]

Hopping on this band wagon. Fck the new cods

[@ca_lcium]

MW2019 had their own announcers for each faction. For some reason, two of these announcers were axed for release from the Coalition side, leaving them with only one, while Allegiance had three different announcers.

[@Vberar]

The British guy from the Coalition was the best❤

[@GrainOnTheGo]

I think a customization system I always think about was all the little things you could unlock for your classes in Ghosts. You had kit pieces unique to the Ghosts and Federation troops. It all fit and was a little bit of change you could have and often didn't feel out of place with the universe established.

[@coltforceplayer]

Ghosts 🤢

[@LegoMonthMan]

@@coltforceplayerGhost haters hating on the game when they never played it:

[@jesseroberts1041]

@@LegoMonthManHonestly, I don’t remember it being too bad.

[@user-hx5oe9iz1h]

It wasn't that bad really

[@Spiinellii]

i loved ghosts back then and now idc

[@darthmeesa2825]

We went from getting cool ghost skin in cod ghosts to Homelander

[@aneekes.]

YOU’RE TALKING SENSE. I knew, many of us feel same way about new call of duty games.

[@jawnjawnson525]

Yea you’re dead on. I had no idea how fire those mw2 announcers were. I heard that Spetznas voice and got chills

[@Zeitgeist608]

I got chills when I heard the BO1 announcers. Just pure nostalgia man

[@DatBoiSaint]

To this day! I still use the "Enemy nuke in coming, it's over.." by the spetnaz faction as my alarm clock in the morning. Skins absolutely affect gameplay. Hit box & visuals

[@Recker1125]

Zombies as a mode. Has a FULL storyline that is still going through most of the games now. Actually knowing the story of zombies. Especially the black ops 2 /3 part. Feels like an accomplishment. The aether. Dimension 70 something.

[@MisterMilo92]

This series has existed for more than 20 years now and I feel its shift reflects the change in the generation of the core audience. I feel like those born in the 80’s and 90’s who grew up with the early games found it cool that it replicated a serious and accurate military aesthetic. My younger brother and his friends are from the ‘Fortnite’ generation all around 16 to 18 years old and they love all the Crazy skins and camos. They find the old games boring…. It is no longer for us I’m afraid.

[@almondcow1032]

It infuriates me to see rappers and other celebrities in call of duty. Like, they just look soooo out of place, and their voice lines are corny.

[@showtime1235]

i remember reading a comment where someone suggested they use actual soldiers for operators and they can put their story there too instead of having a streamer or celebrity in there we can choose the skin of a real life former army ranger who may have been KIA or made it back home they could even give a little kick back to the family from the purchase of the skin

[@GamingHarryYT]

It was the rawness of the OG MW campaigns that made it stick with me. I’m still not over how Shepherd killed Roach and Ghost, and it’s been 15 years.

[@mildlyangryguy6292]

The Groot skin in the new MW3 absolutely affects gameplay. It's actually ridiculous how many times I've died to someone with that skin because I can't see them due to it blending in with a lot of the maps environments.

[@aaronskuse2207]

Commissar Markhov’s speech from World at War always sends chills down my spine. WaW was undoubtedly one of the defining titles of the series.

[@InnaSecond]

CITIZENS OF BERLIN!

[@Metro593]

Somebody from the golden ages of COD should step up and create their own title

[@ChiefC4SH]

I’ve felt this way all the way back since bo3, that being said it had some of the best zombies. Also hearing the team based theme songs just hit me with so much nostalgia.

[@Doctor_snw]

One of the main things I missed is when, in multiplayer, your character looks depending on what gun you were holding.

[@TazYounqen]

Bro I'm so glad you spoke on this. I didn't even realize that was what made OG MW2 such a staple in my memory. Immersion is definitely whats missing. The music, the announcers, and the realism have all taken a stale turn for the worst.

[@mawortz]

genz is doomed not even cod is safe from this insanity

[@Dbouakhob]

I personally think that warzone should’ve had the Operators. While Multiplayer should have just stayed with faction based characters.

[@malachiwilliams6399]

perfect I agree

[@Alex-vz2jz]

I want a disable skins option

[@peterandco]

I've felt this way for years, and it's been the biggest factor in me not wanting to play Cod anymore. The game used to feel immersive and realistic, and now I can't jump into a lobby without colorful guns and pop culture characters... it's just a slightly more mature Fortnite honestly. What's sad is that I don't see them ever going back to the glory days because this model is so profitable. Genuinely makes me sad.

