Furious Call of Duty fans brand the series a ‘bloated mess’
Call of Duty fans have had enough, calling out the state of Activision's shooter series and claiming that the franchise is a 'bloated mess' in its current form.
20th Dec 2023 13:00
Images via Activision
Furious Call of Duty fans brand the series a ‘bloated mess’
Call of Duty fans have had enough, calling out the state of Activision's shooter series and claiming that the franchise is a 'bloated mess' in its current form.
20th Dec 2023 13:00
Images via Activision
A bit like the deluge of shows and movies constantly bombarding us from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it can sometimes feel like Activision is throwing all it's got at us with Call of Duty. Alongside year mainline releases, there's Warzone, CoD: Mobile, and their continuous updates.
Spreading ourselves thinly, fans have to brace for the various seasons, shop updates, Zombies modes, Christmas overhauls, and whatever DMZ was supposed to be. We're exhausted just thinking about all the facets of the CoDverse, and now, it seems some have had enough.
Call of Duty branded a 'bloated mess'
Call of Duty is a BLOATED Mess
byu/Sansnom99 ingaming
Giving the impression that CoD sometimes feels like a jack of all trades and a master of none, Reddit user u/Sanom99 called the series in its current form a "bloated mess." Saying that they booted up 2022's Modern Warfare 2 and gave it another shot, they were less than impressed.
Admitting that they'd been on a 10-year hiatus from CoD until last year, the OP was shocked at how much had changed. Lamenting the console-busting download size, it further reiterates the issues fans have with the series' increasingly massive storage on consoles that are notoriously tight for space.
Up next was an assault on the senses from marketing, with Activision promoting Modern Warfare 3 in-game (via an unskippable cutscene), as well as promos galore for the Battle Pass. This hammers home the franchise's reliance on microtransactions to keep the likes of Warzone afloat.
If that wasn't enough, they struggled to find Modern Warfare 2 buried under all the debris and reportedly had to restart four times. Couple that with a $90 price tag, it's hard not to feel for the poster. Long gone are the days of enjoying a simple bloodbath on Black Ops 2's Nuketown 2025.
Fans agree Call of Duty has got too much
The OP wasn't alone in their musings, as others soon waded into the debate. One called out the complaints that CoD has become Fortnite, adding, "The thing I hate is getting into a game and playing against characters from other games/shows. I just wish you could toggle skins off."
When someone bemoaned the UI, another added, "It's like they wanted to copy Halo MCC but hired the Snapchat developers to handle the UX. It's an absolute cluster f**k of useless information, duplicate information, clutter, etc. I have no idea what titles I actually own, how to modify anything by title, etc. Where's my rank? Who knows."
A third grumbled, "Jokes aside, the devs have stopped trying to make a decent game a long time ago." A particularly pointed comment concluded, "They've been shovelling absolute s**t out the door and doing everything they can to squeeze every last dollar out of the store, for quite some time. And it shows. Badly.
"I think they knew they were aiming to get bought out, and they've been doing whatever they can to juice the books and get through the deal. The franchise needs someone to clean house. Just axe everyone and start clean." It's clear there is plenty of frustration with Call of Duty right now, and if you thought glitches were the biggest problem, you were wrong.
About The Author
Tom Chapman
Tom is Trending News Editor at GGRecon, with an NCTJ qualification in Broadcast Journalism and over seven years of experience writing about film, gaming, and television. With bylines at IGN, Digital Spy, Den of Geek, and more, Tom’s love of horror means he's well-versed in all things Resident Evil, with aspirations to be the next Chris Redfield.
