I love Call of Duty. Unapologetically. Full stop. I couldn’t particularly tell you why. The franchise has suffered from bloat and over-monetization and has certainly become a victim of the Fortnite effect. There are even plenty of reasons to question if people are tired of Call of Duty. Yet each year, I easily throw a thousand hours into multiplayer and even sprinkle in a little Warzone for variety. It has been one of my favorite ways to unwind since 2009 when I begrudgingly swapped to Modern Warfare 2 (2009) from Halo 3 so that I wasn’t left out of my friend group’s regular gaming sessions.
Call of Duty has dragged me through its gritty, realistic boots-on-the-ground gameplay to its quirky little romance with jetpacks and grappling hooks into its era of trying to be a hero-shooter like Overwatch, and back to classic boots on the ground. I’ve been through the COD gauntlet, and now that we’re closing in on the reboot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 this November, I have a few things I’d like to see Sledgehammer Games change and/or bring back for the good of the franchise.
