KafkaOffTheBeach said:
Andy of Comix Inc said:
It has been... dwindling in quality. And by "dwindling," I mean... spiraling downwards.
Nope.
The quality has remained pretty much the same, apart from in the storytelling - which only fluctuates slightly between the intense, mature storytelling of CoD4 and WaW, the balls out FUCK EVERYTHING of MW2 and the very Manchurian Candidate-esque Hollywood thriller narrative of BLOPS.
The multiplayer - despite some basically cosmetic changes - has remained the same.
The gameplay mechanics have remained exactly the same.
The problem is that stagnation of those major elements, and we have become ludicrously overexposed to it. CoD has become far more than a game, its a cultural phenomenon on an incredible scale - and Activision will keep on making it because they know that they have found a formula that has tapped into the basic primal instincts of people that will make them keep on buying their one game over and over and over again.
Its kinda sad really.
Sorry, the level design and pacing of Black Ops was ridiculously bad compared to Modern Warfare 2, and the level design, pacing, and all around script quality of MW2 was shit compared to World at War and Modern Warfare 1.
That's what I call a spiral. The game used to be a glorious shining example of singleplayer shooters done right, and it sunk very quickly - within three, semi-yearly installments - into a boring, stupid, poorly-written and poorly paced explosion-fest. Whether anyone remembers or not, CoD4 had depth, and breadth, in its singleplayer, and while slight multiplayer increments are all well and good, the singleplayer has taken a buckshot to the kneecaps in the process...
...I still replay CoD4. The multiplayer was amazing, yes, but it was the story and singleplayer that made it more than a fun experiment in switching combat eras. The series has been stagnating - Call of Duty 3 is actually the prime example of this, I say - but it was able to save itself before because it was smart with how it handled its elements.
I get the impression nowadays that there really IS no work put into it, which is less a stagnation of the individual elements themselves, but how those elements are put together. I'm so hoping MW3 bucks the trend - they've had two years on it to refine the formula - but since Activision is probably of the supposed mindset that quality won't even matter to the eventual sales outcome, Infinity Ward probably won't be given a leeway to trim or mold anything to make it more substantial.
But, to your first comment - it hasn't been "the same". It's lacked polish, and if that's truly not enough to differentiate titles, then I don't know what is. Lack of fun, then.
