Call Of Duty: Ranking Every Game Mode From Worst To Best

A more well designed take on Hardpoint's 'King Of The Hill' formula is Headquarters, which has been in existence since the very first Call of Duty game. It appeared in every subsequent title until Black Ops II, after which it was unceremoniously dropped from the mode roster, seemingly eclipsed by its similar counterpart in popularity.

Tasking teams with capturing a mutual location and challenging its defenders to hold onto it for as long as possible without respawning until all of them have fallen, Headquarters was actually quite flawed until its gameplay was tweaked for Modern Warfare 2 (where it was renamed Headquarters Pro to distinguish it from its predecessor). Earlier iterations almost always saw the team that made the first capture win, as the next headquarters following their elimination would always appear at their next spawn point.

This was addressed by implementing a thirty second delay before a location becomes captureable, offering both teams the opportunity to jostle for position and engage each other before settling into their offensive and defensive roles.

Immensely fun but often brutally unforgiving, the mode encouraged intelligent gameplay. Now that it has been missing in action for more than five years and abandoned by all three developers, however, it seems like a long shot to ever return.