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 RU-vid doesn't pay well and isn't stable. No need to do so, but the option is there: www.patreon.com/thewheezy
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
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.
@@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
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
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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!
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.
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 😂
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
@@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.
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
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
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
@@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 💀
It really hits hard when you go between old cod games and the new ones. The feeling of just being a soldier in a war that has so much brutality now turned into a bunch of celebrities shooting each other yelling absurd lines really killed the vibe cod used to give.
That is exactly my issue with cod and now battlefield too. I don’t want to be a unique super operator with special abilities. It’s so much more immersive when I’m a nameless soldier in a realistic-ish setting and scenario
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.
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.
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.😢😢
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
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.
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
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 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.
@@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.
I’d like to point out the fact that during the loading screens for the Pacific missions in World At War, they showed actual executions/ war crimes committed by the Japanese during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. WAW is one of the only games I know that shows you real footage of human beings being murdered. The devs didn’t want to just make a game, they wanted to show how horrible war is and how people can do horrible things to one another.
the game was so grounded, in addition of the detail which was such a welcome one for its linear scale as small things were noticeable amongst the chaos..
A thing that straight away puts me off the current games. The menus. I’m an 18 yo who can barely decipher where anything I want is anymore I feel like I can’t even track progress on weapons anymore because I don’t even know which weapons I even have anymore.
@@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
@@narrow3601Yeah, they got pushed out by Activision. They held the rights for CoD, but Activision would gain them if they were ‘lawfully/ legally’ fired.
@@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.
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.
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
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.
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
@@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.
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
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.
They will always push for pay to win to some degree because they know certain players will always seek it out and will be willing to pay for it. There's no way they pushed a Groot skin out and didn't wonder if it will help people blend in with the environment more, they just care more about profit potential and only care about balance so far as they make it seem like they care about balance.
one of the most impactful moments in the entire cod history has to be the nuke blast in cod4. it was shocking to most players because the USMC's approach of going all out action movie actually failed, which was quite unheard of at that time in the gaming scene where badass = automatic win
The original MW series was insanely good. I mean, you can just listen to the soundtrack and feel like you’re playing the game. And so many main characters were killed, it wasn’t trying to be a happy-go-lucky experience.
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.❤❤
You hit the nail on the head here. COD used to have a distinct personality that tied serious, meaningful stories and themes to polished and unique gameplay. Now, the series is a bastard child of greed and vanity. What they’ve become is disgusting.
@@fireemblemaddict128 I can't take this comments section seriously with people defending the games that brought in any faction with any gun nonsense. Russians using TAR 21s because why not?
