10 Most Overpowered Weapons In Call Of Duty History

5. Tactical Knife - Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2
Activision

It's hard to believe, but the basic melee knife attack in the original Modern Warfare was revolutionary. While most first-person shooters relied on the same rifle-bash close-quarters move, the inclusion of an instant-kill melee attack was a subtle but major shakeup to the regular FPS formula.

However, while players grew to love the knife in that original release, in Modern Warfare 2 they came to hate it almost immediately.

Why? Well, in an effort to make melee attacks even more effective, the devs added in a perk that allowed you nail people from a longer distance. Unfortunately, this led to hundreds of cheap deaths, as it meant you could be hit with an instant kill from players who should have had no chance of reaching you, like in the above gif.

Throw the tactical knife into the equation, which reduced the cooldown timer of the melee attack massively, and you had one of the deadliest weapons in the whole game.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.