If you ask other gamers who know me what my most hated video game series is they will easily tell you: the Call of Duty franchise. It is a franchise that I feel has become overused and stale.
I cannot deny it is a popular series; every yearly entry breaks expectations sales-wise and is always one of the best-selling games of that year. Activision releases new map packs at a regular basis, and those are very successful as well. That, however, is my main issue with Call of Duty; there is an extreme saturation of the series in the gaming community, and I feel the series is no longer as innovative as it was when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare first hit the scene. The yearly cycle tired me out, and there was never enough new features to entice me to pick the game up.
Do not get me wrong; I loved the series at one point.
I put in quite a few hours into Modern Warfare 1 and 2, and felt they were some of the best shooters that I had ever played. Then, when the first Call of Duty: Black Ops released, I began to tire of the series. It was like playing the same game over and over, and after three entries of the series, Black Ops is where my interest began to wane. When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 came out, I played the game for 3 days. And no amount of map packs were able to make me want to play anymore. Activision had over stayed their welcome.
At that point, I felt like Activision was taking advantage of me.
The SAME GAME over and over. Map packs that did not seem to add anything to the game multiple times a year. I understand that Activision does not want to risk changes, as they want to capitalize on the series. But at this point, they need to take that risk. They need to give us something that we have not seen in a Call of Duty game, something more than the same perk system disguised to look different. Call of Duty needs to move on. Franchise fatigue is something that is beginning to take effect. FPS fans are starting to move to other shooters, such as the newly released Titanfall. If they want to keep gamers such as myself, who are moving on now to these other games, they need to change. Otherwise, they will lose the financial success that they are enjoying right now. After all, why would we want to play the same stale game again when we can play something new, something that is currently better?
At a presentation at this year’s Game Developer Conference, Sledgehammer Games cofounder Glen Schofield said that this year’s Call of Duty will be the:
“most ambitious, most creative game we’ve ever made.”
Though we have heard that before, I really hope that Activision means that. I loved this series at one point. I want to love it again. They need to realize that there are other shooters out there that are covering the new ground that Call of Duty should tread upon.
One of those games is the first game on the PlayStation 4 that I purchased: Killzone: Shadow Fall. It felt fresh. It felt different from other shooters that I had played in a while. It gave me new reasons to play shooters again. It was not the perfect game, but it was different.
Then there is Titanfall.
remember: Respawn Entertainment created Titanfall, a studio composed of ex-Call of Duty developers. They have proven that these studios are capable of new ideas
It is proof that shooters can give us something totally original, something new, something fresh. And you have to remember: Respawn Entertainment created Titanfall, a studio composed of ex-Call of Duty developers. They have proven that these studios are capable of new ideas. Activision needs to take note of these other games, and take them as an example of innovation. They need to stop playing with our wallets, and give us the next generation of Call of Duty. A generation that has grown off the last, and has learned from its forefathers. They need to innovate the shooter once again.
Published: Mar 20, 2014 07:07 pm