Ranking Call of Duty Campaigns from Worst to Best
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0:00 Intro
0:46 Opera GX
02:34 Black Ops 3
07:35 Vanguard
14:26 Ghosts
17:34 Advanced Warfare
21:36 Call of Duty 3
24:08 WW2
26:15 Infinite Warfare
29:53 Modern Warfare 3
32:44 Call of Duty 1
35:54 MW1 & 2 (Remakes)
38:44 World at War
41:29 Cold War
45:03 Black Ops 2
47:14 Black Ops 1
51:07 Call of Duty 2
56:44 Modern Warfare 1
1:02:06 Modern Warfare 2
1:06:07 Outro - เกม
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MW2 better be #1
It's owned by a Chinese firm. That should tell you all you need to know.
@@Snack-Sized-Femboy how fun sized we talking 👀👀
i use opera gx. :)
Apart from me personally preferring Black Ops 3 with all its jank over Vanguard, I think the list is spot on. Thank you, G-man!
The stretch from MW, WaW, MW2, BO, MW3 and BO2 was the absolute golden age of cod it is actually impressive they managed all of that in 6 years back to back
thats what make it so suck..
prime years for online gaming imo
its surprising how Treyarch went from almost perfection since WaW only to end up with Bo3 just a few years later
@@sesaarya8043 5 yo gamer moment
@@wakeupzeke Easily I jumped on in earlier 09 before Mw2 playing those previous 2. It was amazing time to be a gamer. After BO2 online gaming pretty much died for me. Atleast shooters that is. Halo 3 and MW2 online were peak
Yeah as a Nicaraguan we actually have a rage strong enough to withstand any caliber below 5.56 and 12 gauge. That menendez sequence in black ops 2 is realistic.
"You smell like pee"
I'm glad to see such faithful representation!
Umm actually 12 gauge is equivalent to more than 50 caliber 🤓
@@iwishuponafish1274 Check your walls!
7.62?
The most underrated feature of Black Ops 2 was being able to customize your loadout before each mission. Nothing was more frustrating than finding a good weapon/attachment mix and then losing it when you finished. Being able to go in with a preferred set of gear was a massive factor in my enjoyment.
Yeah that was amazing. We don’t get that enjoyment anymore nowadays 😩
Yeah and as well as bo3 campaign, you can say what you want but at least the gameplay was pretty fun
Good point. Also in Infinite Warfare. So nice to have.
Also bo3 did this too but, we don’t talk about its campaign 🙄
bo3 and IW had this feature too
"Cold War is a short campaign"
MW3 2023: hello
Cold war is fs short, but it was very effective and actually pretty great.
I can proudly accept the campaign to be something directly related to BO 1 and BO 2.
Hope the next BO, which might be connected to BO 2, won't mess it up, especially in the campaign.
I specifically love the Nuke scene in MW1. I love how you don't just immediately cut away to Soap or someone else after the nuke blows up (like you do in MW2 after the Airport massacre) to keep the plot progressing, instead you switch back to Jackson and watch him die helplessly. Really shows how brutal war is and that even the 'Good Guys' aren't immune to loss and suffering
And at that time, it was completely out of left field. No other games had a moment like that in weight and intensity.
For me it was dark water for mw2 2022 such a masterpiece for a mission
I tried to see how far I could get on that level and it was pretty varrying when u fell. sometimes I couldnt make it out of the chopper
What I liked about that moment is what happened right before it. A chopper gets shot down and you're tasked with saving the pilot from incoming enemies. One last heroic act... that ultimately proved absolutely pointless as the nuke just obliterates you. And not only that, if I remember correctly, THIS is actually the reason you weren't far enough away from the blast. I'm pretty sure one of the dudes who were with you on that mission, SSGT Griggs, survives only because he was on a different chopper. I might have to go back and check for myself.
Did you know that the mission after Shock and Awe was supposed to be different? Apparently the characterwould have survived the nuke and had to drive to a different area (possibly for extraction) while getting out of a vehicle and shooting down bad guys.
For me, World At War campaign hit the hardest, especially the storming Berlin mission.
It would be far better paced if not the absolutely atrocious grenade spam on the stairs of Reichstag. On veteran its one of the most unfair, broken and unplayable experiences I ever had and I finished Halo2 on legendary!
I think MW1 and WaW are the last of the ones that didn't really rely on spectacle. MW2 really didn't deserve its place in this list.
Blops 1 was great don't get me wrong, but WaW and MW1 really relished in the horrors of war. The dehumanisation of the AC130 mission, the "Fuck you, good guys don't always win" of getting nuked, the literal beheadings in the background of WaW's loading screens... followed by your own war crimes as you go along.
They're truly memorable campaigns as they try and hit in the core feels and emotions. Spectacle is only spectacle once. "NO ONE WILL EVER READ THIS" -> "Someone should read this..." is far more impactful than a minigun turret scene. No Russian is shock value... once. That most people just shoot in as they're bored...
Nah man for me it was when you had to choose who to save against the Japanese. Those missions were so fucking great i still haven’t had a better opening then either the integration against the Japanese or Stalingrad start
World at war is super overrated, its not that good
I wish WW2 would have lived up to WAW but it unfortunately did not. 😢
WAW should have been closer to the first. It truly showed the horror of war and the meaning of your life meaning almost nothing in the war. Truly scary.
absolute criminal that cold war was put over WAW
@@TheScarletBoi Cold War def wasn’t a horrible game compared to most the recent ones however if you compare to the classics it lacks behind
@@Rufusdadoofus cold War was extremely boring, and the endings were not interesting in the slightest.
