Which Call Of Duty had the best campaign?

[FPLOON]

Modern Warfare... because it's the only campaign I've played from start to finish...

Other than that, I did see my cousin play through Call of Duty 2 from start to finish, so I guess I'll give that an honorable mention, then...

 

[Ariseishirou]

The original CoD was pretty great, but it was also very derivative.

For me, CoD4 takes it on account of being both great and largely original. It was the perfect storm of cool shit that spawned countless imitators, too.

 

[Ironman126]

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. We find actual characters, with actual backstories that we learn about and grow to give a shit about. The game follows a single squad from Operation Torch all the way to the Siegfried Line. And I apparently have the only copy to ever have existed, because no one ever mentions it.

 

[Ariseishirou]

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. We find actual characters, with actual backstories that we learn about and grow to give a shit about. The game follows a single squad from Operation Torch all the way to the Siegfried Line. And I apparently have the only copy to ever have existed, because no one ever mentions it.

I would love to have played it but I got into the series later and haven't had a PS2 in a very, very long time.

 

[Pseudonym]

I haven't played anything before MW1 or after MW3 but based on that range of Cod games I played I choose Cod4/MW1.

I liked the score attack mode. Because of the lineair gameplay Cod4 was actually quite appropriate for min/maxing. The story was vague at times. I wish they tried to do less or took more time for what they wanted. But I suppose that is the trade-off if you want scripted gameplay full of explosions every 5 seconds.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

For me, CoD4 takes it on account of being both great and largely original.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down would like a word. And then it would like you to engage in an extended mounted weapon sequence aboard a jeep as part of a convoy as manly men shout over the radio. I always saw CoD4 as a more heavily scripted Delta Force clone.

 

[Itsuki93]

I have to say 3, closely followed by 2. I'm not sure what it is but they just had a charm the the others haven't been able to re create.

Ghosts get a mention for the number of times I laughed at the stupidity of it all, still not sure if that's a good thing or not.

 

[Ariseishirou]

For me, CoD4 takes it on account of being both great and largely original.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down would like a word. And then it would like you to engage in an extended mounted weapon sequence aboard a jeep as part of a convoy as manly men shout over the radio. I always saw CoD4 as a more heavily scripted Delta Force clone.

The mounted gun sequence you're talking about is actually in CoD:MW2, not CoD4. Moreover, it's vaguely similar to some of the Marines missions in CoD4, perhaps, but it has absolutely nothing like the SAS missions, which are what made CoD4 so memorable in the first place.

So yeah, wrong game with the reference and not what anybody's talking about in terms of what made the game a classic ;p Not really seeing it.

 

[Snotnarok]

World at War, actually understood a game needs pacing and not action railed to the ceiling the whole time. I need to play 4 again but, WaW I actually wanted to replay, blowing off limbs n' such was new to that series there. Felt like a callback to Soldier of Fortune back in the day.

 

[Vigormortis]

I was all set to say Call of Duty 4, given the brilliance of that campaign, but now that I've finally sat down and played a bit of Ghosts[footnote]Just recently purchased a PS4 and someone gifted me the 'box set' edition of the game.[/footnote], I'm not so sure.

Ghosts' campaign is so ridiculously over-the-top I'm having a blast, despite it's many, MANY flaws. Even the tedious bits are set to the backdrop of a story so absurd that I find myself giggling.

I haven't finished it yet, since I've only just started playing, but I 'unno....I might have to go with Ghosts over COD4.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

CoD 4 easily for me. That campaign was just amazing. And I don't care who was more original and whatnot, it was very unique to me. Then I would say MW3 and then MW2. Black Ops would've gotten somewhere in there but the stupid interrogation scenes pissed me off too much. Pretty cool though as far as back stories and twists go, despite cliches and what have you.

 

[The White Hunter]

Black Ops 2 based on the fact that it handles choice and consequence better than the Mass Effect Trilogy.

Hand flame shield

Take this brother, you'll need it.

ot: My favourites are CoD2, MW, WaW, and Blops 2.

2 has a lot of content and is a whol;e bunch of fun and much less archaic than the original, and ends up less frustrating and more fun.

MW had a lot of original stuff going for it and a lot of cool set pieces and dat sniper mission.