[@CharlesDeGoat]

I can remember how immersed I could be not only in the campaigns but in the whole game in old modern warfare. You said it perfectly the themes, generics operators in MP, the storie make feel like if you was part of this great storie. Something lost since a long now

[@TGx92]

When you sit in the old MW2 menu it makes you feel like you’re about to see death

[@Laminar-Flow]

I just want to hop in an OG MW lobby and shit talk the other team. No stupid unrealistic characters, pay to play weapons, long loading screens, and 200 GB game size. The new mw fu*king blows. I can't believe how hard Halo has been fumbled too. The two game franchises that defined my childhood are both fucked, just like pretty much everything else. What I'd give to be 13 again....

[@jakechapman3161]

The best part in my mind is that any kid could be the action hero rather than just watching them on the big screen. And that made so many good memories for me. I quit cod in early 2020. Now I play the old cod and modern warfare games. And they are always great.

[@KevBoy3D]

Everyone knows the peak of Call of Duty was “My Team vs Enemy Team” it captures perfectly the struggles of the enemy’s team had against my team

[@tylerm5862]

We can thank fortnite for popularizing "silly" and microransactions. Call of duty acts like a free to play game whilst being a fully paid for game. Beyond weird.

[@Bandit0313]

OG mw2 was so freaking good man. I miss that game every single day, it’s too bad that almost nobody plays it anymore.

[@thomasf1146]

This is really sad to admit but.. I actually got goose bumps watching and listening to this video.

[@frossy365]

Me too man, me too.

[@fuoco1365]

It's not sad. It is essentially a lot of our childhoods

[@KhaosInductionCreator]

I never realized that the spawn music and announcers were team specific, I honestly thought they were randomized, really shows how much quality stuff was scrapped in favor of shitty micro transactions.

[@GreedoGangrene]

Finally!! Someone addressing the elephant in the room.

[@Predash051]

Instant sub. No screaming over CoD just a blunt summerisation (if that's even a word hahahah) about the old CoDs. It was wonderful.

[@viceadmiralq90]

ALSO A POP STAR $25 SKIN IN SOLID PINK??? YEAH....THATS REAL TACTICAL.

[@BrickBrainBaby]

My biggest problem with skins and not having factions is that its no longer visually obvious who is friend or foe. I cant tell whos on my team or the enemies without looking at their nameplate. I wouldn't care if skins were only in warzone

[@enasnI99]

I completely agree, especially when it comes to themes of characters/operators. I didn't pay much attention to the characters in COD (when I was younger) but as I got older (and more interested in gear) I started to really appreciate the detail that went into these (default) characters. I wish they took a more grounded approach similar to what they did in BO1 and not the "throw whatever at the wall and see what sticks" approach that they do nowadays with all the cringe hooded demon masked/glowing operators... MW22 Specgru default operators (despite it being recent) are still the best (modern) IMO. Bring back the "milsim" type operators from 2019, better yet -make a game worth giving a solitary f**k about...lol

[@mniakan754]

In all honesty I’ve lost faith in the AAA industry to make a game that cares about it’s themes and atmosphere in the multiplayer side but on the indie side there are games like ready or not, spc 5k, project wraith that still try to have keep that atmosphere alive (two years ago I would say this about insurgency sandstorm but embrecer group ruind that game and the devs)

[@enasnI99]

@@mniakan754 Facts, I have RoN and SCP 5K, and they're looking good -just have to wait on more content, mods, and such. And yeah, RIP insurgency. I honestly liked previous one on source more than Sandstorm. But they massacred sandstorm into dust... and didn't they just shut down or something?

[@mniakan754]

@@enasnI99 they only shut down the studio that made the game and fire everyone while the game is being worked on by some other team

[@enasnI99]

@@mniakan754 Fsho, well I'm not holding out much hope for that game, lol. At this point I only hop on to play CoOp with randoms.

[@LAST_STAND_FAN]

I exclusively use Rangers III in MWII/III, he dresses the most like my favorite mil-sim from 2019.

[@OriginalCommunist]

"Oh gee, I wonder what Call of Duty has become now" (I haven't played a game since 2019) Nicki caught me off guard I remember playing MW2 and having a guard dog follow me because yakow, dogs are nice. I realize what we have now has become any COD gamer's nightmare I loved the seriousness and the realism it provided when I played it as a kid on my Xbox 360. I was immersed in the shootouts and essentially becoming as manly as one man can be: serving his country ever since the Fortnite microtransaction attack, games have fallen massively. I feel that not just the COD community but the entirety of the FPS game devs had made us gamers fall to a new low, a low that no generation should see again.

