Let’s Reboot … Call of Duty

Call of Duty – what a monster. With clockwork precision a new edition pops up every year and sells millions without fail. It’s doing perfectly well, but in spite of an audacious shift to a far future setting in Black Ops 2, it’s becoming increasingly repetitive. It’s become a slapstick dose of noisy annual nonsense with an arcade multiplayer mode attached. It’s a game about gun-lovin’ superheroes who are 90% bicep and 10% stubble shooting hundreds of enemies, shouting and occasionally getting into knife fights.

Activision have found a golden formula for mainstream success that has changed the genre. Call of Duty perfected iron sights aiming and ushered action movie set pieces into shooter environments, but those set pieces have gradually subsumed the challenge and tension of the series’ rolling street battles. The series’ ballooning love for noise and bombast masks a dearth of substance, and its ability to deliver those famed set-pieces is increasingly hindered by an engine that’s starting to fall behind the pack.

Activision and their army of CoD developers are surely plotting a next-gen leap right now, so let’s pip them to the post with a few ideas. Changing CoD is a monolithic endeavour, influential as it is, so perhaps it’s better to think of this as a wish list for war games. What do we like? What do we hate? What would we love to see from gaming’s glorious future?

[shackdaddy]

Go back to WWII but this time don't wear-out the era. Throw in some Vietnam one year, Korean War the next, and maybe a dash of Gulf War and Cold War.

Also, I don't know about other people, but I prefer games with a little historical background. So, you know, I think it would be good if they covered Fallujah or Battle of Seoul.

And take out all the dudebros and make your games at least a little bit believable like you did with CoD4 and back. I mean, you can have cool special forces guys but it got kinda out of hand MW2 and beyond...

[adorie]

CoD needs to be shelved and the FPS genre needs a break. I want to see a variety of genres get the sales they deserve, without influence from CoD.

[shackdaddy]

True. I mean, this article was talking about rebooting the game so these are just my thoughts of what needs to change.

[creatchee]

When you're the champion, you don't just forfeit the belt and let up and comers have a tournament to see who wins it.

COD will be around until the sales go away.

[AJBACK2FRAG]

I think Activision needs to make the game way more interactive with the player. The little wrist watch on your guy make it the actual time same thing with clocks. When the player's running down the corridor and the player sees banks of computers make it so the player could stop and boot it up and actually utilise it. Little touches like that I think could improve gameplay. I'm a WiiU owner and, ha I put my money where my mouth is and bought Black Ops2 day one. I hope more people buy this game for the WiiU because I usually only play ctf but I'm forced to play tdm because that's what many people prefer. It's a great looking game and online is fantastic.

[Ducky]

It's the consumers that will have to decide that.
If the majority craves FPS games, then they'll remain king.

If CoD takes a break, another military shooter will just take its place.

[Mounce]

Whoever wants a Reboot to a game that requires no innovation, doesn't understand the concept of Rebooting.

You cannot reboot that which never had life to begin with.

[dogsmokespipe]

"It’s become a slapstick dose of noisy annual nonsense with an arcade multiplayer mode attached."

I think it's more like an arcade multiplayer mode with a campaign attached. Multiplayer is the lifeblood of the franchise, the campaign is irrelevant.

[Rush]

What's the point its not like it has a coherent story.

A reboot makes sense when you want to retell a story of an established franchise.

Activision pulls call of duty stories out of there ___ a reboot is a waste of time.

[azshorty2003]

Even if you reboot the series, you can't reboot the prepubescent 12 year olds that plague the multiplayer.

[trenso1]

Let's not

[CyberCam]

Let's not and say we did! *FIXED*

[rjguess]

NO! Some games do not need to be rebooted and this is one. Call of duty re re re reboot 1056 ...... Come on make a new game! Assassins creed is going down the same road! People are getting tired of the same old stuff.

[Plagasx]

How about just Cancel COD and make bold new IPs??

[just-joe]

Give it a rest for awhile and after that go back to World War II. Personally I like killing Nazis over Arabs, Russians or what ever you kill in COD now. Hell make a whole game about Nazi zombies. Just a thought.