If you were a designer for the next Call of Duty game, how would you make the game better?

[Avalanche91]

STORY: You play a young man in a nonspecified middle eastern country, peacefully living his life for at least thirty minutes of gameplay after which an army of nonspecified white soldiers invade, looking for a high profile terrorist supposedly hiding out in the region. After dad gets shot for speaking up to the soldiers, the player has to guide his mother and younger siblings to safe area, but during a particular heartbreaking battle near the capital the younger brother gets drafted by the resistance. Now it's up to the player to seek out the resistance to find his brother while trying desperately to avoid battle with the occupating army. Have fun.

And that would be enough really. Seeing Call of Duty portraying the obvious American stand-ins as villains would probably cause enough controversy and turn enough critical heads to sell pretty good. Untill FOX news calls for a boycot.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I'd switch out the western patriotism and have the protagonists be the other side, and offer the other perspective for a change. Call of Duty did this a little bit in the old WWII games where the Soviets were sometimes played as. Imagine a game where you play as a Wehrmacht or Vietcong soldier and seeing their perspectives, their struggles, the propaganda and desperation that drives them onwards. Show some sympathetic scenes from the opposite side. Get wounded in battle and another German soldier risks his life to pull you behind cover because he knows you have a loving family and home and they would be lost without you. You know, some shit like that. Freshen it up a little, make it interesting.

You don't want to change the core mechanics of the game, you don't want to betray fans of the series like that, but put a new spin on it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'd make it into a wild west shooter. But that's my idea of making almost every game better. I'd do the same with Far Cry and Assassin's Creed even. So you probably shouldn't listen to me.

 

[Zhukov]

I'd go all Spec Ops: The Line on that shit, except with absolutely no subtlety, skill or, well... much of anything really.

The first level would be a detailed recreation of the My Lai massacre [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre]. Except it would end with the American troops forming a congo line and singing singing the 'America, Fuck Yeah' song while dancing among the corpses.

 

[Wedgetail122]

I have no idea with multi-player, but single player wise, I like the idea of sending it back more to its COD 4 : Modern Warfare roots with much more believable story-lines more focused on soldiering, but a shooter like COD can never really give any portrayal of combat, you want that go play the ARMA Simulations or Spec Ops: the Line for the mix of realistic engagements and the physiological experience related to conflict. That being said I would like to mix in some elements from Black Ops 2 which I actually found to be enjoyable that, its one of the only COD Games I ended up buying after trying it out with a mate. That is since another Treyarch title COD: WAW. More specially the Blops 2 elements I would like to bring over are the branching story arcs based on player decisions and optional objectives along with the ability to customize ones load out at the beginning of each mission but have scenarios change so frequently that players are forced to adapt and pick up weapons. The constant pick ups in the game available through Access Kits were also a really nice touch. In regards again to the branching story arcs, the game actually had a pretty impressive array of possibilities based on some interesting morale delima's and even player performance in the levels (Like not being able to catch up to DeFalco on board the floating city in time resulting in him being a foe later in the game and doing some pretty ghastly stuff). Though I would like to take it back a bit and break away from the shiny near future or Modern Warfare era for just one title.


For me though, one option keeps sticking out in my mind.

Call of Duty: Trailblazers or Legends or something along those lines. This would be set during the 2nd World War maybe even spanning into the 1950-53 Korean conflict. This would be based on the formation and debut operations of the first special forces set across multiple nations. This would mostly be set upon real operations. Players would take part in the original British Commando and SAS/SBS operations in Scandinavia and the Middle East, along with French Resistance/ British Special Operations Executive (I like this Idea as it would allow for a bad ass female fighting character in a CoD game as these young women were dropped to lead French Resistance groups) behind enemy lines in Europe. The Australian Special Force Z commandos/ 2nd Independent Company doing raids into Singapore Harbor (sinking Japanese warships with nothing but a kayak and some explosive charges definitely deserves a note)and fighting in the Jungles of Pacific, along with the American OSS operations in Europe or the Pacific. Heck throw in a mission as the German SS or elite parachute regiment to show a jarring comparison to the hell and carnage experienced by all forces and allow you to experience it from the other side (just as BLOPS 2 allowed you to do in some limited segments) Stealth would be massive in this game, featuring a full fledged mechanic instead of some half assed script where the enemy just has their back turned to you the whole time just so you can stab them for effect. Again branching story arcs, like say your mission in Europe as an SOE unit was to link up with the French Resistance and capture an Axis intelligence officer, the decisions you make in that mission along with your performance could effect the quality of intelligence for the Special Forces operatives in the next game. Optional objectives with less linear maps would allow for more interesting game play, whether certain objectives are marked or not is linked to the players performance in the last mission, these are still accessible with exploration but are more heavily guarded. The story would end as the Korean war starts and the cold war really begins to heat up, with the surviving special forces characters drafted into an allied initiative to create a covert intelligence force to counter the soviets.