They didn’t became it. Actually since the release of the OG Modern Warfare 2, Activision fired the leaders of Infinty Ward and the rest of the team followed because they lost their head leaders.. All that so Robert Kotick could do what he wanted with the Call Of Duty series. You can even go further than that. Much of the Infinity Ward guys used to be the ones that made the first Medal Of Honor which was incredible. They were called « 2015 » at the time. Since EA wanted to it themselves, Activision bought 2015 and ask them to make a concurrent for Medal Of Honor -> Call Of Duty (which were literally called Medal Of Honor Killer at that time). Let’s go way later in time by skipping the fact that Treyarch went in the circle and Activision liked them better because more obedient.. Let’s go to a few months before the release of MW2 (OG). Infinity Ward ask if they could do a more futuristic Call Of Duty. Robert refuses BUT he knew exactly what they wanted to do with it because they presented it. Few months later after the release of MW2 (OG) the two leaders of Infinity Ward are fired and so follow the rest of the team as I said. And guess what ? They go make Titanfall. They made the game they wanted and because Robert knew exactly that they could destroy his leader ship in FPS since they were the guys that made it he asked his teams (Treyarch and the new recruits of Infinity Ward) to create futuristic Call Of Duty. It wouldn’t be a problem if the games are bad because they’ll still makes sell and more importantly since it’s call of duty, that would make people sick of futuristic gameplay year after year. And there you have (I think Advanced Warfare) for the release of Titanfall 2 that corrected all the problems of the first one. And boom ! Just like that people wouldn’t buy Titanfall 2 because they didn’t want any futuristic things no more. But I swear to god if you guys had launch it to could have see that the gameplay is all that Call Of Duty should have been ! Now let’s go even closer in time. 2019. Apex Legends goes out. A game put in the “set” of Titanfall (you can clearly see the similarities if you played both). The game worked great in the first year, it’s even one of the favorites part of Apex for a bunch of players… and boom again.. Warzone go out in 2020 😂 Anyway I talk too much but I felt like I had to tell that story (very shortened though). Excuse myself by advance for my English it’s not my native language I tried my best. Thank you for the people that read me 😂
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
As a kid then, World at War taught me much about the gravity of war and despite the fun I had, the weight of it always stuck to me and was never just a spectacle or novelty
World at War is definitely the best CoD. A great story mode that I could play again and again that was extremely heavy. And the funnest multiplayer known to man. Then add in zombies? shiiiii
@@Markizas.Karabasas First Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was simply put, the greatest. For me at least, I can always go back to the campaign, and always have a blast. Also, cheats.
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
This issue became prevelant to me when I started playing MW2019 and I saw Jigsaw running around shooting me. It seemed so wacky, I can't even imagine trying to play today lol.
I totally agree with this video. I feel like long-term, these newer games will have their legacies forgotten due to them not having a cohesive theme. Also, the new games especially the rebooted MW series are so hellbent on using nostalgia that they forget to actually make some new stories/characters to be nostalgic about. Vanguard tried but failed due to bad, quippy MCU-like writing. It's WW2... But at least It's comforting to know that I can always come back to these iconic games and play their campaigns or hop on zombies!
Right!! That's what I've been saying, these newer games feel like mcu movies, I miss the regular soldiers in mp and in each storyline too. Yes, they still had special ops shit, but they had that meat grinder line infantry aspect too
They played it really safe with main characters too. They killed three main characters in mw3 2023 when they'd kill at least that many per game in the old trilogy. There were stakes to the games that made them exciting
@@rexthewolf3149 it showed that there was a bigger world happening besides what the main cast were going through and that nobody was untouchable. The newer games were so self contained it made it feel like nothing was going on outside of what the main characters did
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.
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
@@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.
@@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.
Call of Duty then: - Battles and secret operations that happened in real life are presented in a videogame that allows you to witness the history while playing a game and having fun. - Believable setting and an atmosphere in a could-happen real life scenario. - Brutal and horrific sides of real life warfare and its effects on soldiers. Call of Duty now: - A huge circus with goofy characters and colorful skins. - Making money is in mind. - Feels like a soccer arena.
Call of duty has almost no historically accurate depictions of real life wars/battles. Theyre all either inspired by or just loosely based on real events.... that were grossly misrepresented to make it more fun. If youre looking at any call of duty for history, then... idk what to tell you. Maybe pick up a real history book. Because youre learning fanfic.
@@voraxumbra1 thats not what he said, call of duty back then was all about showing the grit and brutality of war and the effects it has on society. World War 3, the US being invaded, Civilians being murdered by terrorists to try and pin blame on the US for organizing it. By brutal and horrific sides of real life warfare, they likely mean that the game is portraying the effects warfare have on soldiers, the civilian populace, and the governments of the world. The game has completely lost its soul and it no longer feels like its trying to portray the brutalities of war, but now is setting up the British SAS/TF141 as the heros of the world.
I include new Ghost into this circus too because he is too badass. OG Ghost more like simple human. He can panic, he can scream and he doesn't have silly mask, he has simple balaclava.
