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We’re all well aware that gamers tend to be a very fussy bunch of people – myself included. There’s usually a mile-long assortment of things we complain about in-game, but this list really is the worst of the worst. From game-breaking bugs to massively overpowered weapons, we’ve all been witness to these huge Call of Duty mistakes.
Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops Cold War have seemingly carried with them more mistakes than any other Call of Duty game in history. It’s an unfortunate fact, but as time goes on, the franchise seems to produce more and more issues and blunders.
Buckle up – you’re about to relive some horrors.
Blending Into the Shadows
In 2020, Raven Software, the developer behind Call of Duty Warzone, introduced an Operator called Roze. Now, that wasn’t the big Call of Duty mistake, as the base, or ‘default’ skin was absolutely fine. However, as part of its paid ‘Battle Pass’ upgrade, Raven included a variant of this skin called Rook.
This skin was completely black from head-to-toe: facepaint, a mask, clothing, and gloves. Of course, the end result was a skin that nobody could really see in low-light environments. It became a real issue when the skin was massively over-employed across the tournament landscape.
Furthermore, as the skin was essentially a paid upgrade, it was seen as a pay-to-win addition to the game. Needless to say, fans were outraged, but it took several months for Raven Software to ‘nerf the skin’.
Mistake-O-Meter: 9/10
More Glitches Than You Can Handle
If there’s one thing competitive gamers hate, it’s a game-breaking glitch.
Well, if we’re talking about Call of Duty mistakes, we simply have to discuss the huge list of glitches scattered throughout Warzone. The incredibly popular battle royale title is probably most well-known for its wide array of bugs, glitches, and exploits.
For instance, the ‘stim glitch’, an exploit that permitted players to stay alive in the suffocating gas that encircled the map. It was patched out several times, but it just wouldn’t stay dead.
Or, the glitch that randomly awarded a win to a player within ten seconds of the match starting.
Or, how about the invisible Ghillie suit glitch?
Or the loadout-freeze glitch, which led to so many broken controller moments.
And what about the people who were able to get under the map?
Unfortunately, many of these issues still persist today.
Mistake-O-Meter: 8/10
There’s Nothing We Can Do About It
When Call of Duty: Warzone launched, it was a fairly stable platform. However, it wasn’t long before the hackers and cheaters of the gaming world got their clutches into it.
Before long, the Warzone landscape was packed full of cheaters rocking ‘wallhacks’ and ‘aimbots’. It became near-impossible to find a game that didn’t feature some form of cheating, and worst still, it was so obvious that it was happening.
It took Raven Software months to gain traction against the tens of thousands of hackers in the game. They pushed out wave after wave of mass bans, but still, the hacking persisted. There were workarounds, and alternatives – the cheating train never really slowed down.
At one point, it was revealed that Raven quite literally could not do anything against the onslaught of hackers. In some circles, it was suggested that they didn’t care to do anything real about it, but that’s just hearsay.
Regardless of what could or couldn’t be done, the issue became so severe that professional competitors started retiring. They couldn’t make a living on a platform plagued by cheaters, and Raven couldn’t – or wouldn’t – fix the problem.
Mistake-O-Meter: 10/10
Not So Skill-Based-Match-Making
Treyarch has claimed that Skill Based Match Making has existed in every multiplayer Call of Duty since the dawn of time. However, things really heated up for the launch of 2019’s Modern Warfare, with Activision patenting a brand new SBMM engine.
Unfortunately, it got worse when Black Ops Cold War launched.
Put simply, SBMM punishes players for being good, and when it’s unbalanced or flawed, the best players have the worst time in the game. If you do well, you’re smashed into the ground over your next few games.
Also, it opens the door for exploitation, with cracked players deliberately fudging their gameplay to get put into easier games. Or, pushing a lower-skilled player to host match searches so they end up competing against weak opponents.
It isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it’s seriously off-putting if you’re a good player who wants to relax with some chilled-out multiplayer.
It’s kind of why Treyarch re-introduced the League Play mode, but even then, the algorithms are flawed and annoying for many competitors.
Mistake-O-Meter: 7/10
Is there another Call of Duty mistake worth mentioning?
Or did we accurately sum up the worst mistakes we’ve seen in recent years?
