I'm an old lady and don't know anything about video games. The TH-cam algorithm sent this to me in the middle of the night. It was so well done I stayed up and watched the whole thing. You are a very talented young man.
This comment made me very happy. I hope you are doing well, and you are not secretly a 25 year old due trolling me. Welcome to this weird side of TH-cam!
In WAW the Japanese were designed to stand out in gameplay compared to the Nazis. The Japanese ambush, suprise, and rush you. While the Germans hold up with machine gun nests and are generally more cautious. The Japanese in WW2 used a variety of tactics to surprise their enemy, faking their deaths, using traps, and hiding in the grass to name a few. It helps immerse the player and reinforces the sporadic and violent chaos of war. The game also uses heavy violence and gore to try to put yourself in the boots of an average soldier, war is cruel, war is messy, and it represents the morale-killing events soldiers mighty experienced in the battles portrayed.
That’s what makes WaW stand out. Personally I wasn’t initially thrilled with the return to the WW2 setting since by that point it was done to death. But WaW really was the perfect last hurrah for the plethora of WW2 shooters we saw in the 2000s. Video games aren’t realistic by any means, but WaW is probably the closest we can get to a game that truly depicts the horrors of war and not just about going from point A to point B and mowing down everyone in sight.
@@charlesrump5771 How It shows them in the same vein as the stereotypical cartoons from the era See letters to iwo jima to see how the japanese army really was It was not a bunch of Savage suicidal kamikazes that loved blood and torture
@@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009 I personally don’t find anything racist about how the Japanese army was represented in WaW. I don’t see any stereotypical things that could even be considered racist from the game. The Japanese army during WW2 was savage in its guerrilla warfare tactics and suicide was very much so a big part of the Japanese army during WW2. If you’ve actually seen Letters from Iwo Jima or Flags of our Fathers you’d know this. They literally commit suicide at different points in Letters from Iwo Jima. From pulling grenade pins and holding them against their own chests to gutting themselves with their own swords. All the way to a last stand suicidal run at the enemy with all hope pretty much lost in the battle. Shit they even were willing to kill their own soldiers for not willing to fight or not willing to do certain things. All things the real Japanese army did during WW2. To not represent this would be historically inaccurate & to represent it is in no way racist. Just because it’s an uncomfortable truth and people may not like it or the way it portrays a certain cultures army at the specific time period, doesn’t at all make it racist when it is in fact historically accurate. Not only that but to add on top that not only the Japanese but both them and the German armies were pumped up with amphetamines also doesn’t help with the fact that both armies were savage. Drug use especially of amphetamines accumulated with sleeping barely at all on top of many other side effects of drug use just plain and simple help make a person more mean and act unlike a rational minded person does. Just in their own ways if that’s possible for some people to distinguish. People may not like how it’s represented, but it’s not a historically inaccurate depiction. This isn’t to say every single one of the Japanese imperial armies militants were psychotic savages, and that they didn’t have their own personal lives behind / before the war and had loved ones they cared for as the Americans did. But the fighting style of the Japanese army was just plain and simple a savage kind of fighting style with suicidal tendencies. It’s just the truth plain and simple, not racist.
This is what I love about TH-cam man. We dont need to wait on a documentary company to produce a professional video on a particular subject we are passionate about, we can literally do it ourselves. Great video man, excellent analysis!
My Grandad and I loved playing the old COD games back in the day, he was the one who got me into video games,unfortunately he passed away a month ago at 87 years old.His last COD game he played was WWII. Before he passed, he managed to complete Sniper Elite V, even while dealing with his arthritis! Even though I helped him in some sections, but most of the time it was all him. He’s a true gamer till the end and he was one of the bestest friends I have ever known. RIP Grandad, we will meet again, and I hope you are up there playing every video game in heaven, save me a seat, I will be there in maybe 70 years, if I’m lucky.
On WaW, the savagery of the Japanese is no myth. Historically, the accounts of war crimes on their part are numerous and cruel at best; making it also more scary the fact that they didn't need an ideology like Nazism to achieve it. So the "lack of nuance" is just how the Americans at the time viewed the Japanese, which would not have been strangers to the violence displayed in the game. The campaign of WaW makes the Pacific theater quite harsh and difficult, without any meaning unlike the Eastern theater, but it only serves the purpose of giving us the mindset of the soldiers of the time, which was an extremely violent war on strange islands far from home for some greater geopolitical goal.
They did have an ideology behind their insanity . They were racial supremacists like the nazis. Read An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus. Their empire produced that document. Even now significant amounts of Japanese people think they are biologically superior to the rest of asia.
Dude i LITERALLY search "Call of duty saga: analisys" I found THIS video that was uploaded 10 hours ago. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks.
"War is antiethical to fun" That one German guy who wrote Storm of steal: "Huh?" Seriously tho - i loved this video. It's a pefeect mix of learning and good ol' Nostalgia
I always love bringing up this anecdote: I spent so much time playing MW2 with my best friend in high school, sometimes we'd take turns playing multiplayer so we wouldn't have to use split screen. One day while visiting, he had apparently gotten MW3 and was playing it the whole time I was hanging out and I didn't even notice it was a different game until he pointed it out. I figured if I can't even tell the difference between MW2 and MW3 then there's no reason for me to buy it.
Hello everyone. Thanks for watching. This video is a bit older now but I was clicking on it to check in on some comments and got like 10 mid roll ads in the first hour. I think that is absurd, but YT studio isn't letting me change it. I turned off ads for the video but some people are still getting them. I hate the idea of YT deciding where my ads go in this 3 1/2 hour long video so I just turned em off. If you still get them, let me know. Anyway, if you see this, love you bye
To be honest, with imaginable time and effort this video must have taken to produce, your probably one of the few creators I would want to see ads in, as while I can't contribute to patreon at the moment (hopefully some time in the future) ads make me feel like I'm still showing appreciation for this awesome content.
I really appreciate the fact that you cover the classic Call of Duty games as well unlike most people who pretends anything before COD4 isn't important or good. COD2 to this day is my favorite in the franchise simply because it doesn't have an actual story, it just wants to show interactive authentic WW2 battles. And it does a fantastic job in terms of immersion and making you feel like an average joe especially in Veteran difficulty.
@@MidniteMeatBus It absolutely does not. MW2019 and MW2 2020 are the best of the best when it comes to attention to detail with the weapons like the reload animations. In fact, every call of duty from WaW and before do not even accurately reload bolt action rifles, they shove an entire 5 round clip into the gun even if you still have 4 rounds left.
the interesting part of WaW is that the representation of the japanese soldiers wasn’t too different from how it was, if anything it was toned down. the japanese soldiers were ruthless, booby trapping bodies, faking surrender, charging at enemies knowing they will die. the whole “honor” thing we see as the stereotype was kind of true, it’s insane that people don’t know how terrible the pacific front was. the japanese and american soldiers hated each other almost equally, neither side showing any mercy for the other
Exactly, WaW arguably did the image of the Imperial Japanese Army a favor by not touching on things like the Nanjing Massacre or the experiments of Unit 731. If all I knew about the IJA came from WaW then I would be inclined to think of them as more or less a standard military that emphasized guerilla tactics.
This is a great video and fantastic analysis, but I think with WaW it just seemed like you were LOOKING for “problematic” things, its not racism just by depicting a country’s military correctly
Having seen the immense amount of effort you have put into this video, I’m happy to say that this video was an absolute pleasure to watch from start to finish. I particularly enjoyed hearing about your own past experiences with the CoD games as an analysis on its own own and of this length can become quite sterile and soulless. The part about the silent MW2 lobbies hit me right in the feels :( A video about CoD zombies would be super cool! I’m looking forward to see what you come out with next!
Matt couldn’t agree more my man. When he was talking about launching the game for the last time not knowing it, or saying “see you tomorrow guys” for the last time I got really sad at that part
I don't see WaW's potrayal of Americans hate against the Japanese as racism. It's more so that these are battle-hardened Marines who've spent years fighting the Japanese, whom many that fearlessly fought like animals in WW2, have grown to hate them. I mean, Miller witnessed a Marine POW have his eye burned out with a cigarette, countless traps that ambushed Marines, and both Roebuck and Polonsky witnessed their Sergeant Sullivan, who they looked up to, stabbed right in front of them. The opposite is actually in the Soviet campaign. Sure, the massacre at Stalingrad was a good reason to hate the Nazis but every Soviet throughout the campaign shows absolute brutality and hatred against the Germans. The Soviets will burn surrendering Germans and shoot a POW begging for mercy. The only exception is Chernov who is mocked for his pacifist nature by Reznov who tries to teach him how to be a soldier. What's more interesting is the character Chernov He doesn't understand war like everyone else and represents the silent minority in the Red Army. He refers to shooting a POW as 'murder' and not war, horrified by the rockets tearing Berlin apart, sees no point in killing dying Germans. He even records your actions and his thoughts on you will be revealed at the end varying on whether you are a hero or not after he dies. The purpose of the American campaign was actually a new style of gameplay. The Japanese fight WAY different than the Germans in WaW. The Germans fight more generic like in previous titles, but the Japanese are more aggressive and determined. They will often ambush with traps, play dead, hide in the grass, Kamikaze, and at the end of the game, they will lure Roebuck or Polonsky into a surrender trap just to blow themselves up (which justifies their hatred, had they shot them they would still be alive) followed by 3 waves of Banzai chargers Treyarch wanted the player to relive the horrors of the Pacific Theatre, which was way more intense and bloody than the European and African theatres and were more dangerous than German soldiers. The Americans and Russians openly hate their enemies and is the only game in the series to portray this level of sadism and hatred. You literally called it racist because the Japanese are the only minority faction in the game.