This is very true thats why in the beginning of mw19 was so good and remembered too the operators felt like in the OG mw2 and the theme of military realistic warfare. As soon too many cosmetics came it started to fall apart as often said what great would have been a toggle button to deactivate those skins
Another point: these new, fancy cinematics DO NOT belong in Call of Duty! A huge part of the immersion in older cods was made by always being in the POV of the protagonist
They're trying to copy the cinematic techniques seen in Halo and Perfect Dark, where when a cutscene begins, the camera cuts away from the player's POV and uses typical camera angles to capture everyone's faces in these scenes, and the camera panning back into the player character's POV when it ends.
This reminds me on how Gears of War 5 added WWE, Terminator and other cosmetics... it made it goofy in my opinion, and that's not counting the trash story.
I am glad I am not the only one. Basically, they make games around what they can and want to sell to you, NOT to play anymore. The end goal is not playability, but to essentially milk you for the same bullshit every year. It’s a system that works, so who could blame them for taking advantage.
Everything you touched on has happened to battlefield too. I remember playing bf3 and 4 and feeling so immersed in these massive battles. Russians vs Marines or China. Proper announcers with accents from their native nations using vehicles that correlated to those countries. Now its "operators" that are the same for both teams, generic announcers and everyone using the same vehicles. It destroyed the whole vibe of the matches. BF4 to me was peak large scale multiplayer shooter. Now its a shell of its former self and barely a military shooter.
Battlefield 1 was the last immersive game in the franchise imo. Sure, over the top as hell and unrealistic but the atmosphere and immersion was amazing.
@@ArcticChonk agreed but theres mods where you can change the unit skins to be more realistic, if you look type in bf1 realistic ww1 skins or whatever it will pop up in nexus and you'll see what i mean and i also miss the classic rifle class servers only cause that made immersion perfect!
Your point about previous campaigns jumping from "nobody" character to "nobody" character was excellent, and something i never realized how much I appreciated it. The old approach focused on stories and not characters, which was infinitely better imo.
It not only put you in different perspectives but also made awareness that anyone you know might’ve been through this, living human beings go through this exact thing to protect the nation they love and the people they know. Not just some same protagonist who is going through all these wild adventures with a few friends along the way. That’s what made those campaigns meaningful because the world didn’t really depend only on YOU, but on different individuals doing their job to be able to succeed.
That’s the whole reason these characters they got to milk to death were iconic in the first place! Nobody gives a shit anymore, and it’s funny/sad to think that now the younger generation who never played those CODs, these “hero” characters are just cool “because I said so”. It’s emotionless and lame, at least there’s finally about to be a crossroads
I recently started playing with friends and family who haven’t touched a COD since the BO2 days and their reaction always comes with questions asking things like “why is it like that now?” and “why did they do it that way?” Then of course for me to only give them this almost depressing answer of “this is just what COD is now….” then I get to watch them eventually decide they don’t wanna play because it’s not what they remember.
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.😢😢😢
all long-time players of COD all did have same experience, Call of Duty 2,3 COD 4 MW, World at Wars, COD MW 2, 3, COD Black ops 1,2, even COD Ghosts is good, too (its bad is not normal), and also the reason I always enjoy the remastered MWs more than rebooted ones (even they dont have multiplayer)
@@novas702It'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.😢😢😢
@@mingyuhuang8944 meanwhile being in a full lobby with Viking skins in a Viking themed map in fortnite: Also, military skins fighting other military skins in a cod map made by a fortnite player: Also OG skins being on the OG map during season OG:
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.
In Black Ops 1 and 2 multiplayer , the characters spoke in different languages, Russian, Spanish, Arab, Chinese all according to the nationality or faction. I love that detail, even some killstreaks like the VTOL or the Lonestar, the pilots of those aircrafts, spoke in the respective language of the faction you were playing as. … that was real inclusion tho hahaha 😝
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.
