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Has Modern Warfare killed the CoD Campaign? || Chatsu Shorts
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In this episode, Satsunami ponders upon the impact of the Modern Warfare series after its revival in 2019. With three games since and one just as bad as the last, has the Modern Warfare series run its course? Or has the Warzonification proven to be too much? Without any further ado, let's find out!
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Transcript
Introduction: 'Chad Tsunami'
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chad Tsunami.
Early Call of Duty Experiences
00:00:17
Speaker
I used to love Call of Duty. That's not to say that its track record has been flawless, nor is it considered sacrosanct due to its role in shaping the first person shooter genre. But when I first played the third entry, set during the Second World War,
00:00:32
Speaker
I became hooked. It was, at least for me, an experience that gave it a special place in my heart. I played this game during a time where I was at a transitional period in my life, where the games I had grown up with were no longer desirable, and I sought out what I thought were mature games.
Modern Warfare 2: First Impressions
00:00:50
Speaker
In the one fateful Christmas during the late 2000s, things would change when I unexpectedly received a copy of the critically acclaimed Modern Warfare 2. I must admit, I was a little sceptical about the game as I felt that this contemporary setting could not hold up to its World War 2 roots, but from the moment I booted up the game, I became enamoured. From the gameplay to the graphics, it was something that all clicked into place, and by the end of the night, I had raced through the campaign.
00:01:19
Speaker
Granted the ending was a little rushed, and the whole premise was over the top, but I soon came to learn this is what called duty wars.
The Rise of Microtransactions
00:01:27
Speaker
It was a bombastic b-movie of epic proportions, a game that to this day is fondly remembered amongst fans, and I wish that's where I could end this section. Font nostalgia, about a series I fell in love with.
00:01:39
Speaker
But as I grew older, the landscape of gaming mutated into something I barely recognise. A husk of its former self, digging up the bony remains of beloved franchises. Nowadays, words like microtransactions and battle passes wouldn't raise an eyebrow with even the most casual of gamers, but it was certainly something that would have been laughed at years ago.
Critiquing Call of Duty's Annual Releases
00:02:00
Speaker
After all, the infamous Horse Armour scandal turned from meme to prophetic foreshadowing of what was to come. A decaying industry that lusts over people's money by imploring tactics that to this day continue. And no more is this apparent, and in the Call of Duty franchise. I guess it's like saying water is wet, but every year bears the same fruit. A new Call of Duty game is made for the masses, and then is promptly hated on because of its lacklustre campaign, or unfavourable features implored.
00:02:29
Speaker
My friend Adam and I have tackled the franchise in length over several episodes, and as words to me were always how no matter how bad the series gets, he never considered her to be a truly bad campaign. Sure, they were the ones that were objectively worse than others. Sometimes the outlandish plots landed well, while others splatted on the cold ground below.
00:02:49
Speaker
Discontent within the fanbase isn't a new thing, but back then, while I did my fair share of complaining, I understood that objectively, these games were not as bad as people were making them out to be and the loudest voices were often the ones that would dominate the direction of the franchise.
00:03:05
Speaker
Call of Duty struggled to stand out with its campaigns in its later years, even to the extent that they omitted it from Black Ops 4 entirely.
Modern Warfare 2019: A Reboot?
00:03:13
Speaker
But in 2019, Call of Duty decided to return to sip once more from their Golden Chalice, and their one last chance of revitalising the series.
00:03:22
Speaker
This would come in the form of the rebooted Modern Warfare moniker, and for me this would be the beginning of the end for COD campaigns, a double edged sword that would destroy what could have been. Before I continue, I'm not talking to you today as a hater of these games. Truth be told, the fact that I used to enjoy these games is the sole reason I'm talking about this.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yet the issues today go far beyond, I don't like Black Ops where it's nonsensical narrative, or I hate Infinite Warfare because of the space missions. This is no longer a subjective viewpoint, and while I doubt much will change from this indie podcast, all of duty fans deserve better. But how do we get here?
00:03:59
Speaker
and has the rebooted Modern Warfare now killed the single player experience in Call of Duty? Let's find out. I have to admit, during the darker age of COD games, I found myself playing entries later and later from their releases, and by the time the Modern Warfare reboot was announced for 2019,
00:04:16
Speaker
I was admittedly a little curious, but still chose not to play.