[@Invictus4318]

I was 14 when MW2 dropped in 2009. For you guys who experienced it you already know but for anyone who wasn’t there let me tell it was life changing for my generation. At that time I would say 95% of the lads in my entire school year would be online playing the game. It was unreal. I really miss those times. When I think back to happy times growing up, they were spent at my mums house playing MW2 with the boys 🥹 I’m nearly 30 now and still hold hope that we could possibly one day take COD back to how it used to be. The chances are minimal but just the thought of reliving the glory days makes me happy. .

[@NeNukee]

Great video as always you deserve a lot more attention

[@TutorialVideos935]

2:44 This soldier right here was laid off by his Car dealer ship and desided to join the military

[@Tr_SharpShooter]

I miss the times when makarov actually looked like badass ugly grown man. Now, he looks like 20 year old guy who tries to cosplay makarov with only suit. His voice is not even smilar. İts just some other guy

[@jwavy9985]

It’s the little things like the Japanese announcer talking shit to you after you lose that made the older ones so good.

[@luxlevia4687]

i still play the old cods on pc (except mw3 and bo2 because of hacking problem). and they are still so much fun. i played 4 hours of mw2 tdm and ffa, and i enjoyed the time in there. in the last few cods, 3 games in the beta were enough to show me that the game sucks, the last time i had fun in a "modern" call of duty was in summer 2022, when i played mw2019 in shipment/shothouse 24/7 moshpit in hardcore mode. it was just chaos, but it was the fun i was missing in call of duty, and i also set my new best to 137 kills in 1 game. i still think the biggest problem in cod is the matchmaking, tryharding for 3 games in a row just sucks, also forced to play meta to have a chance. last weekend i won a ffa with an usp fmj. this is not possible today

[@kimjansson7179]

Fully agree. I was always a fan of the "realistic" themed call of duty games where the settings, time lines or missions were believable and often based on real events. I think the campaigns are awesome except for the latest one. And while I get what you mean about operators fighting operators in multiplayer. The campaign characters are supposed to be operators from different special operations units but what I personally would have liked to see if they insist on players picking different characters is to have the factions and make the operators of each faction believable. Like they could have the Rangers with Ranger looking characters to choose from, or Navy SEALs who look like SEALs or a Russian team with operators from their units based on real life and I think that would make sense and would look pretty awesome. I do love the campaigns of the latest mw and mw2 games but not the third so much. They really do stick to the theme of "modern warfare" which is in the title by basing the campaign missions off of stuff that people have done in real life and in recent times. I never really liked the made up futuristic ones so much but still had fun in multiplayer there. But the shit they started adding in the recent games for payment is just ridiculous and turns it into another game. Running around shooting lights or whatever it is in a halloween costume is just not cod.

[@tainosanchez2204]

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I said years ago that CoD’s atmosphere is a big reason why it was so addicting in the golden age (2007-2012). Most felt dark and gritty with the music and voice acting and then BO2 was different, but it had such a cool/badass vibe to it. Atmosphere is so important to a game’s fun factor. MW2 (2009) had the best music of any CoD game ever.

[@johnfanelli6901]

I remember one of the big selling points for MW 2019 was the more grounded and for the most part it stayed that way with a couple exceptions. I think that the relatively more grounded aesthetic is why MW 2019 is my most played COD.

[@MikeE_wf]

despite people disliking 2042. It kept the theme of a military warfare in their outfits and we had nothing clowning around.

[@davidluu4719]

When women characters were added in with high heels, sight skirts and pink hair, the game was forever dead.

[@antroxio9945]

Very nice, agree 100%. Those BO1 soundtracks before a multiplayer match still gives me goosebumps.

[@timcampbell4338]

Missed opportunity to make your title card “GRITTY / GRIDDY”

[@NMFILMPRODUCTIONS]

It’s OUR faults. Such a large group of the fan base has called the campaign & story a “useless game addition”, that “I never touch”. They spend millions on story, actors, putting focus on the serious aspects of the game just to realize it’s the least interacted with. But because of the rise in battle royale games, meta, marketing, & Franchise IP skins- now it’s all a joke. Modern warfare 2019 came & the creators behind that brought back the serious gritty, hyper realism and then people complained AGAIN. It’s really only up to us to tell COD it’s okay to try again.