THIS, the guy clearly hasn't seen a documental or movie about the Pacific, his pretenciousness ruined the video for me (especially since WaW is my favorite cod) and I'm only here looking for comments like yours.
I didn’t get how he was really harsh on world at war for being too violent and “racist” even though it fairly accurately portrayed the Pacific and eastern fronts, and then turned around and liked WW2s story. WW2 was totally wokewashed with its “War is an adventure” storytelling and perversion of the Germans; black soldiers, no swastikas anywhere, “axis” faction etc
I have to say you totally underrated Big Red One It focused on small scale tasks in bigger picture feel. It also took people to areas and places no game period has taken people since. Italy and Vichy France got tons of coverage content and really made you feel like your as close to WW2 perspective as one can be post WW2. And the player plot was amazing in it. Tons of armor and planes too. It deserved tons more recognition.
1:13:44 The voice clip you're talking about is probably the one where he screams "Sanitäter!". The dude is calling out for a medic, basically. My most memorable sound across the early games is that one weird death noise that first appeared in CoD2 and found its way to CoD4.
Great video though I vehemently disagree with the pseudo dislike for WaW. I too have played cod since the very first one and responded inversely to the video creator here I guess. I found the new tone, gore etc... supremely refreshing and much more realistic than previously takes on the setting. BTW people hate to admit this but it’s true, why do stereotypes crop up in society? Because to an uncomfortable degree they tend to have truth too them so I just don’t understand how cod was racist here. The Japanese really did have scary and fanatical devotion to the emperor to the point where nearly every last soldier and civilian had to be ruthlessly cut down in places like Saipan and Okinawa. The Japanese really DID lose previously unheard of in amounts of men (to the western mind) In obviously futile bonsai charges and Kamikaze attacks. The Japanese were absolutely known and if anything more likely than not to commit horrific war crimes on civilians, soldiers and prisoners of war. Such as cutting off certain private quarters of dead diggers (Australian’s) as well as G.I’s and shoving them in their dead mouths so as to enrage their comrades when they were found. I won’t even mention the unforgivable acts the Japanese committed toward Chinese civilians. There’s many theories as to why they were like this, the most likely being high commands way of putting the Japanese public/military in a place where they understood no surrender as the only choice given they had brutalized their opponents so much that no mercy would be given. Nonetheless though my point is that these are stereotypes because that’s how the pacific war was. If anything I thought waw shy’d away from the climate of absolute racial hatred both the Americans and Japanese had for each other at that time. It’s why the pacific war isn’t as glorified today as the European theater. The brutality and cruelty was much more akin to the Eastern front or a pseudo Vietnam rather than the image of the allies morally liberating a French village.
My thoughts exactly. He seemed to think it was racist simply bc they were brutal and not awesome super civilized fighters. In reality they were brutal, they find with their hands if they had to.
They even fake surrendered,just like in the last mission, they went full warcrime mode. Hell, if the japanese and russian were racially stereotypical, one could say the mw saga has an imperialistic pov with the stereotypical russian bad american/english good, but i loved both waw and mw(more waw than mw) you can even say waw is the best HD ww2 shooter and given how vanguard looks right now, seems like it will stay that way for some time
My thoughts exactly, in ww2 especially the Japanese were unrelenting, and on the hatred aspect I always think about a scene in The Pacific, where Sledge and his crew walk past some troops who surrendered and (I don't remember completely) but he gets freaking livid and almost beats him to death.
yeah this guy is straight tripping with some of his points, black ops 1 is by far the best campaign. plus it has many iconic characters. and don’t even get me started on the zombies crew
I just finished this video, took me probably 6 sessions because of my time commitments. Just wanted to say a massive thank you for creating this and providing an eloquent run through of the series. Hearing about all of them back to back really put into context how far the series has come
This took me down the rabbit hole of my childhood. Literally this unlocks me memories of staying up late middle school playing zombies with the bros. Planning how we would reach the next round. Man this is timeless. Even looking at missions i forgot i even played !! Absolutely speechless…thank you man !!
The little German I do know comes from my time with COD, and as I kid I specifically looked up the translation just to understand the intentions of enemy AI since they actively call out their tactics or where they spot opposing soldiers to know if they're targeting the PC. There are a couple specific recognizeable German VA lines that come from COD 2 and were repurposed in both COD 3 and World at War which is why they're recognizeable. The "Sanitater" ("Sally tater") callout is the German soldiers calling for a medic, and is triggered as a reaction voice line whenever a nearby fellow German soldier gets killed which is precisely why you hear it so many times what with you mowing through so many Wehrmacht troops in the game.
1:23:00 It's really refreshing to see someone play zombies without using the tried and true high round strategies, or having someone run in circles for hours. Just sitting in a hallway crouched shooting zombies with an MP40 is really what zombies has always been.
It was always about the STG or bar if it was on the map. I always use to camp in the hallway on verruct or the cat walk on Der Reise when my 5 year old brother and his freinds would play but then when it al fell apart I would take off running and then it would just be me running, dipping, dodging, grabbing whatever gun I ran passed and killing the last zombie by jug or the box. I miss the camping glitches, not for camping but for taking 5 or ten to get get some food, smoke stuff then getting right back to it.
As a long time hard core zombies fan. It is very interesting to listen to how a more casual fan sees the maps. Love the video. You are an amazing video essay creator. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to watch more.
21:54 I was literally just born while you were 1v1ing, the joy in your voice recollecting ab this specifically is heartwarming for me. In 20 years I hope I find myself reminiscing with my friends of 1v1ing in Fortnite’s “playground” before creative. Crazy how video games can create some of your most valuable memories, almost brings a tear to my eye. I lost likely won’t be able to watch all of this video but I salute you sir and can only hope I can have such a work ethic as yourself in the future🙌🦾
I graduated in 2013 as well and that summer is so special to me as well because of bo2 and mlg events. I absolutely fell in love with comp COD that year and I wish i could relive it again to some extent. It was just amazing.
I've watched this and your borderlands retrospect back to back. It is 3am now. I regret nothing. 3:56am at the end. This was really enjoyable. I hope you read this, you are an actual legend.
Just wanted to say, thank you for providing your insight. I haven't finished the video yet (halfway) but the fact you are willing to work this hard and put together a video of this quality and insight is incredible. Thanks for sharing this. I hope this video provides you a lot of reward for your hard work! Cheers from Canada bud 🍁
This took a tonn of effort. I feel like I'm reliving my late middleschool years and my high-school years. World at war and black ops 2 are still my all time favorites of the series. World At War for campaign, and BO2 for multiplayer. Those were the glory days for sure
I nearly lost my mind when I heard your opinion about the black ops campaigns but you explained it in a very well way and the overall video was just very quality that I can’t be hating
After watching the zombies analysis first and then watching this it's actually very interesting to see your opinions on each title's version of the mode changed based on how you experienced the node i.e. casual vs veteran. Anyway, great content!
I haven’t finished this video yet, but I’m happy to FINALLY see CoD3 get some love. That’s my nostalgic, favorite old CoD that I’d go back to if I could.
I just bought a used copy of COD 3 for my PS3, as kid i just played it on the good ol' Ps2, but my dream was play it on PS3 because of the new graphics and shiet, and here we are, finally. No regrets.
I’d like to say that COD3 and COD2: the big red 1 are insanely underrated at least from a story perspective and music was fantastic. Hell I’d go and say they should’ve been made into movies
I bought the original call of duty for PC like you did my friend. Right when it came out. I was a clan leader (Red Army)…the nostalgia from this video is actually brining a tear to my eye. I remember getting on the landline phone with my friends/ clan members before getting xfire. It was a simpler happier time. Thanks so much for this video man!
I woke up this morning with this video playing on my tv. I was upto ghosts and after listening to you talk, i took it back to the start and watched the whole thing. Great video
Between you and NCG I'll never lay in bed unable to sleep again. Sometimes I am unable to turn my brain off at days end. These videos keep my mind active enough that I forget to worry or process life as I slip into the game world while being no stress which allows me to sleep. Thanks man.
You are going to have an astounding impact on the future of commentary and Retrospective Analyses on TH-cam. This video is phenomenal and you are going places.
Great video. One nitpick: 46:20 5 shermans = 1 tiger is a common myth that is not really true. Sure, Tiger Tanks were kinda strong, but not that strong, and the Shermans were much better than usually given credit for.
And there was generally 5 Sherman’s not because they were required to take on a Tiger, but because that’s just what American forces showed up with. Even just two Sherman’s could do alright against one Tiger.
