The Call of Duty series is made up of largely excellent games. I want to make that clear before I dive headfirst into ripping them to pieces. I’ve played a decent amount of them and enjoyed my time, treating them like a dumb 80s action flick, with less Schwarzenegger and more, well, me. That is, however, what they are. They’re action movies in video game form, and when they attempt to take on more serious topics, well...that’s where the problems start. Like said movies, they don’t handle sensitive subjects, or scenes which require a delicate balancing act particularly well. Occasionally it pulls it off, like how the ending scene of Terminator 2 can bring a tear to even the most hardened cyborg killer. Mostly, however, they mess up, and, when you’re dealing with topics like terrorism, civilian death, drone strikes, etc., you can’t really afford to mess up that many times. Other times, the faults are just with the game itself: whether it’s a lackluster story mode, bad mechanics, or terrible perks, even the best FPSs have their weaker moments. If we’re gonna stretch this analogy even further, these moments are like Twins: a weak point in its career. I’d take a Twins FPS though, I reckon Danny DeVito can hold his own𒅌.
In this list, I’ve compiled a range of the most boneheaded mistakes that the series has ever made. From attempting to map grief to a button, to probably the most misjudged story moment in historyౠ, there’s some stuff on here which you’ll probably remember with a slight sigh and some stuff you might have missed.
15 T꧑he "Fight Against Grenade ꧙Spam" Debacle
To promote Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a video starring Cole Hamels was released criticizing players who threw grenades around like confetti. While this is exceptionally annoying, the ad contained the unjustified and plain weird slogan of “fight against grenade spam.” The abbreviation for the slogan served as a red rag to a bull for the games’ critics, who said it highlighted the seedy and prejudicial underbelly of online gaming, as well as those who criticized the use of the slur in any context. Call of Duty’s community has been stereotyped, and not super unfairly, as a place which isn’t welcoming to those who don’t fit the usual gamer demographic. Infinity Ward pulled the ad shortly after it went up, with the company’s developer manager saying that “the core gag is great,♊ the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke.”
14 When It Depicted ๊A Terrꦡorist Attack On London
In the realm of videogame stories, Call of Duty has never been thought of as the most mature. They’re essentially interactive action movies, mixing high-octane gun battles with a meld of western enemies du jour. However, Modern Warfare 3’s depictions of attacks in the British capital, complete with a section in the London Underground, stirred unpleasant memories of the 7/7 attacks for many. The gratuitous ending of the mission, depicting a family holiday gone wrong, complete with a child’s death, seems like a misstep for a series rooted in, essentially, the fantastical. While the atom bomb attack in Modern Warfare 4 worked, it worked because it revealed the player’s essential mortality, in comparison to the godlike power they’d wielded before, shooting 5.56 NATO like Ze🍃us’ proverbial thunderbolts. The civilians who are depicted as being killed never had any power, making it a trite depiction which serves only to move the story along.
13 𓃲Call Of Duty: Ghosts' Story Mode
Man, Ghosts was a strange game. With a publicity campaign which is remembered for its focus on the games’ four-legg☂ed friend, Riley, it’s easy to simply forget it ever happened. We probably shouldn’t though, because there’s a lot that went wrong. Notably, the story was bizarre and borderline xenophobic. Instead of shipping you off to fight the eternal enemies —like a vague terrorist group— the game decided to instead create “The Federation,” a group of South American nations, created so America could actually have a strong enemy to fight rather than rag-tag smaller groups. The conflict’s true reason is left pretty vague, and other than their leader being stridently anti-American, the Federation is essentially a mirror-image of the US. But bad. In the game, you kind of take on the role of the terrorists at one point, destroying a building during a busy holiday because it’s them or us, apparently.
12 🌠How Much In 1961 Dollars?
Black Ops is actually a pretty great game, bar a few thuddingly dull moments, but it’s on this list a couple times for fair reasons. As part of a marketing deal with Jeep (which also saw the release of a Black Ops edition Wrangler,) a modern Jeep appeared in the middle of the multiplayer map Nuketown. Okay. I know, in a game where JFK blasts Zombies apart with Nixon, the appearance of a Jeep Wrangler shouldn’t be a big deal. Thing is, Black Ops thrives on a sense of place, with personalities of the time, retro weaponry, and conspiracy nonsense to ground it firmly in the 60s. The trailer had Gimme Shelter playing over🐼 it, for God’s sake. Then you play a MP game in Nuketown and you’re suddenly brought back to Earth with a commercialized smack. You’re not in a Cold War fantasy anymore, you’re back among the mundane.
