History YMMV / CallOfDuty

** ''Ghosts'' is generally considered to be a sub-par ''Call of Duty'' sequel due to its weak original setting story and characters, over-reliance on RareGuns as the second attempt to futurize the franchise, stupid hype ("Fish AI" that wasn't as unique as advertised and didn't work anyway, and an "improved graphics engine" that was only a noticeable improvement in [[TechDemoGame the system requirements]]), and a ClicheStorm plot with [[TooBleakStoppedCaring no likeable characters on either side]] that ends in a blatant SequelHook.

** ''Finest Hour'' has the first mission in the American Campaign, "First City to Fall". You had to escort an [[RareVehicles M12 self-propelled gun]] through the streets while fending off Germans with Panzerschrecks. It seems that the Germans have pinpoint accuracy while your armour support (two Sherman tanks) are almost useless to deal with them.

** Woods in ''[=BO4=]'' has become quite possibly the single most hated character in the entire franchise. Yes, the same Woods who was ''the'' fan favorite of the first two ''Black Ops.'' He is relegated to the role of the announcer for tutorial modes, which would be fine if he acted like he did in the previous games at all. Instead, he's reduced to an absurdly obnoxious TotallyRadical caricature ([[WereStillRelevantDammit "That bounce was lit AF!"]]) that everyone wishes they could mute, not to mention how out of character it is, given the time period he was raised in. (He was born in 1930.)

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Many people accused Activision of this after the announcement that ''Black Ops 4'' would not feature a single-player campaign while also introducing a Battle Royale mode, decisions that respectively jumped on the AAA game industry's questionable party line that gamers no longer wanted single-player games, but "Live Services" instead and clearly [[FollowTheLeader chased the tails of]] popular games of the time like ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' and ''VideoGame/PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds''.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The series still subject to this, even though all the games after the third have been rated M. The ones made by Treyarch turn this up to eleven with more gore, cursing, and horrific imagery. And yet, it's extremely common to find 4-12 year-old children playing online.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The series still subject to this, even though all the games after the third have been rated M. The ones made by Treyarch turn this UpToEleven with more gore, cursing, and horrific imagery. And yet, it's extremely common to find 4-12 year-old children playing online.

** Since it's somewhat politically insensitive to cast Russians as generic antagonists, morally bankrupt PrivateMilitaryContractors have become recurrent villains in the franchise, including Shadow Company from ''Modern Warfare 2'', Cordis Die's mercs from ''Black Ops II'', and Atlas Corporation from ''Advanced Warfare''.

** Since it's somewhat politically sensitive to cast Russians as generic antagonists, morally bankrupt PrivateMilitaryContractors have become recurrent villains in the franchise, including Shadow Company from ''Modern Warfare 2'', Cordis Die's mercs from ''Black Ops II'', and Atlas Corporation from ''Advanced Warfare''.

** The ''Call of Duty'' franchise as a whole has become this ''for the entire Internet'', now that [[{{Creator/Bungie}} the developers of]] [[{{Franchise/Halo}} that other franchise which everyone claimed was the cancer killing first person shooters]] have moved on (and come back into public view, but the ''Halo'' hype seems to have started again). This reached the point that footage from ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare Infinite Warfare]]'' wowed audiences at E3 2016... until the ''Call of Duty'' title came up on screen, silencing the cheers. The sheer bile has begun to die down now that ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' has become the new fashionable thing for the entire internet to hate.
** When it's not the the Russians that get to act as generic antagonists, PrivateMilitaryContractors are be recurrent villains in the franchise, including Shadow Company from ''Modern Warfare 2'', Cordis Die's mercs from ''Black Ops II'', and Atlas Corporation from ''Advanced Warfare''.
** A convenient thing about returning to a WWII setting is the lack of moral ambiguity behind recreating the fight against the unanimously bad Nazi army.

** From the ''Modern Warfare'' series: Gaz, Cpt. Macmillian, Sgt.Foley, Yuri, and Ghost (to the point he got his own comic)

** And Black Ops 2 to Black Ops 1.

** A convenient thing about returning to a WWII setting is the lack of moral ambiguity behind recreating the fight against the unambiguously bad Nazi army.

** Woods in ''[=BO4=]'' has become quite possibly the single most hated character in the entire franchise. Yes, the same Woods who was ''the'' fan favorite of the first two ''Black Ops.'' He is relegated to the role of the announcer for tutorial modes, which would be fine if he acted like he did in the previous games at all. Instead, he's reduced to an absurdly obnoxious TotallyRadical caricature ([[WereStillRelevantDammit "That bounce was lit AF!"]]) that everyone wishes they could mute.