Glitches in Modern Warfare
00:04:20
Speaker
Illest Not until Adam was more than generous in lending me his copy to play, in exchange for Infinite Warfare. I know, historical trade right there, but as I played through the campaign, I became
00:04:31
Speaker
to notice a few things that should have shown what was to come. While everyone appeared to have a seamless campaign experience, minds were riddled with bugs and glitches. Characters would often get stuck in place, men walking their hearts out while I had to hurl grenades at them to move like some kind of violent basketball player.
00:04:49
Speaker
Even the mission where you play as a young father had me frustrated, as her brother, an NPC that would normally follow you, decided to literally stay behind, forcing me to restart the mission of wrestling a burly, psychotic Russian soldier. It was certainly enough to pull me out of the experience, but despite that,
00:05:07
Speaker
There were elements that I thought provided a solid base to begin a new trilogy. You could tell that the writers were aiming more towards a story that put special operations at the heart of it. Gone were the days of being a gear inside a larger military organisation. You instead were the one to spearhead change, which once again slipped.
00:05:25
Speaker
into that ideal of being her one man army, but after bringing back iconic characters such as Captain Price and Gaz, and a rather interesting mentor subordinate relationship, I was curious to see the establishment of the iconic Task Force 141 in all their glory, as teased at the end of 2019's Modern Warfare.
00:05:46
Speaker
My expectations were heightened further by the multiplayer, that I must say reinvigorated my interest for the franchise. And with the lockdowns in 2020, I spent a lot of time online with my friends. The Golden Age was back, at least so I thought. Because something was lurking in the background. Something that would inevitably threaten code campaigns.
Warzone's Introduction During Lockdowns
00:06:06
Speaker
Warzone. Debuting in March of 2020, Warzone was released at a perfect time. A free-to-play battle royale that came during a period of national lockdowns.
00:06:16
Speaker
It commanded the attention of both CoD fans and those curious to see how the series would adapt to a battle royale setting. Personally for myself, I never really got into it until much later with my friends, going as far to record some of the sessions I had with my friends and co-host of the show Andrew.
00:06:34
Speaker
While we may not have won as often as we would have liked, I can't deny that it wasn't a fun experience, but like many free to play games, this spelled a troubling trend that would latch itself onto the single player experience.
Disappointment in Recent Titles
00:06:47
Speaker
During the same year we also got another game following this trend of digging up the past, called Black Ups.
00:06:53
Speaker
Cold War. Despite it featuring the characters of Black Ops such as Mason and Woods, as well as being set in a Cold War setting, the game itself bore little relation to the Black Ops games, much like its predecessors Black Ops 3 and 4. This trend of using the titles of the previous games is admittedly a tactic as old as time, but nevertheless, it was strange that they were shameless enough to do it twice in a row. But then in 2021, we finally got Vanguard,
00:07:20
Speaker
I suppose it boots on the ground to World War 2 experience that, quite frankly, is one of my least favourites, both in the campaign and the multiplayer. But the reason for this isn't just because of the lacklustre campaign, the fragmented narrative, but instead the fact that it felt more like a prelude to the New Wars on map being released.
00:07:39
Speaker
that links me back to the re-bitted Modern Warfare series. During its lifecycle, there were a number of side stories told through Warzone, such as revealing that certain characters who should have died were somehow alive and well. In addition, important characters in the original trilogy were slotted in, such as Victor Zakayev, son of the ultra-nationalist leader Imran, who was the main antagonist of the very first Modern Warfare in 2007.
00:08:04
Speaker
It's one thing to change the story to fit the rebooted timeline, that's something that comes naturally. But when you slot in important character moments in an online only experience, chances are the audience, as little as they may be in comparison to the multiplayer crowd, who are only there for the story, are going to be excluded. Even fan favourite characters such as Soulpink Ghost were brought in through Warzone.
00:08:27
Speaker
something that while sensible for the time, brought with it the inevitable evolution that would soon define the series. Going forward, I'll be covering some spoilers from the latest Modern Warfare games, so if you still want to play these games blind, then I'd advise you to pause the episode and go do so. But with that out of the way, let's get into
Warzone's Impact on Gaming Focus
00:08:46
Speaker
it. Truth be told, the war zone-ification of the series has left me saddened, as I stated before.
