Whether we like it or not, there’s going to be another Call of Duty game on the shelves ahead of each and every holiday season. The arrival of a new Call of Duty comes like clockwork, even when players are still enjoying the previous entry. Take this year, for example. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the most acclaimed game in the franchise in almost a decade, and the addition of Warzone kept it fresh for everyone. There’s nothing wrong with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, it’s actually a pretty enjoyable entry to the series, but there just wasn’t any need for it yet.
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The point of all that is to say this: there doesn’t need to be a new Call of Duty game every single year, but we know there will be. So if we’re going to get another game in October or November of 2021, it should be something fresh, a departure from both Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War. It should be a sequel to World at War.
Call of Duty followed up 2007’s game-changing Modern Warfare with a trip back to World War II, an installment that combined the narrative style of the original games with the multiplayer excellence of CoD 4. What we got was Call of Duty: World at War, which remains to this day one of the best games of the franchise.
Yes, the Call of Duty franchise tried to turn back the clock with the much-maligned Call of Duty: WWII a few years ago, and the game was an absolute dud. But that doesn’t mean that the World War II setting can’t still make for a great game. What we need is for World at War to get the same treatment as Modern Warfare.
The new version of Modern Warfare finally took Call of Duty back to the heights it enjoyed in its acclaimed 2007-2011 run. It introduced a brand-new story, but returned to the roots of what made CoD 4 enjoyable in the first place. The game played like the shooters we fell in love with, rather than the jerky experience of games like Advanced Warfare. Not to mention it brought back many of the most popular maps from the first two Modern Warfare installments, giving players a chance to enjoy them all over again. Even Cold War is following in those footsteps to some degree.
It’s time to give World at War that opportunity. Let’s go back to places like Castle and Dome and run around like idiots with MP40s. Let’s call in the dogs. Let’s get Keifer Sutherland back for a DLC character.
Seriously, who wouldn’t want to return to Makin for another go-round?
And don’t forget, Zombies originated in World at War. While one of the most popular elements of Call of Duty has been taken in all kinds of different directions by the Black Ops series, it was the simplicity of Nacht der Untoten that made Zombies a hit in the first place. Kill zombies, build walls, and don’t die. That’s all there was to worry about, and going back to that formula for at least one installment would be great for longtime players.
If Sledgehammer is indeed the studio behind the 2021 Call of Duty game, and it decides not to return to the World War II setting, this would, at the very least, be a great time to get a remastered version of World at War. Just imagine that campaign running on the PS5 or Series X!
We’ve had five Black Ops games over the years, and four Modern Warfare titles. While some of them have been great, it’s time to return to a series that is still batting 1.000 after all these years. Sure, World at War only took one swing, but that single stroke was a home run and it deserves another trip to the plate.
Would you like to see another Call of Duty: World at War game? Let us know in the comments!