* A convenient thing about returning to a WWII setting is the lack of moral ambiguity behind recreating the fight against the (mostly) unambiguously bad Nazi army.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Many people largely ignore the campaign modes and buy the games strictly for the multiplayer. Or the zombies. Inverted with ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare Infinite Warfare]]'', where the campaign is widely considered the best part of the game.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Many people largely ignore the campaign modes and buy the games strictly for the multiplayer. Or the zombies.

* WhatAnIdiot: In ''Call of Duty 2'', quite a few Germans take cover behind sandbags and walls and the like. But for some reason, right behind them they have bright red barrels MadeOfExplodium. This makes it very easy to off said soldiers simply by shooting the barrels to make them explode.

** Sgt Reznov from ''World at War''. It helps that he's CrazyAwesome.

** ''Ghosts'' is generally considered to be a sub-par ''Call of Duty'' sequel due to its weak original setting story and characters, over-reliance on RareGuns as the second attempt to futurize the franchise, stupid hype ("Fish AI" that wasn't as unique as advertised and didn't work anyway, and an "improved graphics engine" that was only a noticeable improvement in [[TechDemoGame the system requirements]]), and a ClicheStorm plot with [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy no likeable characters on either side]] that ends in a blatant SequelHook.

** ''3'' does likewise, largely for pointless motion sensor gimmicks, rather dull graphics, no PC port, and abandoning the "major historic battles" motif in favour of being set in a series of seemingly random towns that even the French have probably never heard of.
** ''Ghosts'' is generally considered to be a sub-par ''Call of Duty'' sequel due to its weak original setting story and characters, over-reliance on RareGuns as the second attempt to futurize the franchise, stupid hype ("Fish AI" that A) hadn't been unique for 15 years and B) didn't work anyway, and an "improved graphics engine" that needed better equipment to display graphics that looked the same as previous games), and a ClicheStorm plot with [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy no likeable characters on either side]] that ends in a blatant SequelHook.

* HePannedItNowHeSucks: Inverted with [[Creator/JoshScorcher Josh Scorcher]], who had the ''”[[SarcasmMode audacity]]”'' [[spoiler: to put the whole series at #1 on his Overhated Video Games list]].

* MemeticBadass: James Doyle of United Offensive and 3 was an early example.

** Since 2013 to this day, it was the time when the developers experiment with all new characters and (usually futuristic hypothetical) settings. Even its return to WWII doesn't feature the return of iconic characters due to the relatively new Sledgehammer games in charge instead of Infinity Ward. The return of the Modern Warfare in 2019, along with COD Mobile bringing the best of Modern Warfare and Black Ops in one mobile package, has managed to WinBackTheCrowd.

* MagnificentBastard: [[YMMV/CallOfDutyBlackOps Victor Reznov]], [[YMMV/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Raul Menendez]], [[YMMV/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII Dolos]], and [[YMMV/ModernWarfare General Shepherd]], see their pages for details.

* CompleteMonster : [[Monster.CallOfDuty Has its own page]].

** The 2019 ''Modern Warfare'' reboot as well as ''Warzone'' and ''Black Ops: Cold War'' was generally enjoyed by those who are able to play it, but the disproportionately large storage requirement as well as mandatory online connection even for single player mode turn quite a lot of potential players off.

** The whole idea of ''COD'' going sci-fi divided the fanbase when the transition began in ''Black Ops 2,'' and the arguments began growing more immensely as every game between ''Advanced Warfare'' and ''Infinite Warfare'' kept going further and further into hard sci-fi, to varying degrees of critical success and eventually cumulating in the massive backlash ''Infinite Warfare'' received when it was announced. What complicates the matter is that when ''CoD'' did go back to its roots with ''WW2,'' the result was seen as one of the worst entries of the series in that generation, while ''Infinite Warfare'' would start to become VindicatedByHistory''.

** The whole idea of ''COD'' going sci-fi divided the fanbase when the transition began in ''Black Ops 2,'' and the arguments began growing more immensely as every game between ''Advanced Warfare'' and ''Infinite Warfare'' kept going further and further into hard sci-fi, to varying degrees of critical success and eventually cumulating in the massive backlash ''Infinite Warfare'' received when it was announced. What complicates the matter is that when ''CoD'' did go back to its roots with ''WW2,'' the result was seen as one of the worst entries of the series in that generation.