[@ExpertContrarian]

Not my fault. I always like playing the campaign, and I stopped buying call of duty when they went insane long ago.

[@NMFILMPRODUCTIONS]

@@ExpertContrarian I’m a huge campaign guy too. The most recent MW3 campaign is a joke. Don’t even get me started on what they did with black ops 3 & 4. Cold War and MW 2019 was amazing though

[@МартинЛюбенов-е1т]

I cannot agree more to what it's said in the video. Colourful flames on weapon camo, thunders from the helmets and fluffy toys as keychains, slide-n-cancel as a robot. What is that?

[@shosc16]

People need to know there’s a difference between realism and attention to detail. People say “cod was never realistic” but that’s not the point - it had attention to detail (the themes, music, factions etc)

[@that_one_helljumper]

3:08 In BO2 specifically yeah. I loved swapped factions every few rounds just for the unique soldiers and announcers. So cool

[@luger700]

The authenticity with theming of the older Call of Duty games is what sparked my interest in military history and firearms, I gravitated towards Battlefield after CoD went fully retarded, now with Battlefield going fully retarded itself (started with BFV) I have resorted to games like Squad and Hell Let Loose.

[@ThatBombGuy]

I know it isn't good to point fingers, though I feel like it was Fortnite's influence on companies. They produce a new collab like every week and get a profit from it. It's that game's theme and I hate seeing other games looking at Fortnite and thinking they could do the same thing and get the same results.

[@TheRebelVikingYT]

I think this is why mil sims are getting so much more populated anymore. Call of Duty is nothing more than an arcade against other people, though the gameplay like quickscoping and sliding hasnt changed much from the older games, the old ones still had that sense of being a normal grunt in combat like you covered. Everyone wants to be the badass, but a lot of people also love to see what it feels like to be that generic foot soldier. Games like War of Rights, Squad, Arma 3, Enlisted, Hell let Loose, and so much more will take over the military shooter genre that Call of Duty has left behind.

[@NextDayNextLevel]

Damn Wheezy, those call outs that you played were what I had heard thousands of times at a point in my life where I didn't have as much responsibility, made some of my best of friends and had some pretty large experiences that altered who I knew myself to be at the time. Not to mention, MW2 & 3 was a massive portion of my life back then. I'm young but MW3 launched a couple of months before highschool started for me and I remember getting paid in gamebattles, grinding to constantly be a cracked out little f&cker and being able to lean on that game because I had a hard time fitting in in person. Those memories just came flooding back and I figured I'd share. ....also, modern COD sucks and is an absolute disappointment. I only touched the new MW3 for the zombies and got bored of that rather quickly.

[@RiotShieldMan]

I stopped playing Call of Duty online ages ago. When I visit my parents, or we're on a family vacation, my dad and I enjoy just playing COD: Ghosts vs bots or the Modern Warfare 2 co-op missions. I got a PS5 for Christmas and it had MW3 in it. Boy that sure was something. I only played it offline vs bots. The maps were wonderful, as they were classics....but....so many characters sure looked stupid as hell with their randomly generated clown outfits. My dad played it with me vs bots per tradition and hated it.

[@daveyp9080]

This is a breath of fresh air to listen to someone else say the same thing I’ve been saying since mw3! It’s good to know I’m not alone in thinking this!

[@Punisher3sixty4]

This video pretty much covers why I don't play cod anymore

[@eeli-gk4om]

Cod nowdays is like Fortnite a trendchaser, they just put whats the hot stuff at the time in to the game so that people would bie them. Heres an example Fortnite a game made for kids, releases Anime, Marvel and Peter Griffin and skins for them. Cod a game made for adults, releases Rappers, Supervillains, Famous football players and skins for them.

[@MLAGGIONE]

when i saw nicki minaj in CoD i knew this franchise died...

[@coconut_in_a_suit975]

I blame it on Fortnite

[@Grxysinn-s9r]

My favorite announcer was "I'm sick of this asshole, get rid of em"

[@GH0STCCC-vu5rz]

The people who say "You don't have to buy it" Or "Just ignore it. Spend your money on something else" Tend to forget that while I may not buy it, others will. I've been shot by Homelander and Nicki Minaj. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@mooqer]

imagine getting headshotted by snoop dogg

[@ryanhall3689]

I agree that it doesn't affect gameplay, but it affects immersion

[@alihabibi2985]

I miss the triumphant and faction specific victory themes. So minor but added lots to the immersion for me. Spetznaz COD4 and Germany WaW themes were fire.

