What Call of Duty gets right

It was not until 2017s World War two edition that I personally went out of my way and purchased a Call of Duty title for the first time, and it wasn't something I had much intention of doing. It was Christmas Eve and I was about to stay round my mum's over the holidays, aside from Christmas day itself I knew I'd get bored, and I had some money to spare. So with Call of Duty in the sale I decided to buy it, I hoped that it would keep me busy for a few days, and if it was any good I'll play it when I'm listening to a podcast or if I'm not in the mood for anything else, thereafter.

After waiting an incredibly long time for it to download I managed to get stuck into multiplayer, which was the mode that I was really looking forward to playing. Although I did come to like the campaign for what it was, with all of its bombastic set-pieces and linearity. 

WW2 wasn't my first experience with the franchise, in the spring of 2013, during my university break I had a ton of fun with Black Ops 2. I played it on a friends Nintendo Wii U, he used the TV screen while I used the small handheld device. My other experience was with Black Ops 3 on my brother's Xbox One, I couldn't have played more than a handful of matches, which isn't enough to really get a grasp of the game. On both occasions I was pretty terrible, rarely getting more kills than deaths.

Going into Call of Duty multiplayer as a first timer can be a daunting experience, it's not the most arduous of games in terms of skill, but you're going up against people who're usually experienced with the franchise. The time to kill is extremely low and the maps aren't too big, but big enough for the type of fun that the game is trying to achieve. At first I was utter crap but over time I got better, to the point where I was competitive, even now I would never consider myself particularly good at the game. From one match to the next, I can go from being excellent to piss poor.

Having liked last year's game, I bought the recently released Black Ops 4 on its first day of release. With no single player it hasn't been without its controversy. Although I was a little disappointed with the lack of a real campaign mode, it wasn't going to stop me from buying it, I play it for the multiplayer anyway, so I could cut my losses. The new battle royale mode, Blackout, the standout feature the game is being sold on, made up for it in my opinion.

I'm not too interested in battle royale games, but from the little time that I have spent on Blackout, I can safely say that it's a lot of fun. Few games have replicated the same tension and fear of being one of the last survivors on the map. So far I have only played one Zombies map and it was the Titanic one, it was good but the skills and upgrade system seems really complicated and bloated. I will play more of it soon, but if it turns out half as good as WW2s zombies I'll be happy.

But it's the multiplayer that I play Call of Duty for. A Cynical person would call it a brainless, pew pew fest with people getting killed left, right and centre. Which has some truths to it, but the accessibility and instant gratification can't be rivalled. The customisation is not too grand, but there is enough weapons and special classes so that you'll be able to find a loadout that suits the way you want to play.

Even with the manual healing introduced in Black Ops 4, the time to kill is still low, but the quick respawn helps nullify this, as soon as you die you can get straight back into the action within seconds. The quick respawning works because it means that you always feel involved, dying in Call of Duty feels like shit, the same way it feels fantastic to get a kill. There are matches where I'll be absolutely raging because I'm playing badly, with that frustration inside of me the quick respawning makes me want to get right back into the game and make amends. You also have a killstreak, this is the amount of points you collect from kills that rack up your score. Get a certain amount of points and you'll be able to use a one time special weapon such as a rocket bomb or a drone. It's the ultimate payoff for playing well, and an incentive to keep playing.

The movement in Call of Duty games is agile and swift, while the gunplay feels light, the impact of the bullets is weighty. Trust me there's no better satisfaction than the feel of firing bullets that puncture through someone's head in a multiplayer match.

For all of the hate it gets from some corners, there is a reason that the franchise has lasted for so long with such high sales, even if its popularity is past its peak. For quick instant gratification there's nothing that really comes close, Battlefield and Rainbow Six are more complex so to speak, and they're heavily geared towards playing with a group of people. Destiny 2s multiplayer is the definition of mediocrity, the maps are boring and the guns are so unbalanced that it lacks any intuition on the gamer's part.

For me, Call of Duty is the perfect game I go to when I just want to sit back and have some (frustrated) fun when I'm bored, or if I'm listening to the radio or a podcast in the background.