- Joined
- Aug 17, 2022
This current talk about shotguns reminds me of my prior experience with them; I was a shotgun main in most of the CoD games I played up until BO4, and they still stayed a decent part of my arsenal. If I might sperg a bit:
There's been thematic issues since... I'd say Advanced Warfare, really. While prior CoD games had some goofy cosmetics - face camos in Blops, Zombie camos in Multiplayer in Blops 2, goofy outfits in Ghosts, etc. - they either didn't affect the game all that much, they fit well with the overall world/lore, or they actively gimped your character. I'd say it's actually the faster movement and focus on smaller maps that helped encourage goofier camos. Let me try to explain.
AW's Exo movement made camo less important; with the gameplay being more focused on movement and less about stealth, like in HALO, it meant that the devs could really start to get creative with sillier skins. Even future games that went back to "boots-on-the-ground" combat still kept faster movement, like in BO4 or MW2019, thus making camo and appearance less important. Threat recognition is still a thing; it was easier in the older games because, with everything being slower, you could actually identify who was who based on the camo. As things got faster and faster, though, it meant that camo and proper color palates were less important, thus easing up on the restrictions.
Incidentally, it's worth noting that the two more "modern" CoDs that feature the most grounded movement - MWR and WW2 - feature less overtly ridiculous bullshit in terms of cosmetics. While there is still some crap that's pretty "out-there", like black female Nazis, the Grim Reaper, knights, and St. Paddy's cosmetic faces, the majority of colorations and designs tend to be more subdued and not quite as overtly outlandish as, say, Spawn in MW22 - the Reaper and knight outfits in WW2 still maintain a subtle color palate for the most part, for instance, while the majority of the character outfits in MWR only affect the head, leaving the actual uniforms still looking fairly military-esqe. These work, because you can't just dodge bullets like you could in the other games; you have to take things a bit slower, thus making threat recognition - and thus, camoflauge - a good deal more important. Probably why the two games aren't as popular with the community; you can't dress up as a hot pink ninja and go dashing and jumping around everywhere.
People talk about Fortnite being the "main reason" why CoD's failing, but there were issues years before Fortnite was a thing. That's not to say Activision's chasing of trends didn't fuck things over, it's just that there were issues before all that. Hell, there was a number of weed titles you could get back in MW2; games have just gotten more ridiculous since then.
Of course, the Fortnite trend-chasing has certainly had a rather... drastic... effect on CoD's monetization model. Battle Passes, limited-time events and cosmetics, insane crossovers... it's all certainly become a lot more ingrained into CoD's identity now, especially with the extreme obsession with Warzone. Again, there were issues before hand; the Supply Drop system from AW-Blops 4 come to mind, as you'd have to either grind a ton or spend IRL money to get a chance to get certain items, including overpowered guns. That said, that gear would still always be theoretically available - I still haven't unlocked certain gear items in IW, even with the Infinite Keys glitch - and it was still fairly cheap in most regards, with players even being able to unlock Drops just by playing the game, not to mention the Salvage system in some games and Key exploits in others.
The Fortnite focus really just accelerated an already-existing issue; the FOMO shit forced people to play at certain times or risk losing out on certain gear, or spend money to try and speed the process along if they didn't have enough time. It's predatory as fuck, and while there has been some hope - Fortnite itself has been getting an increasing amount of backlash towards the amount of FOMO shit in their game, despite what the kiddies say - you still have retards like the guys at Activision keeping it all alive because they're too greedy.
That's taken from Fortnite as well, actually; originally, the Battle Royale and Save the World (campaign) modes were mostly separate, but the devs started focusing more on the BR stuff and started trying to crowbar in all of the different game modes, including Save the World, LEGO, Rocket Racing, and even Festival, to try and connect with each other. The different between Fortnite and CoD is that Fortnite's lore and story were designed for goofy crossover shit; CoD, meanwhile, is rapidly losing its identity over a bunch of cosmetic shit that don't even fit the general setting. Hell, if they REALLY wanted to make a proper Fortnite copy, they should've tried to create a new storyline instead of piggybacking off of the Blops and MW stories. Hell, the Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, and even Infinite Warfare plotlines all would've worked significantly better than the more grounded plots.
CoD 3: Main gun of choice was the Trench Gun, obviously. Not the greatest, especially when it came to ranged engagements, but I had some fun back in the day riding... well, shotgun in a motorcycle and hitting people with drive-bys.
CoD 4: M1014 for me. Not that I really disliked the W1200, but I prefered the faster fire rate of the semi-auto.
WaW: In all honesty, I preferred the Double Barrel; Trench Gun might've had more ammo, but something about the DB just felt a lot more satisfying to use, and it just felt more "fun" to try the classic boomstick out. Given the larger map size, they were more situational; if I wasn't using them as my Primary, then I had one as my Secondary, like on my PTSR build.
Blops: Either the Olympia or the SPAS-12 with a Suppressor in this one; while shotguns weren't always my main gun in this game - that was the Stoner 63 with a Red Dot - I still loved to pull out the shotgun on smaller maps and just run around for a bit. Funnily enough, I found the Olympia to be the more fun of the two, even though the suppressed SPAS was better.