[@TheSab3r]

Fully agree with this video. Well said- more ppl need to talk about this bs.

[@poopp8693]

i definitely think mw2019 being a reboot had so much promise in reintroducing the series with a strong cohesive theme to new players. it had an amazing gritty and grounded atmosphere that got absolutely butchered by the later games.

[@sjc091]

"butchered by the later games"..... I couldn't agree with you more. 100%

[@JJ1NE]

Warzone changed everything. Then Vanguard cranked up the silliness to 100

[@lucasart328]

just like the older gen we got cod ghost with snoop dog and bo3 dumb dike characters lol

[@LAST_STAND_FAN]

It's so crazy to see them finally make a comeback after the series had been floundering for a few years, only to see them immediately dump the game that did it so that they could rush the next game out the door because they HAVE to have their short-term revenue spikes. MW19 was super special, and watching Activision play Hot Potato with it when it still had so much life left makes me mad.

[@teancrumpets1494]

World at war was the best cod ever hands down, the entire game was gritty and felt real.

[@shaggytoph]

This is what "they're just cosmetics, just ignore the shops" gets you.

[@sausageman4706]

People who say that don't realise it ruins the experience for others who don't buy the cosmetics but still getting shot at by Nicki Minaj lol

[@divinecomedian2]

Yeah, it's not something you can ignore in a MULTIPLAYER game. I wouldn't care if I don't have to witness it.

[@TiL_Deimos]

i tried downloading it today, didnt even make it through a warsone game, i was confused with the menu for 10 minutes, it feels like im surfing on a game store 😂

[@liammbiscwit]

You realise no one was buying the realism skins right and everyone wanted the new, colourful skins ? Literally everyone wanted it. I myself have only bought one skin since 2019 but to make it sound like it's not the players who did it is crazy. If they didn't sell then it wouldn't have been added. So blame the players next time not the company. Although this whole video is saying a whole lot of nothing and worded in a bias way. This is literally an arcade shooter not a mil sim

[@wendigoactual8325]

Dude i miss being just 75th rangers vs SPETSNAZ and ghosts vs federation.

[@jollygrapefruit786]

Back when you could identify if someone was friend or foe based on their uniform, father then the color above their head.

[@mininggypsy499]

Ghost seems to be the last good game and the begining of the downfall

[@scrotiemcboogerballs4159]

Did you seriously say Ghosts vs Federation?

[@scrotiemcboogerballs4159]

​@mininggypsy499 Nah MW3 and BO2 were. Ghosts was probably one of the worst CODs ever made. It literally was the WORST COD ever made when it came out.

[@Tama-zephyrwindlass]

Yup ​@@mininggypsy499

[@uhoh1321]

10 years ago i would've never imagined COD fumbling their entire franchise. Damn.

[@Bms010]

In past 10 years I've seen so many ips both in gaming, music, TV shows ECT so many amazing projects and franchises that purposely drove themselves into the ground.

[@turkeysandwich1998]

Neither did I, or think Halo would fall, or battlefield but here we are corporate A holes always ruin stuff eventually

[@uhoh1321]

@@turkeysandwich1998 Honestly, I'm glad we are getting to a point now though where independent studios are able to make higher quality games to rival the corporate giants. Like how battle bit revived a dead genre for battlefield players. Even though it's not on the same scale I will always stand by studios who make games for fun/art/enjoyment and not for profit.

[@Johnny_Awesome]

Agreed. My CoD glory days revolve around throwing potatoes as grenade tutorial in CoD2. That was 2005. So I heard from friends that MW2 really was good but that's also already 15 years ago.

[@Crooked_Man]

Wish I could fumble into billions of profit

[@spellwhomstve1]

A good analogue for this tonal shift is comparing OG Ghost to Current Ghost OG Ghost: A normal and otherwise unremarkable TF-141 member with a cool mask that is introduced in MW2 and dies in MW2. Current Ghost: An edgy, invincible badass with a deep voice and an intimidating posture. He has survived the game he was introduced in and its sequel.

[@meh-pd7tr]

I think I saw a comment describing the remake as an Avengers group. It made me realize how they felt less grounded and just felt like typical action movie star heroes than just soldiers who could die at any moment. Also, Makarov was absolutely wasted in this remake. He barely had a presence at all

[@co7769]

Thing is, we remember him so fondly PRECISELY because they killed him. We saw this cool soldier with a cool mask and name, we wanted more of him and then they just took him away, making us want him more. Its like when you enjoy the mistery of something more than the answer itself.

