It’s time to mix things up, consolidate, and stop annual releases
There is room forCall of Dutyin the gaming world — I assure you. I don’t know about milking itevery damn year, but there is plenty of room for those of us who enjoy mindless first-person fun with our friends, occasionally in a military based fashion.
Butthe milk’s gone bad, and Activision needs to step up to the plate and fix it. Here’s how they can do it, and avoid the nextGuitar Herocrash.
Call of Duty 4set the world on fire at release. It not only redefined what a console shooter could do with a campaign, but it also popularized the “perks” system — a mechanic now prevalent in pretty much every shooter in the modern era. It certainly wasn’t thefirstgame to use this system, but it was the first to make it standard issue; and since so many games followed suit in such a massive way, it’s safe to callCall of Duty 4a trend-setter in its own right.
Contrary to popular belief,Call of Dutywasnotalways stale. In fact, the original working title for the first game was “TheMedal of HonorKiller” — a moniker predicated on rising above the competition, and in this case, EA. Said game was made by Infinity Ward — the flagship developer for the franchise that was founded in 2002 as a subsidiary of Activision. But in 2005, along came a modest developer named Treyarch, who handled the console version ofCall of Duty 2. This development crew had been around the block, creating smaller games and ports as far back as 1996, until it was acquired by Activision in 2001.
It was Treyarch, not Infinity Ward, that would continue to innovate the franchise. Just asCall of Dutywas getting stale, they introduced a “Zombies” mode inWorld at War, which lit the gaming world on fire once again. The firstBlack Opseven hada top-down shooter(that could have easily been sold piecemeal for $10 as a downloadable), andreal life cheat codesthat you (gasp) didn’t have to pay for. Their most recent contribution to the series,Black Ops II, innovated in new ways, with a “choose your own adventure” style campaign that felt distinctly different from the pack. It was still very much aCall of Dutyjoint for sure, and more of it wouldn’t change any staunch hater’s mind —but for fans, it was an improvement.
So what went wrong withGhosts? Complacency. The campaign is, in every sense of the word, predictable. Not only is the “American Invasion” tale rehashed, but the characters feel generic and forgettable, especially compared to Treyarch’s particularly over-the-top style. Hell, there’s even accusations ofInfinity Ward copying theirown ending. Multiplayer is still fun at times, but it’s literally nothing new, instead opting to hold the “Squads” gametype on a pedestal — when it’s actually just a pared down version of the same thing we’ve played many times over.
Infinity Ward even blew it with Extinction, a mode that attempted to ape Treyarch’s masterful Zombie mode. To put things into perspective, there’s a huge community strictly centered around Zombies, and some fans even buy Treyarch’s games just to play it. There’s an entire story behind the mode, filled to the brim with easter eggs and goofy weapons like toy monkey grenades. But the Alien injected Extinction inGhostsby proxy feels like a soulless rendition of Treyarch’s work — almost like it was a check box to say “we can do it too.”
The crux of the problem is Infinity Ward’s lack of innovation, among other issues. If theCall of Dutyfranchise weren’t annual and were fine tuned every other year, it would not only have a better reputation, but a longer overall life span. Despite what executives may think, grinding blood out of a stone for a few years is not effective.
Withlower pre-orders forGhosts(partially due to generational fragmentation) and lower review scores, isCall of Dutydown for the count? Well, it’s far too early to tell. I think this is a great opportunity for Activision to sit down with both of their studios, and remember what made the series so successful in the first place. Do what should have been done long ago: give Treyarch the reigns, encourage growth and innovation, and stop making it an annual series with a $50 Season Pass.
Or, keep milking it until the well runs dry. Your move, Activision.
