Tragedy has struck the gaming community, as famed Call of Duty creator Vince Zampella passed away today. The legendary video game designer was 59. Zampella created the most famous first-person shooter in the world, a fact that remains true today, and then went on to create Titanfall and Apex Legends. In honor of his tragic passing, here are the best CoD games ever.
6. Black Ops 6
Black Ops 6 may not have the best campaign in the franchise, but it was a really good one, and it was highly creative. It worked as a fun merger between multiplayer and zombies, which hadn’t really been done before. Speaking of zombies, while some of the gameplay changes were not ideal, others were, and the maps were generally pretty great. Citadelle Des Morts is one of the best in this series, and the multiplayer was satisfyingly fun.
5. Modern Warfare 2
Modern Warfare 2 had one of the best campaigns in the series, but what truly sets it apart is how it moved the franchise forward. For the first time, the story mode was highly cinematic, so it can be argued that all subsequent campaigns owe their success to MW2. Plus, the fast-paced multiplayer was really a lot of fun and helped to also redefine future entries in that sense.
4. Black Ops
Black Ops is an amazing game. It has arguably the single best campaign in the entire franchise. It has solid, reliable multiplayer with a few amazing maps (Firing Range, Havana, Grid, and more). The zombies was pretty great, too. Five, Kino Der Toten, and Call of the Dead are all really good. It just doesn’t quite reach the highs of some other games in each non-campaign mode, which holds it back a little bit.
3. Modern Warfare 3
Featuring a stellar campaign and exceptional multiplayer, it doesn’t get much better than the original Modern Warfare 3. It refined the multiplayer formula to near perfection, sporting some excellent weapons and really fun maps. The conclusion to the Modern Warfare saga, at least back then, was handled pretty well. Spec Ops Survival was fun, too.
2. Black Ops 3
The only thing preventing Black Ops 3 from being the best is that it just doesn’t quite match its predecessor. That, and the campaign was not very good. It had divisive multiplayer, but that mode has aged well with its fun movement and creative maps. The zombies was its bread and butter, though. It should have been the end of the storyline, and it wrapped up so nicely. Revelations and Der Eisendrache are absolutely amazing maps.
1. Black Ops 2
The absolute best Call of Duty, and the best FPS ever, is Black Ops 2. It had everything working to near perfection. The campaign was excellent, one of the best in the series. The multiplayer was really good, featuring arguably the best version of Nuketown and several of the most iconic maps. The zombies, though, was the best. Some of the best maps in the franchise, like Buried, Origins, and Mob of the Dead, were introduced in this game. It’s been a long time, but this was arguably the peak of this series.
Conclusion
There have been a lot of great Call of Duty titles, all spawned in thanks to Vince Zampella’s original. Without his work, the FPS genre might’ve faded out, and at the very least, we would’ve lost out on some really fun games. FPS games get a bad reputation, and so does CoD. And while some of the entries (Black Ops 7 comes to mind) are duds, this series still has some of the best shooters ever in it.