As a graphic designer, I look at it as call of duty has lost its 'branding'. In every aspect. From the lack of music, annoucers, the focus on operators in a bid to sell skins like fortnight and overwatch. The grounded-ness of Cod used to go beyond just the font on the screen but as the very examples you talk about in this video. Each cod game felt different and I remember World at War being quite gritty compared to earlier entries that I had played. My favorite being Call of Duty 2, The big Red 1. Gamecube. It was very band of brothers but not nearly as visceral as WaW but each felt at home as great experiences. Now it does feel like.. cod lost its 'flavor'. And I love history. So Call of Duty's WWII campaigns always were a massive pull for me. I wish they'd go back to that. Exploring an era. Having an identity that also has something to say that feels unique to that game. For me, I think the writing fell off after black ops 1. I think narratively, those are my favorites. I knew to dodge the storm that was WW2. Bleh.
Theyre not really allowed to be silly lol. Games workshop is very tight with their settings and what they can and cant do. Every little thing has to be approved by them for it to be in the game. Still, solid comparison though
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.😢😢😢@@Biggssyyy
@@mileator thats the imperium for ya. Mfs can be dressed in 15th century nobleman dressings and as long as they have a bionic eye or some cables then it fits the bill lol
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. .
Call of Duty is at its best when you're a small piece of an incredibly massive puzzle. Playing as lesser-known foot soldiers in the Modern Warfare campaign, then seeing how each piece flows together with each faction you were a part of, then having all those factions team up under the same goal was SO cool to see. The Modern Warfare mission where task force and delta squad team up to rescue the Russian president's daughter was one of the coolest missions ever because of how everything led up to that moment
You’re 100% correct man. I remember everything about those campaigns because of how cool it was when Delta touched down in post gas attack France to help out the GIGN/track down the bomb maker
Dude… you just hit me right in the nostalgia. Big Red One. Man, I loved playing as numerous countrymen all fighting the same enemy. CoD 2 and 3 were the best story modes for these reasons
MW2019 was the last game with a clear goal and thematic identity. Even then it was walking on the very edge of what we'd consider "consistent theme" in the golden age of CoD. Sure, it had operators but the factions made sense. And even their most funky skins looked mostly grounded. The locations of MP maps were also tied to the campaign - Urzikstan, Kastovia, England. Not a bloody mess of random locations with no military value like in MWII & III. WZ in 2019 era felt immersive too. It expanded the story and it took place in the world around the multiplayer maps.
MW19 caused all of these issues lol. Hence why its an abhorrent game. Blops was on the edge of the cliff and mw19 was like lets just jump right off into the casuals market fully. Fuck having a skill gap fuck having a soul. Nostalgia bait all in. The whack on probably the worst BR on the market compared to pubg, apex and fortnite. Sadly it worked and its killed cod for anyone who likes what cod used to be.
Eh, the "goal and themes" bar keeps shifting - if somebody started out with CoD2 in '05, they're likely still upset about stuff like aim assist and killstreaks.
Thank you! When I was talking about this shit since CW, People keep mentioning “well 2019 had cosmetics and anime girl operators” yeah but they were still hella grounded and made some sense in the game. It was kinda airsoftish but still had some military influence. Now? Bitch is that HOMELANDER?…with a GUN?! HOMELANDER?! A GUN? Adding 21 Savage is a funny idea but like…shirtless? If they added a celeb in 2019 like the Spec Ops guys who their models were based on, they were at least kitted tf out. This shit now is ridiculous and no consistency and I hate it
Call of Duty 4 almost felt documentarian at times. The big action set-pieces didn't feel _too_ Hollywood-like, the dialogue was realistic and they didn't talk like cool movie guys with catchphrases and gruff voices, the group of soldiers just felt like a group of soldiers instead of Marvel Characters & you could just believe what happened could actually happen to some soldiers irl. Now it just feels like a bad cable tv show, or a new MCU movie. :/
I think the word you are looking for is plausibility. Basically, while things where not necessarily 1:1 to reality, it still managed to follow it's own rules in a way that made sure you could get immersed in the story. It's how in stories with magic people don't question that characters can throw fireballs
as someone who plays COD yearly, it’s hilarious to see the cosmetics in Multiplayer start realistic / grounded, and then by Season 2 they go all out wild.
