call of duty black ops

call of duty 4 modern warfare

 

Here it is. The final installment in this series of the greatest Call of Duty games ranked in order of greatness.  What’s interesting about this final list is that it doesn’t have many of the newer games on it.  Even Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is still five years old at this point.  So why are all the older games so good?  Sometimes that’s what happens when we get too far away from the original.  The intent changes which sometimes doesn’t translate into greatness.  Like I’ve said so many times, all the games were good.  But this list includes the greatest Call of Duty games of all time.

4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012)

The last few entries embraced futuristic tech, which shook up the multiplayer with jetpacks and other augmentations.  But Black Ops II still stands out as the last best example of the series’ boots-on-the-ground online action.  Black Ops II is noteworthy for the Pick 10 multiplayer loadout system and for offering narrative paths that branch out throughout the storyline.  It also offered missions that were split between the Cold War and the future.  Which gave it an unusual edge.

3. Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)

Black Ops II had a better multiplayer mode, but the original Black Ops had excellent online play given when it was released.  It’s one of the best entries in the entire series.  It includes events from Vietnam and the Cold War.  It offers historical action with plenty of edge and intensity, along with a storyline that gets pretty surreal as it goes.  Black Ops might have the best complete package in the series, with an excellent storyline, multiplayer capabilities, and Zombies thrown into the mix.

2. Call of Duty 2 (2005)

Call of Duty 2 blew some minds when it hit PC and Xbox 360 in 2005.  It had dazzling graphics and realism despite it taking place during World War II.  It established Call of Duty as the premier war series in a way that its predecessors didn’t.  And even though it was historically accurate, it was brilliant for its time.  Historically accurate didn’t make it bad, it just made it not as exciting.  Even after all this time, however, it remains one of the absolute best World War II games and sets a high bar for Call of Duty: WW II to hit.

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

Did you expect this to be the top-rated Call of Duty game of all time?  Modern Warfare is one of the most influential shooter games of the last decade.  It pushes the military side of the genre away from historical recreations towards a more gritty storytelling of near-future terrorist hunts.  It’s been a decade since the original was released, but last year’s Modern Warfare Remastered is the definitive way to experience it now.  In fact, it’s the best Call of Duty release in at least a few years.