WaW had 4 player co-op and a flamethrower for murdering @staika:

Blops 2 had a damn good story with branching paths and fun missions.

I find 1 is a bit too archaic and in some instances poor design choices hamper the experience. 3 is a console exclusive for some reason, MW2 is great fun but the story is nuts, same for MW3, Blops 1 goes a bit off the deepend but it's fun. Ghosts is a pile of sweaty unoptimised garbage with a crap story, crap characters and a frame rate like Crysis 1 for an engine well over 10 years old. Not played Advanced Warfare, heard it's k.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

For me, CoD4 takes it on account of being both great and largely original.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down would like a word. And then it would like you to engage in an extended mounted weapon sequence aboard a jeep as part of a convoy as manly men shout over the radio. I always saw CoD4 as a more heavily scripted Delta Force clone.

The mounted gun sequence you're talking about is actually in CoD:MW2, not CoD4. Moreover, it's vaguely similar to some of the Marines missions in CoD4, perhaps, but it has absolutely nothing like the SAS missions, which are what made CoD4 so memorable in the first place.

So yeah, wrong game with the reference and not what anybody's talking about in terms of what made the game a classic ;p Not really seeing it.

That is a fair point, but I still feel the overall game design of modern CoD was heavily influenced by Delta Force: BHD, starting with CoD4. Maybe even CoD2. (Delta Force: BHD was released in 2003, with the Team Sabre expansion in 2004.) The storytelling, mix of on-foot and vehicle sections, the way your team mates would engage in geopolitical banter during quiet sections, the general VIBE of the series significantly changed with CoD4. Coincidentally, some former Novalogic staff work at Infinity Ward now. Playing Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 after playing the Delta Force series gave a sense of deja vu.


But yea... tracing the influence of games is kinda tricky. I mean, look at Crysis. It's easy to say that maybe Crysis, a game where you play a Delta Force soldier roaming open environments rendered using voxels and chopping down trees with bullets was influenced by Delta Force, a game where you play a Delta Force soldier roaming open environments rendered using voxels and chopping down trees with bullets. But who can say?

 

[Cowabungaa]

Y'know, I too loved the overall feel of Modern Warfare's campaign and definitely loved the literal epicness of the first game's Stalingrad level.

But I have to give some love to the utter silly nonsense that is Black Ops' campaign. I love cheesy crap like that. Plus, it was nice and varied, it really took you all over the world, and had plenty of those 80's action movie moments that I love. So yeah, I had a great time with that campaign.

Not played Advanced Warfare, heard it's k.

AW's campaign is sort of sad because Kevin Spacey phones it in so, so bad. It doesn't really play all that spectacularly different either despite the setting and all the new gadgets they advertised.

However, where all those advertised gadgetry and whatnot does come into play is the multiplayer. Good lord I haven't had such a blast with a CoD multiplayer since, well, ever. It's so fast and vertical that it moves pleasantly close towards the arena shooters of yore.

 

[Thyunda]

World at War. Only campaign I can bring myself to play through more than once. I mean, aside from the Black Cats mission I found the American side of the story intensely boring, but playing as the Red Army fighting through wartime Europe? That was inspired. Maybe it's just me being a bit nationalistic, but I can't stand playing as Americans in WWII games. It's just not the same. In the American half of the campaign, you're island-hopping your way to Japan and battling the Japanese...and I just don't really care. Pearl Harbour was bad but it isn't really enough to get that vengeful spirit going.

Not like when you follow the course of the Russian side of the war from utter and hopeless defeat to the ruination of Operation Citadel and then that counter-charge. The feeling of satisfaction of hearing that speech -
"We should spread the word! Citizens of Berlin! A ring of steel surrounds your rotten city! We will crush all those who dare to resist the will of the Red Army! Abandon your posts! Abandon your homes! Abandon all hope! URAAA!!!"

That's how you do the Second World War. You put us in the boots of the Europeans who either lost everything to the Nazis or endured constant bombing and starvation. Let us play as the Greeks trying to repel the Italians, or the Polish forces that held back a Wehrmacht force that outnumbered them fifty-eight to one.

Also, why is World of Tanks the closest I can get to a North Africa campaign? Poor show, chaps.