00:08:52
Speaker
I wouldn't consider the storyline of any of these games to be high art, nor would I say that they should be preserved in high esteem, free from critique. But even that is worst, I never felt as badly as I have playing these games. Even with some of my least favourites such as Ghosts and Black Ops 3, I still managed to have fun with the gameplay, but even that's gutted in later entries. Cod campaigns are a somewhat teaser of what to expect in the multiplayer experience, from the weapons to maps,
00:09:21
Speaker
It gets players to grips with what they will be doing once they finish. Yet nowadays it feels like this is centred around getting players ready for Warzone instead. I'm not going to pretend that I don't know why they're doing this. After all, it's a lucrative business model that has generated them a lot of money over the years, and they would, at least through the business point of view, be foolish to squander that.
00:09:44
Speaker
but from a gaming perspective, I find myself at best disappointed and at worst disillusioned, as the series becomes less concerned with selling a complete product and more about tacking on memorable iconography for a £70 price tag.
00:10:02
Speaker
While Vanguard was definitely the one that opened my eyes towards this transition, no more was this confirmed when I purchased a copy of Modern Warfare 2 just this year for the campaign.
Modern Warfare 2 Reboot: A Letdown?
00:10:13
Speaker
Adam and I often talked about doing a retrospective episode where we would compare the original trilogy to the newest one.
00:10:20
Speaker
It was, quite frankly, an episode I was looking very much forward to once Modern Warfare 3 dropped, but when I booted up the new Modern Warfare 2, I was greeted with something that horrified me. Right off the bat, I was slapped in the face with offers to buy the Battle Pass, prices withered husk looking back at me, as if to warn me off.
00:10:40
Speaker
What was even more bizarre was a pop-up window, which immediately asked if I would like to uninstall the campaign to save space. I politely declined, and after several attempts at mashing the B button, I was brought straight to the multiplayer screen. Confused, I'd tuck around the menu until I found the campaign buried deep within the bowels of the menu screen like a dirty secret they didn't want you to find out, and after playing it, my issues with the series only grew larger.
00:11:06
Speaker
The Modern Warfare 2 reboot is, by all means, boring. It's a plodding mess that doesn't know what it wants to be. On the one hand, it wants to forge its own intense story of international espionage, following a new found task force 1-4-1 marching into the fray to protect the world. But on the other hand, it's tied an anchor around itself to the original.
00:11:27
Speaker
what you get is a horrible hybrid of old and new mashed together like a child smacking two action figures together. That's not to say there weren't some great moments, such as fan favourite characters like Alejandro and the return of Shadow Company, but even then it isn't enough. It's strange side tangents.
00:11:45
Speaker
such as a terror cell getting into bed with a Mexican cartel and the age-old trope of turning a hero character into a villain by having him betray the protagonist only to then gun down a bunch of innocent civilians. The sole reason this is done is because characters did this in the original game, so by proxy they too must loosely follow this.
00:12:05
Speaker
The game also decides to reintroduce characters that by all means could very well have been cut out from the story, such as Farah, in one of my least favourite missions, Violence and Timing. The level initially has you hanging out of a helicopter in a high octane chase sequence, which to me was fantastically done.
00:12:22
Speaker
But once you fall out and they're then forced to drive a truck in the same vein as Warzone, it killed any enjoyment they had, from the level being far too long and empty. To one of the trucks straight up ejecting minds out from his backside in true video game fashion, any
00:12:37
Speaker
The immersion I had was now lying on the cold hard ground, looking up at a historical quote in the sky. Things only got worse in later levels when I was blinded by lens flares that were overlaid on top of the screen, making it impossible for me to see what was going on.
00:12:53
Speaker
I should also point out that I was playing this nearly a year on from its release, so for this issue to still be prevalent was really telling. It felt more like filler than a successor to one of the most successful entries into the series, and all of the ghost masks would never change that. Between that and the 4 stealth levels, I find myself dismissing this game as one of the worst things that could have happened.
00:13:16
Speaker
but once again its saving grace was found through its peak multiplayer and of course Warzone additions.
Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard
00:13:22
Speaker
But in the background, we also watch with curiosity as Microsoft sought to buy Activision Blizzard, thereby gaining another feather to their oversized gaming cap.
00:13:31
Speaker
It was here that they announced they would be abandoning the Game of Year model for COD in order to spend more time on the series. I, like many others, initially welcomed the change, naively believing that this would be the first of many steps towards fixing the franchise, but much like the ending of Loose End, who would swiftly be let down in more ways than one.
00:13:52
Speaker
At the end of Modern Warfare 2, they teased the return of Modern Warfare's most iconic villain, Makarov. Something that would surely shake up the story. But as you probably ascertained by the title, this was sadly not the case. Even IGN, a company well known for giving out the worst games of the series a decent score, awarded them with a pitiful
00:14:12
Speaker
4 out of 10. This was only reinforced by a myriad of other controversies, such as displaying full screen ads on people's Xboxes to buy the game, his ridiculous file size which has been an ongoing issue since Modern Warfare 2019, and last but not least, the fact that it was initially pitched as DLC for Modern Warfare 2 rather than a full
Modern Warfare 3: Lost Interest
00:14:33
Speaker
price game.
00:14:33
Speaker
I had every intention of picking up Motor Warfare 3 to play the game for myself into a full comparison, but after watching a four hour playthrough of its early access campaign, I could probably use that £70 for something far better, much like the story before.
00:14:49
Speaker
Half of it tries to tell a muddled story with warzone infused elements like body armour and open combat missions, while the other weaves in elements from the previous trilogy. Certain characters died in the laziest of manners purely because the counterparts had had two, but with none of the emotional weight. But I would be remiss not to discuss one of the more infamous controversies of the franchise, that being its take on the New Russian mission. Since this infamous mission debuted in 2009,
00:15:18
Speaker
Activision have always tried to up the ante with their shocking levels, but since there was no attempt to recreate a truly shocking moment in the second one, the honour fell upon a post-credits theme which alluded to the act that would be coming up. I'd be lying if I said that the original No Russian Mission was necessary to be an interactive experience, but in the context of the plot, it served as a brutal justification for the war that would eventually break out.
Old vs New: Narrative in Call of Duty
00:15:44
Speaker
In this one however,
00:15:45
Speaker
While the act of destroying a plane full of civilians was equally terrible, it served zero purpose beyond showing Makarov's evil mustache twirling plans. And that's the thing that I feel separates this game from the original trilogy, purpose and consequence.
00:16:00
Speaker
When the nuclear bomb goes off in Mortal Morpheus' shock and awe level, we are horrified at having a front row seat. When we're forced to partake in Makarov's plans, we're helpless to prevent it. And when we watch the brutal aftermath of the chemical attacks in Europe, it brought to the forefront the true horrors of war. As controversial as it could get, the actions in the game were not without reason to service the plot.
00:16:22
Speaker
And yet when we look at the new games, they seem to relish their past victories like some kind of armchair general. The no Russian mission touted in this game is at best only there because they wanted to mirror the original. Character death seemed to only be present because that's what happened before.
00:16:39
Speaker
Things happen, guns go pew, roll credits. A few months ago, my friend and I discussed the 20 year anniversary of the original code. Despite its flaws, it was a game of ambition, a game that they could have been proud of, but instead of being the true innovators that they could be, they chose to sit bloated.
00:16:56
Speaker
and the shadows of the former cells, and lent into modern gaming practices.
A Hope for Simpler Gaming
00:17:02
Speaker
At the end of the day, gaming companies will always follow where the money is, and this ensures that the cycle of games continues. Gone are the days of a simple experience, where at the click of a button you could join your friends online without the need for copious amounts of updates, battle passes and gigabytes hogging up all your storage.
00:17:22
Speaker
I always say this, that if you enjoy this game, the main goal isn't to say that you're wrong, it's to say that you deserve better. While I doubt the words of this indie podcaster will make a drastic difference, we should remember that gaming wasn't always like this. Now while the old games will still be there, we can only hope that this new direction isn't here to stay for much longer. So what did you think? Do you think people were too harsh on the latest entry? Or do you think this time they've gone too far? Let us know what you think in the comments.
00:17:50
Speaker
As always, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated!