10. It Dares To Be Different
In the interests of crass commercialisation, it would have been very easy for Treyarch to just stick to the preferred formula and churn out another game with a linear, 5-hour single-player campaign, and then another frantic dose of multiplayer, but no, Treyarch dared to be different. Treyarch dared to take Call of Duty into the future, a risky move given that sci-fi generally doesn't sit well with the casual gamer who generally sticks to a diet of FIFA, GTA and the gun-metal thrills of CoD. Given the series' stature as a commercial juggernaut, it was a gamble, an admirable one that also appears to have paid off, though whether fans will take to it as avidly as they did the last game remains to be seen. It's an encouraging sign for the series anyway, and we just hope that Infinity Ward follows this lead and comes up with something that's again different for Modern Warfare 4, or whatever the next game is called.