 

[Bernzz]

CoD 4: Modern Warfare, for me. When killing off the protagonist wasn't done to death, the atmosphere in All Ghillied Up. The whole campaign was really well done. Helps that it was the first CoD game I played.

After that, World at War. So grim, the feeling of hopelessness, and a very brutal game all around. Did World War II (at the time, a very overdone setting) very well.

Nowadays I miss WWII games. Need more.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

CoD4:MW for me. Granted, I've only experienced MW1, WaW, and the first part of MW2 (as soon as I saw an east-coast land invasion of the U.S. by Russia, I thought, "This is so stupid; I'm out.")

Still, I was a CoD-hater, condemning the series from ignorance, piggy-backing on the rest of the CoD hate and resting on my complete disinterest in the competitive multiplayer. A friend whose taste I trust greatly insisted that I play MW1's campaign; I did, and it blew my mind. It managed to be over-the-top, yet believable (unlike MW2), while having genuinely sympathetic characters. Man, that last scene...

[spoiler text=SPOILERS FOR EIGHT-YEAR-OLD GAME AHEAD!"] ...on the bridge I was genuinely moved... Gaz was down, Soap was down, Captain Price slides his pistol over... Bam! As Soap, you end the villain right then and there, and as Soap's vision starts to fade, you're certain that Price and Soap are dead men, but you can rest in peace knowing that you stopped the nuclear strike and ended the psycho Russian ultra-nationalist behind it... And the Nikolai shows up in the chopper! He says something to the effect of, "It's okay my friend! You're going to be okay." [/spoiler]

Man, it was right in the feels. I almost teared up. Just so damn good.

I'm still no fan of CoD, but I will defend MW1's campaign as a fine example of games-as-storytelling-art as long as I have breath.

 

[Fijiman]

Out of the ones I've played, I'd have to say Black Ops with CoD4 as a close second.

 

[vallorn]

I really liked Black Ops simply because of the fun Cold War setting being something other than WW2 or Modern back in it's day before everything went "FUTURE!" It helped that the characters were fun and there was something really mysterious about the numbers strings and working through the game with an unreliable protagonist (which gave it a nicely foreshadowed and satisfying twist).

Not enough games do unreliable protagonists and unreliable narrators well and I quite liked Black Ops's take on it.

 

[vallorn]

World at War. Only campaign I can bring myself to play through more than once. I mean, aside from the Black Cats mission I found the American side of the story intensely boring, but playing as the Red Army fighting through wartime Europe? That was inspired. Maybe it's just me being a bit nationalistic, but I can't stand playing as Americans in WWII games. It's just not the same. In the American half of the campaign, you're island-hopping your way to Japan and battling the Japanese...and I just don't really care. Pearl Harbour was bad but it isn't really enough to get that vengeful spirit going.

Not like when you follow the course of the Russian side of the war from utter and hopeless defeat to the ruination of Operation Citadel and then that counter-charge. The feeling of satisfaction of hearing that speech -
"We should spread the word! Citizens of Berlin! A ring of steel surrounds your rotten city! We will crush all those who dare to resist the will of the Red Army! Abandon your posts! Abandon your homes! Abandon all hope! URAAA!!!"

That's how you do the Second World War. You put us in the boots of the Europeans who either lost everything to the Nazis or endured constant bombing and starvation. Let us play as the Greeks trying to repel the Italians, or the Polish forces that held back a Wehrmacht force that outnumbered them fifty-eight to one.

Also, why is World of Tanks the closest I can get to a North Africa campaign? Poor show, chaps.

I would personally love a game that let me play the battle of Crete. Extremely scarce ammo on both sides, paratroopers, and makeshift weapons? Yes please! Plus it was a battle between the Germans, the British Commonwealth and Greek troops so there were a wide variety of weapons from Lee Enfields and MP 40s to Bren guns and Vickers to MG 34s, recoiless rifles, Mannlicher?Schönauer rifles and even antique Fusil Gras M80 Modèle 1874 rifles among the various sides. I think it would make for a fantastic game.

Sniper Elite V3 was in North Africa if you need more of that fix although it IS a Sniper Elite game so historical accuracy is a little bit... off...