I make it a point to play every Call of Duty campaign. I’m one of those losers who loves diving into a six-hour action blockbuster with cheesy characters, epic scenes, and a narrative drenched in absurd jargon. The Modern Warfare reboot trilogy had me hooked until Infinity Ward rushed out the third installment and ruined the entire story, but Blacks Ops 6 draws from all the right sources to feel both nostalgic and innovative in its approach.

Over the past few years, however, I’ve missed everything outside of the campaign. Since the debut of the standalone battle royale mode Warzone, I’ve drifted away from the multiplayer offering as it turns into a live service behemoth that’s all about battle pass rewards, seasonal themes, and getting me to play as much as humanly possible. Compared to the Call of Duty I grew up with, it couldn’t be more different. Or more complicated…

I’ve criticized Modern Warfare 2’s overly complicated interface before, mentioning that what was once an eminently accessible shooter game is now marred by an endless series of tabs, switches, and adjustments that players must make to even get into the game, let alone make sure the right game modes are offered. It’s clunky, sluggish, and just not fun to use.

To play the standard selection of multiplayer modes in Modern Warfare 3, I have to scroll through a series of notifications and tabs, select Modern Warfare 3, select multiplayer, and then filter which modes I want to play so I don’t get thrown into a random playlist where I have no idea what I’m doing. When you boot up Modern Warfare 3, you’re pushed away from it and into the cold embrace of Warzone, a part of Call of Duty I have no interest in.

I also remember Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer being sold with remastered versions of all the maps from the original Modern Warfare 2, partly because Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer didn’t have enough time during production to create their own new maps. But for someone who spent years playing the original MW2 as a teenager, it was still an exciting prospect.

But after jumping into Modern Warfare 3 for the first time several months after launch, it seems impossible to actually get a game in those old gaming hills. Or at least it only happens once or twice every other play session. Sure, I could see them in a private match, but playing myself 1v1 on Rust is a bit sad.

Even when I’ve tried out maps familiar to a game like Karachi or Terminal, many of them now consist of larger areas and garish new lighting models, while the faster movement options in Modern Warfare 3 are poorly reproduced in old maps ported from a game that came out more than a decade ago. It made me miss the past and ponder what Call of Duty has become.

Download the game now and you’ll be greeted with a storefront that features characters from The Boys, Gundam, WWE, Fallout, and countless other franchises that now call this game home. Call of Duty is no longer a game that gets new games and a handful of map packs every year. It’s followed in the footsteps of Fortnite and tries to keep its finger on the pulse of pop culture, even if that means losing touch with its own identity.

Black Ops 6 may be coming later this year with a cast of familiar characters and a story that will reportedly tie in with Cold War and Black Ops 2 and take us to the Gulf War. But a few months after release, it will be lost in a deluge of store drops, content updates, and a desperation to stay relevant in a battlefield of live service games where anyone can get left behind, even a behemoth like Call of Duty that once seemed unstoppable. It’s no longer the game I grew up with.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the 2023 remake of the classic 2011 first-person shooter, rounding out the trilogy of updated games from Sledgehammer and Activision. It will follow directly on from Modern Warfare 2 in terms of storyline and will once again follow Price, Soap, and other members of Task Force 141.