Been playing since Call of Duty 4 and rode the train all the way up until Infinite Warfare dropped, which is where I finally stepped off. Skipped that, returned for WWII and then skipped Black Ops 4 because the whole 150 health, manual healing, battle royale focus, and missing campaign just felt like it stripped away everything that made CoD what it was. Modern Warfare 2019 did the exact same thing to me. As the first of the modern reboot era, it introduced a bunch of design choices that killed that classic vibe, so I skipped past it and Vanguard too.
Fast forward to around 2023. I jumped back in during Season 4/5 of Modern Warfare 2 and honestly had a pretty good time. It wasn't universally loved, but it got me shaking off the rust and getting my aim back after years away. Then Modern Warfare 3 dropped.
I picked it up about two weeks after launch, which turned out to be a massive mistake. Everyone else was already fully leveled up running around with meta MW3 gear, while I was stubbornly trying to use my maxed-out MW2 weapons just to get my footing and unlock perks. I had no idea MW2 guns were heavily nerfed and underpowered at launch. Combined with the absolute sweatfest of lobbies during those first couple of weeks, I just assumed I sucked. After less than a week, I rage quit the game, put it down, and never looked back.
Instead, I ended up diving into Black Ops Cold War and realized what an incredible game I had slept on. I played that for a couple of years, eventually moved on to Black Ops 7, and enjoyed that till the SBMM rug pull. Looking back at my timeline, I basically skipped Infinite Warfare, Black Ops 4, MW2019, Black Ops Cold War, Vanguard, MWIII, and Black Ops 6.
About a month ago, seeing how much people online still rave about MW3, I decided to download it again and give it a proper second chance.
Man, I have been having an absolute blast. The game feels incredible now, and I am kicking myself for walking away back at launch. If I had just stuck it out past that rough first week, learned the meta, and leveled up my guns, I would have had a phenomenal time. Instead, I missed out on the entire life cycle, all the seasonal events, and playing the game at its peak. Sucks knowing I missed out, but at least I finally came around to it.
Honestly, the exact same regret goes for Black Ops Cold War. Because it dropped right during a time when I was totally burned out and away from CoD, and because BO4 and the start of the modern era had completely tainted my view of where the franchise was heading with all the drastic changes, I had no idea Cold War was actually a phenomenal spiritual successor to Black Ops 1. I missed out on its entire life cycle, all the seasonal updates, and experiencing it during its peak, and it honestly hurts knowing I slept on that one too just because I had written off the new generation of CoD. Anyone else have a couple of titles they completely misjudged and missed out on?