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2011's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is perhaps best known for what happened behind the scenes to bring the game to market. In the middle of the game's development, Activision fired Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince for insubordination. A team of developers left with West (who would go on to establish Respawn Entertainment and create the much-loved Titanfall series), and Activision had to find another way to finish the game and launch it on time--and it turned to Sledgehammer to co-develop and finish the game. This proved to be an especially notable move because Sledgehammer at the time was working on a more experimental third-person Call of Duty game set in the Vietnam War. The game has never seen the light of day, and Activision has never made a third-person Call of Duty game aside from a limited multiplayer mode.
As for Modern Warfare 3 itself, the game was received positively by critics and fans alike and went on to sell many millions of copies, despite the behind-the-scenes drama. The game is remembered for its gripping campaign that continued the popular Modern Warfare storyline of members of Task Force 141 and also for its Horde-style Survival mode and for its integration with the since-shuttered Call of Duty: Elite stat-tracking and social app.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
2018's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from developer Treyarch marked a massive shift for the Call of Duty series, as it was the first in the entire franchise to not have a campaign mode. Despite that, the future-set military shooter impressed fans and is one of the best games in the series to date. Despite not having a campaign, we found the game's three main modes--Zombies, Multiplayer, and Blackout--to offer substantial pathways to having a good time. Multiplayer was as good as ever, introducing new weapons and mechanics to take advantage of the game's futuristic setting (but not forcing you to use them), while Zombies offered up a deep, memorable experience full of secrets to uncover as you lay waste to hordes of the undead.
But perhaps the biggest and most exciting innovation in Black Ops 4 was its battle royale mode, Blackout. A precursor to Warzone, which would come two years later, Blackout was Activision's first step into the battle royale genre that it wanted to have a piece of after Fortnite and PUBG's success. Critics and fans alike enjoyed Blackout, even if it wasn't perfect, and Activision would go on to take the learnings from Blackout and apply them to Warzone with great success.
Call of Duty: WWII
Released in 2017 from developer Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: WWII marked the franchise's first return to the historical setting of WWII in many years. No more super-abilities, no wall-running, no drones. This was back-to-basics Call of Duty meant to hearken back to the earliest days of the franchise--and it was a formula that fans enjoyed and embraced. With Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey as the co-directors, WWII told a story set throughout the European Theatre, covering well-known battles and events like the Normandy landings. The game's campaign was praised for its Band of Brothers-style narrative, following the stories of a group of soldiers trying to survive in harsh conditions, with their bonds growing closer over time. The campaign was also notable for not having automatic health regeneration.
On the multiplayer side, WWII mixed things up by casting out the create-a-class system in favor of letting players join one of a handful of Divisions, each with its own set of skills and abilities. Multiplayer also adopted a Destiny Tower-style social space called Headquarters, where players could meet up and hang out, collect and complete challenges, and take part in 1v1 matches. Sledgehammer is now continuing its WWII series with Vanguard, which launches in November.
Call of Duty: Warzone
Call of Duty: Warzone was not Activision's first stab at a battle royale experience, as that came from Black Ops 4's Blackout mode. But Blackout took the first steps so Warzone could run. Released in March 2020 at the onset of the real-world pandemic, Warzone aimed to earn its place in the increasingly busy battle royale space by offering something no other game could. Call of Duty's trademark gunplay, weapons, and the "feel" that the game provides is unmatched, and applied to a battle royale setting, the game thrived.
For years, Call of Duty fans called on Activision to create a large-scale, Battlefield-style Call of Duty experience, and Warzone delivered in spades, offering a gigantic map in Verdansk full of secrets, Easter eggs, and locations taken from memorable maps of Call of Duty's past. Warzone is the game many Call of Duty fans could only dream of, and it is also free--lowering the barrier of entry and giving players who, for years, asked for a multiplayer-only Call of Duty (outside of the since-shuttered Call of Duty Online for Asia), exactly what they wanted. The game was not without its issues--cheating and the integration of Black Ops Cold War's weapons are among the issues players have called out--but the overall package is a bonafide hit.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Activision rebooted its massively popular Modern Warfare series in 2019. Again, Infinity Ward took the reins of development, but the studio had changed since 2007's Modern Warfare. Top bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired years prior (the two then co-founded Respawn), with Naughty Dog veterans Jacob Minkoff and Taylor Kurosaki leading the team--and to great success. 2019's Modern Warfare reboot was not only a sales juggernaut, but it scored with fans who enjoyed its return to the modern-day setting after 2018's Black Ops 4 went further into the future. Modern Warfare, like the 2007 game, followed a world-traveling story of soldiers fighting against a common enemy.
The campaign had many striking, Zero Dark Thirty-style missions and sequences, and in one memorable sequence, you play as a little girl scrambling through a home as an enemy seeks to find her. It was a harrowing, controversial mission that, if nothing else, stands out as memorable. The multiplayer in Modern Warfare was celebrated for its great diversity of maps and modes, and for introducing large-scale warfare with vehicles and bigger maps. The gunplay was once again excellent, and the bones of the game--the proprietary Modern Warfare engine--tied things together in a cohesive way. Modern Warfare also paved the way for 2020's Call of Duty: Warzone, which ended up being the biggest expansion to Call of Duty in years.
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