Mw3(2023) just forgoes all of that and is starting off with whacky shit out the gate. At least with mw2019 and mw2 had some cool milsim stuff at the beginning
To chronicle it even further. Back in those days they were able to hire heavy hitting figures in acting, composing, directing in the industry. People like Gary oldman, Hans Zimmer, have been in too many legendary projects. The storytelling and the game had to have some chops to make legends in their fields want to work with you. Even with those tight schedules they had they pulled those games off.
I have to say only one thing: you made me cry, those games were my childhood, seeing how childish they became and every year i hope to see a beautyful come back with what you have said in the video. Thanks a lot bro
I went from putting thousands of hours in MW2, MW3, BO2 and early CODs to not touching a game in years. SBMM, micro-transactions that are cooler than anything you could earn on your own, unfinished releases, and blatant abandonment of realism pushed me away. Obviously COD’s mp gameplay isn’t realistic and is entirely meant to be an arcade shooter, but having that connection to the campaign felt special, intentional, and gave me that G.I. Joe feeling I wanted as a kid. It’s so sad to see where the franchise is now.
I feel that 100% I have been playing cod since cod2 going from buying a cod every year to only couple years. cod mobile is alright for it being free lol
I stopped at BO1. It got too ridiculous after that. I gave MW2019 a shot and liked it but then it got overrun by battle royale type bullshit and I stopped playing and moved on to Insurgency Sandstorm, ARMA, and Squad.
One thing I miss is the attention to detail, like the voice lines you use examples if you listen closely at 3:16 the announcer has no radio filter over their voice because the EMP would have knocked out all radios. It's stuff like that really made the game
I used to work on Call of Duty Mobile back from 2020 to 2022. We tried very hard to give a nice blend of serious, and goofy. However the core team of Call of Duty fans left to other companies, and we started hiring people who had no idea what call of duty was all about. We had to teach them who Ghost, and Price was. That's the problem, they're hiring people who don't have the soul of the game tied to their heart. I remember picking up Modern Warfare back in 2007, and I carried that energy into the game. but here I am YAPPING!
Cannot be understated, from what I hear Halo is having the same issues. Hiring a revolving door of temp personnel rips the soul right out of any endeavor
Cod mobile is basically what the main games should be. Just 1 themeless game ran for 10 years and add whatever dumb goofy crap they want to it. Like I don't know why they still release a themed game every year just to immediately ruin the themes with skins
@@J.Wolf90 They should just admit to themselves what the franchise has become, and embrace it. Eliminate MP, hell eliminate the FPS aspects entirely. Just leave the character customization menus. People would spend hours just sitting there creating the perfect character so they can stare in an electronic mirror all day
First off, even though I'm not a mobile player, I appreciate that the Girls Frontline collab happened. I'd love to see a Blue Archive collab with MW3. I'll be straight with you as a long time CoD player. I haven't played a campaign since the Kevin spacey CoD. I can't tell you who Price and Soap are these days despite playing just about every game since the original MW4.
I remember as a kid playing MW2, I’ll never forget feeling like I was immersed in a war, with the ac130 above sending bombs whistling past me. I even remember a kid over the mic say “yoo… that was intense”. The game made everything feel real, like you were actually there. I would get goosebumps playing. The theming of the game made everything feel real, which is what video games are supposed to be. They’re supposed to immerse you into a different reality.
I completely agree, dude. In fact, even the people who make indie games somehow miss the mark on this. They design their stories and plots around.. well, generally accepted writing structures. It FEELS like im playing a video game. This somehow awakens what little emotion I have left in me after my recent... head impact. Its M rating was definitely deserved, especially when its sense of grit is somehow designed in a way that... oh dear. all the people involved in politics... theyre missing the fucking point. Im gonna see if I can get a playable Treyarch CoD game soon. I need to scare myself into being productive.