I dunno not to shabby an Idea I hope.

 

[llsaidknockyouout]

I'd make the next Modern War against France or Britain. Just to see the same people who revel in killing russians and middle-eastern terrorists claim racism.

 

[Alcamonic]

Set it during WWII. You follow an SS platoon on the eastern front, killing and torturing people as you go along your campaign, because some jerk back home said so. You will also immediately get killed if you defy orders.

The end of the game should be somewhere on the Russian front where everything sucks, a lot, and your comrades die left and right, mainly from disease and poor equipment. This is where the game takes a twist, the ending features you, with hands so badly frost bitten you can't hold a weapon anymore, thus forced to hide from the Russians. After many hide and seek, you eventually collapse down next to your dead allies, and closes your eyes.

Roll credits.

Would at least make it more interesting.
Activision could claim that it is one of those Assassins creed machine things, thus allowing for a "Modern Warfare X" multiplayer, or riot would surely assure.

 

[Chrozi]

So in regards to multiplayer, the first thing that needs improvement is the spawning, which has gotten better, but not great. I don't know how I would fix it because I'm not a programmer. But the problem is people spawning right behind you and you right behind them, and in view of sniper fire.

Now the maps, Ghosts has too many maps similar in theme, too many blowed up towns! Even maps with different themes still have the same general look to them. I do like the layouts of some of them, but the busted up office building is maddeningly annoying. Too many different foxholes players can jump in and out of, basically all you have to do is camp and keep spinning around. How do bigger maps = more camping? it should have eliminated this problem. But given the above plus the "spawn behind" problems, the game can feel like the actual play areas are smaller than the Black Ops 2 maps.

For the campaign, it definitely needs to be more story focused. The set pieces really are darn cool, but the reasons for doing so are quite silly. I thought we'd see the dog be a bigger part of the story but it was used as an escort mission towards the end, there. I know Call of Duty and emotion don't really go hand in hand these days, but yeah, lets work on it.

 

[DeadProxy]

Above all, lower the maximum sensitivity to the 7 or 8 range at most, and far better matchmaking based on gametime history and rank through the previous generations, instead of what your pointless level is. Or if I was given total control, hand everything over to Treyarch, they seem to be the company that can make a playable Call of Duty. Had absolutely no interest in Ghost, and I played Modern Warfare 3 for about 2 days before giving it to a friend and not caring one bit.

 

[Rolaoi]

Set it in the 80's with two campaigns: CIA and KGB. There's a Russian scientist trying to defect. You can either chase him down or bring him to the US through your choice of campaign. Keep BO2's loadout options for missions.

Take the RTT part from Black Ops 2 and turn it into a second, Risk-style campaign. This time, the setting is Africa. You choose to either lead Pro-American, Pro-Soviet, or a Third World force to silently conquer Africa in a war of revolution, counter-revolution, and military coups.

As for online, I would strip out most of the kill streaks, but especially the ones which kill for you.

In general, I would make maps larger and add more vegetation. I would like to see vehicles, but more like the ones in United Offensive. If vehicles were added, a mounting and dismounting animation would be added to prevent the cheap tactic of jumping out of a vehicle instantly when it has low health.

I would remove dedicated sniper rifles, but keep marksmanship rifles like in Ghost. If sniper rifles are kept in multiplayer, they would be special weapons like heavy machine guns which have to be mounted. Add weapon unlocks like in Ghost.

Ghillie suits would be in, but they would remove the option to sprint.

Remove team deathmatches in online play. Make War the primary game mode for online play.