Aside from camo grinding and fighting the undead, Call of Duty was first known for featuring some of the best stories and most memorable Campaign characters. However, that doesn’t mean that every single Call of Duty Campaign is good, as we’ve had literally some of the worst narratives in a few of them. The list here is the ranking of these ultra-bad CoD Campaigns.
A few notes here before we start: No, Black Ops 4 is not on this list as that game didn’t even have a Campaign. And well, all the WWII games prior to Call of Duty 4 are ditched. They’re all: Go into war, kill some bad guys with no well-structured stories and not a single character except for Grandpa Price to remember.
5. Advanced Warfare
This was a tough decision to put Advanced Warfare on the worst Call of Duty Campaigns list, but at least I haven’t put it on the #1 spot, alright? And that’s only because of Johnathan Irons (portrayed by Kevin Spacey). He’s the main villain of the game and the way he establishes his connection to the main character by literally offering him a hand is a good story to follow. The rest of the game is filled with characters that you may not even remember and missions that have no memorable moments or dynamic gameplay sequences.
4. Vanguard
Call of Duty: Vanguard is a weird game to rate based on its Campaign. You start the game as an elite task force that’s been gathered by Captain Butcher of the SOE, and the story takes place near the end of WWII. So it’s a fresh take on WWII where you hunt down the remaining enemy forces and prevent them from their mysterious Fourth Reich, right? No. The story is a flashback sequence of the same tired WWII encounters we’ve seen in at least five other CoD games. Not to mention that the Campaign is shorter than the developers’ speeches combined in The Game Awards 2024.
3. Black Ops 3
The most important thing about a Call of Duty Campaign is its story, and Black Ops 3 manages to somehow brainwash us with something that isn’t redeemable at all. The game is about a soldier who dies in combat, but then something called the DNI keeps the mind alive so that you can see a bunch of missions that never happened. The only thing that could really fix this mess was a few final missions that really answered our questions and Treyarch sadly didn’t bother to give us that.
2. Modern Warfare III
Honestly, the only reason that I played the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Campaign was because I didn’t know it was one of the worst. The game was advertised with tons of Vladimir Makarov’s posters and trailers echoing his presence. But well, it gives you nothing but a single good mission that actually takes place in Verdansk. The rest of it is just bad storytelling with gameplay that feels like completing an event in Warzone. Don’t get me started on that ending.
1. Infinite Warfare
There’s absolutely nothing memorable about Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Name three characters in the game. See? That’s why it doesn’t matter at all. The Infinite Warfare Campaign I remember is bad guys vs good guys with no such captain, sergeant, or at least a well-written villain to remember. And I don’t think CoD in space was and is anyone’s favorite. Shout out to Ethan by the way.