What was great about the old cod games was that you didn't even need an indicator over the player's head to know who the enemy is. Now it's all confusing.
yes, the scaling of players is completely ruined and you can feel it most in iw's recent games. everyone is short and move in a strange manner that doesn't translate well to the gunplay, bf2042 suffers from the same thing
Yeah I’m just chasing red dots on a minimap only to drain their HP bar when you see them, since every gun is basicly the same. Very boring and predictable, repetitive gameplay.
I remember getting butterflies in my stomach, coming home from school, just FIENDING to play CoD4 or MW2 with my friends. It was so simple compared to now, but they genuinely were the best CoD games. Skins mean't how skilled you were, perks were earned, your choice of gun mean't who you were, your clan tag was serious bizness, just such good times lol
This was me but with the Black Ops duo of games lol. Used to spend hundreds of hours playing bo1 and bo2 as a kid, back when they were good and not train go boom. Better days
@@Ryan-oe4hb Bo1 was my favourite for the lore. Those map packs were hyped like crazy for the zombies; everybody was getting them. Bo2 went a little outlandish imo, but that was even more hyped with the spawn of RU-vid CoD commentary and gameplay guys. The best part was, it was all released as *finished* content. Nothing was completely game-breaking broken. You had a couple out of map glitches here and there, but those were just pure fun. Such good times.
You spoke out my heart in this video. I can't possibly bond to these goofy ass modern games that don't take themselves seriously and don't have a strong identity/thematic behind them. Each new release passes like water under the bridge and gets easily forgotten because they are just so senseless and lack strong essence. The older CoDs (especially the MW series) evoked feelings in me that I haven't forgotten to this day and it's been more than a decade since then. They felt like actual experiences that absorbed me into them to make me understand what they conveyed. Back then the games weren't only fun, but playing them from start to end felt like finishing a really good book due to the impeccable and splendid way they were presented. RIP old times. I feel bad for the new generations that won't get to experience any of this and what it feels like. Love the vid and the script, you earned a sub.
@@tagus100 but people were literally asking them on twitter for those skins, IW delivered & it gave them a lot of money, sadly there was nothing we could do, whales always win
It’s kinda crazy how great MW2019 was and how fast it went downhill after that. MW2019 was honestly a near perfect CoD game. Yes the maps were rough, but the gameplay and the setting was so good that I could overlook a bad map
@@dryspongeyt7353 Once Warzone was released is when they ended up putting mostly goofy skins in each BP and store. Remember when they even cancelled the last season because Cold War was coming out, then they ended up releasing the RAAL MG and Makarov pistol months later and added Soap to the store to buy. They basically cut up the last season to sell everything for more money
@@dryspongeyt7353 Facts, it started out as a cool tactical COD game, then came the outrageous skins and shit. I remember when the wildest thing COD had were your calling cards and some of the camos you unlocked for your guns.
1:50 gave me instantaneous chills..! This screen use to idle when i was doing homework, waiting for the boys, or when I was taking a break/eating... You can't deny the nostalgia and flashbacks this menu produces years later!
The game had a realistic vibe, but quickly became a goofy arcade experience once you’re quick scoping with the intervention, seeing trickshots online, etc.
The different factions in MP made it seem like other battles that happened in the campaign that the hero characters weren't there for. That's what was cool
@@sheldonjplanktonn A veteran was interviewed not long back about his time during the battle at stalingrad where his team successfully fought off the enemy team. Activation went so far with preventing you from playing as the germans that they removed any identity vanguards multiplayer had.
You just made me realise that when casuals talk about how call of duty used to be more realistic, what they actually mean is more serious. Cod was never realistic, it was always an unrealistic fast paced arcade shooter, but the theme used to be serious, that is what changed and I think that's what it should return to. The gameplay mechanics shouldn't try to be realistic, but the theme, the setting and just the overall feel of the game should be.
@@sunburst8810 Yeah, nothing says realistic like picking up health packs that instantly heal you. This dumbass talking about Unreal tournament like its ARMA.
my favorite intro theme to this day is the call of duty modern warfare 2 opfor music. i still listen to it today and i remember bobbing my head to it as a wee lad.
