Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Cant' say for sure until the game's released, but I won't be expecting a character as three-dimensional as Menendez.

^ Nobody has. Seriously, characterization post Black Ops II has taken a nosedive.

& I don't know why anyone even asks about story or characters in a Call of Duty game. The entire series doesn't have a single genuinely likeable or memorable character in any of it's games.

Literally every single person is exactly as much of a macho military type or techno-thriller cardboard cutout as they need to be for the plot to be what it is and nothing more. Even Menendez, who you mention, is incredibly two-dimensional. His entire motivation is a completely 100% vanilla revenge story. Nothing we haven't already seen a thousand times in other better-written techno-thrillers.

Call of Duty doesn't have any themes, it doesn't try to build any sort of coherent Myth Arc, it's worldbuilding is absolute dogshit and none of it's characters are the slightest bit sympathetic or interesting. The one thing it might have had going for it was the pretense of offering some sort of commentary on war, and the series dropped that like a spent magazine after Co D 4 in favor of Michael Bay-esque bombast and reveling in the nihilistic spectacle of throwing as much carnage and look at this cool thing techno-shit at the audience as possible. It's like jangling keys in front of a toddler's face.

What's worse, they have the balls to play all this off as completely serious! It's genuinely difficult to describe just how much the Call of Duty series does not earn the relentlessly grim tone of all it's recent games. It would be one thing to say it's trying to send a message and simply doing it badly. That at least would imply a degree of effort and authenticity. But no, the Call of Duty series is not actually interested in saying anything. It's deployment of violence is purely cynical and has no manner of artistic intent behind it whatsoever. It has a serious tone because it wants us to take it seriously, but it has nothing to say for us to take seriously.

Meh, that's just you. Yeah everybody's the stereotypical macho type, but they're arguably memorable because of it. Case in point, Captain Price wouldn't be so memetic if it wasn't for how utterly single-minded the guy can be, along with how he's essentially the real hero of the Modern Warfare trilogy. Same with Victor Reznov; the fanbase wants to see the guy return because of how even death itself wasn't enough to stop his revenge against the villains of BLOPS I.

In fact the BLOPS timeline has generally been better with character development than the others. Even when they started anew by removing the Mason family and related characers, the plot of BLOPS III turned out pretty damned good. The theory that almost all of the campaign was a mixture of a dying dream and altered memories of the supposed villain wasn't a fluke, it was intentional. The big clue being how the game keeps emphasizing how utterly realistic the DNI dreams could be, and how time moves much more slowly while in those dreams.

That's not to say the games are deep with lore and characters with depth though. In fact, if it's not a main character then it's practically guaranteed they'll be either a one-time appearance or utterly flat. And even when they did try to have a nuanced villain aside from Menendez in the form of Jonathan Irons (aka Kevin Spacey and his PMC from Advanced Warfare), the short length of the campaign and the focus upon Hollywood style action guaranteed that he wouldn't have enough time to be fleshed out. Instead, he was more memorable because of how identical his Irons character was to Frank Underwood from House of Cards.

Thus, that's why the increased length of this upcoming game's campaign is giving me some hope. They might finally have enough time to properly world-build and Give at least the main cast some depth... though, as I've mentioned earlier the writers mentioned the SDF being a typical bad guy faction, so it's not gonna be on their end. So maybe not for the bad guys, but still.

edited 29th Jun '16 9:18:42 PM by SgtRicko

Yeah, I remember once entertaining the idea of how a book set in the Ghost universe would go that chronicles the ten-year war between the Federation and the US after the ODIN strikes.

I will fully admit I kinda liked Viktor Reznov back in the day. The one thing that certainly stuck with me from the original Black Ops and World at War was his reaction to his friends dying horrible deaths around him.

I am talking specifically about that one guy who got ambushed and burned to death during World at War (Chernov I think his name was? The guy who would constantly write in his diary)......and what happened to Dmitri. That scene were you see Dmitri banging on the glass and trying to get Reznov to help him (and Reznov couldn't do anything accept watch him die) from dying a horrible death via being gassed still sticks in my mind to this day.