As a Zombies heavy COD player, this really gives me a perspective on multiplayer and the history of older COD games. Great video all in all! (Watched it in one sitting while playing Cold War)
I watched this video last night. The way you described fighting outside of the weight class has been weighing heavy on my mind. It makes me think about how the first Gulf War, Hussein dug so many trenches out. He assumed that if he deployed and fought in trenches, the the west would adhere to his terms. The opposite happened. The US deployed tanks and other heavy armor suited to be bulldozers and plowed through. They just covered the trenches, no one knows how many Iraqis were buried, reports of those in the trenches would shoot the underside of the heavy armor, many soldiers surrender en masse. When asked about it, General Schwarzkopf said something to the effect of “sure a lot of Iraqis died, but think about how many Americans would’ve died if we went in and fought close quarters with bayonets”. “War never changes” but it does. And if one side doesn’t/isn’t able to adapt to modern times, then it will just be a massive bloodshed. All war boils down to is the same thing. Both sides fighting to defend their own ideologies. There is no right or wrong, just different perspectives of life itself. Yet we have a world police that says “we are going to come into your country and make you believe in what we do or else”.
“It fails to make any point about us imperialism” My brother in arms, these games are made to sell the Military Industrial Complex, and it worked. GOD BLESS LOCKHEED MARTIN, GENERAL DYNAMICS, NORTHROP GRUMMAN, BOEING, AND THE REST OF OUR FINE ARMS COMPANYS.
They arent my favorite games, but they are some of the most fun experiences ive ever had. I will never forget sleeping over a friends house and playing MW2 all night and hitting a crazy cross the map throwing knife kill. Thank you for this video!
Man I'm a sucker for documentary type videos like these. Keep going at it, this community needs more people like you to give depth to the amazing design of our various beloved series.
I know this is an old video but the part where you're hearing "Sally tater" in WaW you're hearing "Sanitäter!" Which would be the soldiers screaming out for a medic
David, I have to admit that your view on COD4: Modern Warfare is a very interesting one and one I somewhat thought about when playing the game and I did think about it deeply on one occasion. This video of yours is really well done and I’m happy I found this. Thank you.
I was laughing when in W@W you were talking about the Germans yelling ‘sally tator’. I remember that and ‘indie kong’. It has space in my brain from playing so much cod 3 and W@W growing up. They use those sound bites 1 more time in the Nova 6 missions in black ops. They got their money’s worth in those.
I hope you’re doing well my man. I started playing cod when I was 10 years old playing World at War (cod5). I’ve fallen deeply in love with the franchise for well over half of my life. Thank you so much for this video. This has been such an amazing trip down memory lane. Thank you for all of your effort.
I like games like soma; things that make you think and question everything. It does in its own way, but I’ve never been able to play it effectively enough to experience the story myself. This is a wonderful analysis. Many thanks for the time and effort you’ve put into this.
The tactics of the Japanese in WAW are not stereotypes…that is absolutely verifiably how they fought, to pretend that it’s because it’s “racist” is asinine.
I have to disagree quite strongly on your take on WaW with the apparent stereotypes and racism on the pacific theater campaign. It's depicted pretty much exactly how the Japanese fought during that time using guerilla tactics like foxholes, hiding in trees and grass, ambushing and kamikaze bombing (black cats mission). All of that stuff legitimately happened and the fact that it's touchy subject with bad history does not make it a racist stereotype. I can't imagine what you'd think if they portrayed the parts when they used bamboo torture on pow's, experimented on victims of ALL ages, and even cannibalize people. Know you history before making claims.
It's literally racist of him to try to whitewash Japanese brutality as if it never happened. The Japanese killed millions of Chinese people in the name of racism and brutality. They literally allied with Nazi Germany for christ sake.
Keep up the great work! I am one of those Ghost fans, it was my first Cod game. So many great memories of playing it with my brother. I also am glad to see love for Infinite Warfare, I love the single player!
Ghosts may not have my favorite singleplayer, but it's the best multiplayer in Call Of Duty for me personally. Weapons sound nice and heavy, character customization is not deep but simple enough to have unique looking characters without them looking like clowns or a 5 year olds crayon drawing -_- My K/D is the best here in all the games at 2.137, game modes are fun, Blitz and Cranked were hilarious, maps... apart from Stone Heaven they're actually decent. The best part is on PS3 the servers carry around 2000 people on average a day, enough to play most game modes. No matter what time you're always going to find TDM, Domination, Drop Zone and Gun Game, well Extinction too if we're talking outside of regular MP. The sliding mechanic was introduced here, cover cleaning, camo unlocks are kinda lame though. Overal it's a nice package
I'm really disappointed what they did with the post helicopter crash scene (the playground scene) in the Modern Warfare remaster. In the original it was such a realistic, subtle and effective scene. The remaster just went over the top and hamed it really up, and kinda ruined it. Made me really appreciate the restraint by the original developers. I also really enjoyed the Black Ops 3 campaign, but I completely agree with your critique of it. I thought the gameplay was fun and the individual levels had really cool presentation and set pieces. But as a whole it kinda fell short. I haven't played any of the games that came out after Black Ops prior to playing BO3, so it was a pleasant surprise to see so many changes: more fluid and vertical movement, it felt less linear, all the different skills (of whom I used maybe one regularly), they let me pilot a vehicle etc. But at its core it still was a Call of Duty game and I still spent a lot of time hiding behind cover, popping out to kill a few enemies, go back to cover. Rinse and repeat until the next checkpoint is reached. The game also felt really unfocused and confused in its story and themes. It tried to be so many things at once. For a good portion it tried really hard to be Deus Ex with the themes of transhumanism, private military, near future cyberpunk-esque world. And that bossfight in the server room. It was dripping Deus Ex juice. But as someone who doesn't consider themselves as a CoD-fan, I remember that game as a positive experience. On a side note: I only recently discovered your channel via your GTA 5 video and was a bit unsure wether you were still active, but still left a sub. Your videos are ridiculously good, definitely in the higher tiers of long-form gaming videos. I hope more people discover your content, you really deserve it.
9:57 Me and my brother used to do this too The guy in the car we used to call him "Gora wala dost" The white friend (we're Indians so yk) Cpt Folly if I'm correct And we would redo the levels if we got them killed Once I remember we were just so pissed at an level and just couldn't do it And one of our guys died And we just decided to go on For a 9yr old I felt bad And as an 17yr old now I'm glad i had that experience (COD1 was proudly my first game ever)
This is one of the best video essays I've ever seen and the fact that I sat over three hours through it is testament to that. Quite a spectacular feat actually haha. Well done, certainly earned that sub 👍
I can’t believe I’m only seeing this video now but I cannot put into words how much I appreciate this video and genuinely agreed with the majority of the points you made. I believe every single die hard call of duty player needs to watch this.
Watching pieces of my childhood...I feel so old now. All of these games we play about war took on new meaning when I joined the military. I remember when the devs used to tell you in front of the camera and not online that these projects were out of love and reverence for these conflicts and those who make that ultimate sacrifice. I miss games being able to make me stop and really think sometimes. Now it's all fever dreams of bright colors, explosions and numbers... it puts things in a whole new light when you have to learn about things like war, standing in their boots. I hope they wake up and find passion in the craft again. I would be lying if I said that the games, movies, shows, history, and art I interacted with as a child...didn't help durect my will to do something larger than myself. Glad you made this video.
This was an amazing video essay, while I disagree with many of your points about the gameplay in modern warfare, I can respect your opinion and the stuff you said about the political background of the game made a lot of sense. Good work!
I haven't played a single CoD game in my life but I watched the entire thing and 9 of your other videos as well, seriously. You deserve a couple more zeros in your subscriber count, some of the best content I've come across
Great video David! Would love to see you take on the Mafia series, although the games weren't perfect they had undeniable potential & many amazing aspects that make them very enjoyable to play.
What parts of the internet are you on that people know Black Ops II for the aesthetic and not for the story. People only know Black Ops 2 for the story.
As an older very casual player (I’ve only completed a couple campaigns, and prestige’d once with my lil bro’s help)- I really enjoyed this video. It reminds me of my dad making my brother write a little history report before allowing him to play the latest cod. Thank you for your work and perspective.
You lost me at racism. 01:17:50 This is not racism. There's a difference between exagerateing stereotypes for entertainment purposes (pretty accurate stereotypes at that) and making sweeping generalisations with malicious intent.
The orginal MW1 definitely is a Super Soldier Power Fantasy, but I don't see how its a critique of the West as a global police force or wants to get you thinking about the power difference in modern warfare. Sure the Marine-Invasion backfires due to bad Intel, but at the end of the game it's a highly-advanced western special unit that saves the world from an even bigger nuclear catastrophe, so the game ultimately answers your question "Does our military and technology superiority mean that we should be the worlds police force?" with "If you know what you are doing, yes!". If the original Modern Warfare games had a central theme or message it would be about the general threat posed by non-state actors, but not every game has to have a deeper meaning. I don't think for example that the conspiracy element of Black Ops 1 was ever meant to be understood literally or as a way to question history. Instead it simply served the purpose of dramatizing the plot.
The Japanese in WaW are completely accurate. In fact their barbarity shown in game is only scratching the surface of reality. They were little better than the Nazis and even worse in a lot of ways. Certainly not “racism”. To say it’s racist to portray the imperial Japanese in a bad light is like saying it’s racist against Germans to portray Nazis in a bad light Watch Mark Felton’s video on Japanese brutality in WW2. This game only scratches the surface of reality. And maybe consider remaking this video without the baseless racism accusations.