11 C🥃reating A Fake Terror Twitterstorm
In yet another misguided moment in advertising, in the run up to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3’s release, the official Call of Duty Twitter account made a dumbfounding mistake. Instead of tweeting typical PR fare, the account s༒tarted tweeting breaking news accounts of a terrorist attack in Singapore. The tweets brought news which ranged from “unconfirmed reports” of an explosion in the nation, followed by the announcement the city-state had ꦅcreated a “quarantine zone.” The final tweet in the series finally revealed the truth saying “this was a glimpse into the future fiction of #BlackOps3.” Reactions were furious, with many criticizing the creation of a fake terror attack during a period of high global tension, but some celebrated the tweets likening them to Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast.
10 ﷺ Bay Of Pigs And Castro’s(?) Assassination
Black Ops’ fictionalized account of the Bay of Pigs invasion came under fire in Cuba for several reasons, with one being the objective to assassinate Fidel Castro (or, as it turns out, his double). Regardless of your political views, it’s easy to see that this was going to cause controversy, with Cuban news site Cubadebate calling the game “perverse,” and also making the laughable claim that it would ♎turn American adolescents into sociopaths. It’s also notable that, while the rest of the game tends to give you some fractures within the enemy’s facade, the Cubans are left as a bland and single-minded enemy to be defeated at all costs. While the game isn’t going to change anyone’s politics or make someone sociopathic, it’s a jarring moment in a game which aims for the fantastic.
9 🅠 The Surreal Ending Of Black Ops 2 With Avenged Sevenfold 💞
If this moment didn’t want to make you cry with laughter (or second-hand embarrassment), I honestly think you’re more machine than human. The performance of Carry On to screaming crowds in the epilogue of Black Ops 2 was exceptionally weird, even by Black Ops’ standards. Frank Woods and Raul Menendez try their best to rock out while attempting to avoid the “desperate dad trying to look cool” aesthetic. This is intercut with in-game scenes and scenes of the apparently metal head POTUS head banging like she’s trying to get James Hetfield as her next VP candidate. I almost had second thoughts about putting it on this l🦩ist, because it is so genuinely hilarious. However, it’s hilarious because it’s so God damn awful, so I think it fits on here just fine. I wonder how much Avenged Sevenfold got for this?
8 Taking The Series Into Space 💯
I don’t think it’s exactly a controversial opinion to say that Call of Duty innovating its formula would be a great move. However, I’m not sure that's something that the developers exactly grasp. When the series made its first tentative, zero-g steps outside of Earth in Infinite Warfare, nothing felt th🔜at new. Despite making parts of the combat floatier than Master Chief’s jumps, the series retained the same formula as ever. Despite taking us away from a world where drone strikes cast an uncomfortable shade across the game, the same old modes return. You still fight zombies. The game’s few new systems which serve as something of a cool drop of water in a rapidly boiling pan of fatigue. It’s too little, and despite the fun it can provide, it doesn’t live up to the potential it had.
7 ⛎ 🍸 These Stupid AF Perks
The multiplayer aspect of Call of Duty is aspired to by countless other games. It's a peak which few can reach. It’s balanced, addictive, challenging, and fun. The problems which do exist in it? Well, they often come from certain perks. Take Martyrdom, for example, which grants anyone who equips it a license to free kills for...just dying. Another deeply questionable perk can be found in Eavesdrop. Appearing in Modern Warfare, this perk gave players the ability to listen in on their opponents’ voice chat. Seems interesting right, but think a bit more. Have you played Call Of Duty with vo༺ice chat? You’re far more likely to hear trash-talking than genuinely useful information, unless you’re playing in a tournament. It’s a shame that suc🐎h an interesting idea went to waste, when that creativity could have been easily applied to a perk which would give a genuine advantage.
6 The R🍷eturn O🀅f The Dive
Dolphin diving is as old as the hills and this clichéd comparison: jump in the air and go prone, giving your opponent either flashbacks to their whale watching tour gone wrong or a hoped-for tactical disadvantage. It attracted a huge amount of ire in Battlefield 2, and in Black Ops and its sequel, but for different reasons. Many see it as a pointless move, rendering you vulnerable to attack and increased fall-damage, with limited actual use for mobility purposes. When compared to the slide first seen in Ghosts, which could actually be used for both tactical and speed purposes, it seems pretty useless, and guess what — it’s coming back in Call of Duty: WW2! All I want to do is slide in an enemy's general direction and riddle them with bullets, ꦰis that too much to ask?