I still remember that line were he basically says that he would much preferred Dmitri to die as as a war hero back in the second Great War rather then what actually happened to him...

edited 29th Jun '16 10:06:22 PM by Ecrivan

There was a bit of symbolism in Dmitri dying as well, since he died right at the start of the Cold War era, perhaps signifying that the true "heart of the Red Army" and all it stood for died when Russia proceeded with their actions.

Back to Infinite Warfare. I'm still sad at how many dislikes all the gameplay footage of this game is getting. That, plus all the fanboys make me really resent Battlefield 1, no matter how much that game is liked on Youtube or the awards it receives.

Obviously you never played Call of Duty: Big Red One. It had characterization on the level of shows like Band of Brothers. Hardly what you'd call a Michael Bay romp.

I have never played Big Red One, though I do have fond memories of the earlier games in the series. I suppose I should have been more specific- I was talking about Call of Duty in it's present incarnation, which is Co D 4 and everything after that.

I mean seriously, would it kill Activision/Treyarch/whoever to put some damn effort into the writing of their games? They are in such a unique position within the industry- if I were in command of the creative direction of the Call of Duty franchise, I'd have turned it into the next Mass Effect. Strong themes, vibrant recurring characters, a myth arc spanning multiple games and consistent world-building that draws a clear through-line linking every iteration of the series. That would be awesome.

But no, they can afford to be lazy, so why do anything interesting?

edited 30th Jun '16 5:38:55 AM by Gault

That's what the upcoming game seems to be trying. But prior to that, the answer basically comes down to that the fanbase really doesn't care too much about the singleplayer - they came for the multiplayer. Besides, folks that care about the story probably wouldn't gravitate to the franchise anyhow, what with all the other options on the market.

It's why I'm wondering how come hasn't Activision tried creating a semi-F 2 P version of Modern Warfare, and just continually add on to it via DLC, like they already do. No need to create a new setting or campaign either - just keep adding on to it, as long as the community shows interest. It's what they seem to be demanding anyways, otherwise the interest in the COD 4 remaster wouldn't be so strong.

Well there's Call of Duty Online in China. It takes elements of several games in the series and mashes them together.

Spec Ops The Line was basically a successful attempt at Mocking the Machimismo of Call of Duty, while asking the question of why you play shooters like it. It's also why Modern Military shooters have taken a nose dive in popularity.

Yeah, Call of Duty has a lot of good moments where War Is Hell is a thing, but at the same time it doesn't really dwell on who you're fighting. Mainly because you have more clear-cut reasons, but still.

I've been playing COD:Black Ops for the past few days and I feel that it's not that bad. In fact, I like it. I've never understood the hate that the series gets. It's not innovative but I still enjoy it all the same. BTW, I play the single-player campaign.

Yeah, Black Ops actually has the best story of any COD game, in my opinion. That is, all three Black Ops. And I also buy most first-person shooter games for the single players as well. You can have better set-pieces in those.

edited 30th Jun '16 6:48:59 PM by theLibrarian

I heard someone mention that there isn't a memorable character in this franchise.

To that, I refute with; 'RAMERIZ'

Are you talking about COD series as a whole, or just Black Ops? Because if it's the latter, I think you are thinking Raul.

I believe the proper pronunciation is "MENEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENDEEEEEEEEEEEZ!"

edited 2nd Jul '16 7:14:41 AM by TheAirman

Menenendez? Menenenenenendez? Dammit, I never know when to end it...

I would like to say that Victor Reznov definitely left a impression on more as I played.

Same. Not to mention Captain Price.

Reznov has an unfair advantage named Gary Oldman.

What happened to Reznov was honestly rather sad and fucked up at the same time. He fought long and hard in WW 2. He found Dmitri who managed to escape death, and then he sees Dmitri escape death time and time again when facing Nazi Germany. He valued Dmitri as a friend at that point

....And not to long after the war Dmitri, his friend and the proclaimed heart of the Red Army, is gassed to death by his amoral dickhead of a superior while Reznov was forced to watch. Dmitri survived many attempts on his life by enemies but his final fate was to be killed horribly by one of his own. Reznov is then inadvertently saved by the British and is then sent to the Gulag for 20 or more years I think.

.....Well at the very least he would get to see Dmitri again after he died and Mason does end up killing the man who screwed him over through and through.