Blops DS: As expected, both shotguns -the Remington 870 and Ithaca Model 37 - were my go-to guns for this game. Mostly because they were pretty consistent in the Campaign; Multiplayer I used snipers and launchers, while Zombies... I never could do well in.
Blops 2: Originally, it was the R870, but after getting some more experience I ended up switching to the KSG. The slug rounds genuinely looked and felt more satisfying to use, and after the 870 got nerfed, the KSG became my main. If I remember right, I actually got Diamond Camo on the shotties as well.
Ghosts: This was the game that kinda resulted in shotguns falling out of favor; back when I first got this one on PS3, I tired to main the MTS-255, only to find it wildly inconsistent, and unable to reliably kill people at close range. Coupled with the larger map size, and I quickly developed issues with the game as a result; nowadays I'm having a lot more fun, but I'm still trying to figure out which shotgun I even like. Bulldog's obviously the best - hell, I still see people using it online - but... I just really hate the gun's design, frankly.
AW: Going against the grain slightly, I found myself maining the Tac-19; not the fastest firing rate, but it's the one I found myself having the most amount of fun with overall back in the day. That said... nowadays, the S12 is definitely the new meta shotgun of choice, thanks to the full-auto fire rate. Hell, it basically is the new meta, replacing the ASM1 and Bal-27.
Blops 3: Back on the PS3, the KRM-232 wsa my main gun; again, the pump just felt more satisfying to use, especially with the shit netcode. Later in the game's lifecycle I switched to the 205 Brecci, as the semi-auto fire was better at providing a consistent damage range.
IW: While I was more of a melee guy this game, I still found time for shotguns; in this case, the M.2187 Akimbo and the Proteus. The former was notorious for being overpowered as shit during the game's lifecycle; special mention goes to the Thunderstruck variant, which allowed for three-round bursts, as there was a glitch that, for whatever reason, gave it a ridiculous amount of range. No joke, you could out-shoot snipers, and it pretty much dominated the meta for months until it finally got fixed. Aside from that, the DCM-8 was also a fun one - still got a saved clip of me going on a decent rampage with it.
MW2019: Found some usage with the Model 680; funnily enough, with slugs and a long barrel, along with a decent sight, you'd make a decent marksman rifle. Also funnily enough, I was never fond of the 725 in this game...
Blops Cold War: Mained the Haur 77 for Multiplayer; as expected, the good ol' pump-action was my baby. Zombies instead got the Gallo SA12; semi-auto, good damage, available off the wall, what's not to love?
Aside from those, I either can't remember the guns I preferred - like in MW2 or MW3 - or I didn't really touch the shotguns all that much, like in Blops 4 or WW2. Or they just weren't my favorites, like in Vanguard or MW22/MW23.
CoD 4: M1014 for me. Not that I really disliked the W1200, but I prefered the faster fire rate of the semi-auto.
WaW: In all honesty, I preferred the Double Barrel; Trench Gun might've had more ammo, but something about the DB just felt a lot more satisfying to use, and it just felt more "fun" to try the classic boomstick out. Given the larger map size, they were more situational; if I wasn't using them as my Primary, then I had one as my Secondary, like on my PTSR build.
Blops: Either the Olympia or the SPAS-12 with a Suppressor in this one; while shotguns weren't always my main gun in this game - that was the Stoner 63 with a Red Dot - I still loved to pull out the shotgun on smaller maps and just run around for a bit. Funnily enough, I found the Olympia to be the more fun of the two, even though the suppressed SPAS was better.
Blops DS: As expected, both shotguns -the Remington 870 and Ithaca Model 37 - were my go-to guns for this game. Mostly because they were pretty consistent in the Campaign; Multiplayer I used snipers and launchers, while Zombies... I never could do well in.
Blops 2: Originally, it was the R870, but after getting some more experience I ended up switching to the KSG. The slug rounds genuinely looked and felt more satisfying to use, and after the 870 got nerfed, the KSG became my main. If I remember right, I actually got Diamond Camo on the shotties as well.
Ghosts: This was the game that kinda resulted in shotguns falling out of favor; back when I first got this one on PS3, I tired to main the MTS-255, only to find it wildly inconsistent, and unable to reliably kill people at close range. Coupled with the larger map size, and I quickly developed issues with the game as a result; nowadays I'm having a lot more fun, but I'm still trying to figure out which shotgun I even like. Bulldog's obviously the best - hell, I still see people using it online - but... I just really hate the gun's design, frankly.
AW: Going against the grain slightly, I found myself maining the Tac-19; not the fastest firing rate, but it's the one I found myself having the most amount of fun with overall back in the day. That said... nowadays, the S12 is definitely the new meta shotgun of choice, thanks to the full-auto fire rate. Hell, it basically is the new meta, replacing the ASM1 and Bal-27.
Blops 3: Back on the PS3, the KRM-232 wsa my main gun; again, the pump just felt more satisfying to use, especially with the shit netcode. Later in the game's lifecycle I switched to the 205 Brecci, as the semi-auto fire was better at providing a consistent damage range.