@@TheScarletBoiyeah honestly all the new cod campaigns imo aren’t very good with mw2019 being the best of the bunch mostly because of the new gameplay stuff and the grittiness. Waw should be higher
@@TheScarletBoiAgreed
Playing the World at War, Black Ops 1, and Black Ops 2 trilogy back to back is one of the most epic experiences in gaming. You start with WW2 and see a bit of almost every major US war afterwards up until a futuristic Judgement Day.
The MW Trilogy and WaW/Black Ops 1 & 2 is hard to compare, they both equally amazing back to back experiences for different reasons, I prefer the WaW/Black Ops Trilogy better, but I can understand someone preferring the MW Trilogy.
Nah, BO2 sucks
@@MugenHeadNinjaI love both but ooooooooo MW series for me is just too good. COD4->MW2->MW3 especially back in the day for me was just perfect. Soap and Price are unbeatable characters imo
@jumpy8502 I'm sorry but. I don't think any Call of Duty character comes close to Gary Oldman as Reznov. He has such a huge presence whenever you're on a mission with him and his story in Black Ops is one of the best twists of all time in anything.
MW1, WaW, MW2, and Black Ops.
That was a GREAT 4 year stretch of awesome campaigns!
I'd include MW3 as well, for me it's from Black Ops 2 where cod started having hits and misses instead of one hit right after another.
You forgot MW3 and BO2
MW3 and BO2
Those were in my opinion the best ones :)
@@wlot28 BO2 has the most unique campaign, a mix of old and new at the time. MW3 wasn’t bad but it was the point that franchise fatigue was starting to form.
That street clearing mission in MW1 with the RPGs is actually one of my favorites in the series. No spec ops bs, no sneaky tactics, just US marines and the War Pig plowing through Assad's elite guard.
Yep I love how much cod 4 pulls from the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent battles in Baghdad and Fallujah. Makes the game feel much more grounded.
Couldn’t agree more. A classic CoD mission
I liked the usmc part of the campaign coz it just felt like a modern versionof the old ww2 campaigns
@@nickysimi9866 the tension when your friendly chopper goes down and you stop to save Viper is heart pounding, the music and everything had my blood pumping.
Just curious, is it CoD Modern Warfare: 4 or CoD 4: Modern Warfare
Whiskey Hotel from MW2 was something else. I'm not even American but holy shit, easily one of the best campaign missions CoD has ever had. The music, the atmosphere, the combat, the White House, the helicopter ride and EMP from the mission before, pushing your way towards the roof before airstrike hits... I mean Jesus, it still gives me goosebumps after 14 years.
I really liked the American Missions of MW2. I went to D.C after beating the campaign, it was a trip experience.
Ok but you're forgetting the real highlight... DEFENDING THE BURGER TOWN 🗣️🗣️🗣️
@@AnotherroomRAMIREZ! DESTROY THAT CHOPPER WITH A PISTOL!
I think the music helps with that feeling, hanz zimmer cooked
My favorite is exodus
And the first mission
Infinite Warfare is soooo underrated and my personal favorite. Being a military guy myself, I really appreciated the military lingo and customs, they NAILED it in this game. Also the way the game seamlessly transitions to each level with no loading screens, awesome story, great campaign missions, zero G fights, custom load outs, and the specialist difficulty changing the whole game entirely. the whole thing was just awesome
Too right mate. It’s criminally underrated.
Just released in a very bad time and it's suck it got that reputation at the time
I think world at war has to the darkest campaign out of all of them.
World at war isn't about heros and villains. It's about war.
It shows you how dark WW2 is and the atrocities committed from both sides.
Pretty ironic considering it might be the only morally justifiable major war in the past 100 years
@Scholar_of_The_First_Sneed You sound like a Very aggressive Nazi bro
The allies are forced to commit attrocities when you know your enemy would do the same x10. It's win or die, everything is acceptable
@@amazin7006 as Chernov puts it "this is not war, this is murder". The russians where not forced to shoot surrendering germans or rape every german woman they saw. They did it because of hate and hate alone. Don't get me wrong I would probably see the germans as dogs needing to be put down aswell if I was in their shoes
Yeah we need a call of duty that shows war as not glorified but real gritty and ugly. Maybe a soldier with PTSD or something.
Im always surprised so many people hated infinite warfares campaign. The friendly robot was pretty cliche but being able to select your loadout and go on like 20 side missions was the closest thing we had to black ops 2s campaign.
This part, wish the custom campaign loadouts and actual reasons to replay missions came back in full force. The reason most stopped giving a fuck about campaigns was their lack of creativity and love in my opinion anyways
forever tainted by its disastrous reveal which broke the youtube dislike record for gaming content, unfortunately.
@@DreBourbeauThis reason exactly. If Infinite Warfare was the first exo suit game that came out instead of Advanced Warfare, it would have a much more positive reception.
People forget that Infinite warfare has much better pacing and over all characters than most of other CoD games.
Peace to the Fallen
You should have included the spin offs. The story in “Big red one” was up there with modern warfare and black ops, was genuinely like playing through a war movie
That was my favorite campaign as a kid. They managed to fit in different environments and follow the same squad the whole time and you really cared for the characters. It hit hard as a kid when Vic and Hawkins got killed and by the end of the game Kelly ends up being head of a squad with hardly anyone left from when things first started.
Was finest hour good I just bought it recently and yet to play
Games being like movies doesn't automatically make them good, you mind as well set the controller down and let the game play itself. I played Big Red One at it's released and like it, but it's among one of the most rough going back to. The cast and characters are cool and all, but the rest of the game struggles to hold up and looking back wasn't even that notable or impressive for its time. Games like Brothers in Arms did the finer balance of gameplay, theme, and the playing with a squad better than Big Red One did.
@@queuedjar4578 I never said games being like movies automatically makes them good. Also if you read my comment properly I'm talking about the story not the gameplay. A large part of what makes a campaign good is the storyline, so I was merely pointing out that it was worth including in the video for this aspect. Its also pointless talking about brothers in arms, the video is purely about COD campaigns, how good other games are is completely irrelevant to this subject. If it was a video about best single player FPS games then most COD games would struggle to make a top 10 list.
30:56 I for one actually loved the MW3 campaign. It has uphill battle against it following from MW1 and MW2 and then WaW ans Black Ops 1 but it did its job. That Soap death scene in Prague is still one of the best and saddest moments in video game history.
Really loved those TF141 mission through Africa and India
MW3 is underrated for absolutely no reason. Not sure if people didn't like it because it was too similar to MW2 but it's continuing and ending the story, so it was bound to be similar. Also what's wrong with being similar to the best campaign in CoD?
"You are my brother, Ethan".
I personally loved the Infinite Warfare campaign. The ending scene when Ethan and our protagonist were alone over the orbit and the suit was leaking. Very touching and emotional scene, I would not expect it from CoD. "I think I am scared, Sir".
The scene your talking about wasn't the end it was near the end so yeah
infinite warfare campaign was somewhat fun but i wouldnt say i was very emotionally attached to anyone
Call of Duty in its prime was something else. Every gamer would be playing the campaign/multiplayer at the same time. It was quite the event
My Xbox friends list was full of friends playing CoD when it was in its prime. It was such an amazing time.
It really was. Literally everyone would be playing when the new cod dropped. Now the series has kind of gone down the toilet. The campaign can still be good sometimes but the multiplayer is insufferable with sbmm, monetization, a loss for what cod is, etc. It's just turned into another modern sweat fest rather then the fun casual game it once was. Cod mobile is better than the main titles coming out rn because it's more faithful to the golden years of cod. Zombies is basically unplayable at this point. COD fell off once 8th gen started.
Always preferred Battlefield over COD.
@@NorthKoreaUncovered
Same here.
Unfortunately Battlefield as we knew it no longer exists, a weird hero shooter has taken its place.
Ghost will always have a special place in my heart because i used to have a German shepherd named Riley so when i played through the campaign for the first time it was an awesome surprise to see the dog’s name.
This man said IW was one of the few games where you can cook grenades? From what I remember, you can cook grenades since at least COD4.
So glad someone noticed that. Big red flag lmfao, I can't watch past that now
I know right. I can only assume he meant special grenades. You can definitely cook frags in other games.
@@xXxKAMIKAZExXx I never played IW so I didn't think of that being what he could've meant. Almost definitely cause otherwise that'd be insane
Ghosts had a really cool part with the underwater mission where a ship floats over and you have to hide under cover to avoid the sonar pulses and they can actually kill you if you don't. Can't think of any other game that shows how insanely loud an active sonar ping is outside of a sub/ship, shit can pretty much liquefy your insides
NOW THATS COOL. Haven’t actually played a cod since WAW. I love that that’s in a game.
It can kill or permanently cripple sea creatures. Whales hate it so much that they sometimes intentionally beach themselves to escape. So yeah. Intense.
Nah ghost was one of my favourite games I’ve ever played tbf
@@Sapiention yeah I can't believe he put it so low. I know it got hate originally because it was cross gen and had bad mp, but infinity made a fantastic campaign that could have done a decent duology or trilogy.
Ghosts deserved a sequel, imo it shouldn’t have done so poorly. The extinction mode was basically a copy of zombies that infinity ward tried to replicate. It wasn’t my favorite, whatsoever.
Glad to see Call of Duty 2 so high. It honestly deserves it. People don't talk about it much but it is by far the biggest and most open and most repayable of all CoD campaigns
Hell yeah man, I still remember playing through that whole thing with my uncle backseating. Had to let him play through the tank missions because I couldn't figure it out. Good memories
time to spam my gameplay 🧐
COD2 was a great sequel!! Such an important game in the franchise because it gave the Xbox 360 the true Call of Duty experience on console. I will say that playing the campaign on Hardened and especially Veteran does feel exhausting from the relentless action and deafening sound design. Other than that, COD2 is a must play
Agree, I completed it at least once in each difficulty settings, and then added some mods and replay again.
I still go back and play it today along with the other WW2 COD games (except Vanguard- that game is horrible) and it’s easily the best WW2 COD game and probably my second favourite campaign overall. It’s brilliant and the graphics still hold up well today.
"I'm not gonna include the game with the best story, Mark Hamill and the Band of Brothers cast"
bruh what ?
Finally someone points that out
The console game Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
@@zallen1707 First COD game I ever played
@sponcthespork9352 which technically was treyarchs first call of duty. Not call of duty 3.
@@zallen1707that was the first fps game I ever played
I'll never forget playing MW3's campaign for the first time.
After so many years I still remember almost all the missions.
I know advanced warfare wasn't amazing overall but I genuinely liked playing it.
Plus the homing grenade pretty much became the most addicting weapon I ever used, I couldn't stop throwing them.
