I’ve been playing the Call of Duty franchise since I was a little kid. It was those times that we were skipping school just to meet in an internet cafe and keep the matches going. You know, kids being kids, and Call of Duty being one of the best action games that ever existed.
I’m not a game expert, per se, but I’ve missed the good old days of playing titles such as the iconic Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and later Modern Warfare 2. Those games had something in them, they were simple, fast, and more realistic than today’s games – as most of them are now being based on a system full of different skins kids love to buy.
With weapons and players glowing, tons of different colours and badges, lots of lagging, campaigns with silly stories and uninterested characters, the new Modern Warfare titles are, like it or not, “different” than they were a decade ago.
Unable to launch the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) Campaign Mode
A few months ago I went and purchased the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. That was before taking my time to think about its pricing and how much storage it needed. When I bought a third SSD, I went and bought the game, and I was excited thinking of playing the campaign. When the game was finally downloaded and installed, I launched it and a few seconds later, I had to restart it in order to complete its updates.
After the restart, I went and launched the Campaign mode, and the game restarted again. Once it did its thing, I was back on the same home screen again. If I clicked the Campaign for a second time, Call of Duty would restart again and it wouldn’t launch the game at all, displaying an error that the game was already running in the background.
After spending hours and hours trying to find a solution for the issue, I am still unable to play the only important thing that Call of Duty games have to offer me; Their campaign. After a few weeks had passed, I formatted my PC and I thought to give it another try. I downloaded, again, the whole game on a PC with Windows 11 freshly installed and configured. Again, the same situation. It was refusing to open the Campaign mode and each time showed me the same home screen that included all the modes.
Now before you say anything, I did try a few other “tricks” to solve the problem, including running it as an admin, adding it to the exclusive list in Microsoft Defender, and using Steam’s tool to check all the files and theoretically download any file that may be missing from my computer. Nothing worked, and I couldn’t get a solution from the topic I started on Steam. So I decided to stop trying and ultimately admit that I wasn’t going to be playing something that I paid for. That was never the case with older titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, MW 2, and even MW 3. Heck, even the Black Oops series had no issues running their campaigns, so what went wrong this time?
My experience with The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) Multiplayer Mode
As of this moment of writing, I’ve spent more than 160 hours playing Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare II (2022), mostly in the Multiplayer mode, and sometimes Warzone. What I realized coming back from playing the older Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) which I was playing before, is how chaotic the newer titles have become. It now takes a whole lot more time to load a game and start playing it.
And unfortunately, it’s all about seeing ugly skins everywhere. It’s not realistic, and those skins and masks and whatever else they add as an accessory, have created a game without the feeling that its processors once had. It’s more for Gen-Z kids who like shinning weapons, player skins, and just camping until they can get enough killstreaks to ruin your evening. And don’t get me started with those microphones and having to block players all the time because they leave their microphones on as they play. You know, those people that you can hear their breaths and their keyboards as they play, and those who listen to music while playing, and distract you from the game.
What I loved in Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare II (2022) is how much of an improvement the weapon customization system has seen over the years. Being able to modify and adjust any weapon in lots of different ways is simply wonderful. I also loved the graphics, but I really hated the game’s performance, which was mostly laggy and slow. As for the visual, physical, and audio quality, they were all perfect. I also liked the weapon handling, which was precise and “punchy”.
Having so many available modes to play also makes the game more interesting and less boring. For example, I can play fast shooting in the Container map, and quickly upgrade and unlock more weapons, I can go full Multiplayer Harcore mode, or even choose a map with as many as 32 players, set in larger locations. However, as far as my own personal experience goes, Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare II (2022) has failed to impress me in any other way.
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2024) seems to be the same old same
After my experience with Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare II, the newest Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare III title that was released in 2024 wasn’t really on my wishlist. I mean, I’ve seen lots of videos and spent a good amount of time reading the reviews, and while it has some nostalgia thanks to the older maps being improved and added to the game, it only shows that Activision has nothing new to offer anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the improved mechanisms and the gameplay looked pretty fun, but I don’t think it was worth paying that much money to get a slightly updated game. It also made me wonder why Activision released the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (Remastered) version if they were going to add so many of its maps into their newer versions. I mean, those people who purchased the remastered version will play again the same maps? Nah.
Although that’s my personal opinion, I’m not a kid anymore, and I only appreciate high-quality and unique works as I get older and older. The newest Call of Duty titles seem more like a refreshed MWII rather than a new original title. I mean, it could simply be a new update for the same game and not a new release. And if I can’t play the campaign of a game that was pretty expensive to buy, why would I want to spend more of my money in uncertainty?
At the end of the day, I went back to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, as it’s still alive and has a dedicated community of online players. It’s also simpler and has a straight-to-the-point interface that doesn’t include every single one of the latest Call of Duty titles that you haven’t brought but still get to see on your home screen.
What are your opinions and thoughts on the new Call of Duty titles? What did you like and hate the most, and which title is your favourite? I’d love to hear about your personal experience in the comment section below.
