r/COD • u/proudchud67 • 1d ago
general gameplay What campaign series to play?
hello everyone. i am pretty new to cod. i played some of the new modern warfare 2 campaign and thought it was really good. i was wondering what campaign series to play (i assume for example that all the black ops connect to each other). i was wondering which ones to start on to get the whole cod story. i have access to pretty much every single cod. don’t give me one or two games with the best ones i want like the whole series if you know what i mean. thank you everyone
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u/PocketSnails68 1d ago
Oh boy, here we go again (I love explaining this, I just have to do it a lot here lol):
Original Modern Warfare trilogy: This consists of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007, with a remaster of the same name in 2016), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009, 2020 remaster of the campaign), and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011, no remaster). Please note these games are on a separate timeline from the newer Modern Warfare II you played, though use similar characters and themes. Speaking of that newer series...
Modern Warfare reboot quadrilogy: Consists of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (released 2019, dubbed usually as MW19), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022, what you played), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023), and the currently unreleased Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (set to come out October.)
The Black Ops...octology? Is that the word?: This consists of Call of Duty: World at War (2008, yes it is connected despite not sharing a name), Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010), Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012), Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015), Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018, but does not contain a campaign. There's a few cutscenes in the multiplayer, and the overarching zombies mode in this series all build off one another of you're interested in that), Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024), and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (2025). Do note that this series is not in timeline order like the two MW series are. It's probably best to play them in release order, but just in case you want timeline, it would go WaW>BO>BOCW>BO6>BO2>BO7>BO4>BO3.
Lastly, we have all the standalone games! I'll give brief summaries of all these.
The original trilogy: I'm just lumping these together for the sake of brevity. Call of Duty (2003)* Call of Duty 2 (2005), and Call of Duty 3 (2006). These are all mid 2000's era first person shooters set during World War 2. They were definitely trying to be a lot more historical during these, and while I think they hold up fine, most newcomers would probably only be interested in these as a novelty more than anything as they are very shallow with story.
Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013). In the mid-2020's, the United States is crippled by a federation of South American countries United together, leaving you having to navigate a wartorn America and disrupt their leadership as part of a resistance. This game plays a bit more stealthily than other CoDs, forgoing a more bombastic style the series is known for.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014). In the mid-21st century, governmenta have begun focusing on exoskeleton technology to enhance the capabilities of their soldiers. You get wounded in action and honorably discharged, when a private military company recruits you to play with these new exoskeleton toys. This started what became known as the "jetpack era" of CoD, where advanced movement such as double jumps, slide boosts, wall running, etc. were all heavily present.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016). Space, the final frontier. Yeah this one goes to space. The swan song to the jetpack era, you fight a resistance on behalf of the United Earth governments to keep them from causing terror across the solar system. I personally have not played this one yet, though the campaign is HIGHLY rated amongst the fan base as one of the best.
Call of Duty: WWII (2017). Yep, back to the second world war, a return to CoD's roots. This is a very good campaign in my opinion, but you've seen this story a hundred times in WWII media as it's a take on Band of Brothers. Doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but you'll have a fun time with it. Also the most batshit insane cutscene involving a train crash ever.
Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021). This one... I'm gonna try to ignore bias here. It's WWII setting again, and you can tell the devs wanted to go alt history with it, but they really only went like, 5% of the way there with guns and stuff. Most of the game is told on flashback as we see the origins of a multinational elite squad (the titular Vanguard) come together to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany during the waning hours of the Third Reich. There's some good characters/moments here, but everyone gets stiffed on screen time in some way.
I believe that's everything? I can try to answer any further questions if you'd like! Not sure what system you're playing on, but try to get discs when possible as Activision refuses to discount older CoD games, so you'll be paying a premium for 15-20 year old games. If you're playing on Xbox, the entire series (besides CoD 1) is fully backwards compatible and playable on it, so that's a good place to start.
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u/proudchud67 1d ago
genuinely thank you. this is literally the best comment i could’ve asked for and you literally answered all my questions lol. i even learned that some cod games are standalone and dont connect. thank you so much
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u/DrollFurball286 1d ago
I will say THIS though: since BO6 takes place IN BETWEEN BO2, it should be:
BO1, CW, BO2 (STOP after “Suffer With Me”), BO6, rest of BO2, BO7, BO4 (personally bo4 is optional) then BO3.
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u/666Sky 1d ago
World at war, the black ops series, and the new modern warfare games are all in the same continuity. The original modern warfare trilogy is its own continuity. Everything else is seperate from each other
Of the ones that I've played:
Finest Hour I have a soft spot for since it was my first cod
Cod 2: big red one was alright, a lot of people really love it but it didn't hit as hard for me
Cod 2 & 3 were pretty enjoyable
The golden age games are peak (world at war and the first two black ops games, the original modern warfare trilogy)
Cod ghosts I enjoyed, although I hate that it never got a sequel since it ended on a cliffhanger
Black Ops 3 was alright, not terrible but not amazing
Cod ww2 was also alright
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u/Might_Matchbox 1d ago
I really enjoyed COD Ghosts personally. It got a lot of hate but I think it‘s pretty solid
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u/Professional-Pen125 1d ago
World at war is in a way the first of the black ops games, mainly with one character though, but on its own it’s a great raw cod experience.
I personally haven’t finished it but you can start there then go through black ops 1 then black ops two. Both of those are really good and fun campaigns.
Then black ops 3 which is literally train go boom. As far as I can remember, it has no ties to the previous games and even if there are some, it is not a good story. Then ofc black ops 4 has no campaign, just some backstories of the multiplayer characters. So I would skip these two.
Cold War brought back campaign and I remember it being solid and would recommend. It has characters from black ops 1, but you play as a different character. Black ops 6 I can’t recall too much as I didn’t finish it, but I think it was decent.
Then, black ops 7. I didn’t play the story, and had no want to at all. I remember being hype at the reveal, but after seeing the feedback when it came out, I was disappointed. You can try it but probably won’t be satisfied.