The great thing about the 2009 mw2 campaign is that every mission feels so unique from another with a disctinct colour pallete for each level, one minute your fighting in the blue and white snowy missions then a bright colourful favela, then a gloomy orange in D.C really makes you feel likeyour fighting the russians across lots of america
This is what MW3 missed. The game just had no creative artstyle accompanied by already familiar gameplay. Still had its set pieces tho
@@playerslayer6923 I think the only things memorable to me were the Eiffel Tower scene and Wall Street, but the colors and artstyle were just bland. I hope if we get a MW3 campaign remake they can do it justice
Big Red One will always have a hidden gem of a campaign to me.
Extremely historically accurate down to building locations too
You just really feel with your squad through that game. RIP Vic, Hawk and Brooklyn.
I always loved Big Red One's campaign, partly because it was my first ever Call of Duty game and partly because it had a great cast of characters. I also liked how you fought the Italians, the Germans, and even the Vichy French. Not often you run into the Italians or the French in FPS WWII games.
I still say World at War is the best campaign, but Big Red One is a close second.
First Cod game for me, Which got me hooked onto the series. Fondly recall the opening lines in the North Africa mission where I think Brooklyn says "Look at all this sand guys, looks like we're not in New Jersey no more" ,always thought it was amusing.
@@ackbarfan5556 hawk was just sent home he survived the war. "Brooklyn and Kelly later assure Schmitty that Hawk is going to be alright, however, Hawk is never seen again in the game, it is because he was sent home. Delaney (now a captain) later takes his place as the leader of the squad."
Infinite Warfare, is honestly probably up there with mw2 and bo2 (my favs) with the way you singlehandedly turn the tide of a war, and the sacrifice at the end, by far one of my all time favorite CoD games.
So many missions from black ops 1 and 2 stand out for me. Vorkuta. Kowloon. Rebirth Island. Karma and The luxury casino. The aircraft carrier. Panama. I still get chills remembering them.
Also, if starfield’s combat is anything like IW I’ll be very happy. Such an underrated game.
Fun Fact about CoD 2’s training mission: if you either refuse or take too long to complete the tasks, the Commissar will order troopers to kill you for disobeying. One of my friends originally thought it only happened if you kept chucking potatoes at him 😂
Friendly Fire Will Not Be Tolerated!
That sounds pretty realistic, the Soviet officers were very oppressive at that time and had orders to shoot any hesitant soldiers.
That sounds pretty exagerated, the Soviet officials were not that brutal with regular soldiers and even with prisoner soldiers the most common thing was just arresting them, not killing them.
@@PozafriaBruh, have you looked up how bad Stalin was and what happened to fleeing soldiers?
@@markjin08 I do have, Stalin was not the brute Nazi and Western propaganda make him look like, and Soviet soldiers who retreated were not killed on sight. You wanna know who did were extremely brutal? Look at the Wehrmacht.
Unrelated question but from where are you?
I've always liked WaW's campaign. I like it being split between the Eastern Front and the Pacific.
Same, it so good that it gave me nightmares
For real, Most ww2 game just focus on the eastern front, it was nice to see the Pacific side of the war.
@Falconhawk3784 to be fair, the Eastern Front theatre could have been considered a major conflict in of itself given the size of armies involved and ramifications it caused for most of Europe after 1945.
Had Hitler listened to his advisors and not declared war on the US, we probably wouldn't have seen the Americans in a positive light and Europe may have simply accepted Communism as the new status quo.
@@Falconhawk3784 actually it’s the western front they focus on it’s amazing that it wasn’t even in the game
All I can think about is that Big Red One is missing from this list. I still remember the advertising commercials at the time, back in an era where most of us still watched TV - literally a month or two before TH-cam was born. the dude saying "big red one, call of duty 2 - big red one" is burned into my mind
The first CoD I played was CoD 2 and I was around 6 or 7 when I tried it. I remember when my dad played it and I just sat next to him watching what he was doing. It is still my favorite part of the series.
Playing as a regular soldier in MW1, MW2 and MW2019 were my favourite parts. Large scale battles, tanks, artillery, nukes, and the player right in the middle of it. It's like back when we played 'soldier' as kids.
Also: Ramirez! Do everything!
Too bad Big Red One isn't getting ranked with the rest; it actually had an excellent campaign. The cast was excellent and really grew on you as the story and war progressed. One of the best CODs imo
Hell yeah.
Big Red One is so underrated
My first COD game. What a fantastic introduction to the series for me
Replying to add: The weapon sounds are honestly perfect; some of the best I've heard of the era. They seem to transcend the hardware the game ran on
Big red what?
The first modern warfare will always be my favorite. That game really took the franchise to a new level and I’ll never forget doing play throughs of the campaign with my dad.
I understand not rating Big Red One, but it holds a special place in my heart because my grandfather bought it for me on PS2 and it’s the first call of duty I ever played. I even played through the story with him as a kid. It really is a special memory
Infinite Warfare is actually my favorite CoD campaign. The end credits where you could hear little messages from the people that died really hit me.
Mars Eternum and Peace to the Fallen are both eerie parallels of one another. The title of Infinite Warfare was horribly descriptive.
10/10
@@ibelieveingaming3562 The campaign was also very fun. Side missions on various planets was very cool, the elimination system of Targets you have to take out. I only wish that there were more missions on earth. I want to see the tech that IW's world would have and just enjoy the set pieces.
And the fact how everyone dies just hits. Like one pilot who ran out of payload realized he needed to destroy the last air defense so he sacrificed himself and suicide crashed into it and I was like NOOOOOOO. Literally the Halo Reach of Cod
F to pay respects
@@ibelieveingaming3562 Peace to the Fallen 😔
Infinite Warfare has got to be one of my (guilty) favorite campaigns. It's just so unique in the way it's put together and the characters are pretty memorable for the small roles they were given. The tactical language and liveliness of the environments made space CoD feel believable, and the scenery was just something to marvel at.
