Highlights
- Call of Duty has had a long and successful history, but some games within the franchise have been forgotten due to various reasons such as their age or lack of memorable features.
- The original Call of Duty game is often overlooked due to the oversaturated market and the release of new games in the franchise every year. However, it is still worth revisiting to understand the series' origins and its impact on the gaming industry.
Call of Duty has endured a long road, filled with guns and multiplayer mayhem. Few multiplayer franchises have been as successful as Call of Duty, and fans seem to eagerly await each year for the new title, with a revamped gameplay system featuring one of the core development teams behind the Call of Duty release cycle, whether that’s the Zombies mode, thriller campaign, or engaging multiplayer.
Despite the constant success of Call of Duty, there are some games that players might have forgotten were part of the franchise. Whether it’s because these games are older, on consoles that most familiar and modern Call of Duty players have not experienced, or simply because they just weren’t all that memorable.
8 Call Of Duty: Finest Hour
One of the earliest Call of Duty titles to hit the market was Call of Duty: Finest Hour, a game released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and the GameCube. It’s nice to see a Call of Duty title that was released on a Nintendo system as early as the GameCube. Yet, due to how early this game hit the market in 2004, it’s not surprising that some fans would have heard of it over more modern titles in the franchise.
Finest Hour had a pretty excellent campaign premise, as players could enjoy either perspective of the war from that of the Soviet Campaign, the American Campaign, or the British Campaign. It was also rather innovative with its online multiplayer and campaign levels.
7 Call Of Duty: World At War: Final Fronts
Call of Duty: World at War is known amongst many as one of the best Call of Duty games due to its story, online gameplay, and the addition of Zombies, which would quickly become a household name in the Call of Duty market. However, there was a version of World at War that existed outside of the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 era, and that was World at War: Final Fronts exclusive to the PlayStation 2.
Despite the same name, World at War: Final Fronts had its campaign, and lacked the online multiplayer and Zombies mode that fans adored World at War for. Thus, it’s no surprise that Final Fronts became a forgotten game in the fandom.
6 Call Of Duty: Roads To Victory
There were a few Call of Duty titles that experimented with the Sony handheld systems of the PSP era. One of them was Call of Duty: Road to Victory. Being outside of the main series, this was developed by Amaze Entertainment and featured a story mode set during World War 2 where players could experience campaign levels from different allies. The three campaigns the American Campaign, Canadian Campaign, and British Campaign helped extend the game’s 14 levels.
This title was a lacking installment of the Call of Duty franchise, but part of that is because it was on the limited hardware of the PSP, meaning its multiplayer functions, although ambitious with varied game modes, were underwhelming and inactive faster than most consoles were.
5 Call Of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified
On the topic of PSPs, Activision and Sony tried once again to breathe life into the PSVita with Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, an exclusive Call of Duty title set in the Treyarch timeline. This was the second portable Call of Duty game to hit the market, and it once again felt lackluster in comparison, especially since 2012 saw a defining era in the console market for Call of Duty games with the likes of Black Ops 2.
Black Ops: Declassified tried to provide players with a portable Call of Duty experience with its multiplayer and survival-type game modes, but the stripping of identity and famed mechanics made it hard to access and get into, considering it attempted to stretch the PSVita’s lacking capabilities.
4 Call Of Duty (2003)
To no fault of its own, the original Call of Duty released in 2003 is probably the most forgettable experience. That isn’t to discredit the game or the team that worked on it, as without 2003’s Call of Duty, the series would not exist in pop culture as it does today. The only reason the original Call of Duty is forgotten is due to the oversaturated market in the franchise with a new game released every year to compete with the best FPS games.
Taking the original Call of Duty as it is, players will be able to see where the series came from, and what inspired it. It’s great to go back and see the classics, and to dive deep into the campaign and combat that made Call of Duty one of the most famous gaming franchises of all time.
3 Call Of Duty: Ghosts
Infinity Ward left behind the Modern Warfare franchise for a fresh take with Call of Duty: Ghosts. However, this title already had failings from the start considering its namesake. Many believed that the game would be a spin-off for the fan-favorite Call of Duty character, Ghost, but instead, it was an entirely new take set after the apocalypse, with Operations Forces known as Ghosts taking center stage.
Many loved the campaign, and are desperate to see the cliffhanger resolved in a future Call of Duty game. However, there has been no word on a Call of Duty: Ghosts sequel, even if the game tried something new for its campaign, gameplay, and Extinction Mode. Coming out in 2013, Call of Duty: Ghosts simply came out at the wrong time, as the bridge between the era of PS3/Xbox 360 and PS4/Xbox One was slowly collapsing.
2 Call Of Duty Online
In a new first for the franchise, Call of Duty entered a free-to-play microtransaction-filled era with Call of Duty Online. This was a game that although everyone could see, not everyone could play, as it was exclusive to China. Although the game launched in 2013 with a closed beta, it later closed in 2021 for good, meaning those who never experienced Call of Duty Online, would never be able to. Yet, what is Call of Duty Online?
Call of Duty Online was a personal COD experience, in which players could customize their own characters, weapons, and equipment. The game was essentially a mashup of the COD franchise, with plenty of returning maps for PvP and PvE content, including the anticipated Cyborg mode, which was essentially Zombies.
1 Call Of Duty: Vanguard
Despite being released in 2021, Call of Duty: Vanguard quickly faded into obscurity within the franchise. The campaign tried something new, as it explored the stories of four different soldiers on different fronts during the major conflicts of World War 2. However, it wasn’t as impressionable as other campaigns before it. To make matters worse, Vanguard released a Zombies Mode that was dead on arrival and failed to be resurrected.
The failings of Call of Duty: Vanguard were a shame to see, but it’s a valuable lesson that perhaps a new Call of Duty game every year isn’t what players need, as quality will always be above quantity. The multiplayer was nothing to rave about, and players quickly jumped ship to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 just under a year later.