The Kill Streak is Over

Call of Duty is heading the way of Flip phones, Guitar hero, Spice girls, Prussia, and Funyuns (No one eats those anymore).

The First Call of Duty came out in 2003. We’re just shy of the decade mark and this franchise doesn’t have legs. You can blame it on the story line - which is the same in every game and amazingly has the exact same ending every time but no one seems to complain. You can blame it the tried and true multiplayer formula with just enough rewards at just the right time to make you love it and makes every other game try to copy it. You can blame  it on the hardcore fans who prestige 25 times in every game but are still noobs because leveling up has nothing to do with skill. I personally blame it on the fact that the game has had a new release every year since 2005 with expansion packs and DLC every three months. I can’t think of any video game franchise that I wouldn’t be sick of with that kind of release schedule. The only reason people haven’t equated it to Guitar Hero faster is because they don’t have a bunch of plastic guitars sitting in their living room. If we all got fake guns with every game we would have kicked the franchise three years ago.  Whatever you want to point the finger at the result is the same; this franchise is past its prime. 

It won’t really die - COD will be more like a coma. The hardcore fans will keep trying to convince you that it’s fun and innovative but it’s not the case anymore. You’ll still have fond memories of death match on terminal in COD MW2 and you may even reminisce about the kill streak rewards and unlocking that next rifle but it’ll never feel as good. The next kill streak won’t give you as good a feeling and you’ll start to wonder why you keep coming back to it. You’ll still see the amazing marketing campaign that gets put together but then you’ll watch the demo of the multiplayer and read the previews and realize the story isn’t any better than the last one, the multiplayer isn’t any more exciting.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was the end of a golden age and buying Call of Duty Black Ops II will be like deciding to prestige. You’re not terribly happy with the decision but you did it because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?