So many interesting aspects like the space combat and jackal combat, as well as the hacking mechanic being used in the finale was the icing on the cake. The overall plot wasn't the most special but it was enough to lead the player through the fantastic set pieces.
Also, I got far enough to unlock Specialist mode and it's actually a blast. Manually healing using stims, realistic body damage, and replacing your helmet so you don't die to headshots and space. Getting your fucking GUN shot out of your HANDS and having to pick it up midair or when it drops to the ground has got to be one of the best ways to integrate a "quick time event". Nothing like "realistic" from BO3 and I actually was thinking of strats and managing my equipment. It's so worth doing, and was far more interesting/less bullshit compared to veteran mode in most CoDs since they scale down the AI of the enemies to hardened difficulty.
The fact he never mentioned specialist mode saddens me it made CoD a entirely different game.
for real man iw campaign is so underrated
No need to feel guilty. The IW campaign rips
Doest feel like a cod game either lol. The sections where you fly around the ship reminds me of halo reach.
My first ever was COD 3. I had it on the Nintendo WII. So you can imagine the silly manual tasks to do combat and plant bombs. Felt like a full workout. My personal favourite regardless
As an older brother, I can confirm that threatening our younger siblings will turn us into death machines.
Ok, but seriously that sequence was probably the most in sync I’ve ever felt with a character in a video game.
I still remember playing a demo of Call of Duty 2 on an Xbox 360 kiosk back in 2005 and my grandfather was absolutely blown away by how realistic it looked (his older brothers had fought in WWII and even landed in Normandy on D-Day). Looking back it really was revolutionary for the time and it was cool being able to experience it with him, he even really liked that King Kong game too.
same dude....i played that one mission for HOURS
every corner.... when i got the full game that mission was a breese lol
Something about the way COD2 looks i absolutely love, so sharp and clean, a big leap ahead of the first game but before heaps of post processing came along and started making things feel heavy and blurry, it gave them the room to push texture detail and the density of particle effects, loved it.
I wouldn't mind at all if new games had the graphical fidelity of 2004 - 2006 era of games. Especially if they instead focused on the mechanics, playability, map design, plot, side activities and such.
Thank you for this video, it made me realize that I was missing some great campaigns.
It's a shame you didn't rate Big Red One, as it had one of the best campaigns in the series. I understand why though, but it's definitely worth a look at in the future, maybe one day you could do a review of Finest Hour, the WaW PS2 version that had a completely different campaign and Big Red 1.
yo dude, just want to thank you for doing this video. the campaigns in this series are so underrated. so appreciate you taking the time to talk about them and hopefully inspire more people to finish them.
Long live classic Call of Duty. COD2's reagan Point Du Hoc speech moves me to tears every time, and there's something still unmatched by Call of Duty 4's cold, indifferent vibe.
CoD2 will forever be one of my favorite games. A young kid who loved WW2 was able to experience a “closer” look. Seeing what cod became was crazy, but after playing all those games, cod 2 just played better. Could be hard nostalgia but it’s not just a story it’s history
4:38 This is not the protagonist having a PTSD episode, this is actually the BO3 protagonists death. They did not survive the brutal injuries from the first mission, they passed away from complications while testing the DNI. The rest of the game from this point forward is memories from the perspective of Taylor, hence why the player refer to themselves as him in the very last scene of the campaign. There's a whole layer of the BO3 campaign you didn't dive into
Because it's boring and stupid.
@@Gggmanlives imagine ranking the BO3 campaign below Vanguard, Ghosts, and Advanced Warfare because you were too dumb to understand the plot
@@bigboi8369 I mean, even then, the story isnt anything great, just unnecessarily confusing.
As in, to get all the details, you can’t even just do repeat plays of the campaign. You literally have to slow down the mission log at the start of every mission, read a book and such.
I think what they were trying to do was cool, but wasn’t executed well really.
And like I said, once you got through it all, the story still wasn’t anything better than the other for campaigns, and ended up worse because it wasn’t understandable
The problem with it was it was executed so poorly. If 95%+ of the people who play the campaign didn’t know this fact because they hid it in a wall of text then thats the writers fault. Also even though that bit is cool the rest of the campaign is still pretty bad
@@bigboi8369 I know you had steam coming out of your ears when you typed this.
When it comes to Advanced Warfare, the phrase "to each thier own." comes into play here. Cause I personally loved it. The cutscenes were some of the most beautifully made I've seen in a CoD game, even up to this day I think they hold up really well. Not to mention in terms of gameplay, the ability to cycle grenade types was something that was also fun to mess around with. Is just my personal opinion though, and I can legit see why people don't like the campaign much. I'm not gonna pretend it was a picture perfect story, just because I love it doesn't mean I'm gonna fanboi defend it from top to bottom lol.
Yeah but almost objectively nowhere near bottom 5, it being his opinion doesn't really save said opinion from being called kinda shitty
Same I loved advanced warfare
This. I liked Advanced Warfare - glad I wasn't the only one. The scenes were pretty nice - not to mention we got a great meme out of it. The story, while predictable, is quite interesting because how it will play out. Also, it holds up pretty well, with what happened with Wagner group
I loved the idea of having weapon variants and skins from crates earned by playing the multiplayer, if only that wasn't ruined by microtransactions. My friends and I would play nonstop and show off our new gear to each other. I was genuinely excited when I got crates after good games. The game was fun and innovative by trying a new spin on future warfare
So glad you've given praise to infinite warfare's campaign. It was one of my favorite cod campaigns on just how unique it felt (for me at least)
On a side note, waiting for that metal slug series ranking, you've done it with house of the dead, time crisis. So I'm hoping metal slug will be given some.much needed love.