What so you mean Japanese stereotypes? The Japanese were trained to be a dogmatic, fearless military force. If you're implying the Kamakazis or Bonzi charges are stereotypical, they ain't. The Japanese used them because they were successful as a demoralizing factor. They even went as far as to make Kamakazis of various types. From speedboats, to manned torpedoes, to frogmen (conceptually).
The best cods imo are the original 3. The attention to detail is immense. I went to normandy a few years back and i was able to give myself a tour of pointe du hoc because all of the bunkers were in the exact same location as they were in cod2. It was actually quite surreal walking down bunker steps thinking "ive cleared this bunker"
@@lt_johnmcclane You can make a photorealistic game and run with it. You have to strike a balance and not make a FPS unplayable because you want the genuine experience.
The wall i hit was mw3 2023 ngl i havent played anything other than the mw3 2011 though i have played remastereds and have purchased the old cods i cant relate to the ogs very much, if anything i played the end of the golden age of cod, i played mw3 2011 and ghosts and as i grew up with those as a teen i did not care what people said about those games, i always defended them and said they were the best and i think that the more you play and grew up with a game it becomes a part of you, ill admit i want a ghosts 2 to see what happened to logan and i think that mw3 2011 was a great ending to the series. Now as time went on the cods kept getting worse but as i saw black ops 3 and infinite warfare i got interested, to be fair i only likes black ops 3 because of the multiplayer and zombies and well same for infinite warfare except i also liked the campaign slightly, well moving on to ww2 that was a great cod, the loot boxes and some elements were bad but the campaign truly showed you what ww2 was, the zombies was alright and so was the multiplayer but the campaign really carried the game and it really showed what brotherhood was. And then we got to black ops 4, im not gonna lie i think this killed cod, for maybe a year as it was the most empty cod, with no campaign.... Well not that i would be interested due to black ops 3s campaign being a bit bad. Then mw2019 came out and i still had hope that this was the reboot and revival, i loved the multiplayer and the immersion, the campaigns brilliant originality instead of being another remaster, the spec ops continuing the campain and, wait? Whats warzone, oh yeah i had no idea what it was and as soon as i got on it i immediately thought of call of duty fortnite... Everybody started playing call of duty differently, instead of being a tactical sniper with gernades and smokes or a rifleman running at every corner blasting somebody, now everybody was sliding and using werid weapon builds that random virgin youtubers told them to, the hacking got worse and the skins eh.... It took me a while to get used to as time went on i got older and didnt have enough time for cod and i see a new black ops coming out, cold war... I knew it was a reboot from the start and had a great feeling about zombies, when i got it i was amazed as much as the new mw and the zombies was ok and the campaign had a non confusing and great plot, the multiplayer was great, cod was back! And then skip to a few months later, another ww2 game? And its even 100x more woke than ww2? I had a bad feeling just from the teasers and leaks, i thought this would kill cod for sure and i didnt get it to be honest, i went to my friends house one day as he had made the mistake of buying it and i kid you not he was literally raging at the game when i got to his door and he wasnt even in a game he was at the menu 😂 well i played one mission and i said "yeah let's not play this" and he immediately put on fifa. Well after that disaster they introduced mw2 and after the disaster that was vanguard i was hyped as i loved the og mw2 and mw as my brother introduced me to those games late and told me storys of him playing, i loved both their campaigns. Mw2 came and for a bit i was underwhelmed but i did accept the fact that cod had just struggled so i gave it a chance. All of a sudden im playing the multiplayer and no slide canceling, im in heaven, the campaign was good but a bit rushed and weird, it didnt feel like a mw2 campaign it felt like a continuation of mw2019, we were half the time in mexico? Yay my home country but it felt weird, i wasnt in the snow in russia or fighting russians in Washington dc i was in mexico crossing the border 😂 and in the middle east again? I got used to the asthetic and after 3 months i stopped playing and started playing other games waiting for the next cod. Then we get the reveal for mw3.... I was hyped as the og mw3 was my first cod and i was hyped to play as yuri, frost, agent harkov, and price. But i didn't get to. I was very underwhelmed it was just a dlc, it didn't even feel like mw3 it was literally the continuation of mw2. The campaign was just 8 spec ops missions long... The story didn't go anywhere and they killed soap in the worst way and early too? Like isnt gaz and ghost supposed to die first? But to be fair i dont want gaz to die, hes the most likeable, ghost is just emo and i dont really care about him, his mask is so fucking weird, and soap is alright but they treat him like the little brother, why is ghost a higher rank than soap? Why is he treating him like a private when soap and price were the vets of the group back then, if anything soap has been through much more than ghost. Why isnt the story going anywhere? At that point they should just put all of that in spec ops and honest redo the campaign, i dont care if it takes another year just redo it, need i say its worse than vanguard and a sequel? Mw4??? And the multiplayer was reycled as well and the zombies, eh tbh i haven't even booted anything up after playing the campaign and multiplayer. I hate going into spec ops mode just to continue the story i just wish they could make a big campaign and make spec ops another survival mode, well thats all i gotta say, not like anybody might see this i just had to get this shit out of my mind, ima go back to enjoying the video.
Hearing your in depth thoughts of this franchise all while being the same age as me. Wow. I couldn’t have put it more beautifully than you did. Amazing video and damn that walk down memory lane was amazing.
I'm an old lady and don't know anything about video games. The TH-cam algorithm sent this to me in the middle of the night. It was so well done I stayed up and watched the whole thing. You are a very talented young man.
This comment made me very happy. I hope you are doing well, and you are not secretly a 25 year old due trolling me. Welcome to this weird side of TH-cam!
@@DavidOZ Her name is Patricia. She ain’t trolling you brotha
GAMER GRANNY
u. r. silly!
But you know what an algorithm is, so you are tech savvy. Keep it up!
In WAW the Japanese were designed to stand out in gameplay compared to the Nazis. The Japanese ambush, suprise, and rush you. While the Germans hold up with machine gun nests and are generally more cautious.
The Japanese in WW2 used a variety of tactics to surprise their enemy, faking their deaths, using traps, and hiding in the grass to name a few. It helps immerse the player and reinforces the sporadic and violent chaos of war.
The game also uses heavy violence and gore to try to put yourself in the boots of an average soldier, war is cruel, war is messy, and it represents the morale-killing events soldiers mighty experienced in the battles portrayed.
That’s what makes WaW stand out. Personally I wasn’t initially thrilled with the return to the WW2 setting since by that point it was done to death. But WaW really was the perfect last hurrah for the plethora of WW2 shooters we saw in the 2000s. Video games aren’t realistic by any means, but WaW is probably the closest we can get to a game that truly depicts the horrors of war and not just about going from point A to point B and mowing down everyone in sight.
That's not part of the critic about racism
@@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009 What part was it then?
@@charlesrump5771 How It shows them in the same vein as the stereotypical cartoons from the era
See letters to iwo jima to see how the japanese army really was
It was not a bunch of Savage suicidal kamikazes that loved blood and torture
@@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009 I personally don’t find anything racist about how the Japanese army was represented in WaW. I don’t see any stereotypical things that could even be considered racist from the game. The Japanese army during WW2 was savage in its guerrilla warfare tactics and suicide was very much so a big part of the Japanese army during WW2. If you’ve actually seen Letters from Iwo Jima or Flags of our Fathers you’d know this. They literally commit suicide at different points in Letters from Iwo Jima. From pulling grenade pins and holding them against their own chests to gutting themselves with their own swords. All the way to a last stand suicidal run at the enemy with all hope pretty much lost in the battle. Shit they even were willing to kill their own soldiers for not willing to fight or not willing to do certain things. All things the real Japanese army did during WW2. To not represent this would be historically inaccurate & to represent it is in no way racist. Just because it’s an uncomfortable truth and people may not like it or the way it portrays a certain cultures army at the specific time period, doesn’t at all make it racist when it is in fact historically accurate. Not only that but to add on top that not only the Japanese but both them and the German armies were pumped up with amphetamines also doesn’t help with the fact that both armies were savage. Drug use especially of amphetamines accumulated with sleeping barely at all on top of many other side effects of drug use just plain and simple help make a person more mean and act unlike a rational minded person does. Just in their own ways if that’s possible for some people to distinguish. People may not like how it’s represented, but it’s not a historically inaccurate depiction. This isn’t to say every single one of the Japanese imperial armies militants were psychotic savages, and that they didn’t have their own personal lives behind / before the war and had loved ones they cared for as the Americans did. But the fighting style of the Japanese army was just plain and simple a savage kind of fighting style with suicidal tendencies. It’s just the truth plain and simple, not racist.
This is what I love about TH-cam man. We dont need to wait on a documentary company to produce a professional video on a particular subject we are passionate about, we can literally do it ourselves. Great video man, excellent analysis!
This ones really nice, thank you. Glad you liked it.
My Grandad and I loved playing the old COD games back in the day, he was the one who got me into video games,unfortunately he passed away a month ago at 87 years old.His last COD game he played was WWII. Before he passed, he managed to complete Sniper Elite V, even while dealing with his arthritis! Even though I helped him in some sections, but most of the time it was all him. He’s a true gamer till the end and he was one of the bestest friends I have ever known. RIP Grandad, we will meet again, and I hope you are up there playing every video game in heaven, save me a seat, I will be there in maybe 70 years, if I’m lucky.
im sorry for your loss
I didn't expect to get hit in the feels in this comment section...blind sided by tears acheivement unlocked
Aww, buddy...... that's so sad. I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm sure you'll do your grandad proud! Whatever you choose to do!
That's badass 💪🏻
On WaW, the savagery of the Japanese is no myth. Historically, the accounts of war crimes on their part are numerous and cruel at best; making it also more scary the fact that they didn't need an ideology like Nazism to achieve it. So the "lack of nuance" is just how the Americans at the time viewed the Japanese, which would not have been strangers to the violence displayed in the game. The campaign of WaW makes the Pacific theater quite harsh and difficult, without any meaning unlike the Eastern theater, but it only serves the purpose of giving us the mindset of the soldiers of the time, which was an extremely violent war on strange islands far from home for some greater geopolitical goal.
They did have an ideology behind their insanity . They were racial supremacists like the nazis. Read An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus. Their empire produced that document. Even now significant amounts of Japanese people think they are biologically superior to the rest of asia.
I didn't like that part of his commentary. Typical American 2024 everything is racist perspective
1:14:27
It’s been 12 years and I just now found out Reznov will acknowledge you no scoping enemies
😂
Dude i LITERALLY search "Call of duty saga: analisys" I found THIS video that was uploaded 10 hours ago. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks.
Saaame , i was so happy when i found it
Ask and ye shall receive
You lucky
I’m living in your walls I’m living in your walls
This one is great and if you like it, Noah Gervais also did a really awesome long form analysis
The effort on this video is unreal mate hundred percent deserves a like
💯💯💯💯
"War is antiethical to fun"
That one German guy who wrote Storm of steal: "Huh?"
Seriously tho - i loved this video. It's a pefeect mix of learning and good ol' Nostalgia
I absolutely love the snarky quote on the pseudo-philosophical comments made by Fallout.
"War ABSOLUTELY changes" lmao, spot on.
This is honestly still a channel that aged well. There was passion in each topic, and you never sold out. I have upmost respect for you to this day.
Fact
We completely went wrong way 😂
What happened as of late? Is there drama i should know 💀
@@LEM620 same
@@Ixle589what do you mean??
I always love bringing up this anecdote: I spent so much time playing MW2 with my best friend in high school, sometimes we'd take turns playing multiplayer so we wouldn't have to use split screen. One day while visiting, he had apparently gotten MW3 and was playing it the whole time I was hanging out and I didn't even notice it was a different game until he pointed it out. I figured if I can't even tell the difference between MW2 and MW3 then there's no reason for me to buy it.
That’s wild those games are so different
Hello everyone. Thanks for watching. This video is a bit older now but I was clicking on it to check in on some comments and got like 10 mid roll ads in the first hour. I think that is absurd, but YT studio isn't letting me change it. I turned off ads for the video but some people are still getting them. I hate the idea of YT deciding where my ads go in this 3 1/2 hour long video so I just turned em off. If you still get them, let me know. Anyway, if you see this, love you bye
To be honest, with imaginable time and effort this video must have taken to produce, your probably one of the few creators I would want to see ads in, as while I can't contribute to patreon at the moment (hopefully some time in the future) ads make me feel like I'm still showing appreciation for this awesome content.
@@jens9284
Same, make your money dude!
I got ads
Put ads on it man. I’m happy to have them if it supports you. Patreon?
What an awesome video, I really think you have the ability to make good retrospectives
I really appreciate the fact that you cover the classic Call of Duty games as well unlike most people who pretends anything before COD4 isn't important or good. COD2 to this day is my favorite in the franchise simply because it doesn't have an actual story, it just wants to show interactive authentic WW2 battles. And it does a fantastic job in terms of immersion and making you feel like an average joe especially in Veteran difficulty.
The Libyan tank missions on Veteran stand out to me as one of the best moments in a video game. CoD2 was really ahead of its time
Cod 2 also has better sound design and reload animations that the newest cpds out.
@@MidniteMeatBus It absolutely does not. MW2019 and MW2 2020 are the best of the best when it comes to attention to detail with the weapons like the reload animations. In fact, every call of duty from WaW and before do not even accurately reload bolt action rifles, they shove an entire 5 round clip into the gun even if you still have 4 rounds left.
@@bucky_deer i think he meant cod WW2
The fact that there are still people playing the original cod games' multi-player is truly impressive
@Helicida that's what impresses me
Search and destroy, bolt actions only
I can still get lobbies in bo2 and ghosts
the interesting part of WaW is that the representation of the japanese soldiers wasn’t too different from how it was, if anything it was toned down. the japanese soldiers were ruthless, booby trapping bodies, faking surrender, charging at enemies knowing they will die. the whole “honor” thing we see as the stereotype was kind of true, it’s insane that people don’t know how terrible the pacific front was. the japanese and american soldiers hated each other almost equally, neither side showing any mercy for the other
Exactly, WaW arguably did the image of the Imperial Japanese Army a favor by not touching on things like the Nanjing Massacre or the experiments of Unit 731. If all I knew about the IJA came from WaW then I would be inclined to think of them as more or less a standard military that emphasized guerilla tactics.
This is a great video and fantastic analysis, but I think with WaW it just seemed like you were LOOKING for “problematic” things, its not racism just by depicting a country’s military correctly
The truth was that yes, Japanese forces were that brutal in combat, if not even worse than depicted in WaW
I thought he was spot on with his analysis apart from when it came to WaW, which is near and dear to my heart. Even so, he had some good points.
Having seen the immense amount of effort you have put into this video, I’m happy to say that this video was an absolute pleasure to watch from start to finish. I particularly enjoyed hearing about your own past experiences with the CoD games as an analysis on its own own and of this length can become quite sterile and soulless. The part about the silent MW2 lobbies hit me right in the feels :(
A video about CoD zombies would be super cool! I’m looking forward to see what you come out with next!
Matt couldn’t agree more my man. When he was talking about launching the game for the last time not knowing it, or saying “see you tomorrow guys” for the last time I got really sad at that part
I love New Modern Warfare. I love shipment. And I love this video.
We disagree on ALOT, but this was an amazing watch and incredibly put together you did an amazing job.
I don't see WaW's potrayal of Americans hate against the Japanese as racism. It's more so that these are battle-hardened Marines who've spent years fighting the Japanese, whom many that fearlessly fought like animals in WW2, have grown to hate them. I mean, Miller witnessed a Marine POW have his eye burned out with a cigarette, countless traps that ambushed Marines, and both Roebuck and Polonsky witnessed their Sergeant Sullivan, who they looked up to, stabbed right in front of them. The opposite is actually in the Soviet campaign. Sure, the massacre at Stalingrad was a good reason to hate the Nazis but every Soviet throughout the campaign shows absolute brutality and hatred against the Germans. The Soviets will burn surrendering Germans and shoot a POW begging for mercy. The only exception is Chernov who is mocked for his pacifist nature by Reznov who tries to teach him how to be a soldier. What's more interesting is the character Chernov
He doesn't understand war like everyone else and represents the silent minority in the Red Army. He refers to shooting a POW as 'murder' and not war, horrified by the rockets tearing Berlin apart, sees no point in killing dying Germans. He even records your actions and his thoughts on you will be revealed at the end varying on whether you are a hero or not after he dies.
The purpose of the American campaign was actually a new style of gameplay. The Japanese fight WAY different than the Germans in WaW. The Germans fight more generic like in previous titles, but the Japanese are more aggressive and determined. They will often ambush with traps, play dead, hide in the grass, Kamikaze, and at the end of the game, they will lure Roebuck or Polonsky into a surrender trap just to blow themselves up (which justifies their hatred, had they shot them they would still be alive) followed by 3 waves of Banzai chargers Treyarch wanted the player to relive the horrors of the Pacific Theatre, which was way more intense and bloody than the European and African theatres and were more dangerous than German soldiers.
The Americans and Russians openly hate their enemies and is the only game in the series to portray this level of sadism and hatred. You literally called it racist because the Japanese are the only minority faction in the game.
THIS, the guy clearly hasn't seen a documental or movie about the Pacific, his pretenciousness ruined the video for me (especially since WaW is my favorite cod) and I'm only here looking for comments like yours.
I didn’t get how he was really harsh on world at war for being too violent and “racist” even though it fairly accurately portrayed the Pacific and eastern fronts, and then turned around and liked WW2s story. WW2 was totally wokewashed with its “War is an adventure” storytelling and perversion of the Germans; black soldiers, no swastikas anywhere, “axis” faction etc
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
I have to say you totally underrated Big Red One
It focused on small scale tasks in bigger picture feel. It also took people to areas and places no game period has taken people since. Italy and Vichy France got tons of coverage content and really made you feel like your as close to WW2 perspective as one can be post WW2. And the player plot was amazing in it. Tons of armor and planes too. It deserved tons more recognition.
This video hacked the algorithm cuz I fall asleep with a different video every night but wake up to this lol
Same bro and its usually a retrospective cod video like 3 hours or something
1:13:44 The voice clip you're talking about is probably the one where he screams "Sanitäter!". The dude is calling out for a medic, basically. My most memorable sound across the early games is that one weird death noise that first appeared in CoD2 and found its way to CoD4.
I remeber the voice line form cod 2 :TIME TO GO GET MOVING and when i heard it in cod 4 i got flashbacks
Zee enemy is building a bridge!!!?!???
@@Tourettes-syndrome-gaming stop the enemy from building the bridge!!!
Great video though I vehemently disagree with the pseudo dislike for WaW. I too have played cod since the very first one and responded inversely to the video creator here I guess. I found the new tone, gore etc... supremely refreshing and much more realistic than previously takes on the setting. BTW people hate to admit this but it’s true, why do stereotypes crop up in society? Because to an uncomfortable degree they tend to have truth too them so I just don’t understand how cod was racist here. The Japanese really did have scary and fanatical devotion to the emperor to the point where nearly every last soldier and civilian had to be ruthlessly cut down in places like Saipan and Okinawa. The Japanese really DID lose previously unheard of in amounts of men (to the western mind) In obviously futile bonsai charges and Kamikaze attacks. The Japanese were absolutely known and if anything more likely than not to commit horrific war crimes on civilians, soldiers and prisoners of war. Such as cutting off certain private quarters of dead diggers (Australian’s) as well as G.I’s and shoving them in their dead mouths so as to enrage their comrades when they were found. I won’t even mention the unforgivable acts the Japanese committed toward Chinese civilians. There’s many theories as to why they were like this, the most likely being high commands way of putting the Japanese public/military in a place where they understood no surrender as the only choice given they had brutalized their opponents so much that no mercy would be given. Nonetheless though my point is that these are stereotypes because that’s how the pacific war was. If anything I thought waw shy’d away from the climate of absolute racial hatred both the Americans and Japanese had for each other at that time. It’s why the pacific war isn’t as glorified today as the European theater. The brutality and cruelty was much more akin to the Eastern front or a pseudo Vietnam rather than the image of the allies morally liberating a French village.
My thoughts exactly. He seemed to think it was racist simply bc they were brutal and not awesome super civilized fighters. In reality they were brutal, they find with their hands if they had to.
They even fake surrendered,just like in the last mission, they went full warcrime mode.
Hell, if the japanese and russian were racially stereotypical, one could say the mw saga has an imperialistic pov with the stereotypical russian bad american/english good, but i loved both waw and mw(more waw than mw) you can even say waw is the best HD ww2 shooter and given how vanguard looks right now, seems like it will stay that way for some time
Historically everything you said is correct.
Seriously this guy breathes soy.
My thoughts exactly, in ww2 especially the Japanese were unrelenting, and on the hatred aspect I always think about a scene in The Pacific, where Sledge and his crew walk past some troops who surrendered and (I don't remember completely) but he gets freaking livid and almost beats him to death.
"A mascot that neither Treyarch or Sledgehammer managed to recreate."
*Looks at Mason, Woods and Menendez*
Don't forget Redznov and all 4 of the classic Zombies Crew
MASON! WHAT ARE THE NUMBERS?!?!
yeah this guy is straight tripping with some of his points, black ops 1 is by far the best campaign. plus it has many iconic characters. and don’t even get me started on the zombies crew
I just finished this video, took me probably 6 sessions because of my time commitments. Just wanted to say a massive thank you for creating this and providing an eloquent run through of the series. Hearing about all of them back to back really put into context how far the series has come
This took me down the rabbit hole of my childhood. Literally this unlocks me memories of staying up late middle school playing zombies with the bros. Planning how we would reach the next round. Man this is timeless. Even looking at missions i forgot i even played !! Absolutely speechless…thank you man !!
The little German I do know comes from my time with COD, and as I kid I specifically looked up the translation just to understand the intentions of enemy AI since they actively call out their tactics or where they spot opposing soldiers to know if they're targeting the PC. There are a couple specific recognizeable German VA lines that come from COD 2 and were repurposed in both COD 3 and World at War which is why they're recognizeable. The "Sanitater" ("Sally tater") callout is the German soldiers calling for a medic, and is triggered as a reaction voice line whenever a nearby fellow German soldier gets killed which is precisely why you hear it so many times what with you mowing through so many Wehrmacht troops in the game.
1:23:00 It's really refreshing to see someone play zombies without using the tried and true high round strategies, or having someone run in circles for hours. Just sitting in a hallway crouched shooting zombies with an MP40 is really what zombies has always been.
You mean that's what it's always been for you!!?
It's all about the Barry Sanders strategy. That's all you need to know.
"Always been" dude. Camping was phased out the same game it was INTRODUCED IN. Stop acting like you were even alive during that time lmao.
It was always about the STG or bar if it was on the map. I always use to camp in the hallway on verruct or the cat walk on Der Reise when my 5 year old brother and his freinds would play but then when it al fell apart I would take off running and then it would just be me running, dipping, dodging, grabbing whatever gun I ran passed and killing the last zombie by jug or the box. I miss the camping glitches, not for camping but for taking 5 or ten to get get some food, smoke stuff then getting right back to it.
As a long time hard core zombies fan. It is very interesting to listen to how a more casual fan sees the maps. Love the video. You are an amazing video essay creator. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to watch more.
21:54 I was literally just born while you were 1v1ing, the joy in your voice recollecting ab this specifically is heartwarming for me. In 20 years I hope I find myself reminiscing with my friends of 1v1ing in Fortnite’s “playground” before creative. Crazy how video games can create some of your most valuable memories, almost brings a tear to my eye. I lost likely won’t be able to watch all of this video but I salute you sir and can only hope I can have such a work ethic as yourself in the future🙌🦾
I graduated in 2013 as well and that summer is so special to me as well because of bo2 and mlg events. I absolutely fell in love with comp COD that year and I wish i could relive it again to some extent. It was just amazing.
I've watched this and your borderlands retrospect back to back. It is 3am now. I regret nothing.
3:56am at the end. This was really enjoyable. I hope you read this, you are an actual legend.
Just wanted to say, thank you for providing your insight. I haven't finished the video yet (halfway) but the fact you are willing to work this hard and put together a video of this quality and insight is incredible. Thanks for sharing this. I hope this video provides you a lot of reward for your hard work! Cheers from Canada bud 🍁
This took a tonn of effort. I feel like I'm reliving my late middleschool years and my high-school years. World at war and black ops 2 are still my all time favorites of the series. World At War for campaign, and BO2 for multiplayer. Those were the glory days for sure
Bo1 multi 🤓
Bo2 for multi all the way. The last time I enjoyed knife only on blackops was 2
I nearly lost my mind when I heard your opinion about the black ops campaigns but you explained it in a very well way and the overall video was just very quality that I can’t be hating
After watching the zombies analysis first and then watching this it's actually very interesting to see your opinions on each title's version of the mode changed based on how you experienced the node i.e. casual vs veteran. Anyway, great content!
I haven’t finished this video yet, but I’m happy to FINALLY see CoD3 get some love. That’s my nostalgic, favorite old CoD that I’d go back to if I could.
I would like to add that COD ghosts is underrated.
I just bought a used copy of COD 3 for my PS3, as kid i just played it on the good ol' Ps2, but my dream was play it on PS3 because of the new graphics and shiet, and here we are, finally.
No regrets.
I’d like to say that COD3 and COD2: the big red 1 are insanely underrated at least from a story perspective and music was fantastic.
Hell I’d go and say they should’ve been made into movies
The music in the first 3 are all bangers
Anything before COD4 is underrated.
@@fredster594 oh definitely lol
COD2 wasn't underrated, it was, maybe, one of the best games back in the day. PC Gaming wasn't mainstream at that time.
@@Kreia. he said Call of Duty 2 big Red One
Really enjoyed this video, i disagree with what you said about mw3 and mw 2019 but still really loved this , i listened to it as a podcast
yeah i disagreed with his mw2019 review aswell, like ITS A VIDEO GAME
I disagree with his 2019, ghost, and black ops
I bought the original call of duty for PC like you did my friend. Right when it came out. I was a clan leader (Red Army)…the nostalgia from this video is actually brining a tear to my eye. I remember getting on the landline phone with my friends/ clan members before getting xfire. It was a simpler happier time. Thanks so much for this video man!
I woke up this morning with this video playing on my tv. I was upto ghosts and after listening to you talk, i took it back to the start and watched the whole thing. Great video
Between you and NCG I'll never lay in bed unable to sleep again. Sometimes I am unable to turn my brain off at days end. These videos keep my mind active enough that I forget to worry or process life as I slip into the game world while being no stress which allows me to sleep. Thanks man.
Dude, its just a video lol
@@PiperAtTheGatesOfYourMom it's not video. It's truth!!!! For the motherland
You are going to have an astounding impact on the future of commentary and Retrospective Analyses on TH-cam. This video is phenomenal and you are going places.
Thank you so much. This is such high praise! I will take it. Hope to see you around in the future.
Great video. One nitpick: 46:20 5 shermans = 1 tiger is a common myth that is not really true. Sure, Tiger Tanks were kinda strong, but not that strong, and the Shermans were much better than usually given credit for.
