Highlights
- Juggernaut in COD 4 and World at War was annoying and unbalanced, giving players a 25% reduction in damage without drawbacks, which created a shallow perk meta.
- Pre-ordering World at War gave players early access to the overpowered M1A1 Carbine, with a fast rate of fire and larger magazine size, leading to rampant abuse.
- The 725 shotgun in Modern Warfare (2019) was absurdly powerful, one-shotting players from long distances, but thankfully, it was nerfed by Infinity Ward.
The Call of Duty series is perhaps the most popular First-Person Shooter series there ever was, with two decades of major success across 22 total releases. In that time, the series has been able to refine its multiplayer into the industry defining that it has since become. Games like the original Modern Warfare and even Black Ops still hold up to this day as fun and addictive despite their age.
Despite this obvious success, however, it isn't always sunshine and rainbows when it comes to each game's multiplayer modes. While it's obvious people love Call of Duty, there have been plenty of things over the years that fans will point to with utter disdain as being unbalanced, out of place, or straight up broken in each of the games. Here is a list of some of the most infamous game-breaking mishaps in Call of Duty multiplayer history.
8 Juggernaut - COD 4 / World at War
Few things induced as much hyper-focused rage as the sight of that annoying little plus symbol upon shooting an enemy in some of the old COD titles. While Juggernaut was eventually removed from subsequent games in the series, it was used fairly heavily by players in COD 4 and World at War.
What made Juggernaut so irritating was that it was a flat 25% reduction of all damage types without a single drawback, meaning it was basically free health. This had a habit of unexpectedly swaying gun fights in favor of the player using Juggernaut, especially if the other player wasn't using Stopping Power (something perks like Juggernaut necessitated, to begin with). This created a wildly shallow perk meta that was thankfully corrected later in the series.
7 Pre-Order M1A1 Carbine - World At War
Many players may not remember the absolute terror that was the M1A1 Carbine in WAW multiplayer. Normally, the Carbine is a level 65 unlock in the rifle class, but if players pre-ordered the game they would get to use it at level 1.
What made this so ridiculous is that the Carbine had a very fast rate of fire even before Double Tap, and a larger magazine size at 15 rounds than many of the other rifles (which itself could be upgraded to 30). The M1A1 was infamously abused by players with modded controllers because it had a rather high cap on its rate of fire.
6 One Man Army - MW2 (2009)
The original MW2 is known to be kind of a busted game in more than a few ways, however, it is fondly remembered for many of the same reasons. One thing that is not remembered fondly, though, is the rampant abuse of the One Man Army perk, which gave players the ability to switch classes without dying.
Players eventually caught on to the idea of making several grenade launcher and other explosive centric classes, using OMA to switch to each of them to refill their ammo. Many a tactical nuke was earned via the abuse of this strategy.
5 The 725 - Modern Warfare (2019)
Anyone who played MW19when it first came out knew how utterly absurd the 725 was. Even without the use of slugs, the gun could one hit kill a player from extreme distances. Its power, along with a quick reload, more than offset its low capacity, with many making the weapon the centerpiece of their arsenal.
Whole articles and guides had been written on how to make the best 725 builds. Eventually, however, the shotgun was thankfully nerfed several times by Infinity Ward, smashing the dreams of many 725 users.
4 Grenade Launchers / Noob Tubes
Ever since their introduction to the franchise with COD 4, players have cursed the existence of the under barrel grenade launcher. Grenade launchers get the name "Noob Tube" because not only are they rather easy to get kills with (the grenades explode on impact), but back in the day, the first Assault Rifle the player could use was literally an M16 with a GL on it.
The real problem, however, came when they were paired with perks like Overkill or One Man Army, which undoubtedly increased the Noob Tube's potency to obscene proportions.
3 Akimbo Model 1887s - MW2 (2009)
Much like the 725 in MW19, the Model 1887 was a hilariously overpowered shotgun, specifically when used akimbo (AKA dual wielded for all the Halo fans). The 725, however, can't be used akimbo and was eventually nerfed several times by the developers. Akimbo 1887 were also nerfed eventually, though it's rather odd that something so colossally unbalanced wasn't caught sooner.
The guns initially had an extremely tight spread and dealt absurdly high damage, whilst also doubling its rate of fire. This meant that they could one-hit-kill a single player even from across the map or several up close with relative ease.
2 The M16
One thing the COD series really has never been able to completely get away from is the tendency for the M16 (or whichever weapon fills its archetype) to be rather overpowered. In the original Call of Duty 4, the M16A4 was an absolute force to be reckoned with, even more so when paired with a grenade launcher.
It was often capable of killing in a single burst at most ranges thanks to its high damage, laser-like accuracy, and low recoil. While it was never nerfed in COD 4, it did end up receiving one after player outcry in some of the more recent games in the series like Black Ops Cold War.
1 Commando - MW2 (2009)
For any player that felt as though they were inexplicably killed by a teleporting Knife-wielding maniac, Commando is the reason why. Not only did it increase the knife's lunge range (from 3.2 meters to 4.4), but it also increased the speed at which the lunge travels.
The pro version of the perk (obtained at 20 melee kills using the base Commando) negated all fall damage, which fundamentally broke several maps in the game by allowing Commando users to circumvent whole portions of the map in ways that normal players would get significantly damaged or even die attempting.