Amazing video. The danger zone and Liam Neeson jump cut jokes were great
I really appreciate you taking time to make this. I first started playing CoD when World At War came out, and absolutely loved it. The Modern Warfare games are still my favorite in the franchise. I haven't been keeping up with the newer ones because it seems all the hype and reviews are on the various multiplayer aspects, and almost nothing on campaign, which is what I play these for. I'm probably gonna get Infinite Warfare now that I know what its story is.
One thing about Ghosts though is like...I feel like the overall plot was never explained well to begin with in the game, and to me, it seems like that was the start of the franchise falling off a bit with respect to ideas. It felt like yes, I gotta kill the bad guys, but...why exactly?
Same here, though I still prefer World At War and the first 2 Black Ops games over the MW games. Recently went back to Platinum World At War and Black Ops 1. I felt the same about Ghosts and Advanced Warfare. Those were the last I bought for ages. I fell into the hype with Cold War and I won't do that again. With the followup being a disaster, Vanguard, I don't plan on buying a future one unless it is a remake of World At War, BO, or BO2. Ghosts and AW were nonsensical and extremely easy on Veteran. P
I replayed cod 2 campaign recently and i was very surprised at how fun it was. Enjoyed how there wasn’t any flashy or over dramatic missions, it felt like you were and actual soldier just doing their mission
Spot on, which is why CoD 1 and 2 are still my favourites, limitations developers had at the time ironically made the games felt alive and grounded, helping them feel authentic and realistic.
COD4s main menu theme will always live in my head rent free. Few games that i always have fond memories of. The unofficial modded servers made my childhood. Also the early iterations of montage plays. The Remington man...
Great video, and I wouldn’t argue much on the ranking.
Also, you’re hilarious, I’m still laughing at the Devito cut away, “I just started blasting!”😂🤣
With MW1 and 2 we got the introduction and proper usage of object based audio versus the old channel based standard. If you watch the Dolby Atmos renderer while playing either game there’s arguably some of the most object intensive scenes which sound incredible on a 7.2.4 setup and even better on a 9.2.6 although the wides and top middles are just matrixing audio as there’s no native audio being sent to either of those channel sets. They’re largely one of the best gaming usages of a native Dolby Atmos track to this date. I spent 8 years in the 82nd 1st/504th and 3 years with Triple Canopy and at reference level both games have a commendable level of the sensory overload that is a small unit gunfight.
Should have included the United Offensive campaign along with the COD 1 entry, would have been interesting.
Everyone forgets about United Offensive, it's also the only one not on consoles.
Definitely one of the best COD campaigns.
It delivered as an expansion to COD1. However, I will say that some missions were trial and error, which made it frustrating to play. Other than that, it gave you more of COD1
I just played United Offensive last week and I gotta say, not a fan I prefer the original COD1 over it, its ok as far as CoD games go but I think I would rate it at just below CoD1.
Though the bomber mission was cool, quite unique among turret sequences.
Fun fact, that expansion was developed by Grey Matter Interactive, the studio that made Return to Castle Wolfenstein. In fact, it was so well-done that when the time came to start the annual CoD cycle we know today, Grey Matter was merged into Treyarch, and they eventually just kinda permeated the entire studio.
That's right, what CoD fans know as 'Treyarch' is in fact mostly the same team that worked on United Offensive *and* a Wolfenstein game. The Treyarch that made Spider-Man 2... kinda doesn't really exist anymore.
Ghosts was underrated and I’m still waiting for a sequel 🥲
Oh man, I remember vividly coming back home from school trip in 2008 to hear my older bro saying he got MW installed on our desktop, one of my favorite gaming memory really.. That first mission felt so damn cool being set in a modern day after COD 1 and COD 2, modern guns and attachments and the story too. So good man, still, to this day.
Really wanted to see Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, even though it wasnt made by one of the main CoD developers or publishers, it's still a very memorable campaign to me. That mission where you are in a bomber fending it off from BF-109s and FW-190s was one of the coolest and most unique CoD missions ever
Oh yeah, CoD1, United Offensive, CoD2, Big Red One. Honestly my favorites in the series.
I fondly remember Big Red One for something it was rather unique in: Fighting more than the Germans. One of the few games Vichy French and Italians show up.
Can confirm that Big Red One is genuinely a gem in the rough, has MANY voice actors from BoB and the character building is fantastic, I bought a used 360 just for THAT game specifically
Big red one had an amazing campaign and it played really well on the game cube
I played that mission over and over and over when I was a kid. It's so good
My favouritte campaign was CoD 2. It was one of the few campaigns that allowed you to go on your own pace. Plus as a huge history buff, it's so fun training in Russia just to then get assaulted by an entire Werhmacht division. A mission i'll never forget is that mission in France where you have to clear a bunch of houses while avoiding a Tiger I tank, absolutely awesome
Thank you for tha video, this was exceptionally made and I can tell you have a real passion for this franchise. Black Ops 1/2 are my favorites
As a whole, Black Ops 1 was just a masterpiece and it was the perfect Cod. While BO2 was a great continuation and a great wrap up for the Bo1 story, I still prefer the first one in many aspects. Fighting in Vietnam, Russian Strongholds, a crazy Soviet experimental island, and even playing a fantastic WW2 level, etc, it had everything. I loved that the protagonist could talk and it made the story more enjoyable rather than the typical Jason Voorhees silent protagonist.
