8 Ways Call Of Duty Can Screw Up By Returning To Its Roots

Call of Duty is going back to its roots, which is great news for sure - it only took five years and Infinite Warfare’s disappointing sales figures for Activision to change tact.

News of COD finally giving fans what they want (i.e. not future-space) should be welcomed, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn't be cautious. Remember, this is the series where Call of Duty: Ghosts ensured the exciting concept of an invasion of America was as wrist-slittingly dull as possible.

Then they managed to make space twice as boring. Making space boring takes a lot of hard work and apathy, as Infinite Warfare became gaming’s equivalent of James Bond’s Moonraker – mostly tedious, with a few cool moments in the trailer.

So while we should welcome the change in tact, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. There are tons of new ways to explore the classic COD formula and to build on its former brilliance, but if they're serious about returning the series to its roots, here's what Call of Duty needs to avoid...

I appreciate this will only apply to around 1% of everyone who plays Call of Duty, but they really need to sort out a decent story campaign. Doesn’t have to be high art, but a step up from their usual popcorn-movie nonsense would be nice, with an engaging campaign that has memorable highs and lows.

You know, like it did first time around.

Here’s the basic mix-and-match mission structure for every COD ever: The sniping mission, the tank mission, the stealth mission, the airborne mission, the run-and-gun mission…

Doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, regardless of your setting, is only going to make what could be a refreshing break, feel just as turgid as Ghosts.

Anyone brave enough to battle through the solo campaign just does it on auto-pilot for the achievements anyway, rather than to witness war from a new perspective.

When was the last time a Call of Duty game did that?

I’ll tell you – the first two Modern Warfare games. Think All Ghillied Up, No Russian and Death from Above. These challenged the usual bang-bang quests found in the genre, mimicking the type of footage seen every night on the news, and gave us experiences that were exciting and adventurous.

Want to go back to your roots? Let’s return to the idea that we were real-world soldiers fighting a real-world war with real-world consequences.