IW: While I was more of a melee guy this game, I still found time for shotguns; in this case, the M.2187 Akimbo and the Proteus. The former was notorious for being overpowered as shit during the game's lifecycle; special mention goes to the Thunderstruck variant, which allowed for three-round bursts, as there was a glitch that, for whatever reason, gave it a ridiculous amount of range. No joke, you could out-shoot snipers, and it pretty much dominated the meta for months until it finally got fixed. Aside from that, the DCM-8 was also a fun one - still got a saved clip of me going on a decent rampage with it.
MW2019: Found some usage with the Model 680; funnily enough, with slugs and a long barrel, along with a decent sight, you'd make a decent marksman rifle. Also funnily enough, I was never fond of the 725 in this game...
Blops Cold War: Mained the Haur 77 for Multiplayer; as expected, the good ol' pump-action was my baby. Zombies instead got the Gallo SA12; semi-auto, good damage, available off the wall, what's not to love?
Aside from those, I either can't remember the guns I preferred - like in MW2 or MW3 - or I didn't really touch the shotguns all that much, like in Blops 4 or WW2. Or they just weren't my favorites, like in Vanguard or MW22/MW23.
There's been thematic issues since... I'd say Advanced Warfare, really. While prior CoD games had some goofy cosmetics - face camos in Blops, Zombie camos in Multiplayer in Blops 2, goofy outfits in Ghosts, etc. - they either didn't affect the game all that much, they fit well with the overall world/lore, or they actively gimped your character. I'd say it's actually the faster movement and focus on smaller maps that helped encourage goofier camos. Let me try to explain.
AW's Exo movement made camo less important; with the gameplay being more focused on movement and less about stealth, like in HALO, it meant that the devs could really start to get creative with sillier skins. Even future games that went back to "boots-on-the-ground" combat still kept faster movement, like in BO4 or MW2019, thus making camo and appearance less important. Threat recognition is still a thing; it was easier in the older games because, with everything being slower, you could actually identify who was who based on the camo. As things got faster and faster, though, it meant that camo and proper color palates were less important, thus easing up on the restrictions.
Incidentally, it's worth noting that the two more "modern" CoDs that feature the most grounded movement - MWR and WW2 - feature less overtly ridiculous bullshit in terms of cosmetics. While there is still some crap that's pretty "out-there", like black female Nazis, the Grim Reaper, knights, and St. Paddy's cosmetic faces, the majority of colorations and designs tend to be more subdued and not quite as overtly outlandish as, say, Spawn in MW22 - the Reaper and knight outfits in WW2 still maintain a subtle color palate for the most part, for instance, while the majority of the character outfits in MWR only affect the head, leaving the actual uniforms still looking fairly military-esqe. These work, because you can't just dodge bullets like you could in the other games; you have to take things a bit slower, thus making threat recognition - and thus, camoflauge - a good deal more important. Probably why the two games aren't as popular with the community; you can't dress up as a hot pink ninja and go dashing and jumping around everywhere.
People talk about Fortnite being the "main reason" why CoD's failing, but there were issues years before Fortnite was a thing. That's not to say Activision's chasing of trends didn't fuck things over, it's just that there were issues before all that. Hell, there was a number of weed titles you could get back in MW2; games have just gotten more ridiculous since then.
Of course, the Fortnite trend-chasing has certainly had a rather... drastic... effect on CoD's monetization model. Battle Passes, limited-time events and cosmetics, insane crossovers... it's all certainly become a lot more ingrained into CoD's identity now, especially with the extreme obsession with Warzone. Again, there were issues before hand; the Supply Drop system from AW-Blops 4 come to mind, as you'd have to either grind a ton or spend IRL money to get a chance to get certain items, including overpowered guns. That said, that gear would still always be theoretically available - I still haven't unlocked certain gear items in IW, even with the Infinite Keys glitch - and it was still fairly cheap in most regards, with players even being able to unlock Drops just by playing the game, not to mention the Salvage system in some games and Key exploits in others.
The Fortnite focus really just accelerated an already-existing issue; the FOMO shit forced people to play at certain times or risk losing out on certain gear, or spend money to try and speed the process along if they didn't have enough time. It's predatory as fuck, and while there has been some hope - Fortnite itself has been getting an increasing amount of backlash towards the amount of FOMO shit in their game, despite what the kiddies say - you still have retards like the guys at Activision keeping it all alive because they're too greedy.
That's taken from Fortnite as well, actually; originally, the Battle Royale and Save the World (campaign) modes were mostly separate, but the devs started focusing more on the BR stuff and started trying to crowbar in all of the different game modes, including Save the World, LEGO, Rocket Racing, and even Festival, to try and connect with each other. The different between Fortnite and CoD is that Fortnite's lore and story were designed for goofy crossover shit; CoD, meanwhile, is rapidly losing its identity over a bunch of cosmetic shit that don't even fit the general setting. Hell, if they REALLY wanted to make a proper Fortnite copy, they should've tried to create a new storyline instead of piggybacking off of the Blops and MW stories. Hell, the Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, and even Infinite Warfare plotlines all would've worked significantly better than the more grounded plots.