Not to mention the Tiger was really expensive and unreliable.
And there was generally 5 Sherman’s not because they were required to take on a Tiger, but because that’s just what American forces showed up with. Even just two Sherman’s could do alright against one Tiger.
As a Zombies heavy COD player, this really gives me a perspective on multiplayer and the history of older COD games. Great video all in all! (Watched it in one sitting while playing Cold War)
I watched this video last night. The way you described fighting outside of the weight class has been weighing heavy on my mind. It makes me think about how the first Gulf War, Hussein dug so many trenches out. He assumed that if he deployed and fought in trenches, the the west would adhere to his terms. The opposite happened. The US deployed tanks and other heavy armor suited to be bulldozers and plowed through. They just covered the trenches, no one knows how many Iraqis were buried, reports of those in the trenches would shoot the underside of the heavy armor, many soldiers surrender en masse. When asked about it, General Schwarzkopf said something to the effect of “sure a lot of Iraqis died, but think about how many Americans would’ve died if we went in and fought close quarters with bayonets”.
“War never changes” but it does. And if one side doesn’t/isn’t able to adapt to modern times, then it will just be a massive bloodshed. All war boils down to is the same thing. Both sides fighting to defend their own ideologies. There is no right or wrong, just different perspectives of life itself. Yet we have a world police that says “we are going to come into your country and make you believe in what we do or else”.
Sounds awesome I love the Military Industrial Complex. Heil Raytheon
It's war no fight is fair want a fair fight don't start a damn war its that simple
You have the best videos essays on game theory, The most in depth ones. great work,keep it up.
Love the fact you take time and put 100% effort in your videos.
Stopping my life for three hour’s then
In the same boat as well
Loop
“It fails to make any point about us imperialism”
My brother in arms, these games are made to sell the Military Industrial Complex, and it worked. GOD BLESS LOCKHEED MARTIN, GENERAL DYNAMICS, NORTHROP GRUMMAN, BOEING, AND THE REST OF OUR FINE ARMS COMPANYS.
AMEN!!!!
Found this video years late obviously but yeah, I played Big Red One and the first two cods on our old dell home desktop online. loved it as a kid
They arent my favorite games, but they are some of the most fun experiences ive ever had. I will never forget sleeping over a friends house and playing MW2 all night and hitting a crazy cross the map throwing knife kill. Thank you for this video!
Racism in world at war? Have you actually studied at length the actions of the Japanese imperial army during the 30s and 40s?
@ mark Felton make an excellent video on why they were as brutal as they were. I highly reccomend it
Man I'm a sucker for documentary type videos like these. Keep going at it, this community needs more people like you to give depth to the amazing design of our various beloved series.
I know this is an old video but the part where you're hearing "Sally tater" in WaW you're hearing "Sanitäter!" Which would be the soldiers screaming out for a medic
David, I have to admit that your view on COD4: Modern Warfare is a very interesting one and one I somewhat thought about when playing the game and I did think about it deeply on one occasion. This video of yours is really well done and I’m happy I found this. Thank you.
the zombies retrospective sounds great! this video was incredible enough
«I don’t expect anyone to watch this video all at once»
Me knowing dam well I'm going to watch the whole thing in a row: Yeah, that would be crazy.
Sorry to nitpick but at 2:02:05 it's not a soviet base but a either a russian or Azerbaijani base. It's not set in the cold war.
I was laughing when in W@W you were talking about the Germans yelling ‘sally tator’. I remember that and ‘indie kong’. It has space in my brain from playing so much cod 3 and W@W growing up. They use those sound bites 1 more time in the Nova 6 missions in black ops. They got their money’s worth in those.
I hope you’re doing well my man. I started playing cod when I was 10 years old playing World at War (cod5). I’ve fallen deeply in love with the franchise for well over half of my life. Thank you so much for this video. This has been such an amazing trip down memory lane. Thank you for all of your effort.
I like games like soma; things that make you think and question everything. It does in its own way, but I’ve never been able to play it effectively enough to experience the story myself. This is a wonderful analysis. Many thanks for the time and effort you’ve put into this.
The tactics of the Japanese in WAW are not stereotypes…that is absolutely verifiably how they fought, to pretend that it’s because it’s “racist” is asinine.
WOW! This retrospective is so well done, I'm just speechless! Well done sir 👏💯
I have to disagree quite strongly on your take on WaW with the apparent stereotypes and racism on the pacific theater campaign.
It's depicted pretty much exactly how the Japanese fought during that time using guerilla tactics like foxholes, hiding in trees and grass, ambushing and kamikaze bombing (black cats mission). All of that stuff legitimately happened and the fact that it's touchy subject with bad history does not make it a racist stereotype. I can't imagine what you'd think if they portrayed the parts when they used bamboo torture on pow's, experimented on victims of ALL ages, and even cannibalize people.
Know you history before making claims.
It's literally racist of him to try to whitewash Japanese brutality as if it never happened. The Japanese killed millions of Chinese people in the name of racism and brutality. They literally allied with Nazi Germany for christ sake.
War is horrible, and not nice.
100% agree with this statement x3
"War is antiethical to fun"
That one German guy who wrote Storm of steal: "Huh?"
Keep up the great work! I am one of those Ghost fans, it was my first Cod game. So many great memories of playing it with my brother. I also am glad to see love for Infinite Warfare, I love the single player!
Ghosts may not have my favorite singleplayer, but it's the best multiplayer in Call Of Duty for me personally. Weapons sound nice and heavy, character customization is not deep but simple enough to have unique looking characters without them looking like clowns or a 5 year olds crayon drawing -_-
My K/D is the best here in all the games at 2.137, game modes are fun, Blitz and Cranked were hilarious, maps... apart from Stone Heaven they're actually decent.
The best part is on PS3 the servers carry around 2000 people on average a day, enough to play most game modes. No matter what time you're always going to find TDM, Domination, Drop Zone and Gun Game, well Extinction too if we're talking outside of regular MP.
The sliding mechanic was introduced here, cover cleaning, camo unlocks are kinda lame though.
Overal it's a nice package
I thought IW campaign was solid. Especially the aerial battles. They were really well done.
I always look forward to these longform videos of yours, and I like many others very much appreciate the work you put into them. Keep it up, David!
I'm really disappointed what they did with the post helicopter crash scene (the playground scene) in the Modern Warfare remaster. In the original it was such a realistic, subtle and effective scene. The remaster just went over the top and hamed it really up, and kinda ruined it. Made me really appreciate the restraint by the original developers.
I also really enjoyed the Black Ops 3 campaign, but I completely agree with your critique of it. I thought the gameplay was fun and the individual levels had really cool presentation and set pieces. But as a whole it kinda fell short. I haven't played any of the games that came out after Black Ops prior to playing BO3, so it was a pleasant surprise to see so many changes: more fluid and vertical movement, it felt less linear, all the different skills (of whom I used maybe one regularly), they let me pilot a vehicle etc. But at its core it still was a Call of Duty game and I still spent a lot of time hiding behind cover, popping out to kill a few enemies, go back to cover. Rinse and repeat until the next checkpoint is reached. The game also felt really unfocused and confused in its story and themes. It tried to be so many things at once. For a good portion it tried really hard to be Deus Ex with the themes of transhumanism, private military, near future cyberpunk-esque world. And that bossfight in the server room. It was dripping Deus Ex juice. But as someone who doesn't consider themselves as a CoD-fan, I remember that game as a positive experience.
On a side note: I only recently discovered your channel via your GTA 5 video and was a bit unsure wether you were still active, but still left a sub. Your videos are ridiculously good, definitely in the higher tiers of long-form gaming videos. I hope more people discover your content, you really deserve it.
9:57 Me and my brother used to do this too
The guy in the car we used to call him "Gora wala dost"
The white friend (we're Indians so yk)
Cpt Folly if I'm correct
And we would redo the levels if we got them killed
Once I remember we were just so pissed at an level and just couldn't do it
And one of our guys died
And we just decided to go on
For a 9yr old I felt bad
And as an 17yr old now
I'm glad i had that experience
(COD1 was proudly my first game ever)
Your description of cod 4 is on the money , everything you say about it brings me to a specific moment I remember from the game. By far my most fave.
You: no on will watch this in one sitting.
Me, working night shifts: watches entire video
👍
Same👍🏻
I miss the old, simple ps2 cod games.
This is one of the best video essays I've ever seen and the fact that I sat over three hours through it is testament to that. Quite a spectacular feat actually haha. Well done, certainly earned that sub 👍
I can’t believe I’m only seeing this video now but I cannot put into words how much I appreciate this video and genuinely agreed with the majority of the points you made. I believe every single die hard call of duty player needs to watch this.
Watching pieces of my childhood...I feel so old now. All of these games we play about war took on new meaning when I joined the military. I remember when the devs used to tell you in front of the camera and not online that these projects were out of love and reverence for these conflicts and those who make that ultimate sacrifice. I miss games being able to make me stop and really think sometimes. Now it's all fever dreams of bright colors, explosions and numbers... it puts things in a whole new light when you have to learn about things like war, standing in their boots. I hope they wake up and find passion in the craft again. I would be lying if I said that the games, movies, shows, history, and art I interacted with as a child...didn't help durect my will to do something larger than myself. Glad you made this video.