As a kid, the D-Day mission was so cool. The whole aspect was awesome and made for an epic setting. Then a few years ago I found my old copy of Call of Duty 2 and went back to play it. It was so fun and brought back nostalgia. But as I played the missions and got to the D-Day one, I got emotional by the end of that section. I understood that war wasn't some action movie or something cool, but awful. You always see the photos of the victories and the celebration, but when you think about the men that had to do it, it hits hard.
For me. Infinite Warfare campaign will always be the most underrated Call of Duty campaign of all time, I was genuinely surprised and amazed on how awesome it was and how fucking amazing it was having Ethan being a mixture of a bro and comedian. The multiplayer deserved its hate but the campaign deserved nothing but love, it was incredible.
From what I remember hearing is that BO3 was supposed to be an open world campaign, but because of time constraints they had to scrap that idea last minute and create the campaign we got. Also the story is confusing, but once you realize that you the main character are dying after the first mission and are reliving John Taylor’s memories about chasing down Dylan Stone it becomes a little bit better, but it’s still not a good campaign.
The actual story about CORVUS sifting through the soldiers' memories and then being stopped by Taylor and Kane is better than what you think happened on first playthrough, but it's presented way too obuscurely, the devs tried to be too clever for the game's own good, unfortunately.
@@thomasjoychild4962 yeah. I feel like what they tried to do was cool and especially unique for a cod game, but just came out poorly.
Even when the whole story is put together, it’s not really a great story
bo3 is despicably slept on cuz although the storytelling and plot are kinda fumbled, the psychedelic experience, visuals, themes, and sheer mindfuck are really profound. Feel like you're right about once you realize the plot and it's an amazing campaign just not the best.
It’s been a couple months so it’s time to binge watch gman videos
I’ll need to try out more of these games. I don’t know why, but I kinda left the series behind after Black Ops 2. This amazing video just renewed my interest!
Largely agree with that list, although I personally think that the excellent single player expansion for Call of Duty - United Offensive, deserves it's own entry place, because it instantly elevated the already solid formula from the original main game.
That expansion was awesome!
I want to see Gman rank every Halo campaign from Worst to Best.
Basically 343 bad, Bungie good.
@@WH250398 Reach is fucking terrible and the only people who say otherwise are swat & infection players
Edit: I know the campaign was good but the core gameplay was beyond butchered in every way
@@McGeezle Reach had a great campaign tho
@@brandontran4180 one of the best imo. Recently went back to play the MCC again.
@@fabledgames9695 They nailed on the emotions, environmental storytelling, action set pieces, soundtrack and gameplay. The sword elites were cheap deaths on higher difficulties but other than that, great campaign
I never have played Vanguard, but your description makes it sound super dope, not gonna lie
MW2 - best missions
Bo1 - best written/story
Cod4 - All ghillied up
That’s the top 3
Finest Hour and especially Big Red One are actually fantastic despite their hardware limitations. BRO especially is one of my favorite CoD campaigns. I see it as most comparable to CoD 3, and of the two, I actually like Big Red one better
Haven't played it in like 14 years, I remember enjoying it. Ps2 hasn't worked in a long time but I could get a xbox copy and put it in the 360 (backwards compatible) and give it another go. I do have finest hour, Haven't played it yet though (large amount of games to play). Kind of wish he covered them as hardly anyone knows or talks about them.
Absolutely love BRO. Was the first COD to focus on a single unit the whole game, and I really felt like I grew to like and care for my squad. Absolutely loved the banter between Denley and Brooklyn before Hawkins would shut them up, it was great
Agreed - I remember Big Red One being fantastic. I'd love to know if it still holds up today.
th-cam.com/video/hSJcONc90V8/w-d-xo.html - finest hour
Big Red One was my first CoD, made my childhood, then 08 rolled around with WaW campaign & zombies, and it's history from there.
The Call of Duty 2 campaign is the reason why I fell in love with the franchise, and it still occupies a special place in my heart. To be honest, the campaigns are the main reason why I play CoD games to this day.
It's also nice to see how solid the core gameplay of the Call of Duty franchise is. Most CoD campaigns have aged really well.
I agree COD 2 IS SOOO Good, played it on PC, Mac and Xbox 360 ,it’s a shame it won’t run on steam deck tho
IW campaign remains criminally underrated. I would definitely put it over the newer modern warfares, and Cold War
Ive just finished repaying the MW campaigns on veteran, this video has made me want to play most of them again
The only thing I had against the Cold War campaign was that it was so damn short!
Agreed. It's better than the recent Modern Warfare games. I just wish it wasn't so short.
ending(s) was a bit shit
Black Ops Cold War has my favorite modern campaign and is still my favorite multiplayer COD even with its technical issues.
Cold War is awesome in every part of it, the only issue is that it's cut short and feels incomplete. The revelation comes way too early.
The antagonist is underused too, he had a great potential to be one of the better ones.
@@xenonronin7789 i agree, i played it a helluva lot more than modern warfare
Call of Duty 2's Defend the Pointe has to be the most intense experience I've ever had in a COD campaign on Veteran.
If you don't camp the bunker, good luck.
47:12 don't forget as well that Ice Cube was also apart of the game as well as one or the fellow SOG Marines in the late game you got to play along side with, which him alone was already badass
MWIII (not to be totally confused with MW3) is here to claim it's throne as the WORST campaign ever
honestly i've been playing cod since 2003 and i feel like there is one Cod that not many remember and i do feel like it does deserve to be on a list or get some credit is United Offensive
THIS
Honestly the multiplayer on UO was the best. Also I agree it belongs on the list.