[@JustAdude291]

current ghost is so cringey with the halloween mask and cape, it's unbelievably lame. I'm just glad Soap was kept grounded

[@vlima7164]

the funny part is the voice actor for the current ghost sounds nothing like that in real life, its a completely fake tough guy voice he puts on in the game which is super cringe. OG ghost just had a normal british guy voice, and was cool purely because of his lore and otherwise quiet confidence + his mask. Simple balaclava with some spray on it. Current ghost wears a halloween costume while in the field its such a joke. No one in the military dresses like that and if you did youd get laughed at.

[@JustAdude291]

@@vlima7164 totally agree

[@512TheWolf512]

When games wanted to be art, vs when games wanted to exploit toddlers for money

[@redlight3932]

they found their market..

[@mikeg5238]

@@redlight3932thank fortnite that’s when a lot of devs realized how much they can exploit kids by using micro transactions

[@mikeg5238]

Mw2 came out when I was 8 and I played the shit out of it loved every second not one single micro transaction all skins came from actually playing the game and doing challenges back when devs actually put passion into their games and didn’t just put them out as a cash cow with minimal effort put into actual gameplay

[@haramlasagne6685]

@@mikeg5238 this shit started waaaaay before fortnite

[@_Micah_Bell]

@@haramlasagne6685 yeah but fornite made it more popular

[@oshmeister9880]

Love how games are rated M for mature and the companies still pander to kids to take the more serious adult themes away. I played M rated games as a kid but I didn’t want them to be childish games. I liked them for what they were.

[@docileyoke]

Hold on, so strong language, suggestive themes, blood and gore, dismemberment, etc. Is pandering to kids?

[@oshmeister9880]

@@docileyoke no but taking the realism away and creating this animated type feel and these “operators” makes it feel less like COD and more like Fortnite.

[@docileyoke]

@@oshmeister9880 That's where you're wrong, call of duty was was never realistic, It was just military themed, and it still is, the only difference being skins are involved, you are playing call of duty for the wrong reason if you play it for immersion/realism, 360 no scopes are NOT realistic, Running full speed with machine guns is NOT realistic, etc. If people wanted immersion they play battlefield, if people want a quick fast paced match of an arcade shooter before school or work, they play call of duty. The only time call of duty takes it self seriously is the campaign. And that's how it's always been. They never took away anything, the "Operators" are still military themed, it's just there skins (that are optional) that are different. Because generic copy an paste mil Sim skins wouldn't work and wouldn't be compatible with call of duty's arcade shooter genre.

[@oshmeister9880]

@@docileyoke yeah yeah yeah it still doesn’t feel like COD and definitely seems to follow in the animated lame footsteps like what Fortnite has.

[@docileyoke]

@@oshmeister9880 It doesn't? The game doesn't even look animated..

[@TheActMan]

great video! Agree with pretty much everything you say! Keep up the great content!!

[@nicko4348]

hello act man

[@jim122]

TheActMan! You legend!

[@WeedShaggy]

Here before this blows up. Train go boom.

[@theWheezy]

Thank you very much, you too! Been a watcher for a while now

[@RickySama240]

Ayoo Actman! 😄

[@D3R3bel]

Its the same shit for me with battlefield. I remember back in battlefield 4, you had RU , US and CN teammates all shouting callouts not just in an accent, but in their fucking native language. It created such a sense of immersion and authenticity that was really nice. It even bled into gameplay, allowing you to quickly tell if someone in their peripheral hearing was an enemy or teammate, and over time you could even come to understand the callouts without even seeing what your teammate nearby was calling out. Then you come to battlefield 2042, and everyone is the same, theres no sense of team, everyone are just operators.

[@dr.kinky.lenny69]

2042 ruined its chances of ever being an extremely succesful game the second it announced operators

[@pneumaticslap3344]

Zoomie. If you dont remember the Bad Company era, you're a wee bab... those were TRULY the days, the numbered titles were the decline, 3 was fun enough. But NOTHING has captured the feel of Gold Rush/Rush with a squad of 4 friends in BC1/2... Jihad ATV was the shit

[@platyhelminthes2877]

Bad Company 1 was such a fun game. It was my first taste of what Battlefield was all about. A truly immersive combat sandbox. I unfortunately skipped over Bad Company 2 (I was in high school, and money was tight), but I was able to experience BF 3, 4, 1, and 5 at their peaks. 3, 4, and 1 all gave me that same authentic BF experience, and they were all fun in their own ways. I even got some enjoyment out of BF5, despite its numerous issues. But when 2042 came out, I knew I was done with the franchise. I want nothing to do with "specialists", "operators", "heroes", or anything of the sort. @@pneumaticslap3344

[@Skumtomten1]

Just don't buy or play modern games, its simple. I returned to my favorite games growing up and they are much better than the new stuff. Graphics aren't even that much worse, but gameplay and feeling matters, and thats were those games shines. Not to mention you save cash as well, not having to upgrade your system and buy new games. There are sites like gameranger that allows you to play online on many games that had their official server taken down, it it works really well.