This is why I liked the customization in Ghost. Every clothing option you were given felt like it belonged in the game while letting you give your character an identity.
That makes more sense then following Siege with the operators thing. Let players make their own soldier for each faction, and just go back to loadouts.
Ghosts was an odd duck. I wanted to like it so bad. It had a lot of fun and unique ideas, not all of which worked. When it played well, it was a whole lot of fun. I think what brought it down the most was the map design and the spawn system. It was just way too chaotic and unpredictable.@@jase276
I did this subconsciously, which just lays so much credence to this video. Gamers like getting immersed regardless of the game it is they are playing and will often do things to further the immersion whether they even realize it or not. Now everyone just uses the same two guns no matter what, so dull.
The consistency of the art direction & tone is part of what made golden age & classic CoD feel like pieces of art instead of the awful corporate product it is now.
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.
it only works for fortnite because fortnite started as goofy and never tried to be serious, while cod and battlefield started as serious games and are now, well you know
I truly miss the good, old days. Back then when you had to paid for the game and you got THE game, the story, the music, the setting and THE THEME. All paid and accounted for. But no anymore...
I think playing as an unnamed ground soldier makes it feel like when you die, you're a new soldier coming to the front. It also makes it feel like the war is much bigger.
I like the concept they added where you can customize your character or choose your operator. However they should’ve kept it more like how COD Ghosts was, and instead implemented fully geared and armored characters that actually look like soldiers that you could fully customize from the camo or color of their gear and clothing to what type of gear they wear (for cosmetic purposes only) rather than what we have with the operators that look stupid and out of place in a game based on two military teams fighting against each other.
I miss 2009 too man, games will never be the same for our children as it was for us playing cod 4, ghosts, black ops, bo2, it all stopped when advanced warfare came out in my opinion . Call of duty was a different game
Then go play those games. Go play arma or ready or not, not everything has to suit you. Call of Duty went in a different direction and if you can't deal with it, too fucking bad and go pick up a new game. If you want the realistic-ness, just play the campaign and move on. You dont *have* to play the multiplayer and you don't have to look at it. And if call of duty was losing money with going in a new direction they'd stop, but they're making insane bank and haven't.
he's right though, the only reason they're still making this much money is because kids/dads keep buying these shitty p2w skinpacks. complaining about it is fun but we're not the target audience anymore at the end of the day@@NirtieDigger
This is a big reason why I have stopped playing COD and BF, they just aren’t the same anymore. It’s crazy how different the vibes were. That menu for MW2 with that music was so nostalgic, really took me back. The problem is the game will never go back to the way they were because of money. They make so much money off of the stupid micro transactions and dumb characters. Being owned by a large company means profit is the only thing that matters. Our only hope is some smaller studio going back to basics.
I like to mention that they also designed the menu to get to the game as fast and easy as possible. Modern MW2 had insanely complex and ridiculous menu design
I just dont understand why the shit makes more money. Why are ppl spending all this money on these microtransactions? I dont friggin get it. It requires the public being essentially mindless for this model to be profitable which is just depressing to see that it isnt just profitable, it is obscene levels of profit lmao
@@MooseBear-ob2whyou kind of answered your own question there. People are mindless consumers, told to buy buy buy. Look at iPhone, they come out with a new one every year and people just have to have it. Same thing with games, they've made it so that people want to have the newest one and with the huge social aspect of games now, people want the latest game everyone's playing which just makes it worse.
I'd wager that World At War was the most serious COD game to date -but it was also iconic and fun. It knew what it was, It knew what it was trying to be, and it knew what it wasn't...current COD should take notes.
@@HS_RickGhost was underrated in my opinion, i feel that game was actually pretty nice. I remember enjoying the story. I would like to replay it at some point and see what my impressions of the story would be now.
The ending cutscene of WAW still gives me the chills when it mentions that over 60 million people had died in the war. It really does point out how Ww2 was the most deadliest conflict in human history.