Call of Duty Anthology Games
Call of Duty Anthology Games
(Call of Duty: Missions)
If you’ve been following Meisterkhan for the past several months then you would know that I have a bit of an obsession with Call of Duty. This obsession has included reviews, theories, and to top it all off, James C. Burns (Frank Woods) joined my father on Too Opinionated Interviews. I have loved these games for many years and I will love them for many more, however I do have complaints. At the top of that list would be the fact that they have a tendency to drop their best characters and storylines in return for something more relevant. Evidence of this can be seen by the recasting of John Price, Alex Mason, and most notably, Frank Woods. It can sometimes be felt that these characters and these stories didn’t get the proper ending that they deserved.
How do we fix that? I think I have a proposal that could change the entire Call of Duty experience for the better. Call of Duty anthology games, or as I’ve been calling them, Call of Duty: Missions. These are a series of games that will highlight a specific character by creating a short 4-6 hour campaign. These aren’t meant to be groundbreaking, but they are meant to expand the universe. I will give a quick disclaimer before I go into my game pitches, these games will be set in the old canon and the new canon. I’m doing this because even the old games could use an expansion, something to make the characters more memorable. I’ll go ahead and give you a quick explanation of the old and new canon.
Old Canon: Call of Duty, Finest Hour, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, The original Modern Warfare series, Black Ops 2-4, Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, Infinite Warfare, and WW2
Disclaimer: None of these are officially non-canon except for Modern Warfare, however I believe that the probability for these games being non-canon is high. Except for WW2, that one may find its way into the new canon.
New Canon: World at War, Black Ops, Black Ops: Cold War, and Modern Warfare
Disclaimer: Warzone is also canon in the story parts so I would recommend going to youtube and watching a breakdown on the Warzone story in its entirety.
Now that we know which games are which, I’m going to tell you about my pitch for some anthology game, starting with the old canon. I hope you enjoy and don’t forget to write what you think about what you’re about to read in the comments.
Old Canon:
Call of Duty: Pay the Price: Who else were we going to talk about first? Captain John Price is arguably one of the greatest video game characters of all time, but he’s a character in need of more development. I wouldn’t go as far as to say he’s a man of mystery, but there are certainly aspects that would be interesting to explore. Such as his relationship with MacMillion. This game would be about Price’s early years as he is under the command of MacMillion. The stakes of this game don’t need to be world shaking, but exploring his relationship with his mentor could make the overall Modern Warfare story more compelling. By making this game, you now have a foundation of why Price cares so much about Soap, because he is now in the same potion MacMillion was in all of those years ago...also it would make MacMillion’s cameo in MW3 a lot cooler.
Call of Duty: Price is Paid: I know, I know, another Captain Price game. If you’re not a big daddy P fan then I’m going to have to tell you know, this is a Price heavy article. Where Call of Duty: Pay the Price was about the lovable Captain’s beginnings, Price is Paid is about his end. When Modern Warfare 3 was released in 2011, it ended with the possibility of a Modern Warfare 4, however now that we are in 2021, we now know that was never on the table. As great as that series is, the ending could use some work. The game ended after Price killed Makorov. Sure, it was a good mission, but as an ending it felt unfinished. Where was the reward? What happened to Price? That’s what this game is about. The Price is Paid is all about Price putting his call to duty to rest.
I also want to say that both of these games should bring back Billy Murray to voice Price. That way he can get the proper send of that he deserves. Now, lets take a little bit of a Modern Warfare break (don’t worry, we’ll be back) and talk about one of the most underrated games in the franchise, Ghosts. I call this game:
Call of Duty: Brother’s Keeper: I’m not going to lie, this game came out a long time ago and I only played it once so I couldn’t exactly remember the ending. The only thing that I could remember is that it ended on a cliffhanger and that I really wanted a sequel, but because of bad reception, we aren’t ever going to get one. That’s the beauty of Call of Duty: Missions, we can get the thing we weren’t going to get at the cost of making them shorter and more story driven. For those like me, who couldn’t remember the ending of Ghosts, I’ll explain it real quick. The character you play throughout the game, Logan Walker is taken by the bad guy (Rorke) and is presumably brainwashed. Call of Duty: Brother’s Keeper is about Logan’s brother, Hesh, reclaiming Logan. I know that this is a simple game, but at least it would give Ghosts a better ending.
Call of Duty: Ghost Story: I had this idea while I was trying to remember what the heck Call of Duty: Ghosts was about. Then I remember that at the beginning of that game, badass and all around nice guy, Elias walker told a very interesting story about how Ghosts came to be. He talked about a group of 60 men fighting off 500 enemy soldiers, then those 60 became 15 and they miraculously managed to win the battle. This game is about that story. It’ll start with Elais telling the story again, but this time you’re living it. It’s maybe not the most requested story, but it’s definitely deserved and I think it would be a lot of fun to play.