[@narcleptik]

10000% agreed

[@youraveragemedicmain866]

the fact I could tell when you used BO2 or BO1 OST songs just by their iconic theme really shows how much COD has really changed from now.

[@theWheezy]

love BO2's main theme specifically. Something about it makes it peak for me

[@austinbale3289]

Imo BO2 theme was the best out of all CoDs

[@cpt.martinwalker6268]

​@@austinbale3289 Pretty dark that theme

[@Beanskiiii]

Yeah change happens after so many years who cares. Grow up. You guys are grown ass men. Get a grip

[@R3TR0J4N]

BROO same

[@deancarr4507]

I often wonder how the guys that created CoD 1-3 feel now, seeing what their franchise has become

[@narrow3601]

​@@felixaderwait really?

[@MooNAtyX]

@@narrow3601 yeah, the head of activision Bobby Kotick sacked them after MW2 because they were basically visionaries, trying to make art out of their game, and Activision just wanted to make billions... I wish the reality was a bit more complex than that but sadly it's really what happened. Infinity Ward, the guys that made COD1 and 2, saw their franchise being given to treyarch for COD3, Treyarch fucked up several times before achieving something like Black Ops, so IW decided to create their own franchise within the franchise : Modern Warfare. It worked so well and made activision his billions, but they hated each other by that point and when infinity yard wanted to keep advancing the state of COD further towards an idea looking like Titanfall he just sacked them... The people left there were barely good enough to make a pale copy of MW2 : MW3. When the people from Infinity Ward got sacked they finally could work on their dream Titanfall, under their new name Respawn. Activision, knowing exactly what Respawn would want to work on, told their studios to increment a shitty version of jetpacks in COD, simply to outshine Titanfall three years in a row, just to say COD did it first. It really is a tragic tragic story. If only Activision and the geniuses at IW/Respawn would have been able to work together, the last ten years of the video game industry would have looks vastly different. Very sad

[@holos1345]

@@felixader at least Apex Legends maintained their art direction with every season. Unlike Warzone where its a free for all

[@CalyGamer13]

@@narrow3601​​⁠​⁠​⁠Yeah, they got pushed out by Activision. They held the rights for CoD, but Activision would gain them if they were ‘lawfully/ legally’ fired.

[@The-Enemy-Medic]

@@holos1345 apex maintained their art direction? if you mean the 20 dollar legendary skins and the drip fed lore I guess your standards are pretty low for what Titanfall's "art direction" is supposed to be.

[@truebacon133]

It's also adds readability. In older CODs you know what team that person is in at a glance and also what weapon type they are using. (Perk in BO1) Each character was specifically designed to stand out against the others besides Sniper/Ghost class. You don't get any of that with operators, which is also why every few months there's another skin the community calls P2W

[@Anothergingerman]

This. readability should be one of the top three things any team based game should focus on, this is also where bf 2042 failed so hard, both games have to rely on bright red fucking outlines likes its overwatch, its not hard to theme the sides and keep them different, but cosmetics have and will forever come before game design now

[@mniakan754]

What you say is absolutely true for the most part until someone used the overkill perk with the famas in black ops 1

[@GangstaFred_528-CASH]

I remember during the vanguard beta was like the same 2 characters from the story I knew it was only downhill from there

[@tylerdewald6916]

That fucking groot skin ruined it when a skins 50% see through and your still on old Gen playing new gwn players its damn near impossible to see along with the fact the fucking skins load in the game in an instant but my player has to stand still and die for the 1st minute till guns and textures load you'd think they'd prioritize in the load the actual game play but considering the code loads custom characters first just showed how little they gave a shit

[@sandalogaming6766]

@@tylerdewald6916I have a few buddies on new Gen consoles who still have that problem of having to load in textures while the match is still on going. It’s not a generation console thing, is just the game that’s coded in Italy’s finest pasta 💀

[@richjennings63]

World at War made me open a history book when I was only in 5th grade. The emotions I felt while playing through the campaign were strong and it actually made me want to know more about the world around me.

