Close to the launch of Modern Warfare 3, a look at the best (and worst) episodes of the Call of Duty (COD) franchise with our ranking.
Call of Duty is the shooter par excellence, the quintessential FPS experience on console. Love it or hate it, if you want to perform at the highest levels of competition with a controller in hand, COD is the right place: army men who take aim and hit the target, no ifs or buts.
Call of Duty became so popular that FPS games that didn’t at least try to replicate the controls and feel of COD were rejected by many gamers in the days of Xbox 360 and PS3 – that’s not hyperbole, this series had a dramatic impact on the gaming landscape of that era and its influence is still visible today in the most popular shooters.
What is the best Call of Duty (COD)? | The ranking —
Call of Duty is still absurdly popular, even if nowadays it’s talked about more with a hint of nostalgia – or maybe it’s just us who have aged badly. Call of Duty: Warzone and the rebooted Modern Warfare series are taking the franchise into an even bolder new era, and that’s why it’s time to look back at the main Call of Duty series – all 20 mainline games released so far – and rank them from worst to best. Keep in mind that, for most of these games, you simply had to be there; If you weren’t there, it’s hard to explain.
19. Call of Duty: Ghosts (worst COD)
Call of Duty games are iterative, they’re not all unique and interesting. We know it, you know it. But this is just Modern Warfare 3 with a lick of paint. Some of the worst maps in the series are found right here in Ghosts, and the campaign? Terrible, in all honesty. It was so uninspired that the game’s E3 presentation was mostly about how the team rendered a dog on screen.
18. Call of Duty: Vanguard
Another historical retelling, but somehow more boring than ever, in just about every way possible.
17. Call of Duty
Going back, the original Call of Duty is the only one that truly stands out from all the others. Partly because it’s old.
16. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
We have to admit that we didn’t understand what happened with this game. We looked up the campaign on YouTube and don’t even remember it existing. There’s a scene with a floating ethereal being and a guy getting tied to a tree. Have we ever played this game? If we did, we forgot.
15. Call of Duty 2
COD2 saw the introduction of COD online multiplayer on the Xbox 360, and we know how that turned out.
14. Call of Duty: WWII
It had been years since the last Call of Duty set in World War II, so WWII took us right back there. What else could you need?
13. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Black Ops 4 completely abandoned the campaign and gave us one of the greatest multiplayer reimaginings ever seen, in addition to the Blackout battle royale mode.
12. Call of Duty 3
COD was quickly becoming a staple of the Xbox 360 lineup, and going back to Call of Duty 3, you can see that almost everything that made COD4 a success had been brought here too, waiting to be unleashed in a setting modern. Unfortunately, it is also the third in a series of games that were essentially similar to each other at the time.
11. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
The most famous chapter in Call of Duty history, Black Ops Cold War brought the Black Ops sub-franchise back into vogue, but it lost much of its meaning. It’s a solid campaign and a decent multiplayer experience, but nothing to write home about.
10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Advanced Warfare was brilliant, with one fatal flaw: rear paddles weren’t common on controllers at the time. Honestly, the default control method for Advanced Warfare on the controller seemed designed to induce RSI. The great novelty of this chapter is the double jump and the aerial boost, which allow you to perform incredible maneuvers. Enemy at your back? Double jump, backflip and land, so you’re immediately behind him. It’s nice, but each push requires a click on the left stick. This may not be a problem for everyone, we have never suffered from RSI, and yet this? This? Brutal. Extraordinary gameplay plagued by controllers of the time.
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
The 2019 reboot of the Modern Warfare franchise – you can tell by the fact that there’s no “4” in the title – gave COD one of the biggest graphical and mechanical overhauls ever, giving everything a heavier and more realistic than ever. Since then, this has become the standard for COD, and is one of the most impressive shooters you can play today.
8. Call of Duty: World at War
Arriving immediately after COD4, World at War seemed like a step backwards. People were really excited about modern settings at the time, and this one didn’t have one. Despite this, the game builds on the foundations of COD4 quite brilliantly and, when the multiplayer was fully functional, it was a blast.
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
The most recent COD (at the time of writing) is actually one of the best. No, really: Modern Warfare II’s campaign is a rollercoaster, with each level offering a different gameplay option. In one mission you sneak through the canals of Amsterdam while silently eliminating enemies, while in another you jump between cars as part of a huge convoy of vehicles. It’s an exciting experience, which almost makes up for the fact that the multiplayer and its updates have been… problematic.
6. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Infinite Warfare did something drastically different. No, really: there are optional missions, a spaceship that you can navigate in space, a star map straight from Mass Effect – no Call of Duty is quite like it. Players seemed to reject it because it did too many different things, and sure, the multiplayer isn’t as focused or realistic as previous versions, but it has one of the best campaigns in the entire series. Seriously: Infinite Warfare is excellent.
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Remember grenade launchers that could kill an entire crowd in a split second? Modern Warfare 2 players remember this. Everything that happened in the campaign has been erased from our brains and replaced by the term “noobtube”.
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Black Ops II was the first time the series pushed into the future, and it was a resounding success. The campaign was completely revamped into a near-future setting and that carried over into everything else. The weapons, the perks, the gear – even though some of them still had the same uses as the previous chapter, the new coat of paint made Black Ops II look and feel like something completely new.
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The ending of the original Modern Warfare trilogy was also the most refined. The story ended in a dramatic way, even if it didn’t reach the levels of the first chapter, and the multiplayer shooting was among the cleanest we’ve ever seen in the franchise. It wasn’t given too much consideration because it wasn’t all that original, but MW3 was a fantastic iteration of the franchise.
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
The Cold War setting made the first Black Ops stand out among the CODs on the market at the time, and it supported this setting with one of the best storylines we’ve seen in a series entry, some legendary multiplayer maps, and modes like the iconic Sticks and Stones. It’s still a favorite of many Call of Duty fans, and for good reason. Nuketown, anyone?
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (best COD)
The impact this game had on the gaming landscape cannot be understated and we are still feeling the effects today. The explosive campaign was supported by one of the best online multiplayer modes ever seen in a console FPS: this changed gaming and is still an icon today.
Top 10 Call of Duty (COD) —
This is the top 10 of the best CODs, deriving from our ranking of the war shooter saga by Activision:
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
- Call of Duty: World at War
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
These other chapters, numbered or not, remain out, in order: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty 3, Black Ops 4, WWII, Call of Duty 2, Black Ops III, Call of Duty, Vanguard, Ghosts. We hope the ranking is useful for understanding where to start and with what priorities to tackle this or that episode, but in the meantime – if you are already veterans of the franchise – do you agree with our disposition?
Written by Dave Aubrey for GLHF