Watched it in one sitting :) loved the vid
This was an amazing video essay, while I disagree with many of your points about the gameplay in modern warfare, I can respect your opinion and the stuff you said about the political background of the game made a lot of sense. Good work!
Says the black ops campaign sucked. Instant dislike.
BO3 custom zombies NEEDS more recognition , its so underrated and casuals dont know about it .
I haven't played a single CoD game in my life but I watched the entire thing and 9 of your other videos as well, seriously. You deserve a couple more zeros in your subscriber count, some of the best content I've come across
Great video David! Would love to see you take on the Mafia series, although the games weren't perfect they had undeniable potential & many amazing aspects that make them very enjoyable to play.
If it’s a game series your interested in analysing, I’d love to hear what you have to say about ‘The Last of Us’.
What parts of the internet are you on that people know Black Ops II for the aesthetic and not for the story. People only know Black Ops 2 for the story.
Yeah really, it sounds like he played the game in one quick sitting and
Hopped straight to multiplayer so his judgement is questionable
the tankie part
Watched the whole video, and it seems like this guy doesn’t appreciate games at all. I’d absolutely love to see him make a game.
As an older very casual player (I’ve only completed a couple campaigns, and prestige’d once with my lil bro’s help)- I really enjoyed this video. It reminds me of my dad making my brother write a little history report before allowing him to play the latest cod. Thank you for your work and perspective.
An analysis About Cod Zombies would be amazing totally agree with you about Bo3 zombies
You lost me at racism. 01:17:50 This is not racism. There's a difference between exagerateing stereotypes for entertainment purposes (pretty accurate stereotypes at that) and making sweeping generalisations with malicious intent.
The orginal MW1 definitely is a Super Soldier Power Fantasy, but I don't see how its a critique of the West as a global police force or wants to get you thinking about the power difference in modern warfare. Sure the Marine-Invasion backfires due to bad Intel, but at the end of the game it's a highly-advanced western special unit that saves the world from an even bigger nuclear catastrophe, so the game ultimately answers your question "Does our military and technology superiority mean that we should be the worlds police force?" with "If you know what you are doing, yes!". If the original Modern Warfare games had a central theme or message it would be about the general threat posed by non-state actors, but not every game has to have a deeper meaning. I don't think for example that the conspiracy element of Black Ops 1 was ever meant to be understood literally or as a way to question history. Instead it simply served the purpose of dramatizing the plot.
Amazing work you've done here. Mindblowing. This is an anthem to CoD.
The evolution from cod 3 to cod 4 was insane
This was very interesting. My first COD game was Ghosts and I loved it but I wonder how I would have felt if I had begun the series earlier.
Like the rest of us did. Ghosts was pretty poorly executed and was filled with reused assets.
Same but I didn’t have Xbox live at the time so I just played against bots
Same and I always defend ghosts when people talk about them, there are flaws of course but it really wasn't as bad as people say it is
@@tristanivanusa2810 ghosts have the hardest bots to play against in all call of duties
The Japanese in WaW are completely accurate. In fact their barbarity shown in game is only scratching the surface of reality. They were little better than the Nazis and even worse in a lot of ways. Certainly not “racism”. To say it’s racist to portray the imperial Japanese in a bad light is like saying it’s racist against Germans to portray Nazis in a bad light
Watch Mark Felton’s video on Japanese brutality in WW2. This game only scratches the surface of reality. And maybe consider remaking this video without the baseless racism accusations.
What so you mean Japanese stereotypes?
The Japanese were trained to be a dogmatic, fearless military force.
If you're implying the Kamakazis or Bonzi charges are stereotypical, they ain't. The Japanese used them because they were successful as a demoralizing factor.
They even went as far as to make Kamakazis of various types. From speedboats, to manned torpedoes, to frogmen (conceptually).
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
He's a liberal what do you expect? so of course he thinks that the way the Japanese are portrayed in the world at war is racist.
At 21:24 out of everything… that voice crack is the saving grace of this video
The alliteration at 11:10 went CRAZY
The best cods imo are the original 3. The attention to detail is immense. I went to normandy a few years back and i was able to give myself a tour of pointe du hoc because all of the bunkers were in the exact same location as they were in cod2. It was actually quite surreal walking down bunker steps thinking "ive cleared this bunker"
That's super easy to nail down.
Realism is overrated.
@@cezarstefanseghjucansays someone I’m sure has never come close to working on a game at this scale
@@lt_johnmcclane You can make a photorealistic game and run with it.
You have to strike a balance and not make a FPS unplayable because you want the genuine experience.
My guy wrote a 3 hour poem.
The wall i hit was mw3 2023 ngl i havent played anything other than the mw3 2011 though i have played remastereds and have purchased the old cods i cant relate to the ogs very much, if anything i played the end of the golden age of cod, i played mw3 2011 and ghosts and as i grew up with those as a teen i did not care what people said about those games, i always defended them and said they were the best and i think that the more you play and grew up with a game it becomes a part of you, ill admit i want a ghosts 2 to see what happened to logan and i think that mw3 2011 was a great ending to the series. Now as time went on the cods kept getting worse but as i saw black ops 3 and infinite warfare i got interested, to be fair i only likes black ops 3 because of the multiplayer and zombies and well same for infinite warfare except i also liked the campaign slightly, well moving on to ww2 that was a great cod, the loot boxes and some elements were bad but the campaign truly showed you what ww2 was, the zombies was alright and so was the multiplayer but the campaign really carried the game and it really showed what brotherhood was. And then we got to black ops 4, im not gonna lie i think this killed cod, for maybe a year as it was the most empty cod, with no campaign.... Well not that i would be interested due to black ops 3s campaign being a bit bad. Then mw2019 came out and i still had hope that this was the reboot and revival, i loved the multiplayer and the immersion, the campaigns brilliant originality instead of being another remaster, the spec ops continuing the campain and, wait? Whats warzone, oh yeah i had no idea what it was and as soon as i got on it i immediately thought of call of duty fortnite... Everybody started playing call of duty differently, instead of being a tactical sniper with gernades and smokes or a rifleman running at every corner blasting somebody, now everybody was sliding and using werid weapon builds that random virgin youtubers told them to, the hacking got worse and the skins eh.... It took me a while to get used to as time went on i got older and didnt have enough time for cod and i see a new black ops coming out, cold war... I knew it was a reboot from the start and had a great feeling about zombies, when i got it i was amazed as much as the new mw and the zombies was ok and the campaign had a non confusing and great plot, the multiplayer was great, cod was back! And then skip to a few months later, another ww2 game? And its even 100x more woke than ww2? I had a bad feeling just from the teasers and leaks, i thought this would kill cod for sure and i didnt get it to be honest, i went to my friends house one day as he had made the mistake of buying it and i kid you not he was literally raging at the game when i got to his door and he wasnt even in a game he was at the menu 😂 well i played one mission and i said "yeah let's not play this" and he immediately put on fifa. Well after that disaster they introduced mw2 and after the disaster that was vanguard i was hyped as i loved the og mw2 and mw as my brother introduced me to those games late and told me storys of him playing, i loved both their campaigns. Mw2 came and for a bit i was underwhelmed but i did accept the fact that cod had just struggled so i gave it a chance. All of a sudden im playing the multiplayer and no slide canceling, im in heaven, the campaign was good but a bit rushed and weird, it didnt feel like a mw2 campaign it felt like a continuation of mw2019, we were half the time in mexico? Yay my home country but it felt weird, i wasnt in the snow in russia or fighting russians in Washington dc i was in mexico crossing the border 😂 and in the middle east again? I got used to the asthetic and after 3 months i stopped playing and started playing other games waiting for the next cod. Then we get the reveal for mw3.... I was hyped as the og mw3 was my first cod and i was hyped to play as yuri, frost, agent harkov, and price. But i didn't get to. I was very underwhelmed it was just a dlc, it didn't even feel like mw3 it was literally the continuation of mw2. The campaign was just 8 spec ops missions long... The story didn't go anywhere and they killed soap in the worst way and early too? Like isnt gaz and ghost supposed to die first? But to be fair i dont want gaz to die, hes the most likeable, ghost is just emo and i dont really care about him, his mask is so fucking weird, and soap is alright but they treat him like the little brother, why is ghost a higher rank than soap? Why is he treating him like a private when soap and price were the vets of the group back then, if anything soap has been through much more than ghost. Why isnt the story going anywhere? At that point they should just put all of that in spec ops and honest redo the campaign, i dont care if it takes another year just redo it, need i say its worse than vanguard and a sequel? Mw4??? And the multiplayer was reycled as well and the zombies, eh tbh i haven't even booted anything up after playing the campaign and multiplayer. I hate going into spec ops mode just to continue the story i just wish they could make a big campaign and make spec ops another survival mode, well thats all i gotta say, not like anybody might see this i just had to get this shit out of my mind, ima go back to enjoying the video.
Hearing your in depth thoughts of this franchise all while being the same age as me. Wow. I couldn’t have put it more beautifully than you did. Amazing video and damn that walk down memory lane was amazing.