Editor’s note: “Call of Duty” owner Microsoft is under boycott by BDS.
There’s been a lot of hullabaloo, hooplah if you will, surrounding the release of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.” None of it good. There was a lot of AI slop peppered everywhere, and the always-online single-player campaign basically requires co-op play to be balanced. I’m also not hearing anything positive about the story, the multiplayer, or zombies this year, but that evidence is only anecdotal.
So let us go back to a better time when “COD BLOPS” games were new, exciting, fresh, and original… for a “Call of Duty” game, that is. The year was 2009, I was in college, and my favorite thing about those early “COD” games would be dropped into my depressive lap. Wager matches! A collection of game modes that were designed around in-game gambling with in-game money, which you could use to purchase in-game things.
Not a microtransaction in sight.
The four wager match game modes were all very unique from the rest of the multiplayer offerings because they didn’t have your typical loadouts, perks, or kill streaks. You put your (fictional) money on the line, and competed to win all on your own with only skill dividing the winners and losers.
Gun Game
Your classic game mode ripped from modded lobbies in “Counter-Strike.” You’d almost expect prop hunt to be in this game, but that would come much later.
Everyone starts with a revolver, and each kill moves you up to a bigger and bigger gun. First a machine pistol, then an SMG, then a shotgun, rifles, snipers, rocket launcher, etc. The person to win gets through them all and lands a kill with the ballistic knife.
If you get meleed or commit suicide, you go down a rank. This mode was my favorite, and should be included in all other multiplayer shooters from now on. I think.
Sticks and Stones
You are in a deathmatch with only three things at your disposal: A crossbow, a ballistic knife, and a throwable tomahawk. The more you kill, the higher your score will get. Get hit with a tomahawk, and your score goes back to zero.
It helped with improving your aim and reaction time with these three weapons if you needed to grind away at some unlocks or just liked to chuck random bullshit at other players.
One in the Chamber
All players get a knife and one bullet in their M1911. If you get a kill, you are rewarded with another bullet. The max is seven, and you only have three lives.
All shots are a one-hit kill anywhere on the body. This was the ultimate test if you enjoy hardcore modes, pistols, high intensity, or losing money in wager matches (that was me, that last one).
Sharpshooter
Remember that one mission in “Bioshock” where your plasmids would cycle in and out randomly? This game mode assigned all players the same random weapon every 45 seconds.
If you got a kill you would get the Sleight of Hand perk, then the Lightweight perk, and then Steady Aim. You could even get a times two multiplier score but once you died, you lost all of it. This is another badass game mode that should have a long shelf life, like Fiesta in “Halo” games.
I have no other point to make. These game modes should return because they kicked ass! I just really loved that era of “COD” — the golden days. The heyday. The apex of the franchise, the pinnacle of the series, the zenith of FPS games if you will.
And now we have AI slop invading mediocre releases, and it’ll sell just as well as all of the others. What a shame. “Call of Duty” used to mean something, and I am now an old man who has fond memories of a bygone time in gaming.
Just another dude ranting and raving on the internet about the world’s most popular series and the passage of time going by at a rapid pace. So if there’s anything to takeaway here other than these modes should come back in some form, it’s that you should never get old. It’s terrible.
Image Credit: “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” Activision
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