I really wish they would bring United Offensive to consoles, similar to how they did with COD1 as Call of Duty Classic. I would love to play it but unfortunately I don’t really game on PC.
💯Especially because the devs got merged into Treyarch. First cod to bring in driving in massive maps too!
He mentioned it, he just said he didn't want to put it on because it's a spin-off game from CoD 1,2 or 3 I don't remember which
Playing the Cold War campaign in one sitting, on realism in the early morning is one of my favourite gaming memories
Sounds like you played it very young. It's definitely a good CoD for sure 👍
@@Swattii Not young. Just found myself with time on my hands.
Perfect time, early in the morning, birds still chirping, got food and drink and nothing but time
@@CasualKillZz yeah, good time
@@Swattii young? the game is 3 years old
My brother and I started with COD2 Big Red One on PS2 (alongside COD3 from our Uncle), and I remember being hooked with the Bomber mission
1:05:40 easily one of my favorite cod’s of all time because of three reason: 1 Hans zimmer being a legend with the soundtracks. 2: Makarov and price exchanged dialogue in my favorite mission “enemy of my enemy” And seeing those two exchange dialogue on that mission was the best. And 3: How could I forget the last mission. We killed Shepherd on rust. We saved price. And although we lost quite a bit, We still won.
I absolutely loved world at war as it was my first COD and i played it out of my mind. Since then i became a fan of COD but none of the campaigns came close to what it was. It had such a nice atmosphere which made you feel like you are actually in a war. I still love it
waw is a top 4 cod
You know its deadly serious when Gman casually uploads 1 hour video, perfect to sit back, relax and grab some snacks
Heisenburger
You know your mental issues are deadly serious if you spend your whole day commenting on yt
@@mariuszpudzianowski8400 it's a bot like nomoreroom...
All their comments are very generic. Change the name of the youtuber mentioned and its good for every video (they are also top comments everywhere). I hope its a bot because a human thinking like one is much worse.
@@Axatron omg you're right! How have I never noticed these?
How big of a problem is this? Could you quantify it?
@@Axatron Yeah I see this guy in every comment section. But don't worry ! I'm a human and doing my best job to out comment him in every section !
Thanks for the trip down memory lane
Solid list. Just wanna point out the other Aliens references from cod 4.
So there is:
1. "On your feet we are leaving!"
2. The title "Crew Expendable" is from the first Alien movie.
3. "Check those corners"
and
4. "I like to keep this for close quarters
It's my favourite of the campaigns by a mile, and i love to think of a section of SAS sitting around watching sci fi movies before their mission
I feel fortunate to experience this entire series as each entry come out. The original CoD introducing ADS and being one of the staple games on TechTV’s esports competition show (of which I’m forgetting the name), my first ever esports viewing experience. CoD 2 had what were at the time nearly unparalleled graphics and immersion. I loved how each tank had its own name, and the smoke grenades were such a novelty. I remember being amazed that they actually worked in a video game. It also had some of my all time favorite multiplayer. Modern Warfare bringing back Price is one of my favorite fan service moments and Modern Warfare signaled a paradigm shift in gaming, I’ll never forget seeing the E3 trailer for it and losing my mind. I was in military training when MW2 came out and I am hundreds of other trainees on base walked through a literal hurricane on launch day to go to the NEX to pick a copy up. ‘No Russian’ was unreal, experiencing that mission on launch day with no spoilers hit especially hard.
All in all as gamers we are truly lucky to have this franchise. I fell off after BO2 until just very recently and I stand by the belief that if any of these games were their own unique IP and we were able to look at them with no preconceived notions each entry would have a loyal following. They may not always get it right but even the worst mainline games in the series are at least well above average. Thanks for bringing back a lot of great memories with this one.
They've never been able to make a game in the franchise as good as CoD2.
Amazing retrospective mate. Loved every minute and agree with the ranking entirely. Thanks for making it!
Definitely agree! I actually did not knew the 2 remastered MW were different, I thought they have just remastered the originals with better visuals...
i recently started replaying call of duty black ops on my steam deck and it's been excellent, my favorite in the call of duty series for sure
Now that you've done this, I'd love to see a video focusing specifically on the oddball console spinoffs. I have fond memories of Big Red One.
Unpopular opinion I know but I throughly enjoyed ghosts. The story was like any other Cod but got to bring some new characters that you got to play with and learn the opinions. Plus there was some pretty heart wrenching moments as well as one of the largest cliffhangers in any Cod. Hope they make a sequel to it and make the gameplay itself a little more exciting and wrap up the loose ends. Unlikely that’ll happen tho
HA Gaaaaaay
same
It was awful. Take off your nostalgia glasses
Agreed
It’s overhated because the rest of the game sucked
Make a list ranking all the spin-off games(Finest Hour, Roads to Victory, Big Red One, Declassified, the DS Games)
Love the list m8
I'm gonna try bo2 soon, I've done a lot of the others
I'm happy you gave a lot of love for Cold War's campaign. While I'm not too much of a fan of the multiplayer, I loved the campaign quite a lot
Same I absolutely hated the multiplayer but liked the campaign
Its so bad that the campaign is so short
Have to agree. Found the online terrible but campaign was solid
Gman you are the only youtuber that I can watch an hour long video and be entertaining the whole time. Thank you for the awesome content over the years
You can get some new multiplayer game mode ideas from certain portions of different campaigns.
Great list. I would have ranked World at War and Black Ops 1 and 2 higher, but the golden era CoDs are all amazing.