The 5 Worst Call of Duty Games In History

These are our picks for the five worst Call of Duty games in history. We're sure you can predict some of them, especially if you've grown annoyed with IW over the years. Let's begin!

Worst Co D Games in History
Worst CoD Games In History. | © Activision

Call of Duty has been through four main eras; the early WW2 days, CoD 4 - Ghosts (the Golden Age + Ghosts), the jetpack era, and now we're living through the age of the tac-sprint. All of these periods have had their peaks and valleys, but today, we want to turn back time and revisit some of the lowest lows. The worst CoDs in franchise history. You can probably guess at least a couple of obvious stinkers.

5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered (IW)

"What? How could you? MWR on the worst CoD games list?" We know. It looks crazy. CoD 4 is a top three of all time, and there's no debate. But the Remaster set a terrible precedent for how Call of Duty could release future remasters.

They changed the maps (and changing maps like Crash and Overgrown is sacrilege), you could only buy it as a bundle with Infinite Warfare, and they added a lootbox system. Adding a lootbox system is bad enough in itself, but the worst part is that they released new and broken weapons (which had never been in the original) into the game via these gambling boxes. So they took what we know and love and monetized it like pimps. A shame.

Worst Co D Games MWR
Worst CoD games in histroy: MWR. | © Activision

4. Call of Duty: WW2 (SHG)

WW2 admittedly improved a lot over the course of its lifecycle, which is very rare for a CoD game. But wow, on launch it was not good. The in-game monetization was absurd, the social area was pointless, and the gameplay was painfully slow. It was probably a direct reaction to the hate Infinite Warfare got, but the devs clearly went too far the other way with WW2.

In WW2's defense London Docks is a great map, and the zombies and campaign were solid. Also, the War mode was one of the best new modes we've seen in a CoD.

3. Call of Duty: Ghosts (IW)

This one was obviously going to make the list, and was probably the least well received in its time. The problem with Ghosts is that it felt like one of the older, very low-TTK MW games, but just jazzed up slightly for next-gen (Ghosts was the first PS4 title). Nothing was innovative or well perfected, and by comparison, we had just received Black Ops 2 the year before. What saves Ghosts from being the very worst is that the game had a great SnD scene. Plus, the Vector was godlike.

Worst Co D Games Ghosts
Worst CoD games in histroy: Ghosts. | © Activision

2. Call of Duty: MWII (IW)

This game had the skeleton it needed to be great, and that's what makes MWII so upsetting. The devs could have listened to their playerbase and just made the tweaks we needed, but no they chose to stick firmly to their own design philosophy instead. And because their own design philosophy seemed to be "punish movement and eliminate the skill gap", we ended up with a terribly campy CoD game.

Also, Santa Sena Border Crossing is the worst map in Call of Duty history.

1. Call of Duty: Infinity Ward (IW)

When Infinite Warfare was first revealed, the trailer was record-breaking on YouTube... but for the most down votes in a 24-hour period. People HATED what they saw in IW. It was yet another CoD set in space, and it was released when the franchise was at an all-time low. Fans had made it clear for years that they wanted a boots on the ground game again, but instead, we got jetpacks.The only thing you can say in defense of Infinite Warfare was that it had a great campaign. But let's be honest, you buy CoD for multiplayer and Infinite Warfare's multiplayer was garbage.

Worst Co D Games IW
Worst CoD games in histroy: Infinite Warfare. | © Activision

After all that you probably don't want to play another CoD ever again, but MW3 is looking very good (if you're persuaded, here's a link to buy Modern Warfare 3 ).

And we should see less of this in the next game:

Jon Ramuz

Jon has a BA and an MA in English Literature, and as Head of Pull Content for EarlyGame has written over 1,500 articles. He focuses on shooters, but also writes about entertainment and gaming in general....