Any series as large as Call of Duty is bound to have a few entries that fall below par. Unfortunately for fans of the franchise, there have been more than a few. The worst entries in the series are some of the worst in the FPS genre overall. Whether it’s the poor map design, subpar writing, performance issues, or aggressive and frankly insulting monetization, today we’re cataloging the best of the worst when it comes to Call of Duty.
The worst Call of Duty games, ranked from bad to worse
None of the games on this list are good, but the earlier entries have at least a couple of redeeming qualities. They don’t reach the heights of the likes of the original Call of Duty 4, Black Ops 2, or even Modern Warfare 2 from 2009, but they’re the least offensive of the lot. By this list’s end, we’ll reach the real stinkers. Games so bad Activision itself seems to want to forget them altogether.
Call of Duty Infinite Warfare
Call of Duty is no stranger to science fiction, with Black Ops 2 pushing its narrative over a decade into the future. Infinite Warfare went even farther, taking the franchise to space for the first and, so far, final time. Its campaign was filled with cliches, Kit Harrington did his best to bring a bad villain to life, and the game gave off a sense of chasing trends rather than setting them. Its multiplayer was something of a saving grace, being fast, relatively fun, and trying out new twists on the Specialist mechanic introduced in Black Ops 3. Too bad the maps were some of the worst in the series.
Call of Duty Vanguard
The third entry in the Call of Duty franchise from Sledgehammer Games and the more experimental of their two World War 2 outings, Vanguard was nonetheless a bog-standard, by the numbers take on the Call of Duty formula. The campaign had sparks of brilliance and some top-tier talent in charge of the characters but couldn’t escape an average-at-best script and poor pacing. The multiplayer was similarly rote, with maps that functioned but did not impress, mechanics that did the same, and no new ideas to be found.
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War
Of all the Call of Duty developers, Treyarch has historically gotten the short end of the stick when it came to bailing the franchise out of a bad situation. After Sledgehammer had significant internal struggles making the game that would eventually become Vanguard, Treyarch and Raven Software had to pick up the pieces and pump out Black Ops Cold War. The story was the worst in the Black Ops line, relying on tropes better presented with the first game in the series. Its multiplayer was a cobbled-together mess of Treyarch designs pasted over whatever the game had been before.
Call of Duty WWII
Call of Duty WWII is fine. That is the most positive thing that can be said about it. It does nothing well, a few things badly, and everything else is fine. The story was the same World War 2 narrative players got tired of in 2006, and every time the game had an opportunity to be profound, it flubbed at the finish line. The multiplayer was also fine. No weapon was satisfying to use, nor did they sound good to fire. The maps weren’t good, but they weren’t the worst offenders, either.
Related: All Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies maps ranked worst to best
Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered
Bringing back Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare should have been the easiest win for the franchise in a time when it struggled mightily for relevance. Yet somehow, Infinity Ward and Activision managed to bungle the whole lot. Between locking access to a classic game behind an expensive Special Edition, messing with some of the core mechanics in both the campaign and multiplayer, and the game’s instability on all platforms, Modern Warfare Remastered is a slap in the face to fans everywhere.
Call of Duty 3
Treyarch’s first, and probably worst, experience making a Call of Duty game was not only horrible for them as a studio, but the game itself was a broken, unfinished mess that deserved the disgust it generated in the community. Many of its problems came from Treyarch having only eight months to make it and being forced to make all the concessions such a timeframe demands. The game itself is unforgivable, but at least there is a logic to its poor quality.
Call of Duty Ghosts
Following the original team at Infinity Ward leaving en masse to form Respawn Entertainment, Infinity Ward was still responsible for a yearly entry to the Call of Duty franchise. What they produced is the worst entry ever put on a disc or downloaded onto a hard drive—the worst multiplayer maps. The most nonsensical, almost farcical campaign, instability, and bugs galore — the list of this game’s faults goes on. That it had to bridge two console generations is something of an excuse for some of the problems, but Call of Duty Ghosts was rotten to the core, and the cliffhanger at its story’s end is a metaphor for the title itself. No one will ever see it again.
