Call of Duty used to be a real game, for real men. A very serious first-person shooter where we played through conflicts pulled directly from real military history. For much of its early years, it took us into World War 2 from a variety of different perspectives, before pivoting to the here and now in 2007’s Modern Warfare. The War on Terror was the hip new thing, so it made perfect sense for Infinity Ward to tap into that well. But from there, things only got sillier and sillier.
We’ve had futuristic exosuits in Advanced Warfare, interstellar travel with Infinite Warfare, and an increasingly ridiculous stream of action movie escapades with the Black Ops series. Call of Duty reached a point of diminishing returns with Modern Warfare and its World War 2 entries that it needed to do something different, even if that meant getting a little bit silly.
Warzone Has Turned Call Of Duty Into Fortnite
It wasn’t something all fans accepted, and I fondly remember Infinite Warfare’s reveal trailer being the most downvoted in YouTube history when it was first revealed. Yet I stand by the belief it has one of the best campaigns in the series’ history. Despite this increasing range of sheer ridiculousness, nothing could have prepared us for the arrival of Warzone.
When Warzone first arrived alongside the rebooted Modern Warfare, it was an attempt to try and capitalise on the growing success of not only the battle royale genre, but also a need to transition the series into a live-service experience. Call of Duty was no longer about annual entries and premium map packs that encouraged you to keep on playing until the next game came along, it wanted to be something more. A platform, a service, and something you want to log into each and every day to remain engaged with. We can blame Fortnite for that.
I’m not sure Epic Games expected its humble tower defense horde shooter to evolve into the pop culture behemoth it has become, but much of its success is down to being reactive to the times it exists within. Through collaborations with film, television, video games, pop stars, and even professional wrestling, it has become a symbol of modern culture like nothing else.
Call of Duty is on a similar level. Or at least it used to be, but has spent the past couple years playing catchup. It has dabbled in crossovers with The Boys, Rambo, Godzilla, WWE, Snoop Dogg, Die Hard, Terminator, and even Nicki Minaj. It is ridiculous, and a sign of what Call of Duty considers itself to be in the modern era. It’s a high-octane military shooter with a single player campaign that takes itself seriously, and an evolving multiplayer experience which is more interested in grabbing our attention than being accurate or realistic.
At first, this rubbed me the wrong way, but with time, I’ve come to appreciate what Activision is going for, and how it clearly has no intentions of deviating from this path going forward.
The Humanoid Shark Skin Is Only The Beginning
This brings us to a new humanoid shark skin, released as part of the G’Day Bait bundle two weeks ago, that includes a man who is literally just a shark. He has a ripped-up shirt, sharp teeth, and looks incredibly cool. I bet he has an Aussie accent as well to really drive it home.
I haven’t bought this skin, but I’ve seen it in the wild a few times, alongside a few other new skins like a dude in a raccoon mask, a literal zombie, and several well-known characters who are just on fire for some reason. Call of Duty follows the rule of cool, both in Black Ops 6 and Warzone where the majority of these operator skins can be found. If you’re a returning player who hasn’t played the series in years, you’ll probably log into the latest entry and be insulted or confused. ‘What has my Call of Duty turned into, and why can I play as a sexy shark while teaming up with Nicki Minaj in Search and Destroy? It’s ridiculous!’ Yes it is, but I love it.
But I didn’t used to. In fact, I was turned off by Call of Duty’s multiplayer offerings for a long time during this new era because it was such a jarring departure from how things used to be. I was a regular Fortnite player and spent an embarrassing amount of money being part of the Fortnite Crew and building my skin collection, but I didn’t want that kind of silliness in my war simulator. Over time, I leaned into the absurd nature of Call of Duty’s new identity, and somehow this has desensitised me to this level of IP soup that so many modern live-services are turning into these days.
We are several years into this new direction and it’s obviously working. Warzone is raking in millions of players and healthy profits, while Black Ops 6 is a return to form for the series that has pulled in people who swore it off years ago. There’s no way Call of Duty is going back to how things used to be, but it is going to keep evolving, and I’m going along for the ride.