[@samrunsads]

same!!

[@skater17894]

I like your comment man. I remember when I first saw the cod 3 campaign trailer in 2006, my parents tried to hide it from me since I was a Jehovahs Witness haha but my grandfather was a Geography Teacher in the 70s and 80s and told me all about WWII.

[@speedy_fast]

I also like the grit from the real war footage, as a kid playing it felt heavier of a story knowing some of those clips during cutscenes really happened

[@NostalgicGamerRickOShay]

Play Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault if you want a Pacific campaign that is actually historically accurate.

[@slicedtopieces]

Back when even something as commercial as a Call of Duty game still played somewhat of a service to the public in conveying even just a little bit of history.

[@alsenar2]

Talking about the menu: Remember World at War or Black Ops 1? Those menus were just incredible on how they set the mood for the whole game.

[@steveharveysmustache3988]

Now they’ve got the “streaming service” ui that’s infuriating to navigate through

[@Mike-xp8zc]

You code break out of the chair in BO1 and play arcade zombies om the computer You can't do anything remotely close to.that now smh

[@NERGYStudios]

And the fricking background music on the menu in MW2, specially the Spec Ops theme. They put more effort on that track itself than entire modern games.

[@Villager_U]

Bo1 menu is goated, probably the best in cod history

[@bob2600]

Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but MW2's menu is the best. The menus are clean and intentional in their layout and they serve their function. The current iteration is a jumbled mess and nearly incomprehensible

[@FloridaMan3211-y2r]

The spetnaz theme in BO1 was so clean

[@Soliye.]

What hurts most is knowing we'll never get to experience it again. To think that, as a kid, I "couldn't wait" to see how these games would be with future tech... Fuck was I off with my predictions.

[@blvckl0tcs750]

nah yall just dickriding nostalgia. the amount of newer titles treated like shit for 0 reason bewilders me. even cold war did a good job in what it was

[@drew3045]

​@@blvckl0tcs750you're either 15 or you're terrible at the games and have no idea what you're talking about

[@el-massy]

​@@blvckl0tcs750 the video wasn't necessarily about new cods being shit, it was about the lack of cohesion and theme behind the newer entries. I agree that Cold War was ok (kinda), but even that game suffers from the Fornite syndrome.

[@KORUPTable]

Same happened to us Halo fans, thank god 343 finally made infinite playable and returned Halo back to what made Halo good with some new gameplay features. Sure some of the cosmetics are dumb but atleast it's not fortnite level corporate garbage thrown into the game for the heckin kiddos

[@charliereg7221]

@@blvckl0tcs750 they dickride their own nostalgia, they rebooted the whole franchise and turned it into fortnite.

[@biggreen1456]

I despise that COD became the "McDonalds" of videogames, it's almost embarrassing to tell my friends my fond memories of COD when this modern shit is what they think of

[@caiuscosades1791]

It's even worse when you get called old because you played the OG games from the 2000s/2010s.

[@GraemeGowling]

I HVAE DONE IT WITH COD BATTLE FEILD FORTNITE HECK EVEN MINECRAFT I FEEL ASHMEDD OF PLAYING THESE GAMES NOW BUT BACK IN THE DAY I WAS PROUD

[@RustCohle072]

​@@caiuscosades1791Those would be little kids who have never had any real responsibilities in their life, haha!

[@redline841]

Tough shit. It transitioned from PC to Console focus 2009 and it was all downhill from there. Death of Dedicated servers meant it was all over.

[@noobguy9973]

@@caiuscosades1791 Bruh ı've played DOOM 1 (1993) what does that make me :D

[@f1ibraaa]

In-game first person cutscenes need to come back. It’s way more immersive than having actual cutscenes and thats something i LOVED about cod campaigns. The classic ones are so iconic, like when bowman died in BO1 or when ghost and roach died in mw2 and no russian as well. It makes it all streamlined and immersive

[@zachm9202]

I agree. If I wanted to watch some 3rd person cutscene I would watch a movie. The 1st person aspect was way better.

[@TheseNUTZ588]

True

[@TREVORVADER]

Same. It was so much more immersive back then

[@mightza3781]

That was the design philosophy of the original COD games to make you feel like just another solider on the ground.

[@croatianfemboy]

even steven spielberg agreed with this