The next two games are going to be very similar, I’m not going to lie. I’m going to go ahead and put them together. I think these two games would be a necessity if they wanted to expand the old canon.
Call of Duty: Bravo Team:
Call of Duty: 141:
Every Call of Duty player knows about Bravo Team and Task Force 141. They are both teams led by John Price, however they both have different rosters of members. Bravo Team would be a random mission featuring Price, Gaz, and Griggs that would give us more content with characters who died far too early and 141 would do the same, but this time with Soap, Ghost, and Roach. I know these are no brainers and that most of you probably assumed these would be on my list, but I had to talk about them a little bit.
New Canon:
Call of Duty: Adler: Black Ops: Cold War was the shortest game in the entire Call of Duty franchise, which really hurts the game. The barely 4-hour campaign gave us interesting characters and a great idea of a storyline, but none of it really played out very well. One of the best parts of the entire game was the introduction of Russel Adler. Adler was a man who crossed the line so others wouldn’t have to. He was never afraid to do the things that needed to be done, however, there was a strong underlying sense that Adler is haunted by his involvement in Vietnam. The game I am about to pitch is set during Adler’s time fighting the Viet Cong. Throughout Cold War, the player wonders how Adler obtained his facial scars, but it was told that no one really knows. You could make Call of Duty: Adler be based on the events where he got his scar...and his nightmares (That was cool right?).
Call of Duty: Apparition: Simon “Ghost” Riley has been a beloved character ever since his introduction in 2009. In the 2019 reboot of Modern Warfare, fans were shocked, but not surprised at the inclusion of Ghost. As of writing this, I personally like the original Ghost the best, but there is a reason I believe that this game should be introduced in the new canon. Unlike the original, the new Ghost feels like more of a myth. He is a loner, someone who is so quick and quiet that the enemy never noticed that he was there. In this game, you don’t play as Ghost, you play as a hostage. They could be a civilian, politician, or even a soldier, it doesn’t really matter, what matters is that the mission is an extraction. This game puts you in the seat of an NPC and you must follow everything Ghost says to get out quickly, quietly, and most importantly, alive.
Call of Duty: Demon Dogs: I don’t really have a complete story idea for this one, but I do have reason to believe that this will be a good game. During the Modern Warfare reboot, Marine Corps Unit, Demon Dogs (lead by Griggs) is introduced. I thought that mission was one of the coolest parts of the entire game. Call of Duty: Demon Dogs is about Griggs and his team going out on another mission. That’s the entire game. One problem with Call of Duty is that they always have ridiculous high staked odds, this game is just a mission. The whole point of these anthology games is that they are meant to expand the universe. Not everything is a nuclear threat and that’s okay.
Call of Duty: Priority Target: Did you really think that you would be getting out of this article without one more Captain Price game? For those who remembered the mission from the original Modern Warfare, All Ghillied Up was one of the best-received missions of all time. The purpose of that mission was for Captain Macmillian and Price to assassinate Imran Zakhaev, but Price missed the shot and only wounded Zakhaev. He later became the main adversary of the first Modern Warfare, albeit with one less limb. It has been revealed that the rebooted version of Imran Zakhaev died of heart failure long before the events of the game. Priority Target is a rebooted version of All Ghillied Up where Macmillian and Price go to kill Zakhaev, but once again, it doesn’t go as planned.
Both:
I have two more games to finish off this list with. The reason they weren’t mentioned until now is that unlike the other games, these two could fit in either canon.
Call of Duty: Hudson: In the mission “Numbers” found in the original Black Ops game, it is revealed that Jason Hudson is a bad motherf***er. How do I know this? He dual wields pistols, how is that not the coolest thing ever? Then after that? He uses a crossbow! My main problem with Hudson is that it feels like he is getting worse and worse in every game he appears in. Black Ops 2 Hudson wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great and Cold War Hudson didn’t even feel like Hudson at all. This game is to reclaim some of Hudson’s honor. Call of Duty: Hudson is about showcasing how good at his job Hudson really is. It could be set in the Korean War or it could be a random CIA mission, but whichever the case this game will have Hudson use his smarts, skills, and training to survive the unsurvivable.
Call of Duty: Into the Woods: Who else would I finish this list off with other than Frank Woods? After his “death”, Woods was captured by Kravchenko and put into a POW camp where he stayed for the next four years. Near the end of 1972, there were only a handful of prisoners left and he was not going to die in a f***ing swamp. This game is about Woods and his fellow prisoners escaping captivity and making their way back home. My favorite part about this idea is the could get James C. Burns to return to give him the proper send-off that he well and truly deserves.
What did you think about the idea of Activision releasing Call of Duty anthology games? Is it something that could work or should they continue on doing what they are doing? Is there a character you’d like to see in Call of Duty: Missions and which of mine did you like best? Let me know all of this in the comments below. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to give our James C. Burns interview a listen on our podcast, Too Opinionated!